startup Archives - Diane Hamilton

Entrepreneur Startup Terminology

Entrepreneurs have created their own vocabulary. The Wall Street Journal recently posted some important terms that every startup professional should know: Continue reading “Entrepreneur Startup Terminology” →

Data Reveals What it Takes to be an Entrepreneur

The Wall Street Journal recently listed some interesting statistics regarding entrepreneurs. Ewing Marion Kauffman’s data was used to create an infographic. According to the article By the Numbers: Taking the Measure of Entrepreneurs, the following gives more insight as to who becomes an entrepreneur:

Age – The average age for an entrepreneur is 40 years old.
Education – Over 95% of entrepreneurs hold a bachelor’s degree or higher and over 47% have advanced degrees.
Background – Over 71% came from the middle-class and 1% came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds.
Funding – For 70% of entrepreneurs, the main source of funding came from savings.
Family – First borns accounted for over 42% of entrepreneurs. They had an average of 3 siblings. Just over half of them were the first in their family to start a business. Nearly 70% were married and nearly 60% had at least one child.
Success – When asked what entrepreneurs felt was important for success, 73% listed luck as an important factor.
Location – The highest numbers of entrepreneurs are in Arizona, Texas and California. The lowest numbers are in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii.

Top 5 Things to Know to be a Successful Entrepreneur

via google.com

The typical entrepreneurial personality has the drive and ambition for success. Like anything in life, though, it is always harder to do something the very first time. This can discourage many new entrepreneurs from taking that initial leap and to start their own business.

I teach several entrepreneurial courses and have put together some important articles that I recommend to my students. The following list contains many of these articles and some of the most important things that entrepreneurs should do in order to be successful:

Read Success Stories and Attend Lectures: An excellent way to be inspired and learn from other entrepreneurs is to read their success stories. Onlineuniversities.com recently came up with a list of 20 Biographies Every Serious Entrepreneur Should Read. These books include important success stories from Ben Franklin to Sam Walton. Another very important article to read is: 50 Excellent Lectures for Small Business Owners.
Learn the Truth About Failure: Many entrepreneurs are stalled in their pursuit of success due to their fear of failure. Even some of the most famous entrepreneurs met with failure before success. To find out more about this, check out: 50 Famous People Who Failed Before Becoming Successful. Also see: Famous Business Failures: Is it as Gloomy as it Sounds? Also see: 10 Famous Product Failures and the Advertisements That Did Not Sell Them.
Learn the Truth About Finances Required: Not all entrepreneurs come from wealthy families. It can be challenging to come up with the funds required to begin a business. Find out how some very famous entrepreneurs became successful in the article: Famous Entrepreneurs Who Hit it Big With Humble Beginnings.
Learn How Women Have Become Successful Entrepreneurs: Some very successful entrepreneurs have been women. Check out: Most Inspiring Entrepreneurial Women.
Learn How to Network: One of the best ways to get a product or company known is through social media. Part of an entrepreneur’s success is through finding their customers and their niche. Check out: 5 Top Networking Tips for Small Businesses.

Once an entrepreneur has developed a strong idea of the direction they want to take, they need to work on their feasibility study. Investors will want to see this to be sure that their idea is sound. Another important aspect of creating their new business is deciding on a vision and mission statement. Check out The Top 10 Mission Statements in 2011. Once an entrepreneur has received enough funds to get their new business off the ground, they may want to consider whether or not to go IPO. Many companies like Facebook have waited and not gone this traditional route. Find out Why Companies Are Not Going IPO due to fear of the past dot com crash.