Entrepreneurship

If you’re not seeking investors, or want to jump into the market quickly to launch your product or service, then an informal business plan can help you clarify your startup’s goals, sales strategy, and target market. At the least, writing it all down will help you crystallize your thoughts, set your priorities, and keep you on track. An informal business plan should contain, at the minimum: A company description and mission statement. Describe your business in a few brief paragraphs, including your legal structure (for more on that, see pages 70–75) and the type of unique services or products you...

Your life’s profession should be derived from your deepest passions. This is why the first step to becoming an entrepreneur is to define passion and then locate yours. The modern West has romanticized the word passion. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “a strong feeling of enthusiasm for something or about doing something”; we typically use it to describe only things that we experience positively. We think of passions as those things that excite you or put a twinkle in your eyes or a bounce in your step. We may have a strong emotion about child abuse, but we wouldn’t...

I call myself an “accidental entrepreneur” because I came to the world of start-ups on a different path than many other founders. Running a company was never my goal. I didn’t go to business school. I was in my mid-thirties when I started Hint Water. My new book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, not only tells the Hint story, but many of the pivotal moments that led to me taking the plunge and starting my company. I wrote this book because everybody needs some encouragement and advice to help silence the doubts and doubters and achieve the success they deserve....

Executive Summary Psychologists first recognized introverts as a personality type in the 1900s, but it wasn't until author and sales professional Matthew Pollard published The Introvert's Edge that many saw how valuable their skills could be to boosting business revenue. Studies show that since the pandemic, expectations of sales interactions and leadership have changed radically. People value reliability and helpfulness over charisma and confidence; speed, transparency, and expertise over small talk and charm. Introverts are poised to succeed in the post-pandemic business world, especially when equipped with Pollard's groundbreaking sales system developed specifically around the personality type. Traditionally, business and...

Executive Summary Airbnb tried for years to use reason and logic in their investor pitches. While they made a strong case for their idea for residents to rent out rooms to strangers, not one investor would bite their whole first year in business. Telling a founder story in conjunction with data has proven to be successful for a majority of Shark Tank participants who acquired deals. Your brand's story is its biggest weapon. Only your company could come up with your idea in the specific way you did. A founder story turns skeptics into believers. By this point, we know...

More than 20.5 million Americans are without employment right now, and the unemployment rate is the highest it has been since the Great Depression. Pretty devastating news. Many are faced with two options: Apply for another job Create their own job Turns out around 27 million people across the United States have chosen the latter option. According to the authors of Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy, found that the fear of being out of work and getting fired are some of the most common reasons people become entrepreneurs. “I started...

Executive Summary Tamara Jacobi chose the jungle over Goldman Sachs after graduating college. She and her family purchased 5 acres of tropical paradise near San Pancho, Mexico in 2005. Jacobi pursued her passion by starting a business around it, and shares the steps it took to become successful. She says any business, especially an unconventional one, needs a business plan and support from mentors or coaches. On a cold day in February 2007, as I skied down the Middlebury Snow Bowl in my cap and gown, I had a decision to make. In one hand, a prestigious diploma, a ticket...

Executive Summary Approximately 25 million Americans own a business or are pursuing an entrepreneurial venture. One of the biggest motivators towards starting a business is eliminating authority. People want to be their own bosses.   But, do they really? That’s the question Zack Friedman poses in an assertive expose of the current employment trend. Friendman argues that being an entrepreneur is an arduous journey with an onslaught of rejection, uncertainty, and doubt. He dispels the myth of serial entrepreneurship, and shows how digging deep into a business instead of skimming wide is the key to an entrepreneur’s success. At some...

Executive Summary As an entrepreneur or business owner, complacency is the root of all failures and damaging to business success. According to Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and master restaurateur, if you aren't always worrying about your business, you could risk losing everything. In business as in most areas of life, something will go wrong at one point or another. Plan for the struggles in the good times so you can experience growth in the bad times. The force taking aim at your business and growth strikes in your blind spots, the areas you neglect while you are...