Daily Quote from Successful Entrepreneurs

I'm going to start a daily quotes from those entrepreneur who are successful. I would like everybody to always be motivated when you are a entrepreneur.

For the start, today quote will be :

The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.

Michael Gerber

“Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow”

Robert Kiyosaki

Can You Become Successful Entrepreneur?

The Northwestern Mutual Life have created the following test to gauge whether a person have a head start in their entrepreneur life or have the handicap when they run the business.The test is intended to help you see how you compare with others who have been successful entrepreneurs.

Add or subtract your score as you evaluate yourself:

1. Significantly high numbers of entrepreneurs are children of first-generation Americans. If your parents immigrated to the United States, score one. If not, score minus one.
2. Successful entrepreneurs are not, as a rule, top achievers in school. If you were a top student, subtract four. If not, add four.
3. Entrepreneurs are not especially enthusiastic about participating in group activities in school. If you enjoyed group activities—clubs, team sports, double dates—subtract one. If not, add one.
4. Studies of entrepreneurs show that, as youngsters, they often preferred to be alone. Did you prefer to be alone as a youngster? If so, add one. If not, subtract one.
5. Those who started enterprises during childhood—lemonade stands, family newspapers, greeting card sales—or ran for elected office at school can add two, because enterprise usually can be traced to an early age. If you didn't initiate enterprises, subtract two.
6. Stubbornness as a child seems to translate into determination to do things one's own way—a hallmark of proven entrepreneurs. If you were stubborn as a child, add one. If not, subtract one.
7. Caution may involve an unwillingness to take risks, a handicap for those embarking on previously uncharted territory. Were you a cautious youngster? If yes, deduct four. If no, add four.
8. If you were daring or adventuresome, add four more.
9. Entrepreneurs often have the faith to pursue different paths despite the opinions of others. If the opinions of others matter a lot to you, subtract one. If not, add one.
10. Being tired of a daily routine often precipitates an entrepreneur's decision to start an enterprise. If changing your daily routine would be an important motivation for starting your own enterprise, add two. If not, subtract two.
11. Yes, you really enjoy work. But are you willing to work overnight? If yes, add two. If no, subtract two.
12. If you are willing to work as long as it takes with little or no sleep to finish a job, add four more.
13. Entrepreneurs generally enjoy their type of work so much they move from one project to another—non-stop. When you complete a project successfully, do you immediately start another? If yes, add two. If no, subtract two.
14. Successful entrepreneurs are willing to use their savings to finance a project. If you are willing to commit your savings to start a business, add two. If not, subtract two.
15. Would you be willing to borrow from others? Then add two more. If not, subtract two.
16. If your business should fail, would you immediately start working on another? If yes, add four. If no, subtract four.
17. Or, if you would immediately start looking for a job with a regular paycheck, subtract one more.
18. Do you believe being an entrepreneur is risky? If yes, subtract two. If no, add two.
19. Many entrepreneurs put their long-term and short-term goals in writing. If you do, add one. If you don't, subtract one.
20. Handling cash flow can be critical to entrepreneurial success. Do you believe you have the ability to deal with cash flow in a professional manner? If so, add two. If not, subtract two.
21. Entrepreneurial personalities seems to be easily bored. If you are easily bored, add two. If not, subtract two.
22. Optimism can fuel the drive to press for success in uncharted waters. If you're an optimist, add two. Pessimist, subtract two.



What's your E.Q. (Entrepreneurial Quotient)?

If you scored +35 or more, you have everything going for you. You ought to achieve spectacular entrepreneurial success (barring acts of God or other variables beyond your control).

lf you scored +15 to +34, your background, skills and talents give you excellent chances for success in your own business. You should go far.

If you scored 0 to +15, you have a head start of ability and/or experience in running a business and ought to be successful in opening an enterprise of your own if you apply yourself and learn the necessary skills to make it happen.

If you scores 0 to -15, you might be able to make a go of it if you ventured on your own, but you would have to work extra hard to compensate for a lack of built-in advantages and skills that give others a leg up in beginning their own business.

If you scored -15 to -43, your talents probably lie elsewhere. You ought to consider whether building your own business is what you really want to do, because you may find yourself swimming against the tide if you make the attempt. Another work arrangement—working for a company or for someone else, or developing a career in a profession or an area of technical expertise—may be far more congenial to you and allow you to enjoy a lifestyle appropriate to your abilities and interests.

10 Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs

Is there a way to determine whether you can be a successful entrepreneur, or you are better off to work for somebody else? Alas, there is no formula for success. However, most successful entrepreneurs share these ten characteristics. Check if you possess any one of them:

1. Think success. To attain the kind of success that you want, you need to dream big. Every success story starts with big dreams. You need to have big dreams for yourself - which you want to be somebody rich, famous or fulfilled. You need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. But it doesn't stop in dreaming alone. You should actively visualize success in your mind that you can almost feel it, touch it or it is within your reach. Play this image back at every opportunity. What does it feel to triple your current income? How will your life change? What will your business look like if you achieved the million-dollar mark?

Successful entrepreneurs possess an attitude of openness and faith that you can have what you want if you can simply envision it as the first step on the path of action to acquiring it. Management gurus have taught us the power of visualization - seeing yourself in your mind as having accomplished your dreams. If you want to be a successful writer, envision yourself signing books for a throng of people who have lined up to have your autograph. If you want to be rich, picture yourself in luxurious surroundings holding a fat bank account. And the process of envisioning success for you should be a constant activity! You need to think that you are successful (or will be one) every single working hour. A personal development coach shared me her secret to help her continuously visualize her goals for the moment: when climbing stairs, recite your goal with every step you take. So if you want more money, say "I will have money" in every step of the stairs. This technique will reinforce your goal and keep it fresh in your consciousness.

2. Be passionate with what you do. You start a business to change any or all part of your life. To attain this change, you need to develop or uncover an intense, personal passion to change the way things are and to live life to the fullest. Success comes easily if you love what you do. Why? Because we are more relentless in our pursuit of goals about things that we love. If you hate your job right now, do you think you will ever be successful at it? Not in a million years! You may plod along, even become competent at the tasks, but you will never be a great success at it. You will achieve peak performance and do what you have to do to succeed only if you are doing something that interests you or something that you care about. Entrepreneurs who succeed do not mind the fact that they are putting in 15 or 18 hours a day to their business because they absolutely love what they do. Success in business is all about patience and hard work, which can only be attained if you are passionate and crazy with your tasks and activities.

3. Focus on your strengths. Let's face it; you cannot be everything to everybody. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. To be effective, you need to identify your strengths and concentrate on it. You will become more successful if you are able to channel your efforts to areas that you do best. In business, for example, if you know you have good marketing instincts, then harness this strength and make full use of it. Seek help or assistance in areas that you may be poor at, such as accounting or bookkeeping. To transform your weakness to strength, consider taking hands-on learning or formal training.

4. Never consider the possibility of failure. Ayn Rand, in her novel The Fountainhead, wrote, "It is not in the nature of man - nor of any living entity, to start out by giving up." As an entrepreneur, you need to fully believe in your goals, and that you can do it. Think that what you are doing will contribute to the betterment of your environment and your personal self. You should have a strong faith in your idea, your capabilities and yourself. You must believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have the ability to recognize and fulfill them. The more you can develop faith in your ability to achieve your goals, the more rapidly you can attain it. However, your confidence should be balanced with calculated risks that you need to take to achieve greater rewards. Successful entrepreneurs are those who analyze and minimize risk in the pursuit of profit. As they always say, "no guts, no glory."

5. Plan accordingly. You have a vision, and you have enough faith in yourself to believe that you can achieve your vision. But do you know how to get to your vision? To achieve your vision, you need to have concrete goals that will provide the stepping-stone towards your ultimate vision. Put your goals in writing; not doing so just makes them as intangible fantasies. You need to plan each day in such a way that your every action contributes to the attainment of your vision. Do you foresee yourself as the next Martha Stewart of hand-made home furnishings? Perhaps today, you need to see an artist to help you conceptualize the new line of hand-made linens that you hope to launch. Intense goal orientation is the characteristic of every successful entrepreneur. They have a vision, and they know how to get there. Your ability to set goals and make plans for your accomplishment is the skill required to succeed. Plan, plan and plan - because without which failure is guaranteed.

6. Work hard! Every successful entrepreneur works hard, hard and hard. No one achieves success just by sitting and staring at the wall every single day. Brian Tracy puts it out this way, "You work eight hours per day for survival; everything over eight hours per day is for success." Ask any successful businessperson and they will tell you immediately that they had to work more than 60 hours per week at the start of their businesses. Be prepared to say goodbye to after-office drinks every day, or a regular weekend get-away trip. If you are in a start-up phase, you will have to breathe, eat and drink your business until it can stand on its own. Working hard will be easy if you have a vision, clear goals, and are passionate with what you do.

7. Constantly Look for Ways to Network. In business, you are judged by the company you keep - from your management team, board of directors, and strategic partners. Businesses always need assistance, more so small businesses. Maybe the lady you met in a trade association meeting can help you secure funding, or the gentleman at a conference can provide you with management advise. It is important to form alliances with people who can help you, and whom you can help in return. To succeed in business, you need to possess good networking skills and always be alert to opportunities to expand your contacts.

8. Willingness to Learn. You do not need to be a MBA degree holder or PhD graduate to succeed in your own business. In fact, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who did not even finish secondary education. Studies show that most self-made millionaires have average intelligence. Nonetheless, these people reached their full potentials achieved their financial and personal goals in business because they are willing to learn. To succeed, you must be willing to ask questions, remain curious, interested and open to new knowledge. This willingness to learn becomes more crucial given the rapid changes in technologies and ways of doing business.

9. Persevere and have faith. No one said that the road to success is easy. Despite your good intentions and hard work, sometimes you will fail. Some successful entrepreneurs suffered setbacks and resounding defeats, even bankruptcy, yet managed to quickly stand up to make it big in their fields. Your courage to persist in the face of adversity and ability to bounce back after a temporary disappointment will assure your success. You must learn to pick yourself up and start all over again. Your persistence is the measure of the belief in yourself. Remember, if you persevere, nothing can stop you.

10. Discipline yourself. Thomas Huxley once said, "Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you like it or not." Self-discipline is the key to success. The strength of will to force yourself to pay the price of success - doing what others don't like to do, going the extra mile, fighting and winning the lonely battle with yourself.

10 Minutes Rule For Power Point Presentation

I have recently read the following article from Guy Kawasaki, the author of many books and I would like to share with those that going to do the presentation to the venture capitalist.

I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease—don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog. The symptoms of Ménière’s include hearing loss, tinnitus (a constant ringing sound), and vertigo. There are many medical theories about its cause: too much salt, caffeine, or alcohol in one’s diet, too much stress, and allergies. Thus, I’ve worked to limit control all these factors.

However, I have another theory. As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap: sixty slides about a “patent pending,” “first mover advantage,” “all we have to do is get 1% of the people in China to buy our product” startup. These pitches are so lousy that I’m losing my hearing, there’s a constant ringing in my ear, and every once in while the world starts spinning.

Before there is an epidemic of Ménière’s in the venture capital community, I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action



You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.

The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.

The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.

So please observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. If nothing else, the next time someone in your audience complains of hearing loss, ringing, or vertigo, you’ll know what caused the problem.

My opinion is that he has pointed out a good points (mistake) that many presenter make. Try to squeezes all the points into a single slide and continue reading it. I tell you, this kind of moment is the moment where the presenter wasting everybody time and I can tell you that everybody will shut down even during the presentation.

Top Ten Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs

"I've heard many war stories," says Harvard Business School associate professor Connie Bagley, reflecting on conversations with former students who have started business ventures. To prepare current students for the HBS Business Plan Contest, Bagley gives a seminar in which she shares these war stories with the prospective entrepreneurs, in the form of a list of "top ten" mistakes often made by the unsuspecting. In addition, Bagley teaches the second year elective course, "Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship," which covers the waterfront of issues typically faced by entrepreneurs in starting and running a business, including securities and intellectual property law issues.

Bagley's teaching and research focus on legal aspects of entrepreneurship and corporate governance. Before coming to HBS in 2000, she taught at Stanford Business School, and prior to that she was a corporate securities partner in the San Francisco office of the law firm of Bingham McCutchen. She is author or coauthor of several textbooks, including the just-published second edition of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law.

Bagley recently met with Harvard Business School's New Business magazine, and talked about the legal issues commonly faced by entrepreneurs, as well as her thoughts on how to successfully deal with them.

In Bagley's view, there is a tendency on the part of many entrepreneurs to think that the lawyers can handle the legal issues and to delegate too much to the attorney.

"While the language of the law can be intimidating, the concepts are usually quite straightforward," she says. "Lawyers tend to be risk averse, and if you delegate to them you will usually stay out of legal trouble but can often compromise your business objectives. My goal for the course—and for the coaching I give entrepreneurs—is to give them sufficient comfort with the legal concepts to feel confident in driving the process, to understand the ways in which the law is a constraint, but also the ways in which it is a tool that can help you create and capture value."

Lawyers who have no experience working with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will most likely focus on the wrong things.
—Constance Bagley

# 10: Failing to incorporate early enough.
One problem that arises here is the so-called "forgotten founder": a partner involved in starting the venture subsequently drops out. When the venture gets financing or is ready to go public, this partner returns, perhaps with an inflated view of what his or her contribution was, demanding equity. This problem can be eliminated by incorporating early and issuing shares to the founders, subject to vesting. As partial consideration for their shares, each founder should be required to assign to the new corporation all inventions and works related to the company's proposed business.

Incorporating early—before significant value has been created and well in advance of any financing event that establishes an implicit value for the shares—also helps prevent potential tax problems for "cheap stock." Incorporating too late, and issuing inexpensive stock to the founders at the same time that much more expensive stock is being sold to investors, can create tax problems when the IRS argues that the difference in stock price is actually income to the entrepreneur.

# 9: Issuing founder shares without vesting.
Simply put, vesting protects the members of the founding team who take the venture forward. If people remain on the team and are productive, their shares will vest. If they leave earlier, that stock can be retrieved and given to whoever is brought in to replace them.

#8: Hiring a lawyer not experienced in dealing with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
Many venture capitalists say that they often rate the judgment of entrepreneurs by their choice of legal counsel. Lawyers who have no experience working with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will most likely focus on the wrong things while failing to recognize some of the more subtle potential traps. It's better to hire someone who has played the game, who knows what's standard and what isn't, and who will get the deal negotiated and closed promptly.

#7: Failing to make a timely Section 83 (b) election.
If the advice in #9 is followed, then shares will be issued, subject to vesting, to the founders as well as new employees. If stock is acquired and it's subject to what the IRS calls a substantial risk of forfeiture, then the IRS doesn't view the purchase as being closed until that risk goes away. When the stock vests, that risk evaporates, so the IRS considers the deal closed. The IRS then calculates the difference between the price paid at the outset and the fair market value at that later date, then taxes this difference as ordinary income. An 83 (b) election allows the tax computation to be made based on the value at the time the shares are issued, which is often pennies per share.

A no-name firm offering the highest valuation is often not the best source of equity.
—Constance Bagley

# 6: Negotiating venture capital financing based solely on the valuation.
Valuation is not the only thing one should consider when selecting a venture capitalist or when negotiating the deal. There are many other ways for venture capitalists to get compensated if they end up paying a high price for shares. These include requiring participating preferred with a high cumulative dividend, redemption rights exercisable after only several years, and ratchet anti-dilution protection with no cap.

One must ask, what's the reputation of this firm? Do they have a history of standing by the entrepreneur if the entrepreneur stumbles? Do they have good contacts in the industry? In trying to build alliances, do they know the big players? A no-name firm offering the highest valuation is often not the best source of equity.

#5: Waiting to consider international intellectual property protection.
Patents are granted on a country-by-country basis (with a single application available for the European Union). In the United States, if an invention is sold or made public, there's a year's grace period to file a patent application. Everywhere else, if the invention is sold or publicized prior to filing the patent application, the invention is unpatentable in that country. For example, if the invention is publicly disclosed to a Japanese national visiting a tradeshow in the United States, then under Japanese patent law, if no patent application has been filed, that disclosure makes the invention unpatentable in Japan. The same is true with trademarks. A tremendous amount of money might be spent in developing a brand in the United States, yet when the product is shipped overseas it could violate trademarks of companies dealing in similar goods outside the United States. One must make intelligent choices of where they think their markets are, and how much money to spend at an early stage in order to insure that the brand is available in those markets.

#4: Disclosing inventions without a nondisclosure agreement, or before the patent application is filed.
If patent protection hasn't been obtained, or in cases where a patent is not available, the only protection is to maintain something as a trade secret. To do so, one must show that they've taken reasonable steps to keep it secret from competitors.

Is it wise to get potential venture capitalists to sign a nondisclosure agreement? In the best of all worlds, yes, but most won't. Before disclosing to anyone, one must learn who has a reputation for integrity in the industry. In dealing with most people, it's wise to require them to sign nondisclosure agreements. It needn't be elaborate, but it should say that they acknowledge they may be exposed to trade secrets, and they agree not to use or disclose them without permission. Business plans should expressly state on the cover page that they are confidential and proprietary. That's not as strong as a nondisclosure agreement, but laws in some states suggest that if a person knows they have been exposed to a trade secret, they can't use it or disclose it without permission from the owner.

Can entrepreneurs be sued by their funders for fraud? Yes.
—Constance Bagley

#3: Starting a business while employed by a potential competitor, or hiring employees without first checking their agreements with the current employer and their knowledge of trade secrets.
The law is clear that if someone is currently working for a company, particularly if her or she is a key employee, they cannot operate a competing business. Even just incorporating may spark a lawsuit from the current employer. Would-be entrepreneurs should first go to their current employer and either resign or tell them what they're doing and ask them if they'd be interested in investing. Amazingly, that's often a very smooth way of ending that relationship. Under no circumstances should they misrepresent the nature of the new business.

Even after leaving the current employer, one still cannot use or disclose the company's trade secrets. Under the so-called inevitable disclosure doctrine, if someone has been exposed to trade secrets at their job and leaves to work for someone else, and if their responsibilities in the new job are sufficiently similar, some courts will conclude that it's inevitable that they will use the information that they had from the earlier position. They could face an injunction prohibiting them from working for the new employer until a number of months go by and whatever trade secrets they had are stale.

It also helps to know whether potential recruits are subject to covenants not to compete. States vary in terms of how enforceable they are, but one shouldn't assume they are not. One should also check to see what assignments of inventions might have been signed. Personnel files should be reviewed, and recruits should check theirs, to be certain that a covenant not to compete or an assignment of inventions wasn't tucked into a signed non-disclosure agreement.

#2: Promising more in the business plan than can be delivered and failing to comply with state and federal securities laws.
If someone promises to do something and knows that they can't perform that promise, that's considered fraud. In a business plan, one must make an honest appraisal of what's doable and set forth their assumptions, so the person putting up money can judge whether they are realistic. Can entrepreneurs be sued by their funders for fraud? Yes. Trying to squeeze out a little extra valuation by fudging the numbers erodes credibility, makes investors less trusting, and ultimately impairs the ability to get subsequent rounds of financing.

Finally, anyone selling stock or other securities must comply with both the federal and state securities laws by either registering the securities (rare for a start-up) or meeting all the requirements for an applicable exemption. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. As one judge put it in a decision upholding criminal convictions for violating the securities laws: "No one with half a brain can offer 'an opportunity to invest in our company' without knowing that there is a regulatory jungle out there."

#1: Thinking any legal problems can be solved later.
There's a tendency to think, "Once I get my funding, once I'm up and running, then I've got time to hire the lawyers; right now, I'm running as fast as I can to get my business plan done and raising money." This is shortsighted logic. Many of the points made here are problems that can't just be patched up later. Does that mean that one should devote all of their time, effort, and money to the legal issues? No. That's a good reason to hire a competent lawyer. Excellent legal talent can be retained for relatively little money up front at the early stages. It will cost much less to get it right at the beginning than to try to sort it all out later and correct it.

Entrepreneur Mindset

Entrepreneur Mindset is ulmost important for entreprenuer. Without strong motivation and will, you will not be succeed. The video will tell you more.





How about become entrepreneur in China



Become Entrepreneur - If You Want Ongoing Success For Your Life Become An Entrepreneur. Here's are the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur and actually succeed. Simply follow the 4 parts to this extraordinary entrepreneur process and you're guaranteed to be the next Richard Branson.

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Easy and Effective Promotion for Entrepreneur

Entreprenuer have limited budget on promotion, they will have millions of dollors to invest in TV ad, bill board etc. As such, a simple way or promotion is important for them.
Promotion activities for entrepreneur is basically include flyer and banner. They just need to make sure that the community around them know them. They need to be seen that they are doing business. Such, the flyer or banner need to be effective.
The effective promotion is to follow A.I.D.A. approach. Attractive, Interest, Desire and actions will enable your ad to be able to increase your sales tremendaously. A key word on your ad will attract your customer to attain to your ad. State benefit (what is it for me -WIIFM)
and call for actions portion will help you to get actions by the customers.
Gauging the effectiveness of promotion will help organisation to know whether the ad increae their sales or the other way round. Measuring the sales vesus each campaign and change the contain accordingly increase the effectiveness. Once you see that the ad have maximise you sales, please maintain it for a while.