Tuesday, May 24, 2011

How To Become An Entrepreneur

The good news is that it will take nothing more than changing the way you see the world. The bad news is it will also require you to work hard and take action. As an entrepreneur you are always looking for and taking advantage of new angles and opportunities.



Knowing the true definition of entrepreneur provide a start to becoming the entrepreneur inside. After learning exactly what and entrepreneur is the single biggest thing you can do to become an entrepreneur is to act. One of the biggest hurtles on the road to being an entrepreneur is the lack of taking action. I say this with one caveat, you must know why you  are taking the actions  you need to take. Blindly throwing money and time at the first opportunity you see is foolish. Due diligence will pay off, do your homework first.



Not taking action

As an example, I was visiting Nashville TN and while I was there I decided to shop for some shorts. I come to a discount store that carried boxes upon boxes of name brand shorts which I knew to be valued between $50 and $60 a pair. Their price.......$4.00-$7.00 ea. Wow, what a deal!

It was winter so I could see how the discount store justified selling  the shorts at such a price to keep the inventory moving. I snagged 6 pairs for less than the price I was ready to pay for one. This was a great deal but I did not exercise the entrepreneurial muscle that I know now  I should have.

As  I was walking out of the store I thought to my self....... If  I buy $400.00  worth of these shorts and hold onto them until summer I bet I could easily double or triple my money. I didn't take action. The opportunity made sense because I would put the money down and carry the risk over the winder, which would mean money could  be made in the summer. I chewed on it for a second then left.

well, summer came and I enjoyed my short but I didn't enjoy the fact that I left hundreds of dollars on the table. Had I taken the time and put in the little bit of effort required to buy the shorts and ship them home I would have been  able to cover the cost of my complete trip down there. I knew where the value was, I knew how it could work but I did not take action. 

Taking Action

I can't share the but without discussing the goods so, here is an example of what can happen when you do take action.

I was solicited by my sister to help clean out an office building that was left vacant by a high tech company which left town. It was a professional environment and apparently they didn't care about leaving a few items behind.

I began gathering everything together and running  it down to the dumpster. when I got my first load to the parking lot it occurred to me that these toner cartridges and office supplies must have some value. With this though I picked through my load put the items I thought may be worth something into the back of my truck.

I finished cleaning out office space and went home to list my finds on eBay. Over the course of the next few weeks I sold all sorts of clerical and office supplies that were once destined for the garbage. When everything was said and done my total earning on the "garbage" was $1600.00.

Can you see the difference between these two examples? When I took the time to execute my idea I was able to bring home a good deal of change. When I failed to execute I was left wondering what if. In both cases I understood where the value would be but unlike cleaning the office, I chose not to take action with the shorts.

Chances are those great ideas you have bouncing around your head have been thought of before, the question is, are you willing to take the chance and make something happen? Even if you don't end up making money the first time around you will build your understanding of what works and what doesn't. The trick is to get the fly wheel of experience going  and come back to give it a push as often as you can.

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