Entrepreneurial traits and actions

• These notes cover the essentials for entrepreneurs.

Lesson Introduction

• Entrepreneurship is both exciting and daunting, requiring big dreams, comfort zone exits, and pushing limitations.
• Successful entrepreneurship enables one to architect their life and career, fostering learning and growth.
• Knowing where to start is key to this journey.
• This lesson focuses on essential knowledge for kick-starting an entrepreneurial journey.

Entrepreneurial Vision

• An entrepreneur is a motivated and goal-driven individual with an innovative mindset who launches and manages business ventures.
• Entrepreneurs launch businesses by nurturing skills, sourcing capital, accepting risks, and generating returns.
• These actions are pursued to achieve personal and professional goals.

Reasons to Start a Business

• Intrinsic reasons involve satisfying personal needs and desires, as well as those of immediate dependents.
• Extrinsic reasons relate to positively impacting the external environment and satisfying societal needs.
• Entrepreneurs are motivated and goal-driven, acting with a specific purpose.
• Starting a business enables them to fulfill their purpose, escape restrictive work environments, contributing meaningfully and living a fulfilled life.
• Entrepreneurs follow their passion, achieve personal/professional goals by starting the business of their dreams.
• Overcoming limitations of conventional work environments enables control of their path and gratification in daily activities.
• Entrepreneurs aim to generate passive income for themselves and dependents.
• Passive income leads to financial freedom, fostering a desired lifestyle and providing for dependents.
• Financial security contributes to overall wellbeing.
• Businesses generating sustainable income/profit enable time freedom.
• Entrepreneurs can delegate daily operations and provide strategic input while engaging in other projects.
• Achieving financial and time freedom enables creating a desired work-life balance, pursuing activities, or starting another venture.
• Innovative solutions meet market needs/desires by entrepreneurs, fulfilling similar needs of others, and enhanced/new offerings are maintained by bridging the gap between societal needs and resources.
• The entrepreneurial landscape is competitive and as new businesses are created to enhance innovative solutions for the consumers.

Supporting the Business

• Value and prioritize innovation is needed to remain competitive by providing exceptional products and services that retain consumers.
• Enhanced quality products/services are developed to maintain a competitive edge.
• Increased competition and consumer needs leads to business growth and upskilling new or existing employees.
• Skilled employees are at the core of business success and growth.
• Entrepreneurs support overall economic growth due to increased rivalry, innovation drive, and job creation, boosting economic productivity and trajectory.
• Entrepreneurship creates pathways for national/global trade, attracts partnerships/investments, and opens new markets by addressing needs, improving economic productivity.
• Entrepreneurs contribute to social/environmental movements by seeking solutions to innovate their businesses for the benefit of both their business and society.
• This mindset transforms activities into lean, ethical, and sustainable operations, contributing to society & environment wellbeing.
• This leads to becoming a determining factor in establishing and maintaining a competitive edge, especially among modern consumers, and more businesses are following suit.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

• It's a culmination of purpose/passion, driven by proactive efforts to reach/exceed goals including a need to serve a higher purpose, overall attitude/mindset, daily activities approach, reasoning, diversified skills, and overall characteristics.
• It impacts change by proactively impacting change through complex problem-solving and serving others, and improving the world.
• One of the biggest drivers of the spirit is the characteristics embodied/nurtured.
• It is untrue to assume just anyone can be an entrepreneur, however, entrepreneurial journeys can be supported by vast resources.
• Individuals must be purposeful & passionate, goal-driven & motivated, creative & analytical, positive & practical, and resilient & resourceful.

Characteristics of an Entreprepreneur

• Successful entrepreneurs (1) understand their overall purpose, (2) have a vision of reaching that purpose, (3) use this vision as guidance, and (4) act with passion - supporting meaning, value, specific reasoning, and goals.
• They are motivated by short/long-term goals, clarifying, categorizing assist actions to fulfil purpose/achieve SMART goals, and maintaining clarity to remain motivated.
• Successful entrepreneurs use concept creation/execution skills and logical, systematic approaches.
• Creativity explores options, while analytics leverage available data.
• These entrepreneurs maintain silver linings, proactively avoid/overcome challenges, and keep their purpose in mind.
• They identify, embrace, and rectify failures, and they ensure human/material resources are available for assistance.
• With that, they make it their business to continuously learning, expanding knowledge and develops skills avoiding/combating challenges, immersing themselves while facing unforeseen circumstances to ensure they never face it again.

Leader and Well-Being

• They lead effectively with clear direction and plans, which are driven by a specific purpose.
• Inspiring buy-in from employees and employee insights are valued.
• A leader can step into and take part into their team.
• Success happens when individuals take care of their mental and physical well-being.
• Leaders embark on every endeavor with a specific purpose, that (1) reminds them of the vision, (2) embrace changes and failures, (3) improving efforts, and (4) encouraging perseverance.
• Time usage between personal life and within business - ensuring that no time gets wasted and the balance is equal.
• Structure includes vision/goals and implementing stability processes via systems and controls, and adapting unforeseen impacts.
• There are (1) dimensions of wellness, (2) identify the gaps for improvement, (3) implementing plans to improve success, and (4) the overall contributions of their well-being to the success of their entrepreneurial journey.

Success Habits

• Getting adequate sleep is the most valuable success habit - sleeping patterns impact physical and mental health and decision-making abilities.
• Field experts suggest that most should sleep between 7 and 9 hours.
• Regular exercise can include minutes of stretching, and should be included into a routine for stress, health benefits, increases awareness, cutting edge alertness, and intelligence.
• Optimal productivity achieves hydration and with healthy eating, as opposed to eating junk food and eating conveniently.
• It also assists with hydrating the brain and body, and gives energy to live in a sustainable way to function properly.
• Social activities are needed for entrepreneurs for recharging, and should have time dedicated to the daily schedule to self-reflection and socialization.
• Balance occurs in order to avoid burnout, therefore nurturing connections with family, friends, and one's self.
• Constant education and motivation via motivational quotes, and speeches combats imposter syndrome.

Stages of Starting a Business

• The entrepreneurial journey contains stages that the entrepreneur needs to progress to successfully establish and manage their business by planning, launching, growing and scaling their enterprise.
• The business lifecycle progresses gradually throughout time, which is signalled by the specifics within the activities in question during the seven primary stages.
• The activities include (1) Seed Stage, (2) Startup Stage, (3) Growth Stage, (4) Established Stage, (5) Expansion Stage, (6) Decline Stage and (7) Exit stage.

Overview on the 7 Stages of Business

• The stage where one would engage in ideation processes including (1) business direction, (2) product/service conceptualization.
• The Seed Stage stage is characterized by market research/analysis, and on which business and strategy are built - answering the who, what, how, when, and where.
• The stage of production includes developing product/service offerings, (2) building business platforms, and (3) launching your product/service into a researched market.
• It is characterized by strategies including acquiring initial customers, embedding processes enabling the offering to reach the consumer.
• Key aspects of those customers are sales, and marketing of the new product.
• The identification stage indicators including an increase in (1)revenue streams (2) customer base, and (3) support towards business needs.
• The movement towards the break-even point occurs, meaning the business covers initial startup costs and start generating a profit.
• The stability, market position, customer base and profitability grows beyond the break even stages.
• Cumulative profits are used to support and injected into the business by improvements and growth.
• Market segments, (3) offering assortment, and (4) human resources needs to grow via investment, resource acquisition, and/or innovative technology is aquired to support overall business specifically with technology enhancements.
• There is a decrease with customer base, along with competitive strength, if the entrepreneur: does not adhere to the demands of the consumer, does not leverage the benefits of innovative tech, and/or constantly researching to improve their product/service.
• During the exit stage, the owner can (1) sell the business or (2) close the business completely
• During the exit stage, the business wasn't designed to support overall business growth, conduct market research, create an agile/scalable business plan, business model, and if their market offering had the ability to leverage/adapt to various changes.

The 4-Phase Journey

• The 4 Phases Journey Create a vision & direction for your overall business + Product Service offering, Analysis, Strategy, agile plan, and business structure + Business Brand.
• The 4 phases continues with: create a financial strategy & source funding, design & produce MVP product & service, a costing strategy & identify pricing options, Create an integrated marketing strategy & implementation.
• During the Manage your business with tools via: supply chains & increase the value offered, Audit Strategy, Evaluate strategy, Customer Plan, Optimise systems, processes & controls.

Key Aspects for Businesses

• During the last phase : create business with a scaling strat, business audits to identify weaknesses, invest in implement innovative technologies while digitalizing systems and implementing controls
• Customer retention framework analysis, and create a long term business strategy. is that what needs to be done.
• Business visioning combines the identifying of what you want creative/analytical process with undertaking and designing the desired business.
• In product/service vision identify what needs to be sold, and assess to discover and determine the desired future state of your overall product.
• Research activities help determine is the vision is, 1:Feasible, 2:Viable ,3:Desirable

Explore the entrepreneurial journey, motivations, and key traits like vision, analytical thinking, and creativity. Understand what drives entrepreneurs to start businesses and identify the essential ingredients for success in the entrepreneurial world.