finding a business partner

3 Tips For Finding A Business Partner

Jul 17, 2019

Running a business can be a challenge. There are emails to read, conferences to attend, marketing to strategize, books to reconcile, calls to make, and taxes to file, among many other things. A business partner can help ease some of the burden, but where to do business owners start? To help make this process a little more enjoyable, here are three tips for entrepreneurs on finding a business partner.

1. Know Your Strengths

Before you start looking for a business partner, you will want to know what you need in one. To do that, you will need to know what qualities and strengths you bring to the table, then look for someone to help fill in the gaps. It’s important to find a partner that complements both your strengths and weaknesses. Consider looking for someone with different approaches to ideas so you can broaden your company’s knowledge base. For example, you may be really good at finance with a brilliant idea for a lucrative venture but have no clue how to start a business. A good business partner would be someone with experience in starting new companies.

2. Don’t Rush the Process

Common entrepreneur mistakes include setting unrealistic goals and believing you need to go it alone. It’s unrealistic to expect to find a business partner quickly, so plan to take some time for this process. If it takes a little bit of time for you to figure out your own strengths and weaknesses, then it should take even more time to figure out what you need in a partner. Once you’ve determined what you want in a partner, give yourself ample time to talk with people, get to know them, and find out their long-term vision for your venture. Don’t be afraid to take extra time with them; a new business partner is a big decision!

3. Level Your Expectations

Along the same lines as setting unrealistic goals is having unrealistic expectations of your partner. Consider this example: you are looking to start a law firm but know that lawyers have an unusually high aversion to being public speakers and that 58% to 64% are introverts. You’ll want to be sensitive to that when finding a business partner. Are you averse to public speaking or is your partner? This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your strengths and skills. Make sure to set your expectations fairly on both yourself and your partner. This will help avoid conflict down the road.

Finding a business partner can feel as overwhelming as starting a new business, but let these tips guide your process and ease any tension you may have over it. Know what you bring to the company, take your time and be patient, and set your expectations early. This will help make finding a business partner a walk in the park.

5 Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Should Join an Entrepreneurship Program

Jul 15, 2019

Every entrepreneur needs a mentor who has gone before them to show them how to navigate the murky waters of entrepreneurship. With the high cost of starting a business, it no surprise that 69% of entrepreneurs in the country start their businesses at home and scale them up when operations can support extra expenses. By joining a mentorship program and attending international speaker sessions, you will achieve the following advantages:

  1. Mentorship on how to handle every aspect of entrepreneurship: There is a lot that comes with entrepreneurship, and it is easy for budding entrepreneurs to make mistakes. By attending workshops and programs, you learn all the common entrepreneurship mistakes you will encounter and how to avoid them. Besides lessons on avoiding entrepreneurship mistakes, you learn to forecast challenges, so you are well-prepared to mitigate them if they arise. Some of the most common mistakes you will learn is that you need to have a customer-first mentality where you first find a real problem to solve before creating a product or service. The majority of entrepreneurs start from products and look for problems their products can solve.
  2. Raising capital for your business : Every business requires capital to grow. Whether you will be finding a business partner or using other means to get capital, a mentor to walk you through every step of the way will come in handy. You need to write proposals, enlist the services of a lawyer, and market your business. That’s why attending entrepreneurship workshops and programs, like those performed by Raffy Pendery, can help change your business and make you more money in the long run.
  3. Public speaking and communication skills: A lot of tech entrepreneurs struggle with public speaking and communication, especially when speaking to people who aren’t technologically inclined. But tech is not the only field affected: you need more than words to become an excellent public speaker. You must have research skills to stay up to date on new trends, composition skills to enable you to craft your message properly, and communication skills to relay this information well. You also need people skills and to learn how to connect with your audience. These are skills you will use in your business as you talk to a potential tech entrepreneur partner, your employees, and your customers.
  4. Business law and ethics: Every entrepreneur needs to know where they stand with the law. This is crucial for their business. First, there is a need to understand the types of business you can register and the legal implications they hold. These include sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited companies. You also get understand the tax implication associated with these types of business, the licenses you need to start operations, and any other legal aspects you need to be aware of. This helps you make an informed decision on which type of business to start.
  5. Pricing and negotiation skills: Every entrepreneur needs to know how they should price their products or services. There are a lot of things you need to put into consideration before you can settle on a price. How much does it cost to make? How about packaging? Through an entrepreneurship program, you will learn how to price your services and products to maximize profits and remain competitive in the market.

Raffy Pendery explains each of these vital considerations. Once sales start trickling in, you will be taught how to reinvest and expand your portfolio, cash flow management, among other day-to-day financial aspects of running a business.

After all, learning how to start a business is a continuous process. You will not learn everything in a single day, but you will keep improving your skills, and you grow and expand. However, having a helping hand, you can trust becomes vital in ensuring your success. Raffy Pendery started as a tech entrepreneur and is well versed in everything tech, public speaking, and entrepreneurship. Rely on his expertise to transform your business from good to great.

4 Traits You Need to Succeed as a Tech Entrepreneur

Jul 11, 2019

Want to know how to succeed as a tech entrepreneur? Strap in: it’s a long road to prosperity.

Every year, thousands of entrepreneurs start small businesses in the U.S., each with their own brilliant ideas. The failure rate statistics can be daunting, though. Only 80% of small businesses started in 2014 made it to the second year while only 56% made it to year number five, according to Small Business Trends.

Don’t let the numbers discourage you. While you may not become the next Jeff Bezos, plenty of tech startups flourish, even if they hit some rough patches along the way.

We’re sure you’re brimming with confidence and ready to get your startup off the ground. After all, you wouldn’t be an entrepreneur if you weren’t. But here are four traits that, if developed and sustained over the long haul, are essential on how to succeed as a tech entrepreneur:

1. Dedication

Entrepreneurs like yourself have plenty of reasons they want to start a company — everything from being their own boss, chasing riches, pursuing their passion, or just being plain curious about solving a hard problem.

A word to the wise: Know that launching a company takes guts, and it may take several years until you truly succeed. Tech startups face many obstacles along the way, so it’s important to continuously look at the big picture, even when there are roadblocks like insufficient cash flow, problems with personnel, or other thorny issues.

One of the most common entrepreneur mistakes is the illusion that success can somehow happen overnight. Remember that it takes time.

2. Flexibility

Most entrepreneurs start a company with a specific idea and game plan. But remember that markets quickly change. Your initial idea may not drive your core success; you have to be willing to adapt and stay flexible.

The most successful entrepreneurs are driven to solve problems, and they realize they may have to pivot along the way and tweak their approaches. One of the big entrepreneur mistakes is not being flexible enough.

One example of this is Twitter, which was started in 2005 as a podcast company known as Odeo. When Apple iTunes began to dominate the podcasting market, the original Twitter founders developed the 140-character status update side project that launched them into riches.

Lesson learned: have a plan, but be willing to pivot to meet customer needs or when big obstacles get in the way. That’s a good formula for how to succeed as a tech entrepreneur.

3. Confidence

As a startup business owner, you’re going to spend a lot of time trying to convince people like investors, a tech entrepreneur partner, and employees. That means you’re going to have to exude a natural confidence. If you want to know how to succeed as a tech entrepreneur, remember that confidence is key.

The best way to build confidence is to work on projects you’re passionate about and invest the long hours to prepare to make your pitches.

Another tip: don’t look too much for external validation. As cliché as that might sound, successful tech entrepreneurs know that the long road to prosperity will involve rejection, difficult situations, and selling people on projects and ideas that may not garner approval right away.

4. Open-minded

One of the best tips for entrepreneurs: build a diverse team.

Don’t surround yourself and take advice from too many people who are just like you. That includes demographics and traits across the board, such as age, gender, educational background, and professional experience.

When entrepreneurs get too stuck in their own cultural biases, they may miss ideas and opportunities that can lead to success. Listening to competing ideas can be difficult, but the creative tension will usually yield insights that you may not have thought about before.

Female Entrepreneurship Is On the Rise

Jul 9, 2019

Not too long ago, the United States was a place where women’s rights were severely limited. They were expected to maintain the role of wives and mothers and weren’t even allowed to vote. However, women’s rights movements have carried the U.S. to a point where the female population is becoming more and more empowered. They are becoming entrepreneurs and paid international speakers who are striving to make a difference in the world. They are speaking up about their thoughts and ideas and paving the way for the girls who will follow them.

Data from Kauffman shows that 40% of new U.S. entrepreneurs are females, with the number of new female-owned businesses progressing at twice the rate of male-owned businesses. If these rates continue, it’s possible that women could take over the majority of new businesses in the United States. With the ability to blog, create online business spaces, and reach millions of other women like them, it’s easier today than it has ever been for females to break into the world of business.

Blogging

While the ratio of female to male bloggers is pretty evenly split, women do have the higher percentage in this category. Everything from beauty blogs to tech entrepreneurship blogs can be run by women. Blogs provide a way to reach out to the billions of people who have access to the internet and have multiple different avenues for monetization. They’re a great place to start for launching a small business and making connections. They also offer opportunities for lead generation.

This form of marketing and customer connection allows females to create their own platform. They control every detail and are able to take their new ideas and run with them. It gives women of most classes and experiences the ability to reach out to the rest of the world and put their thoughts out there. Whether they wish to run a tech entrepreneurship blog or just want to share their life experiences as a life coach, many get their start with blogging.

Public Speaking

Another way that women are making connections and boosting their new businesses is through the use of public speaking. They are sharing their knowledge and experience with others at places such as schools, conventions, and more. They are helping others like themselves learn and grow, which in turn allows their business to grow.

To be a successful international speaker, you have to have something to offer that people want to hear. These women know they have a message that is worth putting out into the world. They know that the right people will listen and they use those opportunities not just to grow their business, but to help others.

Creating Better Lives

Many women turn to these forms of entrepreneurship because they want to improve their own lives and the lives of others. They want to create a life that allows flexibility, a chance to challenge themselves, and a way to make a difference for others. Some are your everyday women who start out studying tech entrepreneurship blogs for inspiration, while others have an idea that they know they want to put out into the world.

Wherever these women start, they are taking the world of entrepreneurship by storm. They are consistently creating new ideas and sharing their knowledge with the world. Things may not be perfect for women in today’s world, but they have made a great deal of progress. Women have the right to make their voice heard and share their ideas. They are doing so every day as the owners of their own businesses.