Facing The Challenges Of Entrepreneurialism

Entrepreneurialism is just as popular as different types of business opportunities out there and this often involves a person who has the ability to run and organize a particular business which is commonly known as an entrepreneur. This type of people can be found in almost all of the places that you can imagine and are usually involved in different business industries. They can be in the clothing industry, heating or cooling industry and even in the internet industry. More and more entrepreneurs are using the internet to gain profit from their respective businesses. Anyone can easily become an entrepreneur but not all becomes a good one.

Almost all people who are in the business world want to make their businesses into a successful one. But before that happens, there are several challenges that every person must face. These challenges can come from different sources that serve as boundaries of entrepreneurialism like the environment, the financial aspect and yourself.

The business environment is known to change every once in a while and these changes are often caused by other people involved in the same environment like the consumers, suppliers and your competitors. Considering that you are not the only entrepreneur that is offering a certain product line in the market, your product must be something that makes it different from the rest. Make sure that your products are exactly the type of products that fits to your target consumers. If it is, then you also have to check on your suppliers regarding your raw materials because there is a need for your ensure that you will be able to meet the market's demand. But if you are to launch a new product, then you have to assess if the product will be accepted or not.

Another challenge that you have to face is the financing. Good business ideas, plans, strategies and other things will all be useless if you do not have funds to bring all these things to reality. You should calculate the funds needed in order to sustain all the expenses before you can actually make profit from your business. But in case of emergencies, you can look for several funding options like loans and other alternatives.

And the greatest challenge that you have to face in entrepreneurialism is yourself. There are some things, characteristics, qualities, features or whatever they call it that you have to possess in order to become a good entrepreneur. You may naturally have these things but you may also not. As long as you are determined, focused, eager, disciplined and patient, then you'll be all set. Remember that being impatient and lazy can really make a business fail. Having the appropriate attitude will not make you successful immediately but it will somehow give you a bigger chance to become successful in your chosen field.


These are just some of the challenges that you must face and overcome to achieve your desired goal. Although these challenges are not that easy to handle, you will surely manage to go about overcoming them if you have the guts and spirit to do so.

Mabel Miles likes to share information on private placement memorandum and business plans as well as a host of additional services.

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Tips To Get The Most Affordable Auto Insurance

There are many options to choose from when it comes to getting auto insurance. You need to determine the option that is best for you and only you can make that decision. You should never buy insurance without getting all the information you can about the policy. You need to know what you are getting for the payments you are making. If you find the information too daunting, you can talk to auto insurance agents. Make sure that you ask questions so that you understand exactly what you are getting.

Size and type of car

When buying auto insurance, the cost of insurance will depend on the size and the type of car that you drive. Lightweight cars that are more likely to be involved in accidents will often cost more to insure. Insurance companies consider how often a car is driven. When researching quotes, you should consider the type of car you own. Those who drive hybrid or electric cars can save money on insurance. Many insurance companies offer discounts of up to 10% for hybrid cars. Luxury car owners will tend to spend more on insurance because these cars are more costly to repair or replace.

Driving distance

Your driving habits will determine the insurance premiums you will pay. If you average many miles each year, you will pay more than someone who does not drive a lot. Those who drive long distances for work will end up with more costly insurance. Insurance companies work on the premise that the more you drive, the higher your risk of getting into an accident. Those who drive a few miles each day can get affordable auto insurance from most providers.

Getting information about the insurance carrier's reputation will help to protect you when buying insurance. You should carry out research to determine if there have been complaints about the company. A large number of legitimate complaints about a company are often a sign of a problem and you need to avoid such a provider. You need to deal with companies that are known to pay out policies on time. Get references or recommendations and ask those who currently have policies with the company if they are happy with the services they are getting.


When you have all the important information that you need, you can use online tools to find an insurance carrier that is perfect for your needs. If you have more than one car, you can get lower rates by using the same company.

We provide the best info about affordable auto insurance and auto insurance agents. For further details please visit the provided links.

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Being Creative In Your Business

Recently, I participated in a discussion on one of my social networking sites that was really interesting. We were discussing creative marketing strategies. During this conversation, I became aware of a marketing strategy being used by a marketer that I found to be just plain silly. This marketer was sending out mail pieces - the kind you get in your mailbox - inviting people to become affiliates, or partners in his business, with $5.00 postage due. I wouldn't consider this to be a strategy, but apparently it worked for this marketer. Some people accepted the mail, paid the $5.00 postage due, just to find out what this person was trying to do. Others refused the mail, obviously not wanting to pay $5.00 postage.

This approach doesn't make sense.

Here this person was, asking people to start a relationship with him, a joint venture, and making them pay for the request. Not exactly a way to start a relationship with people you want to do business with. You want to make sure when you are starting a relationship especially a joint venture that you start the relationship out on the right foot. Asking someone to pay to get your mail piece for the joint venture is not moving in the right direction to get them to join your joint venture or affiliate program.

All business owners want to do things just a little different, a little off-the-wall, outrageous, and sometimes even a little controversial just to get attention, (and yes, we all do things just to get attention sometimes), but his strategy or tactic was just plain silly. It's just really bad etiquette to send someone a mail piece, requesting them to do business and expect them to pay for postage.

So, think about this, and other things you may be doing, or your staff may doing, in your business right now, that might not make much sense, that might be silly, or that might be sending the wrong message to people you want to do business with. Bad etiquette and other silly mistakes might be costing you business, money, relationships and sales - all the things that are so precious to us in business.

Take a look at your business and how you do things to see where you might be making silly mistakes and stop making them. When you plan ahead and you use strategy, you won't make silly mistakes because you will have thoroughly thought out what you are doing and why.


Diane Conklin is an internationally known author, entrepreneur, coach, consultant, event planner, speaker and copywriter. Diane is a direct response marketing expert who specializes in showing small business owners how to integrate their online and offline marketing strategies, media and methods, to get maximum results from their marketing dollars. As a marketing and business strategist, Diane shows entrepreneurs and small business owners how to outperform their competition by measuring their marketing, and strategically use multi-media campaigns to stand alone in their marketplace as the go-to provider for their products and services.

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Sales Managers - How to Manage Your Sales Meetings

Many Sales Managers need help running sales meetings. The importance of running a compelling sales meeting is clear, but often Sales Managers fall into running meetings that don't inspire, motivate or even engage their sales team.

Here are some of the typical complaints from sales teams about sales meetings:

    "There is too much to do!"
    "Why do we bother to have a sales meeting?"
    "We don't get anything out of it"
    "It is a massive waste of time"

These objections are often heard by Sales Managers from their sales team. Running sales team meetings is one of the basic pillars of good sales management.

Run effectively they can provide a channel for communication between the Sales Manager and sales people, and help build collaboration within the team.

So, if they are so critical, why are they dreaded among most sales people?

Many sales people complain their sales meetings are boring. There is no value being added; the Sales Manager might like the sound of their own voice and talk too much, leading to limited participation from the team and they happen in an irregular manner.

There are 7 keys to having a success sales meeting:
  • Cadence. The rhythm of weekly meetings is critical to their success. So have them at the same time, same day and same place every week. This expectation of having the sales meeting requires you (the sales manager) to be prepared. It also signals to the sales team to be accountable for their actions every week.
  • Create a standard agenda. Have three basic items each sales team member needs to report to the group each week:
  • Review and discuss highlights and lowlights of previous week's results (as well as MTD and YTD tracking and trends).
  • Share what was learnt through the successes stories from previous week.
  • What do I need to achieve this week? Everyone should have 1 main objective for the week.
  • Participation. Sales meetings can be boring because sales people don't interact. It's the boss droning on about how we need more sales, you guys don't sell enough etc, etc. Change the mentality by involving the sales team in an interactive exercise. Be open to feedback, suggestion and comments from the group. Capture ideas and create action plans of ideas that have merit. Be careful not to shut down discussion too early.
  • New skill development. Reinforcing sales skills is vitally important for any team regardless of how effective and productive the team is currently. For any sales team there is always room for improvement. It is part of the role of the sales manager to identify areas that require improvement. Role practice is one of the best ways to impart new sales skills and encourage team participation.
Here are 4 common mistakes many Sales Managers make with their sales meetings;
  • Drag them on too long. The longer the time period, the more difficult it is to maintain interest and attention from the attendees. Consider what you want to cover in the meeting, and how long that would take.
  • Allow too much 'whining'. Your sales team are all together in one place and some salespeople will also have their favourite whine topics, such as "the company doesn't do enough marketing" or "our prices are not competitive compared to... " You need to be prepared for it and aware of the signs so you can deal with it as soon as it happens.
  • Don't prepare. If the meeting is not properly planned beforehand the meeting can be a waste of time to all the participants. Before the meeting think about your outcomes what you want to cover and how to get your message across in the most effective way.
  • Don't challenge the team. Another common mistake Sales Managers make is not to challenge the team, particularly around their sales pipeline or prospecting lists. Too many salespeople don't take these important activities seriously enough.
The sales meetings should be about motivating the team and helping them deal with their current sales challenges.

Alistair McMahon is an accomplished sales leader and entrepreneur, with specialisation in helping sales team have great sales meetings - getting everyone clear on where they're going, what's important and creating powerful dashboards. You can find more ideas at http://www.SalesMeetingTools.com

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Evaluating Your Marketing Plan

Writing a marketing plan isn't a one-time job. It is something that needs to be evaluated and updated on a regular basis. As your business grows and changes, your marketing plan will grow and change. The following is a list of areas that you should be examining in order to determine ways to improve your marketing strategies:

• Are you targeting your intended market audience? Look at your current customers and compare them to your intended market. If you are not reaching your intended market, you may need to find new strategies to reach them.

• Are you achieving your sales goals? Compare what you projected to your actual sales.

• Do you need to change your strategies? You may find that your strategies are no longer meeting your marketing goal. For instance, if the demographics of your buyers change, then your marketing strategies will need to change so you are reaching this new group.

• Are you remaining within your budget? Look at your return on investment and re-assess how you spent your marketing dollars. You can then get rid of strategies that had a low return on investment and allocate that money to strategies that are getting better results.

• Is everything current? If you have updated or changed your products or services, make sure your marketing plan reflects this.

• What is your amount of new leads? Look at the amount of leads you are receiving from each marketing strategy separately so you can compare which ones are working better.

• Determine your cost per lead. Does it make sense to be spending that amount to get a new customer? If not, you need to find ways to lower this amount.

• Determine the conversion rate. This is the amount of potential visitors who perform the desired action. It is measured by taking the number of sales and dividing it by the number of visitors. The larger the conversion rate, the more successful your campaign is.


Businesses have the tendency to write a marketing plan once, when they are first starting up and need to get funding, and then either forget about it completely or continue to use it even when it becomes outdated. But this will likely result in wasted marketing dollars and ineffective marketing strategies. By routinely evaluating your marketing plan, you will be able to see which efforts have been successful and which have failed. Then you can make the necessary changes so that all of your marketing dollars are being spent on the most successful strategies.

This article was written by Steve Litzow, CEO of Marketing Lantern. Marketing Lantern helps businesses create marketing plans that work. Visit Marketing Lantern now to learn more about writing successful marketing plans and for a free 30 day trial account.

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