What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?

Are you a serial entrepreneur who is always coming up with new ideas and starting new businesses? If so, you may need to recover from failures more often because you take greater risks. But serial entrepreneurs are more likely to experience repeated business successes.

While many of us may wish we were serial entrepreneurs, we are more likely what is called a lifestyle entrepreneur - who puts passion and work satisfaction above profits. And while we may not have to answer to profit-hungry investors, we still must make a good profit. If you're going to invest lots of hard work and money, you deserve to get a good return on your investment.

The goals of lifestyle entrepreneurs may include creating a sideline business or earning a living doing something you love, working from your home, achieving a good work/life balance, and owning a business without investors. These are great goals, but they must be tempered by some reality checking.

Know Your Entrepreneur Personality Type

Every successful business owner has a clear idea of their limitations and works to strengthen their weaknesses. By knowing your own entrepreneurial personality type, you can manage your resources and find help in areas of weakness. See if one or more of these entrepreneur personality types rings a bell.

1. The Improver. Improvers or social entrepreneurs long to improve the world. Their high sense of ethics can lead to a tendency of perfectionism which has its own costs.

2. The Advisor. This kind of person is very good at customer service. They want to please their customers. The challenge facing them is to not become so focused on the customers and business that they do not take care of themselves.

3. The Superstar. This type of entrepreneur leads by charisma and high energy. This person can, however, become too competitive which can sour the workplace and the market.

4. The Artist. More reserved, but very creative. Artists tend to build their businesses around their talents. The challenge for this personality is not to allow any criticism to cut too deeply.

5. The Visionary. A grand thinker who plans the successful enterprise. The danger is that they become too enchanted with the dream and not enough with the nuts and bolts of building a business.

6. The Analyst. This person excels at problem solving in a systematic way. The challenge is to realize that too much analysis can result in no action being taken. Learn to trust others more.

7. The Fireball. Characterized by an entrepreneur with great energy and optimism. This personality works well with customers. The challenge is that the impulsiveness needs to be balanced with sensible planning.

8. The Hero. This person has great will and leadership. This can lead to great companies, but the challenge is avoid be too forceful and over promising. You must inspire others.

9. The Healer. These nurturers bring harmony to the business with a surprising ability to survive with an inner calm. The challenge is to pay attention to the less interesting aspects of the business. Do not avoid the realities of business.

Whether you are one of the above types or a mixture of types, you can succeed in your business by becoming aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Whether you have employees or are a one-man/one-woman band, seek to strengthen your weaknesses.

Making Sales in a Tough Economy?

When sales are down, many small business owners become discouraged as they struggle for solutions. Some become paralyzed and neglect the sales steps that have been successful in this past. This only makes it worse. Instead of pulling back, it's time to renew your sales efforts. Don't blindly reach for lots of desperate, new strategies. First, work on the old proven strategies that have worked in the past.

Don't stop prospecting. Of course you can't neglect existing jobs and customers, but you always have to be looking for new customers. Even though cash flow may be thinner than it used to be, that's no excuse to neglect marketing and advertising. Your competitors are probably doing less marketing so this is a good time for you to do more. Are you following up all the leads you get? Just by diligently following up all leads and continuing your marketing and advertising, you could come out of this slump stronger than your competitors.

Keep a positive, fired-up attitude. Granted, that's easier said than done, but look at the consequences of not staying positive. If you continually blame the economy and other things out of your control, they can be come a self-fulfilling prophesy. Never quit. Never!

Remember how hard and enthusiastically you worked the business when you started it. You could not be stopped. It's time to tap into that same fire again. Just remember what your clients and prospects liked so much about you and your business. Well, you can bring that back again.

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." ---Red Adair

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

There is some controversy about who is responsible for the quote. Some attribute it to Mahatma Gandhi, political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. Others attribute it to Leon Leonwood Bean who founded the famous mail order company, LL Bean. Their legendary company policy of giving 100% money back on returned products still applies today.

Either way if you apply this philosophy to your business, your business will grow.

The People of Acme.

Need a great marketing scene for a business video? A scene I call "The People of Acme" is ideal for many promotional videos whether they are for a business or non-profit. You've seen it in TV commercials and in corporate videos. It consists of quick cuts of the hard working people of your client's company. This short marketing scene is accompanied by narration and/or uplifting music. It can be a powerful scene. The message is simple: The people of Acme are dedicated, hard-working and they care about you, the customer.

To produce this scene, plan on a high shooting ratio. You'll want to end up with at least 10 or 15 faces of people working, smiling, caring. To get that you might need to shoot 30 or 40 people and many shots will be close-ups. The viewer sees a variety of people: on an assembly line, in corporate offices, on the phone with customers, loading trucks. Some are are smiling, some are concentrating. They all care. They are working together to make a better world.

The music could be Mozart or "We Are The World." It conveys a sense of the human spirit coming together and striving for excellence. The narration, if any, could be something like "The people of Acme are always there for you. It's their teamwork and dedication to quality that make Acme the world leader in customer service."

Or "All the sophisticated technology that Acme possesses means nothing without our best asset--our people. Acme is people helping people."

One of Eyefull Productions' greatest assets is the ability to tell a compelling story. How can we help you tell yours?