Reader response #3 “What does entrepreneurship mean to you?”

By: Dhiran Shah.

 

Entrepreneurship to me is about constantly looking for problems / opportunities, finding them, building solutions, and making economic value out of it for self and those involved. It is a lifestyle where in one chooses to live a few years (often these are the struggle years) like no one else would choose to, so that he / she can live the way they want to at a later stage (once when he/she has realised the dream of creating a sustainable successful business) that others cant. Its about taking risks, sacrificing friends and family time (if you are in a job, you still able to maintain a good work life balance), constantly learning, listening, networking, looking for like minded  people…

 

  

 

 Dhiran, what a great submission! I never quite mention the sacrifices an entrepreneur has to make but sleep, hard work and smart thinking are all key points to being successful. Personally and I am sure everyone likes to work smart not hard but opening your mind to separate investments is where it all starts. Checks and balances applies very much to owning your own business so I strongly agree that we should apply that to our schedule. 

 

What do you think? What is entrepreneurship mean to you? I am still taking submissions for the next week to see how many people submit and in between there will be new submissions from myself but highlighting a totally new subject you are sure to enjoy reading and maybe even learn something from. Comments keep my world in balance so don’t be shy!!

Reader response #2!! “What does entrepreneurship mean to you?”

By: Cassandra Freeman

Being an Entrepreneur to me means utilizing one’s ability to work and be in control and be in control of your own business. It means being able to create your own path and pave the way for others in the future that may follow.  It means financial independence, creating your own schedule, and being in pursuit of a purpose you choose to serve. Entrepreneurship is owning yourself, your ideas, and your business.  Putting all of your energy and investments into a cause you believe in…you.

Thank you Cassandra, what a great response! I especially like your last sentence! There is no better investment than yourself if you only believe in yourself first. You have definitely hit the concept of my blog right on the money. I look forward to further submissions from Cassandra and the rest of YOU, my followers. If you are not a follower then you definitely should be!! Click follow in the top left corner and then you will be really legit!! 

So what does entrepreneurship mean to you?

 

Email submissions to entrepreneurlife101skyler@gmail.com 

 

1st of many READER RESPONSE “What does entrepreneurship mean to you?”

By: OsideLady

 What entrepreneurship means to me…..The desire to fill a void or
lacking in a certain area with something of your own creation or
re-imagining for the purposes of helping and informing people, making
income, and perhaps even redefining the entire field that you are
contributing to. Being an entrepreneur means having a resourceful,
creative, problem-solving mindset, to not be intimidated by
challenges, delays or roadblocks, and having the courage to be your
own master (and possibly others’) and believing in your vision, all
the while realizing that you may not succeed.

 

So all you at home… Same question to you ” What does entrepreneurship mean to you?” Write as long or short of a response as you want and and either comment below or email your submission to my email entrepreneurlife101skyler@gmail.com to be reviewed and posted. If you have blog please let me know and I will attribute you in whatever way you’d like. I look forward to reading what you all have to say!!

The best investment

What is the best investment that you could ever invest into? Yourself! By starting your own business you invest more than money into your business but the most valuable resource known to man, your time.

No matter what it is you decide to invest into, the best investment is always yourself because in the end it is your money, your precious time, and your confidence level. There are great salesman out there that can sell you anything but DO NOT BE SOLD!! This is not the 1920’s, we no longer have slavery or indentured servants, so don’t be all gung ho to sign a contract you know absolutely nothing about because the salesman did his job. Invest into whatever you like but have confidence in that product and a firm knowledge in the product as well. Too many times we hear about these “great” multi-level marketing schemes, which really means “legal pyramid”. If you feel you can be successful within a pyramid have at it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

My perspective is this, who makes money off a pyramid? It is not you or me that’s for damn sure! The people at the top are the one’s really flourishing aren’t they? By starting your own business and investing into your product, your idea and your business YOU are at the top of command, you don’t have to peddle for 2 weeks before you see a return. With your own business you can see every cent and how it’s redistributed back into the business. You know within the first hour at times whether you have a good business concept or not. My window washing business was just that way, within the first hour I had already recouped all of my initial investment, and in the second hour I was already in the black (profit)! It is as easy at that, make an investment, put in the work, and receive the rich rewards. Not too mention how  awesome I felt after that too!

I say that the best investment is in yourself not because every single one of my readers will create and run their own business because I know that is not the case. Everyone makes investments everyday. By knowing ourselves and our purchasing power we can reconsider some of the offers on the table and better invest how we spend our money and time because by confident in your product your customer will recognize the value your product has to them as well and it is at that point when you make the sale.

So, get out there and search for your best investment but remember to have confidence in that product or you will never make a single sale. If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

I haven’t been getting too many comments, which makes me sad. I want to know if my information is useful for you guys or not. I am a big boy I can take some constructive criticism. Please comment and let me know what you think and why you like or dislike my blog. Thanks!!

Entrepreneurial useful quotes

• It’s better to try and fail then to have never tried at all.
• If you look at everything as an investment your time will be better spent searching for better investments.
  
• Money doesn’t come easy but time and ingenuity can.
• After falling off the horse, inspect the financial dynamics and hop right back on.
• Invest into only the things you believe in. 
• If it seems to be too good to be true it probably is.
• Life is about making connections, the more outgoing you are the more connections you will make.

• Most importantly: Don’t give up!!!

Can you think of any other inspirational quotes I left out? Leave them in the comments section below.

Calling all investors. Are you ready to invest?

It has been a while since I have had the time to write but thank you all for bearing with me. Everyone has their own ways to invest and make their money. Most of us have to either sell our time and knowledge or sell our product or service. We all sell something. Investing on the other hand is where random Joe’s go from the average Joe to the extraordinary Joe. What makes him extraordinary is that he made the right choices in his investments and became very successful. 

So what positions pay the most and are the most rewarding? What investments are really worth while and profitable? That is the ultimate question and here are the answers. Hedge fund operations have been netting the men and women managing them billions. Essentially if you want to make the most money you should go to school and learn how to handle other peoples money. Or on the contrary just like main-stream music. How do they become main-stream? Popularity. Every billion dollar business we see today didn’t just start out that way. Every business has a beginning and started out as a small business. Sure the likelihood of you creating a billion dollar business but a million dollar business isn’t anything to scoff at either.

You won’t know what kind of work or investment to make unless you try it. An investment should usually be an allotment of money you can stand to lose and not be completely broke. The way I like to do it is a 80/20 split. I take and pay the bills with the 80% or so and take my additional 20 percent and examine the best investments I can make with that money. On any investment personally that I make I like to make sure I am going to at least double my investment or come very close to it. By doubling the money on that investment I create more capital for myself and can essentially have more purchasing power as well.

Whether you invest into the stock market or any private venture capitalist opportunity be safe and careful. Everyone else in the world wants your money so just keep in mind what is in the best interest for you and how each party benefits. Remember too that if it seems too good to be true it probably is. I have lost money many times from being too trusting, but he fact that I am that trusting in the first place helps me network with a wider variety of people and is even financially satisfying as well. Be wise with your money and you can be as successful as you aim for. The only person stopping you is your own doubts and uncertainties. I live by a concrete rule that no matter how broke I get or if someone were to take everything I have that is totally fine because they can steal my money but not my knowledge. Keep in mind that the choices you make define who you are and the choice to go back to school even for a single class is always a good idea because it builds your wealth of knowledge.

  Lastly, networking is also a type of investing as well. We spend the most valuable resource in the world networking so we can find that right investment or opportunity that will pay out big. Our is so valuable in fact that most of the higher ups turn down the most amazing trips or opportunities because they get too busy with other things on how they are spending their time. I guess all I am trying to say is that if anyone give you the time of day, be thankful and invest your time wisely by seeking out every opportunity to network yourself, your product and or service.

Question and answer time- How do you network? What has worked for you and why? Any questions for me?

 

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

 

Know Your (Price) Limit Before Buying Facebook Stock

Know Your (Price) Limit Before Buying Facebook Stock.

I just found this article and thought it worth sharing. It is very time and investment sensitive material I thought all my readers might also want to read about.

Enjoy and let me know what you think about Facebook’s IPO launch tomorrow?

College Students are Better Entrepreneurs

What makes college students better entrepreneurs? In a college students life they get used to living with less space, time and focus. Each student is slammed constantly with new homework assignments, parties study sessions. Partying doesn’t really get the college student too far except the opportunity of hanging out with possibly other prominent college minds. If you remember reading my post titled ” Your Face is Important” you will understand how socializing helps open up opportunities that you may not have been presented with. Without getting to plastered you can make friends with just the right people and be invited to start the next Microsoft if you are lucky. Even if it is not the next Microsoft or Google that you start as an entrepreneur the more you try the more chances you create for yourself to succeed. 

I was reading the other day about programs out there that pay college students to drop out of school to start their businesses. Why would you drop out if the reason you are going in the first place is to learn and grow? Well at one point in our lives we all experience an Epiphany where everything just comes together like pieces of a puzzle. All our life we learn tid bits of information, some faster than others. Everyday we learn something new it is stored in our personal database until one day that knowledge finally makes sense to us. Most of the time that is in college. In the life of a college student you are keeping your brain active and alive and you are stimulating that knowledge daily. The more you stimulate and add to that database of tid bits the more likely we all are to reach that break through point. Where we break the mold of a slacker or burger flipper and realize we can be the boss, we can tell so and so when to take a break and we CAN sip Coronas on the beach if we want too. 

What makes a college student? Do you have to be a certain age? NO! Any aged person can learn. Do you have to be able to drive? Nope, lots of students live on campus and even carpool, ride a bike or take the bus. Don’t let not driving make you think you are any less of a student because that also is not true. In fact if you think about all the money you save not driving you actually can afford hot meals instead of cereal and pop-tarts. By eating out you get to meet new people and make new friends. You see how the cycle continues on outside of being a student as well?

If I wanted to say anything at all in this article besides all the rambling it would be this. College students make the best entrepreneurs because they are not afraid of taking risks and going for it. They are used to keeping expenses low and make due with what they have. If any and all of you potential entrepreneurs out there apply these tips then you may also be like the smart college student who decides to drop out and make their dream a realization. Never drop out because it’s too hard or a pain because pain is just weakness leaving the body so think about how much mentally stronger you will become if you tough it through.

If you are not quite a student yet then go back and learn something new, every person younger then you is the deciding factor of the future you will become a part of. Maybe, just maybe you can change the future too be becoming more involved.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Your face is important!

Driving home the other day from swing dancing I noticed how the familiarity of someone’s face has a direct effect on the recognition of the product we are offering. Even if that is us merely trying to have a good time. But in a business aspect we can see that the people we hang out with have a direct correlation with our own personal success. If you truly want to be successful it may be a good idea for you to hang out with other successful people. Don’t get me wrong a person can be successful in many different genres and stereotypes but if wealth be your aim you may want to ditch the 9-5er’s who are happy conforming.

Ok I know I have already stressed most of you out by calling you a conformist by having a 9-5 but look at it from my perspective. Without an entrepreneur to create that 9-5 then there would be no hiring process for your job. So with that knowledge, think about what you are making now and with a few extra minutes of your time you can easily calculate many of the expenses and costs of business without doing much at all. I just want you and all the people whom enjoy my blog to know just how simple it is to diversify in your funds and not even break a sweat turning a profit on your money. I keep my money flow to a $100 minimum at all times. I always make sure to have at least $100 because I know I can invest that $100 into something that will give me a higher return than my investment. The trick is finding something I can get for $50 that will give me another crispy $100 to keep that flow going. Money is such a fluid non-real asset that once someone finally figures out that money isn’t everything they are well into their 70’s or 80’s. Well I am here to tell you that I have come to this realization and because I am never worried about making money new opportunities come naturally. Being my own boss and a fellow entrepreneur I don’t have to be confident in a product I am trying to sell I have to be confident in myself because I am the product.

On a more broad scale you are the product. We all sell ourselves in one way or another so be confident in your product by being confident in yourself. You are the key to your own success, nothing is impossible. So being a product we also can look into how we market ourselves, what the market research IE “our friends and acquaintances” would say if questioned about us or our work ethic. How do we stand up in court so to speak, what is our tract record?

Why is our face so important? It is because we each market ourselves, who we hang out with and associate with plays a major role as to the opportunities that are presented to you. If you go out to dinner you never know who you may meet at the restaurant or on the way there. If you go social dancing like myself you also may meet people of the opposite sex you may be interested in and that in itself provides opportunities to meet their friends and have someone to dance with too! At least initially until you decide to promote your product somewhere else ha ha. Keep up the good work building your brand and promoting your product with all the tools that are available to you and never forget the biggest most important tool, word of mouth. If people like you they will talk about you and if they don’t they will also like you. Emotional intelligence is just as important as your IQ because it decides which social bracket you fit into. Your social bracket is a key to your success so choose wisely and diversify often. Like my post? Tell me about what you liked and why.

Nothing ever sways my day so even if its not the best, I will lose no rest over it so you mind as well submit it any way. What the hay huh? Leave a comment if you’re cool that is.

Investing- Calculated vs Inexperienced

By: Skyler Johnstone

Most people invest nearly blind into their investments without doing any sort of research into their field before they support it. The world of investing is endless. You can invest into gold, stocks, tickets, businesses, personal ventures, the government or anything. There is so many ways to make money in the world it is almost funny how the blunt of our friends can’t even see past their front door step. If you gave me a $5 bill and an hour I can guarantee I could turn it into a $20 bill within at least an hour or less. How you might ask? Initiative. That’s how.  Taking the calculated time to weigh out all the possible $5 investments I have available to me and then line up a market in which I would like to advertise that product and try to find someone who either needs that product or convince someone they do.

BUT! You do not need seasoned sales experience to make a sale. The reason why is because their is always a buyer for any product. Most of the time the winner is in the negotiations, coming to a fair price that is agreeable to either party. Any item big or small or even a service has a priceless value until yourself and the buyer agree on a fair price or even trade. So realistically value can be created out of nothing but your time for any priced item or service the buyer spends on his product or service. For example, I have a buddy who traded web design for the repairs on his car to be fixed. No money changed hands yet his car was still able to be fixed. Personally I have even traded Disney Pins for Disneyland tickets!

Even the most inexperienced investor can become very successful with the smallest investment of time, money or a service. That small allotment of time, money or a service can be then traded for anything that you feel will make you a quick buck or even a longer term investment. So no matter how inexperienced you may feel as an investor just look at the risk and potential return and calculate whether the investment will be worth your time. If all it is is your time you are investing into an idea you mind as well see it through because even if you try and fail there is no way to succeed without first trying.

This brings me back to the main point it seems of my entire blog in which most people still have to be told daily. If you can not find a job then create one. Value can be created from completely nothing if you put the work in to sell yourself or product to any buyer who puts trust into the value of your product or service. Just like blogging people want good content for the best price. Previously I wrote about how people need to be entertained and free is a key ticket item when it comes to entertaining on the internet. People want something that will engage their senses and or fulfill their physical needs and desires. So if you can create a product or idea that fulfills a desire, need or engage peoples senses with your service then you are in the money so to speak. Being 21 I obviously play video games and not to quote Black Ops with the in the money quote but if you do just what the game has been designed to do then you are in the money physically. You have created a service that enthralls players or users and takes up their time. Anyone who has seen the movie “In Time” can recognize how realistic their major dilemma has been. Never have enough time. Today as a society we recognize that we are always busy with one thing or another and have the excuse that we don’t have enough time to get things done. Well I call the BS card on that notion. You are only as busy as you keep yourself and if you say you don’t have time, make time. Some things in life are more important than saving up for that new Xbox game or controller.

The truest most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who view their TIME as an investment. Like for example, the time it takes to volunteer for $100 owed to the Pierce County Court is 11 hours community service. Thus you are working 11 hours at close to $9 per hour. Now don’t get me wrong $9 an hour is fair but not enough to do much with. Not too mention the type or hard labor you would be doing at close to minimum wage. Now I don’t know about all of you guys but I sure wouldn’t want to work hard labor for only $9 an hour. I would find the same hard labor job on my own time, make the going rate of $13-15 per hour and then just pay the $100 ticket and have between $43-65 left over at the end of the day from the same 11 hours and be able to afford a meal and gas it took to get there in a work environment full of people who don’t dread being at their job. Not to mention that 11 hours of work at a hard labor job would also mean you are associating with a completely different crowd with which if manipulated correctly can be a great networking opportunity as well. In the end it is better to just take a court fee like a band aid and clean up your act. The main idea though is to never see an obstacle as really an obstacle at all. Just see a bill as a task and finances as a goal. You will either reach your future goals or you won’t. You will only reach your goals if you apply yourself and if you don’t apply yourself then you are relying on someone else and no one likes a sponge. Unless he lives in a pineapple under the sea, because we all like that guy!

What did you think of this article? Don’t be afraid, I am too optimistic to let any comment sway my day so leave one anyway!