“16 questions for Free Agents” by Seth Godin…
If you’re starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you’ll make is: what to do? As in the answer to the question, “what do you [want to] do?” Read on…
What is Your Mother of a Business Worth?
It’s important to note that any two licensed appraisers or prospective investors can read key valuation factors differently. But what is true to all business valuations is the attempt to put a dollar value on a company’s future business potential.
Startup entrepreneurs and well-established business owners should have a sophisticated appreciation of how investors and ultimately business buyers will size up their company’s potential. Sometimes these factors which can influence company valuations are referred to as “business fundamentals” or “investment fundamentals.”
Here are six fundamentals that may influence the value of your business. (For full details, read the article in its entirety here).
No. 1: Revenue predictability.
No. 2: Customer list.
No. 3: High gross margin business.
No. 4: Intellectual property advantage.
No.5: Brand strength.
No. 6: Low debt load.
…an excerpt from “What’s Your Business Worth?” by Susan Schreter for the Small Business Center.
How Resilient-Ready are You for 2012?
Tom Peters recently blogged about Flourish, the latest book by Martin Seligman, founder of the Positive Psychology Movement. Their research has shown that the building of personal strengths such as courage, optimism, work ethic, honesty and perseverance all have a positive effect on peoples’ mental wellbeing. The process of building a positive mindset is not trivial or easy, as evidenced by Seligman’s work with the US Army. However, if it piques your interest, why not try Seligman’s “Three Good Things” exercise? It sounds simple, but over time its effects can be profound.
Three Good Things Exercise
Each night before you go to sleep:
1. Think of three good things that happened today.
Anything from the most mundane to the most exalted works, as long as it seems to you like a good, positive, happy thing.
2. Write them down.
3. Reflect on why they happened.
Determining the “why” of the event is the most important part of the exercise, and can open up your mind to ways you can increase the positive experiences you have. For more information: www.authentichappiness.org
Adopting the Three Good Things habit will have personal and professional benefits. For many years, Tom has been encouraging leaders to focus on TGRs (Things Gone Right) as opposed to TGWs (Things Gone Wrong). Measure TGRs! Try discussing three TGRs at every meeting in 2012. It’s a great way to discover how to make TGRs happen more often…
… an excerpt from the latest Tom Peters Times… enjoy
The Promise of Entrepreneurship… is bigger always better?
We are made to believe that when it comes to business success, bigger is always better. In our super-sized, consumption-oriented culture, not even small business is exempt from the pressure to grow for growth’s sake. We fixate on top-line revenue growth and increasing numbers of employees and locations. We pepper entrepreneurs with questions such as, ‘What are your plans for expansion? What’s next? How many cities will you go to?’ instead of asking what their goals are or why they started their business in the first place. When talk about growth we focus on speed, not sustainability. When we talk about success we focus on size, not satisfaction.
So much so that entrepreneurs doubt their own success and skill if they aren’t pursuing the largest form of their business possible. We’ve talked with countless business owners who run profitable ventures, make a good living, enjoy what they do every day, and have significant impact in their industry—but who also hesitate to call themselves successful. Why? Because their companies could be bigger, or they decided not to open several more locations, or they don’t have the largest market share—even though these are not the things that they want.
We believe that it doesn’t have to be this way. There is an alternative that is both rewarding and attainable—it just requires rethinking things a bit…
Another gem from ChangeThis.com by Adelaide Lancaster
“The World Needs Female Entrepreneurs Now More Than Ever”…
Indeedy, it does!
The key point I’d like to point out in this fine article is this:
Becoming an Entrepreneur does not require
any shifts in corporate culture.
In fact, becoming a Business Owner does not require changing any societal norms at all. It does require however a distinct shift in your own internal thinking in combination with your family’s particular circumstances.
So… why not be opportunistic and bold in 2012, and become a “3%” member? (refer last post)
You can always tap into the entrepreneurial mothers group if you need support…
3% of women-owned businesses make $1million or more a year; so why are you in your Mother of a Business?
As featured on the Ruby Connection…
A little while ago, I came across this… according to recent statistics in the Wall Street Journal from the Center for Women’s Business Research in the U.S., there is only 3% of women-owned businesses with a revenue of $1million or more in The Million-Dollar Club… (and I bet that percentage is a whole lot smaller again if being the only breadwinner for the family is also taken into account).
Only 3%, is that all I hear you say?
Given that 7-figures is the turnover my Mother of a Business was doing at time of its Sale, that put me in the category of the 3%…are you kidding? How can it be that with all the businesses started by women, only 3% manage to reach 7-figures?
Why are Businesses being built if not to serve your Lifestyle, as opposed to the other way around?
Couple that with some of the more disturbing statistics from our very own Ruby Connection “Westpac Women’s Financial Health Report, September 2011”:
- Nearly half (49%) of women agreed they felt disadvantaged in terms of the amount of superannuation they were able to save as a result of having to cut back or stop work. This view was even more likely held by Gen Y (63%) and Gen X (63%).
- After having children, 64% of women reported that it had significantly affected their ability to work continuously and impacted substantially on their working career cycle
We’re not in a very good place are we? Well, the majority of us that is.
Business gives you Lifestyle to be the Mother you long to be. No question.
In fact, it’s not just about the mothering, it’s ultimately about Lifestyle and the ability to earn what you must earn, plus a whole lot more.
Come on, join the club too…
If the notion of a 7-figure business scares you right now, you may be thinking that it must mean a whole lot of work that will take you away from your family even more? WRONG! You couldn’t be further from the truth, provided you structure properly and of course, “Start with the End in Mind”.
Just financing the family holiday is not enough of an “End” to justify all the blood, sweat and tears you will invest in your business, not to mention money…
Ladies, we’ve got some serious Business Building and Professional Development work to do…To discuss any of this further and, most importantly, to do something about it, feel free to contact me.
Successfully passing on businesses is Vital…
“Given the Herculean effort that most people put into building their businesses, it’s amazing how many of them fail to plan their exit. Serendipity often rules, with many accepting apparently flattering or friendly offers without bothering to market their businesses.”
Seems there are a number of us now saying similar things…
This most accurate comment is from an article in the Telegraph in the UK.
Successfully passing on businesses – whether publicly traded or private – to the next generation of owner-managers and entrepreneurs is vital. Yet there has also been a surge in first-time founders of double-digit turnover companies selling out too early.
Good reading to be found here…
“Great by Choice”; the next stand-out by Jim Collins…
There are smart decisions and wise decisions. One form of wisdom is to know when to let luck disrupt your plans (and when not to). Getting a high ROL (return on luck) requires a new mental muscle, beginning first with a heightened awareness to recognize when a luck event happens. Use the three tests we lay out in the book:
1) Did the event happen largely or entirely independent of your own actions?
2) Does it have a potentially significant consequence (good or bad)?
3) Did some aspect of the event happen unexpectedly?
If yes, then ask: what—if anything—should we do to get a high return on this luck event? This applies equally to good luck events and bad luck events.
One very important point about luck: it is asymmetric as a potential cause of success or failure. Good luck cannot cause a great company, but huge strikes of bad luck can terminate a company. That’s why productive paranoia that we write about in the book is so important: always preparing to endure a sequence of bad luck events that will someday hit, being able to absorb them and stay in game long enough to turn the tide in your favor…
…says Jim Collins and Morten Hansen, in their interview with The Keen Thinker. There are a number of other fabulous interviews, and book reviews, to be digested at the same place. Go to The Keen Thinker for more…
Clickability: A Skill for Life
Most of what you need to know about success in life is personal in nature. I’ve learned, through my own experience and that of the people I’ve worked with, that people need each other to have fulfilling work, successful careers and meaningful lives. Regardless of your cultural background, your age group, or your social status, your need to get along with people is fundamental to your happiness. No matter how much technical skill you have in your particular field of expertise, no matter how smart you are, how capable you are, how gifted you are, if you don’t know how to connect, relate and communicate with people, there’s little hope for you.
Whether the times are great, or the economy is in the tank, the people who do the best, who prosper and advance, are the people who know how to connect with other people and have it matter. Whether you are a homemaker, a parent, a business owner, a manager, a waiter or a postal worker, your skill with other people determines everything. And when you have the skill to build relationships and networks of relationships, the world is your oyster, and all options are open for you. Being able to click is just a matter of knowing what to do, why to do it, and how to do it.
Issue 88 – 06 | By Dr. Rick Kirschner for ChangeThis.com
“the entrepreneurial mother.com” is refined, reenergised and ready to visit…
hello there
It is with great pleasure that I re-introduce my newly re-formulated and reworked web site. I’m really pleased with it, I hope you are too!
www.theentrepreneurialmother.com
Please visit and make yourself acquainted. I’d love your feedback too.
Enjoy! Denise
