Month: May 2018

The entrepreneurial mindset is what sets successful people in business. Without the entrepreneurial mindset at work, you may find it hard to achieve success in any kind of business.

True entrepreneurs seem to have certain qualities that enable them to be successful in what they do. It has to do a lot with how they think and how they look at things.

The way you think can really determine whether you will become a successful entrepreneur or not. Through the years, experts have studied and observed how the entrepreneurial mindset works and this is what they were able to discover:

1.Successful entrepreneurs think that they can do it. Armed with a vision of what they want to achieve, entrepreneurs have absolute confidence in themselves that they will be able to succeed. They look at things in a different way. When other people think of the obstacles along the way, entrepreneurs think of them as challenges. A strong belief, coupled with positive thinking, is just one of the marks of a successful entrepreneur.

2.Successful entrepreneurs think that risk is all part of the process. Most people are afraid of risks because they do not want to find themselves outside of their safety zone. Successful entrepreneurs think otherwise. Sometimes you need to come out of the safety zone and take risks in order to succeed. But winning entrepreneurs have another trait going for them – they know how to take calculated risks.

3.Successful entrepreneurs not only “think”, they “do.” They know that in order to be successful, action is needed. Having well-intentioned goals is good, but focused action would get you there.

Having the entrepreneurial mindset will help a lot in making you succeed with your next business endeavor. Developing it takes some time. But the earlier you take the effort of doing so, the better your chances of succeeding as an entrepreneur.

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If you are an entrepreneur aspiring to gain more success in your business career, you can refer to several of the best schools to sharpen your entrepreneurial skills and make use of any business opportunity you may come across. In this regard, entrepreneurs are not born, they are made. Indeed, the role that their education plays cannot be underestimated. Colleges and schools are vital in shaping the career of any aspiring entrepreneur.

Here is a list of the Top 10 Business Schools for entrepreneurs that are the alma mater of a great number of entrepreneurs:

1) Harvard Business School

At Harvard Business School, approximately fifty percent of their graduates become successful and known entrepreneurs at least 15 years after graduating.
One famous entrepreneur who was an alumna of Harvard Business School is Abigail Pierrepont Johnson. She is an American businesswoman and President of Fidelity Investments Personal and Workplace Investing. She was a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton and in 1997 she was promoted to an executive role in Fidelity Management and Research and later became a Senior Executive at Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services and Fidelity Investments. She currently serves as a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regular. According to the Forbes, she is the 22nd richest person in the United States and 48th in the world.

2) Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School a Columbia University is in Manhattan, New York City. The school was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for the graduate and undergraduate population.
Ron Gonen, a graduate of Columbia Business School cofounded RecycleBank, the pioneering recycling incentives program and has contracts with several municipalities in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Gonen is a frequent lecturer in class and served as a panelist at alumni entrepreneur events.

3) University of Chicago

The Booth School of Business is a graduate business school located in Chicago, Illinois at the University of Chicago, which was formerly known as the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business. It is the first school to offer an Executive MBA program and the first to initiate a PhD program in Business.
One of the most famous alumni of this university is Joe Mansueto, the Chief Executive Officer of Morningstar. Mansueto graduated from the Universityof Chicago with Bachelor of Arts/Science and master of Business Administration degrees. In 2011, his majority ownership of Morningstar gained him inclusion on the Forbes Worlds Billionaires list.

4) Stanford Graduate School of Business

The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the most prestigious business schools on the West Coast. Its also one of the most desired schools to receive an MBA in the world. If you are able to manage to get into the program you can join the ranks of other successful alumni and operate some of the largest companies like Capital One, GlaxoSmithKline and Gap.

One famous entrepreneur who graduated from Stanford is Vinod Khosla, the Co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of the VC firm Khosla Ventures. Khosla is an Indian-born American venture capitalist and has an influential role in Silicon Valley.

5) MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan School of Management was established in 1914 and emphasizes on innovation and invention. It is the home to many of the worlds famous management and finance theories. MIT requires students to apply concepts learned in classroom to real-world business settings. It is the alma mater of many prominent entrepreneurs.
A good example could be Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Software/Lotus Development Corporation. He is the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the first of the chair of the Mozilla Foundation.

6) Haas School of Business

Haas School of Business emphasizes on developing innovative business leaders who redefine how we do business. There are many notable entrepreneurs who are graduates of Haas School of Business.
Michael Wood who is a founder of LeapFrog Enterprises attended this school. Leapfrog, is an educational entertainment company based in Emeryville, California. the company designs, develops and markets technology-based learning products and related content for the education of infants through grade school, children at home, and in international schools.

7) Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

This Business School was established in 1990 at Dartmouth and has around forty percent of its graduates pursuing management careers. The TuckSchool offers only a single degree which stresses on a collaborative and teamwork-based approach.
Charles Alfred Pillsbury, founder of Pillsbury Corporation is a notable entrepreneur who is an alumnus of the Tuck School.

8) Cambridge Judge Business School

This School is formerly known as the Judge Institute of Management Studies. It is the business school of the University of Cambridge and was established in 1990. The school continues to provide management education and is consistent in its ranking as one of the worlds leading school in business.
Martin Bjergegaard is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and has 10 years of experience as a portfolio entrepreneur. He is the CEO at Better Now, taking online fundraising to the next level through an integrated video, payment and campaigning web functionality.
9) Oxford Business College

Oxford Business College specializes in a range of Business Management courses based in the heart of the University of Oxford.
Cecilia Lijun Jiang is an alumna of Oxford Business College and has been working in the commercial banking field for more than 20 years. She is very familiar with the products and services that Chinese banks provide to their customers, as well as with the new enterprises demand for their business development.
10) London Business School

The London Business School is an international business school and a part of the Federal University of London. The School teaches post-graduate programs in finance and management. It also offers the Sloan Fellowship Program for experienced business executives.

An alumna and a visiting professor in the Entrepreneurship Department of London Business School is Rob Johnson. Rob is a successful entrepreneur and venture capital investor. He was on the faculty of London Business School from 1990 where he taught a course on entrepreneurial finance. He also founded the European Business Plan of the year Competition.

Operating a business enterprise can be fulfilling both emotionally and financially. Of course, it can also be very demanding especially if the business is just starting out or is experiencing cash flow problems.

1. Manage Wisely

A person operating his own business should devote full time in managing the business if he wants to recoup his investments and make a decent profit. A hands-on manner in managing the business is often preferred especially for small to medium enterprises.

2. Cash Flow Is Everything

The cash flow of a business enterprise refers to the income of the business plus the corresponding expenses. In simple terms, the cash flow of a business shows if the business is indeed making money or is losing. By determining the cash flow of a business, the entrepreneur is able to determine if the business is operating by itself, that means it can pay the business expenses out of the money it has in its coffers.

A negative cash flow will mean the business is not able to operate on its own and there is a need to look for additional financial support every month. When this happens, it is best to take a closer look at what is wrong in the business operations to avoid further loses.

3. Determine Your Flow

To determine the business cash flow, the owner should take note of the monthly expenses of the business and see where the payment for these expenses will be coming from. If the income of the business is able to support and pay the business expenditures then there is a good or positive cash flow. Otherwise, the business may be in trouble and may be in need of serious evaluation.

4. Manage Funds Strategically

So how can an entrepreneur improve the cash flow of his business? A positive cash flow will require a strategic cash management. This means the entrepreneur should seek strategic means to improve the inflow of income and decrease the amount of business expenses. This means increasing the profit margin of the business as compared to the income and the expenses it incurs.

5. Price Products Intelligently

One of the best ways to improve cash flow is to increase the price of the products or services being sold by the business. Of course, this solution is not always easy since it will affect the patronage of customers who are always on the lookout for price increases.

If the product being sold is considered efficient and very useful by the customers then increasing its price will not really be a problem because they will always see the cost effectiveness of buying the said products. Most customers may be concerned about prices but they are more critical when it comes to product quality.

6. Maintain Quality

To maintain the viability of the products and increase sales, the entrepreneur should maintain the quality of his goods or services. Among the products that do not really experience a problem despite price increases are products that are already considered the best in its category, products for niche markets and products that are always in demand and are being produced only by a few manufacturers.

When choosing this strategy, the entrepreneur should make an analysis of the possible effect of the price increase in the volume of sales. The price of a certain product can likewise be increased without getting the ire of the customers by introducing improved features.

7. Minimize Expendatures

Another way to improve the business cash flow is to minimize expenses especially the cost for maintaining the business. By choosing useful business machines, the business can be more productive at lesser labor cost. The entrepreneur can also opt to outsource business functions that are not really regularly needed by the business or that are less expensive when outsourced rather than when the business takes it on its own.

The bulk of overhead expenses are related to labor cost so the entrepreneur should make a staff evaluation to determine that positions can be performed efficiently by a single person and determine if positions are no longer required entirely.

8. Have A Professional Billing System

A business experiencing negative cash flow should review uncollected income or as there may be credits that are already overdue. The entrepreneur should enforce an efficient collection strategy to turn the debts owed to the business into cash. The business may be experiencing a negative cash flow because of its failure to convert checks or debts into cash.

Fund-raising has never been an easy task. However, many entrepreneurs rely on the possibility of attracting venture or angel financing at the very early stage to get the projects off the ground. But is that a realistic assumption to be put into a business plan? What is the likelihood of conducting the first two or three years of coding (for tech start-ups) or R&D (for any other innovative projects) at the investors cost? Let’s outline typical stages in a successful company’s financing. We’ll start with the first and finish with the last. Although there are rare exceptions to this sequence, in most cases it looks like this.

1. Seed Round.

This is the starting point of any business: you only have your idea and the first rough profitability estimations. Every entrepreneur at this stage recognizes the Idea as his/her top value asset. And this is natural as the Idea will be providing the guiding light and most of the motivation before actual sales take place. Every book of Entrepreneurship advises you to think big at this stage. Even if all you do is opening a bakery at the corner, you should be aiming at changing this world for good. But it usually takes a year or two of hard work and bitter frustration before there is something at your disposal that can be sold. And chances are that the world will disapprove your Big Idea and youll have to start it all over.

So what kind of investment are you possibly able to attract at this stage? The answer is the “3Fs”, otherwise known as Family, Friends, and Fools. You should be prepared to invest your own capital (including the money you make with your day job) and search for business partners among the people you know. If you are lucky, you will make great team that contributes all the knowledge, skills, resources and (yes!) capital to turn the Idea into actual business.
The seed round is important not only because this is how you raise your initial capital. You also validate your idea and make serious correction to the business plan. You start understanding the needs of your target customers and learn how your future project or service will change their lives for better.

1a. Crowd Financing.

This is a relatively new and by all means trending way to succeed at the seed stage. There are multiple web-based services that aim at connecting entrepreneurs and investors. Most of them charge either membership fees or success fees, but there are websites that you can use for free. I will review most popular and/or most interesting business matching sites in one of the upcoming articles.

2. Angel Round.

The launch and the first sales are the critical landmark to prove your business concept. When there are people out there willing to pay for your product or service, you know you are on the right way. Now you have a tangible proof of what has been the Idea. Your team matures and is getting ready to face new business challenge and open new market horizons So you need additional funding (more often than not its volume exceeds initial capital) and start introducing your business to might-be angel investors in a solid and confident way as you present not some projected but real sales numbers.

3. Venture Capital Round.

When your business is growing, possible revenues are running long before the market average and the potential for an IPO or acquisition is more than decent, VCs step in. Dont think about venture firms as ambivalent money sacks they are searching for potential market break-through businesses actively as investing at, lets say, 10X, 20X, 50X IRR is their business specialization. Usually you start negotiating in a few years before an actual IPO or acquisition might take place. As the cooperation proceeds, VCs assist and consult you in preparing your company for this important step. Often this preparation includes replacing management with C-level officers who are known to and respected by your industry and/or Wall Street.

4. The IPO or Acquisition.

This is the big pay-off at the end of years of hard work. It means liquid stock are selling at, hopefully, high P/E multiple or your business is acquired by a large strategic player from Fortune 1000 list. Of course this is not the only possible exit scenario as you might choose not to exit the game. Your business might become your lifetime passion and you might be one of those brilliant start up entrepreneurs who are also the best CEO of their companies.

Business development and financing is an interconnected process. And in order to succeed you should follow the inner logic of the process and apply the funding strategies which are adequate to your current position.

A business small or big, irrespective of its nature always starts with some basic investment. The process of procuring investment is not new, rather has a huge history attached to it. Every era witnessed a different style of investment procurement. Earlier, people who had bulk money were entertained first and small investors were hardly a party to big shot companies. But with changing scenarios, the picture is no longer what it used to be earlier. Nowadays, small venture capitalists or angel investors give equal importance just like other industry big shots. Though, the amount invested by angel investors may be less, yet they serve as excellent vehicles to start a business.

Whether, you are expanding your small business or are looking into creating a start-up, you may need investors to help fund your endeavor. Though a small business loan is a good starting point. But, seeking investors allows you more access to funds which you generally do not have to repay on a set schedule. These investors become a party to your agenda and reap out profits what the business makes. However, it is not like investors will give you funding without expecting anything in return, and you may need to relinquish some control of your business in order to work with certain investors. The terms and conditions are liable to change with every business agenda.

As we say, nothing comes free of cost and has a price attached to it. Similarly, these angel investors may demand an ownership or shareholding in your company, if you are an entrepreneur. But, if we talk about the advantages of finding angel investors, they are multifold than going forward with huge investment companies or banks. Also, it is quite appropriate for angel investors to park their amounts in upcoming business models. This is a win-win situation for both the parties. It helps the investors to enjoy profits and make money, while proves outstanding for an entrepreneur to conceptualize his dream and introduce the product, technology or the business idea in the market.

There are many online websites which serve as excellent tools to bridge the gap between investors and entrepreneurs. If you have any business idea, then register yourself as an entrepreneur, while if you are interested in investing your money, then register as an investor. The website will definitely help lacunating the gap between the two parties. You can easily find investors for your business and vice versa. Go make money!