7 Key Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur

Woopidoo article

Being an entrepreneur is about more than just starting a business or two, it is about having attitude and the drive to succeed in business. All successful Entrepreneurs have a similar way of thinking and posses several key personal qualities that make them so successful in business. Successful entrepreneurs like the ambitious Richard Branson have an inner drive to succeed and grow their business, rather than having a Harvard Business degree or technical knowledge in a particular field.

All successful entrepreneurs have the following qualities:

Inner Drive to Succeed
Entrepreneurs are driven to succeed and expand their business. They see the bigger picture and are often very ambitious. Entrepreneurs set massive goals for themselves and stay committed to achieving them regardless of the obstacles that get in the way.

Strong Belief in themselves
Successful entrepreneurs have a healthy opinion of themselves and often have a strong and assertive personality. They are focused and determined to achieve their goals and believe completely in their ability to achieve them. Their self optimism can often been seen by others as flamboyance or arrogance but entrepreneurs are just too focused to spend too much time thinking about un-constructive criticism.

Search for New Ideas and Innovation
All entrepreneurs have a passionate desire to do things better and to improve their products or service. They are constantly looking for ways to improve. They’re creative, innovative and resourceful.

Openness to Change
If something is not working for them they simply change. Entrepreneurs know the importance of keeping on top of their industry and the only way to being number one is to evolve and change with the times. They’re up to date with the latest technology or service techniques and are always ready to change if they see a new opportunity arise.

Competitive by Nature
Successful entrepreneurs thrive on competition. The only way to reach their goals and live up to their self imposed high standards is to compete with other successful businesses.

Highly Motivated and Energetic
Entrepreneurs are always on the move, full of energy and highly motivated. They are driven to succeed and have an abundance of self motivation. The high standards and ambition of many entrepreneurs demand that they have to be motivated!

Accepting of Constructive Criticism and Rejection
Innovative entrepreneurs are often at the forefront of their industry so they hear the words “it can’t be done” quite a bit. They readjust their path if the criticism is constructive and useful to their overall plan, otherwise they will simply disregard the comments as pessimism. Also, the best entrepreneurs know that rejection and obstacles are a part of any leading business and they deal with them appropriately.

True entrepreneurs are resourceful, passionate and driven to succeed and improve. They’re pioneers and are comfortable fighting on the frontline The great ones are ready to be laughed at and criticized in the beginning because they can see their path ahead and are too busy working towards their dream.

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Evolving Creativity: How to Work like an Ad Agency

How To Develop A Creative Project Like An Ad Agency Does It

Associated Content

“Are you a marketing or public relations professional? An artist or writer? A freelance web designer or web promotions specialist? Maybe you are freelancing on your own, self-employed and need to brainstorm ideas on how to proceed with a current project. Or perhaps you already work for a company, but your team needs a fresh new method of team working and partaking in the creative idea generation process.

If you need to jumpstart your creativity or brainstorm for a project for your job, try doing it the ad agency way. Advertising agencies have a group of creative artists and directors who work together to create fresh, innovative ads with captivating visuals and intelligent, persuasive copy. Do you think these ad agencies come up with their infamous, world-renowned taglines because one creative director sitting at his desk decided on the hit slogan all by himself? Absolutely not. In creative environments, when creativity is crucial to developing a project, theme, or concept, the more input the better. It is not to say that a single creative artist could not come up with a winning advertisement, but the entire essence of the project itself will be better comprehended by everyone involved if a team effort is employed. When seven to twelve creative artists are sitting in one room together, all focusing their creative energy towards the same given result, amazing things can happen. The technique of using a small group of like-minded creative artists to bounce ideas off of each other is one of the main factors that contributes to the success of such famous ad agencies as Arnold Worldwide and Hill Holliday. When the group has open communication in addition to a lack of censorship and a strong creative background, an idea can evolve to no end.

Try this:
Get a group of creative individuals together who are all interested in helping you with the given project you have. Sit in a circular formation and designate one person to take notes (or more accurately, “jot down random words”) on a flip chart/easel. Start by stating the goal you wish to achieve or the theme you wish to convey. Let’s say for instance you want to make a tagline for your client’s new company, Pizza Palace. If everyone involved does not know as much as you do regarding the client’s intended image of this company or the culture and mood that he or she wishes the new venue to evoke, it is imperative that you fill them in before the brainstorming process begins. A prepared outline on printed sheets to pass out would be ideal for them to refer to. Now, once everyone is on the same page, begin the creative brainstorming process ad agency style by breaking the ice. Call out a slogan, anything, the first words that come to mind when you think of Pizza Palace. There are no rules to this and if the people you are working with understand this creative process and are creative professionals themselves they will not judge you or laugh, for often times it is the silly suggestions that lead to the award winning ones. Encourage people to start calling out ideas and write them all, no matter how ridiculous, on the flipchart. You will notice that ideas start growing out of each other, for instance someone might say, Pizza Palace, We Are Callous, which obviously is one you will toss out, but that might lead another participant to think of a sentence slightly similar in sound yet not quite rhyming, such as Pizza Palace, Eat our Salads. See, now, this is getting a little closer to the desired theme, even though it is still another toss away.

Just keep the ideas flowing and write every single one down on the flipchart until everyone has exhausted their flow of creativity for the moment. Then, you can choose how many suggestions you want to narrow the list down to, but five is usually a good amount. Keep the five in your brain bank for at least a few days, mulling each idea over, and encourage the others in the group to do the same. Then, meet again a few days later to narrow the list down further and eventually tighten up the remaining results so that each slogan has been tweaked to its full potential. Do this as many times as necessary. No rules. Except that there are no rules. Go, have fun! Guaranteed, if you haven’t tried this method before you’ll love it.”

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Internet Marketing

By Jay Maharjan on November 26, 2007

I recently had a good conversation with Cliff Allen on online marketing and entrepreneurship in general. Cliff is a good friend and the author of multiple web marketing books - (One-to-One Web Marketing (John Wiley & Sons) and Web Catalog Cookbook (John Wiley & Sons). He is also the founder of suretomeet.com, an event planning portal.

One key point that we both agree on is that web marketing is just one of many marketing tools available for entrepreneurs. Eventually, what matters in having a good sustainable marketing strategy is to have a fundamental understanding of the customer behavior, their buying pattern and offering them what they are looking for.

Here is an excerpt of one of Cliff’s recent posts from his blog - allen.com

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Web Analytics and Customer Behavior

by Cliff Allen

One of the challenges of using Web analytics techniques to improve a site’s performance is that Web analytics can only measure what’s there - not what’s missing.

In working with two new clients I found that the most of their key indicators in Google Analytics were fine, but revenue was below their potential.

Both sites needed to make adjustments that put their Web sites on the path that consumers normally follow when making purchases. Some or these changes dealt with what customers do before going on the Web to make a purchase. Other changes dealt with matching products to customer personalities.

Joshua Porter, a user interface designer for social Web applications, pointed out that consumers frequently use off-site techniques to make purchase decisions:

For example, we did a huge user testing study where we tested over a dozen e-commerce web sites. We had 70 or so people actually buy products from these web sites and part of our research was to find out how they made purchasing decisions. In more cases than I can count people said things like “Well, I knew I wanted a digital camera but I didn’t know what kind. My friend really likes Canon cameras and recommended them to me”. People who don’t know something rely on their social network to find it out.

This is a piece of the marketing puzzle that no Web analytics system could measure. It takes combining an understanding of how customers make purchase decisions with the Web experience you provide to create a compelling reason to buy from you.

This requires constantly testing ways to help customers evaluate and purchase your products and measuring the performance of each part of your customer experience.

Embrace the Power of the Web

by Chris Consorte

Your target market is buying online. If you’re not there, then you’re probably flushing revenue down the drain.

Just the other day I was speaking to one of my clients, who has run a traditional brick-and-mortar operation for over 15 years. His small business is one that you would not expect to be cashing-in on e-commerce — although he certainly is — in that he sells industrial plumbing supplies.

As we got to talking, we chatted about his marketing initiatives — specifically his Internet strategy — and I was pleasantly surprised to hear his e-commerce business was steadily becoming more than just “a website presence.” In fact, he was acquiring new clients, building new relationships, and selling direct to the point where his e-business was becoming a significant part of his whole business. Who knew selling toilet accessories to contractors online could be so successful?

Actually, I did. You see, at first my client was skeptical of having a Web presence at all — and thought that e-commerce was a something that would not apply to his operation, especially since there was some investment required to get things rolling. It was only after some convincing that I was able to persuade him that his hard-earned dollars would be well spent on a solid e-commerce and Internet marketing strategy.

Fast-forward one month later — his 600-plus product e-commerce site was launched and marketing commenced. At the end of the first week, I figured I’d touch-base with the client to see how things were going. “I’m getting several prospect phone calls and e-mails daily — and I’ve already received a few online orders?? he said. My initial feeling was one of relief — given I had the been the catalyst for having him make the investment — but when I thought about it for a second, it made perfect sense.

After all, 2005 was a true milestone for e-commerce business. Total Internet spending for the year reached $143.2 billion — up 22% over the $117.2 billion spent online in 2004, according to comScore Networks. “Cyber Mondays,” the Monday following the Thanksgiving holiday, are quickly becoming a part of our American holiday shopping routine — similar to “Black Friday?? for traditional retailers.

I suppose it’d be easy for me to simply say, “Your target market IS buying online.” But it’s even easier to cite the low operational costs, the ability to do business in an automated fashion 24/7, the exposure to a national, even an international, prospect-base and the fact that your competition is probably already doing business (or at least strategizing about it) online.

Both consumers and businesses are embracing the power of the Web, finding what they need through search engines like Google and Yahoo!, and buying through Amazon, e-Bay and Buy.com. If you think that just because these are huge, well-known companies that your business can’t capitalize on the same strategies these businesses have, you need to think again.

While no company, in my opinion, has it all figured out in terms of e-commerce (no, not even Google), the same basic principles apply no matter what size the business. However, to quote a particularly good NY Lotto ad slogan from the 80s, first “You gotta be in it to win it.?? Like anything else, procrastination and fear of the unknown often stops small-business owners from even getting started in uncharted territories like e-commerce and all things tech.

Being February already, it’s a little late for New Year’s resolutions; however, I can’t help but create my short-list of to-dos for any small-business owner thinking of implementing an e-commerce strategy in 2006. Here they are:

1. Do your homework (and I mean now) on your three closest competitors, and see what they’re doing online.
2. Look back on 2005 and think of at least three things that completely bombed including how much time and money spent, and how those resources could have been spent in growing your online business.
3. Again, looking back on 2005, think of at least three things that were complete successes (thereby bringing revenue or opportunity back to your organization) and think how sticking to this core-strategy for your online business could have made an even bigger impact.

The Web is here to stay, and it offers your business a very effective way to find and keep customers. So even if you’re not sure of the opportunity, you have to take a shot, like my plumbing supplies client did. If you don’t, you could be letting future profits go down the drain.

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Planning Ahead

by Chris Consorte

We’ve all heard it: “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.” It’s a saying that reaches far beyond the world of business and marketing. However, without a strong marketing plan, you’re likely to be winging it over the year ahead, and no self-respecting businessperson would ever admit to winging it when it comes to running a business.

Like most online businesses, your plan will likely start off with the main objective of driving relevant traffic to your website. Next, you’ll want to convert as many of these visitors into customers. And lastly, you’ll want to do this profitably, thereby keeping ROI in the black.

Speaking of ROI, you’ll need a budget to ensure the “I” exists. While we could spend all-day on budgeting, the only person who knows best how much you can afford to spend on marketing is you. Whatever your method, I always recommend sticking to your guns in making 80 percent of your marketing budget pre-planned, and the remaining 20 percent off-the-cuff, non-planned stuff that may present itself midway through the year. Again, all you need is that magic number so you can stay on course with the marketing roadmap you’re creating.

Now it’s time to put the plan to paper. With objectives and budget in-hand, we get to the fun stuff. The creative tactics available to us, like TV, radio, print, mail, PR, online, and more. You might have noticed I’ve placed online marketing last. That’s because I want to take you out of your comfort zone and get you thinking outside of the box. Not that I want you to abandon what works, just that you’ll need to consider testing other marketing tactics since your objective is, after all, to grow the business this year.

Taking a quick look at TV advertising, companies like Spotrunner.com can get you on-air with a customized spot and super-targeted media plan for roughly $2,500, maybe less. Not exactly a huge monetary boundary, and worth keeping your eyes on.

Radio advertising can be done with even less money, especially when you look at remnant space buyers and planners like Bid4Spots.com or dMarc by Google (yes, Google). Create your spot, pick your areas and within a few days your spots are airing for the lowest prices possible, and all it takes to get you started is $1,000.

Look to MediaBids.com for your print testing campaign — again, a company focused on remnant or unsold inventory and bidding processes. Another $1,000 (or less) gets you into publications that would normally have cost us twice or triple that amount.

Look to MediaBids.com for your print testing campaign — again, a company focused on remnant or unsold inventory and bidding processes. Another $1,000 (or less) gets you into publications that would normally have cost us twice or triple that amount.

Getting the Phone to Ring

By Chris Consorte - Posted on November 18, 2007

While all things e-marketing work well, they’re just part of the many ways you can get your phones to ring–and convert prospects to sales.

When it comes to sales, nothing is better–in my humble opinion, that is–than a good old- fashioned inbound phone call. Let me explain.

I’m a big fan of the automation process: e-commerce sales, e-lead generation and even e-customer service. While over 50% of my own business revenue is based on all things “e,” I still can’t resist those prospects that call in over the phone looking to get more information. Why? Because my sales team has a 50% chance of converting them to a client.

Over the years, I’ve tried many advertising tactics to grow my business. In fact, almost all of these tactics I tried on my own business before I went ahead and proposed that tactic to any of my clients. My rationale was, and still is, if it works for my business then it’ll work for my client’s business. Yet it all comes down to objectives–that is, what is it that I want from prospects and clients.

At one point in my business, all I cared about was conversion to an e-commerce sale. (We used to be in the event marketing business.) Shortly after, all I cared about was generating prospect leads online for later follow-up by sales (to give us time to research the prospect as we were more in the consulting phase of our business). Now, I’d pay just about any price for inbound prospect phone calls.

“Paying just about any price” is a strong statement, but I’ve actually paid what I consider just about any price in the past. I’ve tried marketing tactics that have cost me a hefty sum–only to get a small quantity of inbound prospect calls–thereby driving my cost-per-call through the roof. On the flip side, I’ve also tried marketing tactics that have cost me very little–and have driven tons of inbound phone calls. In this case, my cost-per-call went down significantly.

Many of our clients believed in the past that television or radio is out of reach for them, in terms of cost, but yet their products or services are perfect for this audience. We’ve helped them produce digital television spots for as little as $1,000 and have purchased them 30-second spots for as little as $10 each. Basically, they’re on-air in two weeks time at a total budget of $2,000, and they’re testing TV. For radio, we’ve gotten clients on-air for as little as $5 per 30-second spot and they’re on the radio testing for as little as $1,000. The secret–buying remnant and direct-response time only–and they’re getting many inbound phone calls to justify the money spent.

The same holds true for direct mail, where the client occasionally feels it’s going to be too costly based on the minimums of testing 5,000 pieces or much more at a time. These days, with digital printing, clients are able to test drop as few as 500 pieces– perhaps for $300 or so–and see if direct mail is for them…and if it’ll make their phone ring.

I’ve seen offline media (radio, TV, direct mail, print advertising) as well as online media (opt-in e-mail, online ads, search optimization) work very well for driving inbound phone calls. If you’re watching your metrics–or cost-per-call–and measuring to make sure your objectives are being met (ultimately, sales conversion) then the sky is the limit in terms of how many inbound calls you can drive into your telecenter, sales team or customer service department.

Not sure if you’ve got the budget or the skills to embark on testing an all-out campaign? Try services like Ingenio (www.ingenio.com) or CitySearch (www.citysearch.com) and they’ll drive the inbound calls to you directly. Just simply set-up a campaign online, including a description of your industry and the prospects you’re looking to attract, how much you’ll be willing to pay per call and how many calls you would like to buy–and it’s that simple. You can even set a geographic territory limit so that you don’t get inbound calls outside of the areas you service!

So there you have it. If you want inbound prospect calls–you CAN buy them. Again, in my own humble opinion, I believe that inbound phone calls is going to be how advertising is quantified going forward. Furthermore, paying for or buying targeted prospect phone calls is likely the future of direct response marketing–because it’s one of the best ways for advertisers to track conversion from prospect to client.

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Chris Consorte has spent his entire career working on various marketing and new media projects on both the agency and client-side of business. Chris is also a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine.

TV Spots for small E-Commerce Firms

By Chris Consorte - Posted on November 17, 2007

Don’t think TV advertising fits your budget? Think again.

As a marketing firm, we’ve helped literally hundreds of clients on their direct mail, Internet, print advertising and radio advertising campaigns. You’ll hear no complaints from me — this stuff pays the bills. But it was only until recently that we started helping our clients out on their TV campaigns to — among other things — drive traffic to their e-commerce website.

I suppose this is not really a big deal to big companies. They often do tons of TV advertising and have huge budgets to accomplish such. However, it’s a really big deal for my clients — those companies of the small to mid-size. Why? Because there’s a perception among advertisers and consumers that you’re really successful if you can afford to advertise on TV.

People see TV commercials. They often remember them, and many times consumers even respond to them. Yes, TV advertising works, and it works for direct response and driving site traffic, too. Now more than ever, actually, for two reasons.

The first reason is that producing a TV spot has become so inexpensive, in my experience, it’s no more expensive than producing a print ad, a mailer or other forms of media creative. With digital production, often easily done from a computer desktop, there’s no longer a need to use film production and expensive edits using highly specialized equipment. Additionally, there are many websites that sell pre-done commercial spots that can easily be customized with the advertiser’s voice-over script, logo, address and phone number. Personally, I’ve seen what I consider to be very high-quality commercials completed for $500 to $1,000. Again, you’d often pay more to have a graphic designer layout one print ad for this price — if not more!

The second reason is that buying TV media has become so simple and cost-effective. The key to this cost-effective media buy is remnant inventory — basically inventory or spots that are unsold often a week or less before airing times. This is an issue for the cable and network stations because they’d like to make something rather than nothing for these spots — often spots that are in desirable day-parts on great stations. Buying these remnant spots offers a great opportunity for the advertiser — and big cost-savings. There are many online sources for media buying and placement as well — just as with the spot production.

Just recently, at our urging, one of our financial services clients decided to move forward in advertising on TV. Their objective was to get their phones ringing and to drive traffic to their website. We were able to find many pre-cut spots for them to choose from in order to customize — which once they decided on the spot it only took 72 hours to deliver their final spot to them via e-mail. We then began working with our affiliates to buy remnant spots in their key geographic territories — targeted to a specific demographic prospect. We had a plan for them within 24 hours and, upon approval, they were on-air within 1 week’s time.

The result? For about $3,000 in total costs — the same amount of money they would have spent to run one print for a day in the local paper — about 150 custom TV commercials were aired on their behalf. They received almost 100 qualified inbound phone calls, plus additional traffic to their website during the time of the spots airing — all prospects looking to potentially do business with our client — and closed a substantial amount of business. They doubled their investment with us two weeks later, so I’d say it’s working for them.

I suppose the bottom-line here is that if $3,000 is not going to break your budget, then TV advertising is likely worth a shot for your business. It’ll help with your awareness and brand-building efforts, it will drive e-commerce site traffic, and it will build employee morale and excitement. Your friends and family will likely see the spot and they’ll be excited, and you might even get a few phone calls so you can close some business to pay for the campaign. You’ll never know until you try it.

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Chris Consorte has spent his entire career working on various marketing and new media projects on both the agency and client-side of business. Chris is also a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine.

Forget costly seminars – save your money and do a Webinar!

By Chris Consorte - November 15, 2007

Got a great product or service – and all that’s standing between you and major success is getting in-front of a few corporate decision-makers? You’re not alone – and your job is getting more difficult every day.

Today’s decision-making executives are busier than ever. They’re multi-tasking, wearing more than a few hats on-the-job, and the last thing they want to do is spend hours of their time traveling to a seminar that may or may not be beneficial to them.

Enter the “Webinar” – A virtual meeting that mixes the best technologies of telecommunications and Internet presentations. Think of a big conference call, where all your b2b prospects are on the phone line with you as well as following along with your online Powerpoint presentation.

Webinars offer businesses most of the benefits of an actual meeting, sans the traditional handshake – and costly lunches. Cost-savings with Webinars are significant – because both prospect and presenter no longer need to leave the office!

To get started, all you need to do is put together your Powerpoint presentation. Don’t get too fancy with your graphics because your webinar “attendees” web browser may not be able to support those kinds of extras. Keep it simple. You want to be pro-active in limiting any potential technical problems.

Now that you have your basic presentation ready, you simply need to enlist the help of a Webinar firm. There are dozens of companies out there, who are ready and willing to help you connect with your target audience. Some of these firms charge by the minute for both phone use and Internet time, but in my experience I’ve never paid more than $10 per hour – per attendee.

With the above said, if you had 10 attendees and the entire session went on for one hour, it’d roughly cost you $100. That same $100 would not even cover the cost of a lunch with one prospect in most places – let alone 10.

The Webinar company will provide you with a meeting place in the form of a website. They will also provide you with log-ins and passwords, in advance, for you to e-mail to your potential attendees. Logging in for all parties takes less than a minute.

Best of all, once you have presented your webinar, you can then engage your attendees in a question and answer session. They can pose questions, in real-time, through either instant chat or through the phone.

If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to get your message out to decision-makers, forget seminars. Neither you, or your prospects, have the time or desire to spend their time out of the office. Try conducting a Webinar in 2006. Your wallet and your prospects will thank you.

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Chris Consorte has spent his entire career working on various marketing and new media projects on both the agency and client-side of business. He is also a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine.

Business Plan Competition

By Jay Maharjan on November 7, 2007

Lately, I have come across many business plan competitions online. A business plan contest is a great starting point for budding, aspiring entrepreneurs and can very well turn out to be a good source to get start-up capital. Here is a list of few contests that I have found. My past posts on Business Plan basics address the outline that will help you create a structure for your plan. While writing a plan, try to be creative and have fun doing it. Good luck!

ATG e-Commerce Business Plan Competition
Per ATG’s website, its an e-Commerce Business Plan Competition for aspiring e-Commerce entrepreneurs. The winning plan will get $ 50,000 in capital to start the business. Entry deadline is January 30, 2008.

Ideablob Monthly Business Idea Contest
Ideablob is giving away $ 10,000 every month for new business ideas. Submission criteria for Ideablob is broader. Visit their website to get details.

Intuit’s “Just Start” Startup Contest
Its grand prize is $ 50,000 ( a grant of cash and services ) and two prizes of $ 5,000. Deadline to enter is December 15, 2007