Fear of Going Broke Keeps Would Be Entrepreneurs Employees

Just finished reading an article that said there would be a lot more entrepreneurs in the world if the fear of going broke wasn’t a potential outcome.  Sign me up for the benefits. Independence.  Freedom to decide when and where to work.  I’ll even take less money, but this going broke thing is a problem.

According to a 2012 survey conducted for the European Commission by TNS Custom Research, 51 percent of Americans would rather be self-employed and 44 percent think it would be possible for them to go into business for themselves within the next five years — a figure that has increased 8 percentage points since 2009. But despite the relatively large number of Americans who want to be in business for themselves and believe it feasible in the near future, relatively few would-be entrepreneurs actually take the initiative.

When asked to identify what would-be entrepreneurs most feared about starting a business, the top responses were a fear of going bankrupt (38 percent) and a fear of irregular income (37 percent), which amount to a significantly larger sum than those who feared personal failure and losing job security.

My question is how do you define a “would be” entrepreneur? If you are not an entrepreneur are you a “would be” entrepreneur? Fear of going broke never crossed my mind when I started my business.

Read Full Article Here.

Two Fewer Unemployed Folks in New Jersey Thanks to Entrepreneur U

The great recession is having a lingering effect on highly skilled people and will continue so for awhile.  Just this morning, I was thinking about writing a blog post along this lines of this article in Inc. (Entrepreneurship Education for the Jobless).  The reality is that corporate America may never look like 2008 again.  Many of those jobs are not coming back leaving people with three choices:

  1. If you are unemployed keep fighting for those few jobs that are available.
  2. If you are employed – please don’t piss off anyone on your job. If you are on the edge – see #1.
  3. Create a job vs. looking for one. Make something happen on your own.

IMO, the go to school, get a good job and live happily ever after days are over. In this post great recession economy, I believe it’s important to shift our mindsets to that of a producer.  Determine what value you have to offer to the market place and focus on delivering it. Leverage the resources that are out there like New Jersey non-profit Intersect fund.  There are others like it…

Read full article here.

5 Ways to Test Your Startup Idea Before You Invest Too Much Time and Money

I stumbled across a great article on Inc. dot com on ways to validate your startup idea. The author stated that he is often hired to build a websites for entrepreneurs who aren’t sure if they are solving a real world problem. They are going with their gut.

It often comes down to gut, because until the orders are rolling in – we just don’t know. I thought that his 5 ways to test your theory were pretty innovative.

  1. Use smoke tests – Place an ad on Craigslist to see if any people contact you.
  2. Assess yourself – Instead of building products that are simply cool – ask yourself if it is something that you would buy.
  3. Find a mentor or industry advisor – leverage your network and make a connection. Person may be able to help you gauge needs.
  4. Conduct a survey – Create a survey on Survey Money and share it on your Facebook page or Twitter feed.
  5. Trust your gut – IMO, in most startups it comes down to gut decision. The more you exercise it – the more chiseled it gets.

Items 1, 3 & 4 were challenging 5-10 years ago. Now with Social Media ideas can be flushed out fairly quickly.

Read the full article here.