Sakib Mahmud Aka Visionary Geek

Less then one hour, I have learnt lots of stuff. The learn startups, early adopters, who is the customer, what problem are you going to solve for your customer and how will you maintain the loop to track your customers, going through the process of customer development and the failure of Eric and what he has learned. Entire session is stunning and great so far.

I’m a big fan of Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, most recently I was busy to search a books of Mike. Finally I got a PDF inside my ebook store. I start to downloading and that touched me and greatly 10,7, 6 and 1. I figure out that, I’m ruining my life and messed-up my life for business which is totally uncertain — though I know no risk no gain but that doesn’t make sense to spend the full time for business. I’m doing BBA and side by side doing web business. To managing  or merging or concentrating in both terms at the same times such as need to take serious decision about business and at the same time exam is knocking that is really tough to handle — I wish I’ll handle it smoothly from today. Oh, I forgot to mention, Mike released his first books, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur^[i], I wish it will read this book soon.

10. Trying To Get Rich Quick
Most overnight successes take 15 to 20 years to achieve. If you go in expecting to be rich overnight, you may become discouraged early on and give up your dream prematurely. Know that success takes time, takes perseverance and takes a little bit of luck. Give your business the time to grow. Only if your company is stagnant for a long time, should you take it as an indication to try something new.

9. Assuming No Competition
Even if you have the latest, greatest, never-been-done-before approach to something, don’t assume you have no competition. Competition is more than just the direct, obvious competitors. Competition is also all the available alternatives. What else could the consumer do instead of using your product or service? Could they do nothing?!? The customer almost always has the option of walking away; and that is a serious competitive threat.

8. Being a Weak Leader
The success of your company is contingent on you being a strong, effective leader. This does not mean you need to be an authoritarian, and this does not mean you are everyone’s buddy, either. A great leader sets the course for the company, communicates it constantly and inspires the team to get there.

7. Being All Business All the Time
Many entrepreneurs put their personal lives on hold to focus exclusively on their business. Ultimately both suffer. No question your business needs your full attention and effort, but only in short spurts. Just like a peak athlete, in addition to cranking up for game time, you need to have a proper healthy diet, get enough rest, and take breaks. Balance your personal and business life and you will actually do better in both.

6. Pie-In-The-Sky Financial Goals
If all business plans came true, being a billionaire would be nothing extraordinary. Many entrepreneurs go into a new venture planning astronomical returns. Yet, most never even get the business off the ground. Unrealistic goals not only hurt your credibility, but can also be an emotional drain. Set Specific, Measurable, Accountability, Realistic, and Time specific (SMART) goals to ensure continual progress; chances of being an overnight success (albeit in 15 to 20 years) are much greater!

5. No Rallying Point
There is a reason why employees leave high paying corporate jobs to go to start ups, and it sure ain’t for the money. People are driven to serve an important purpose, in addition to bringing home enough bacon to feed the family. Many businesses never define their real purpose for existence and continually attract a mix of employees who are seeking success in different ways. Clarify the purpose of your company, beyond just making money, and you set the stage for attracting like minded employees. A team focused on the same goal is a very powerful force. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, “I Have a Booger Hanging Out and No One Is Saying Squat”

4. Cutting Price
Often, the first thing entrepreneurs resort to when business is tough is to try differentiating on price. Cheaper prices mean more customers, right? Wrong! Most customers are willing to buy more expensive items because of the greater quality or the better convenience. During tough times, often an increase in price, coupled with improvements in quality or convenience can bring the customers in droves. Price slashing is a dangerous game. At some point you have to slash yourself to keep costs down.

3. No Clear Marketing Message
You never know where, when or how a new prospect is going to hear of your business. If you have a mix of messages out there, the prospects will have an unclear expectation of what you offer. Your company must be presenting a consistent clear message on all fronts. You will never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make sure every opportunity a new prospect will get to see your business for the first time, sends the same consistent message.

2. Not Being Forthright
The days of cover ups, died out with Bill Clinton’s denial of sexual relations with Monica. The anonymous nature and grand size of the Internet allows someone in the know to share anything with anyone at anytime. If your business tries to cover up a mistake, it is just a matter of time before the word leaks and you are labeled as a liar. That’s not good for business. Be the one to break your own bad news, you just may be perceived as honest and trustworthy.

1. Trying To Do It All
The greatest mistake entrepreneurs make is to believe they can do it all by themselves. While an entrepreneur can do most things, they do most things poorly. Just like any other person, an entrepreneur has one or two God given talents. As an entrepreneur it is your job to identify what you are great and do those few things to your fullest. Surround yourself with people who are strong where you are not. Great companies are built on the foundation of exploiting a few strengths, not on trying to be masters of everything.

To become  a successful entrepreneur, you have to learn from other’s mistakes. You have to grab why are entrepreneur becoming failed through they tried their best. When you will grab the weakness of, then you can measure with yourself — if you found any one, soon you have to remove it or you have to think about it and resolve this problem. I’m just coming across from Neil blogs, an awesome articles he shared with readers.

1. You don’t know how to manage money. Fancy offices and high salaries are great ways to blow money. You need to learn when to spend your money and when you should not. For example, if your employees want fancy desks or cubicles, when it will not help them do their job better, tell them no. But if a developer wants two monitors so he or she can be more productive, then buy the second monitor.
2. You don’t have multiple game plans. You can’t rely on one person, one business model, or even one solution. Things you can’t predict happen, so the best thing you can do is have multiple game plans. Single game plans such as relying on marketing to make your website popular is a bad idea. If you hire a bad marketing firm, what are you going to do now? Read the rest of this article »

I just came from Syed Balkhi‘s blog site their he posted about “Seven Reasons Why You Are Not A Successful Entrepreneur“. I should share with you and some points inside you and me. If we can resolve this problems or learn from it that should be productive and better for the future.

Are you an entrepreneur? Well I consider myself as one. I am trying to come up with new ideas and products to make money. In this I use my mind, and I don’t necessarily work the hardest. If you are having hard time classifying yourself as an entrepreneur, then consider the definition of dictionary.com

Entrepreneur is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

So now there are successful ones and there are not so successful ones. And there are ultimate failures… I will tell you a few reasons that will show you why you are not a successful entrepreneur.

You Don’t Learn from your Mistakes

Humans make mistakes. That is the bottom line. But good entrepreneurs make only few mistakes, and when they do make those mistakes, they learn from it and never make the same one again. A mistake I made was joined digg and respected them for a while, but after I got banned, I will not make the same mistake of wasting my time and joining that network again.

You are full of yourself

You think you know everything. And you can do everything by yourself. A good and productive company can never be found on one man. You have to help from others. There is nothing wrong with hiring help. I know I can code everything and design. But if I do that, I will only take one order a week or maybe one order every two weeks. Now that I have my fellow developers at Uzzz helping me, I can take more than 3 orders a week and just share profit. In the end, I am making more money I would make from just doing one theme a week by myself and technically putting in less amount of work as well.

You are not Passionate

It is not always about the money. You got to love what you do, otherwise it will fail. Love what you do and do it with a passion. Be motivated and dedicated and you will do well. But since you don’t love what you do, you will always try to rush things and get things over with, so you can do other things… Not the best example of a successful entrepreneur.

You are not aggressive

Life is not easy. Business is not like childhood where mommy just gives you a cookie in your hand. You have to work your ass for it. Things won’t come easy to you. Try multiple ways to get to the same point. Be agressive, learn how to be risky because sometimes aggression and risky go side by side. But risky is another name for business

You put all your eggs in one basket

You need multiple game plans because otherwise you are screwed if that one basket breaks. All your eggs are gone. Always have more than one way to achieve success. I rely on Search Engines to send me traffic, but I also have Social Media, and direct links from my users.

You can’t adapt quickly

Market changes left and right, so business is all about agility. You need to find what is the new change, and how to deal with it. That is the only way you will retain a competitive edge. If you don’t do this, then someone else will.

You suck at managing money

Have priorities. Look is not always the best thing. If I have a small office then that is good. There is no need to furnish it with leather chair, and cute cubicles. So don’t go big balling after you make a few bucks. Save them for later. Invest on what is needed the most. Don’t go ahead and buy a leather chair for your employees, instead get your designer a new version of Photoshop.

I think above are the reasons that stops an entrepreneur from being successful. Obviously there are a lot more, but these are the general ones.

via Balkhis