Entrepreneurship Blog | Rafferty Pendery

5 Common Entrepreneur Mistakes to Avoid

Sep 17, 2019

According to a study conducted by U.S. Bank, 82% of businesses that don’t work out fail because of cash flow problems.

Starting anything from scratch is never easy, and businesses are a lot harder than most other things to get right. As an entrepreneur, you won’t be able to avoid all common entrepreneur mistakes. It’s just a fact of life. But making a mistake isn’t the end of the world, that’s how good entrepreneurs learn and grow into eventual successes.

However, once you get started, you really can’t afford to go on making blunders indefinitely. You’ve got to work smart, as well as hard, and that means avoiding entrepreneur mistakes when you can.

The following are five entrepreneur tips for avoiding common entrepreneur mistakes.

1. Choosing the Wrong Cofounder

If you’re starting a business on a small scale, you don’t technically need a cofounder. However, it is worth noting that of all businesses worth over a billion dollars, a mere fraction started with only one founder. So having the right cofounder can dramatically increase your odds of major success.

On the other hand, having the wrong cofounder can have the exact opposite effect. First and foremost, a cofounder should be mentally and emotionally compatible with you. What are your key skills? What will you be contributing to the partnership? Now, what are your weaknesses? Who can you hire or partner with who can fill in your blind spots and balance out your strengths?

2. Being a Know-it-All

This is one of the most important tips for entrepreneurs trying to avoid common entrepreneur mistakes. You should never be a know-it-all when it comes to business. Why is that? Quite simply, it will be detrimental to your success.

You can never “know it all” when it comes to business, even if you’re the best in your field. Someone will always be there to outdistance you if you don’t stay on your guard, and there’s always someone who understands something better than you do. By assuming you have all the answers already, not only do you make your business susceptible to being taken over by newer, more free-thinking competitors, but you alienate yourself from those who could be teaching you how to stay ahead.

It’s the first rule of success: be teachable. Because if you aren’t teachable, you’ll never succeed. Even if you somehow do, it won’t last long.

3. Expecting Customers to Find You

Some budding entrepreneurs have a “build it and they will come” mentality. They think that just because they’ve started a business, whether it’s a brick-and-mortar store or a website, people are bound to check it out.

However, you’re setting yourself up for failure if you start your business this way. There are a lot of businesses out there and a lot of new ones being started every day. What are the chances that masses of potential customers are going to notice when yours open its doors?

In truth, the chances are slim. Unless you’ve made sure your target audience knows about your business and why they should care, you won’t see much traffic right away.

Marketing isn’t the most popular skill in the world, but you’ve got to be good at it to be an entrepreneur.

4. Getting Too Obsessed Over Competitors

Being successful as an entrepreneur is about more than worrying about your competition. While you should be mindful of your competitors and what they’re doing, you want to be focused on the unique value you’re contributing to the world, regardless of what other businesses are doing. It’s better to prioritize what makes you different than to constantly try to beat the competition.

5. Hiring the Wrong Employees

Too often business owners hire people not based on actual capability, but on whether they like them or not. And while you should definitely try to hire people you’ll get along with, that should never be your only reason for hiring someone.

Your company’s success depends on the competence of your employees. Would it make sense for your business to only hire your relatives and friends? Or are you just trying to secure or maintain their favor? Would that applicant you’re considering actually do the job well, or are you only considering him because you feel like he’s a nice guy and deserves it?

And there you have it — five of the most common entrepreneur mistakes to avoid.

4 Ways to Excel as a Public Speaker

Sep 12, 2019

Did you know that lawyers, of whom up to 64% are introverts, tend to experience speaking anxiety?

That may come as a surprise, as we all think of lawyers as excellent public speakers. But it’s just one more indicator that powerful speakers aren’t born that way; they train themselves to speak with precision and impact.

Below you’ll find four proven tips for entrepreneurs to excel as a public speaker.

1. Don’t Imitate Your Favorite Speakers

Every artist has an idol, and every up-and-coming speaker has a specific person whose speaking prowess they particularly admire. However, it’s all too easy to let this admiration for our favorite speakers turn into mimicking them when we should be finding our own voice, style, and niche.

What we fail to realize is that the thing we find most fascinating about a speaker is not the way they speak. It’s not in the way they carry themselves or how they address a room. We’re drawn to powerful speakers because of the authenticity.

And by patterning your style after that of another speaker, you’re losing your own authenticity. And if you think no one will notice, think again. Sincerity and genuineness aren’t qualities we can easily describe, but we definitely know it when they aren’t there.

So by all means, learn from your favorite international public speakers. Study their movements, their manner, and the way they speak, if you want to. But let these insights about great speakers inspire you to develop your own presence, your own voice, and your own message. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can act someone else’s part better than your own.

2. Practice Mindfulness in Public

If you get on stage and you aren’t 100% present with your audience, they’ll start to notice. Your eyes might wander at random. Your facial expressions might be delayed by a split second. Things like this are signs that you’re stuck inside your head and you aren’t really focused on your audience, the room, or the purpose of your presentation.

On the other hand, your audience members can read facial expressions in as little as seventeen milliseconds and they can tell you’re distracted or nervous.

Instead of trying to ignore distracting thoughts or squelch feelings of nervousness, channel that nervous energy into your speech by focusing completely on the moment. Be present. Be mindful of your audience and how they’re responding to your words.

One way to get over being stuck in your head is to practice mindfulness, especially when you’re in public. Try focusing on your breath while you’re surrounded by distractions. Notice the colors, shapes, and faces in your environment when you’re out and about.

3. Accept the Discomfort and Negative Feelings

Feeling uncomfortable or negative is a natural part of life and it can be especially frequent and distracting when you’re a public speaker. But if we dwell on those feelings, we risk letting them hinder our performance.

It also doesn’t help to try and ignore or resist the negative feelings when they come. If anything, that just tends to make them more forceful. Instead, just accept the negativity and discomfort when it shows up. Recognize that we’re all subject to unpleasant feelings once in a while, and even though you face them more than most people would because of the intensity of your profession, they will pass.

4. Be Conversational

When you’re talking to a friend about a subject you’re interested in, it’s easy to go on for hours without even knowing it. In conversation, your message has a natural flow to it because you aren’t trying to impress your friend. You’re just trying to convey an idea that you love.

You should approach your audience in a similar manner. If you’re trying to give a formulated speech according to a strict system, it’s likely to come out feeling stilted and unnatural, and you’ll be more prone to mistakes. However, if you approach your audience with warmth, love, and a desire to convey your idea with passion and clarity, your speech will flow with a naturalness and ease that will surprise everyone. It may even surprise you.

Follow these tips and you could become a highly paid international speaker.

Simple Guidelines for Picking the Right Business Partner

Sep 10, 2019

The possibility of failure is a nightmare that chases every entrepreneur. In 2014 alone, this fear became real for 80% of all small businesses owners. Many reasons can make a small business flounder in its first, third, or even fifth year. Financial challenges, lack of a differentiated value proposition and even unforeseen disasters like floods contribute to the downfall.

Conflict between business partners is another often-cited reason for companies to close their doors. Due to this fact, you need to be extra vigilant when looking for a tech entrepreneur partner. Here are some attributes you should weigh before making a decision.

1. Financial Stability

Whenever entrepreneurs are in the middle of finding a business partner, they can get hung up on who brings money to the table. While capitalizing the business is a critical matter that needs due consideration, it is not as mission-critical as the financial health of your potential business partner.

If your potential tech entrepreneur partner is in the middle of a financial crisis it may be worth re-considering their suitability. A partner who is struggling to make ends meet may not give your startup the sole focus it needs to survive in its infancy. Worse still, if at any point they find themselves with their backs pressed to the wall they might be susceptible to financial fraud to survive.

Another aspect of assessing this trait is whether their financial crisis is due to a character issue. A potential partner who can’t manage their personal finances will most likely mishandle company finances as well since it calls for the same kind of discipline.

2. Complementing Strengths

You and your potential tech entrepreneur partner ought to be strong in the area where the other is weak for your firm to thrive. One of the cardinal tips for entrepreneurs in the tech arena is to pair up as a technical and a non-technical founder. If you are a computer whiz, then you need a partner who thrives at business development and marketing. The reverse also applies.

Part of the reason why you need a business partner who’s strong in the areas you’re weak in is to help you focus. Launching a startup is extremely tough and any distraction can sink the business. When you’re able to plow all your tech entrepreneur resources into what you do best, your firm’s odds of survival shoot up. During tough times a partner will help you remain objective in your weak areas so that you can ultimately pull through.

3. Value Alignment

Many business wrangles come about due to a fundamental difference in how partners see the world and approach it. When you are scouting for a tech entrepreneur partner you must zero in on whether you share similar values relating to the firm. Your goals and theirs have to complement each other for you to work in unison. If you find that there is a danger of having widely varying goals then assess whether there is a common point that can align your interests.

If your potential partner is a personal friend or family member, then you need to avoid one of the most common entrepreneur mistakes: glossing over your alignment. Just because there is a preceding personal relationship does not necessarily mean that it makes for good business relations.

Another tip for the tech entrepreneur looking to partner up is to not have ambiguous responsibilities. You need to clearly define every partner’s responsibilities and key deliverables on paper. That clarity will help run the business with minimal friction due to crossed boundaries and inaction.

Don’t Fall for the Wrong Tech Entrepreneur Partner

Small businesses fail for many reasons and one of them is partner misalignment. There are critical benefits to working with a business partner but only if you pair with the right one. Focus on interpersonal and capacity-related traits to identify the best tech entrepreneur partner for your business.

How to NOT Sink Your Startup

Sep 6, 2019

Starting a business is a terrifying yet exciting journey that 69% of entrepreneurs in the United States embark on from their homes. As a tech entrepreneur, finding and solving a problem with technology is exhilarating and fulfilling. The excitement, however, does not exempt you from making mistakes, even if you’re the founder of your own business. Everyone experiences missteps along the way, but for a fledgling business, each new error might be your last.

As the founder, your decisions will place your startup in a losing or winning direction. Thus, you must learn from those who have gone before you in order to avoid costly mistakes. Here’s what you should avoid in order to succeed as a tech entrepreneur.

1. Premature Expansion

Every entrepreneur who starts a business ultimately wants to see it grow. But for a tech entrepreneur, knowing when it’s the right time to grow their business is a mission-critical element. It has been said that more companies die from indigestion than starvation. What this means is that ill-timed growth will kill your firm faster than a lack of adequate business. If you make the mistake of growing too early, you will tie up your finances and complicate your operations faster than you can resolve them.

To avoid making this mistake, focus your resources on only the essential aspects of growing your startup. Until you find optimal product/market fit, hold off on scaling in order to sidestep one of the most common entrepreneur mistakes.

2. Not Having the Right Co-Founder

A technology business calls for a strong founding team. The tech entrepreneurs you rely on must complement your skills and vice versa. Start by identifying your strong suits and bring on a co-founder who is strong in areas where you have trouble. For example, it is common to find a business-savvy entrepreneur to open your shop and work out important financial complications. This allows you to do what you do best: develop new products for your clients.

Ask for referrals and take your time building relationships that can lead to a co-founding arrangement.

3. Hiring the Wrong Team Members

No startup can hope to get off the ground without the right team to back them up. In today’s market, there is a relatively abundant level of technical talent you can tap. However, one of the most critical entrepreneur jobs you’ll face is hiring a great team.

Studies show that employees who feel that “they belong” tend to be 12 times more productive than those who don’t share the sentiment. Look only for potential team members who relate to your startup’s mission, culture, and core values. Talent is essential but does not prioritize it over their capacity to fit into the firm’s culture.

4. Inflexibility

One of the oft-repeated entrepreneur mistakes when starting out is becoming too attached to your first business model. Your first model is rarely the one that will bring victory to the business, and you will end up iterating several times before you find the right system that works for you. Thus, you need to be flexible in pivoting when the market’s feedback indicates the necessity. If you can’t respond to customer needs and align your firm accordingly, you will fail as a tech entrepreneur.

Avoid Commonplace Tech Entrepreneur Errors When You Want to Thrive

As a founder, your early decisions will place the company on a winning or losing path. Thus, you need to identify the typical errors entrepreneurs in your position have made to avoid plunging your firm into the dark. When you’re ready to get your startup off the ground, rely on the experience of Rafferty Pendery for guidance.

5 Tips for Avoiding Mistakes as an Entrepreneur

Aug 19, 2019

Entrepreneurship is both an art and a science. While there is no single recipe for success as a tech entrepreneur, there are many ways to fail. Here are five tips for entrepreneurs for avoiding entrepreneur mistakes:

Seek Out Help

Very few entrepreneurs can do it all. For every Bill Gates, there is a Paul Allen and a Steve Ballmer. For every Steve Jobs, there is a Steve Wozniak. In addition to these co-visionaries, there are teams of professionals to support and assist the tech entrepreneur in building a tech company. Attorneys, accountants, and consultants provide tech entrepreneur resources that can make the difference between a successful business and just another failed startup.

Similarly, investors and venture capitalists can not only provide working capital but can also provide tech entrepreneur resources. Whether those resources come in the form of networking contacts or sales leads, advice based on other tech businesses they have been involved with, or just a friendly ear to listen, tech entrepreneur partners can be an indispensable source of experience for a new business.

Experts can also be a source of tech entrepreneur resources. Conferences, seminars, webinars, and trade shows can be a valuable source for networking and business advice. While tech entrepreneurs are not necessarily known for being humble, most successful tech entrepreneurs know what they do not know and find a way to fill that knowledge gap before it inhibits their business.

Have a Plan

To paraphrase a famous author about military strategy, “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.” His point was not that plans are pointless. Rather, he was advising that a battle plan must be constantly updated with new strategic decisions as situations arise.

Business plans are similar in the sense that they provide a road map to reach the next goal. But, once that goal is reached, the business plan must be updated to reflect the business’s current condition.

For example, a tech entrepreneur may plan to take on investors to finance a business expansion, then use the profits from the business expansion to buy out the investors and return to a sole proprietorship. However, once the business has expanded, the tech entrepreneur may find that the initial plan is no longer feasible because the expanded business requires more employees and more working capital than the entrepreneur can handle without investors. In this example, the tech entrepreneur must update the business plan to reflect the new condition of the business.

Polish Your Presentation

While it would be glib to reduce every tech entrepreneur to a salesperson, the modern entrepreneur must be able to communicate his or her vision effectively. Venture capitalists and investors have many, many businesses competing for their investment. Having a clear presentation can make the difference between closing the deal and foundering. In fact, communications researchers have found that presentation style (55% non-verbal cues and 38% voice) may be more influential in creating an effective presentation than the subject matter (7%). Again, coaches and consultants can be valuable tech entrepreneur resources in developing a presentation style that works for you.

Delegate Authority

As a tech entrepreneur, your business is like your baby. However, micromanaging a business is inefficient and can lead to resentment among partners and employees. Learning to delegate authority spreads the responsibility for success throughout the business. Partners and employees will be happier having a role in the business’s success and you will have more time to focus on entrepreneurship – building the business and its product and service offerings – rather than being distracted by the day to day operations.

Monetize

One of the common mistakes that tech entrepreneurs make is that they are so enamored with the technology they have developed, that they forget to make money. This is not to say that tech entrepreneurs need to be greedy. To the contrary, some of the coolest technologies has been dedicated to social justice, corporate governance, and environmental improvement. Moreover, many tech businesses contribute financially to worthy causes. However, as a tech entrepreneur, you are running a business that your customers, employees, and partners are counting on. No tech entrepreneur wants to be in the unenviable position of having to lay off employees.

In sum, there are many tech entrepreneur resources, including business partners, consultants, and employees, who can help tech entrepreneurs avoid common mistakes.

4 Pieces Of Tech Entrepreneur Advice You Need To Read

Aug 14, 2019

Running a business takes a lot of hard work and being a tech entrepreneur is no different. Between creating business plans and finding a business partner or investor, it can seem like you’re always dropping the ball. Keep reading for tech entrepreneur advice that can help you grow your business.

Create A Business Plan and Stick With It

Creating a business plan should be one of the first things a tech entrepreneur does before starting a business. You will need a plan to effectively run your business and to seek investment or venture capital for your business. It’s important that once you create a business plan, you stick with it but still allow for changes in the process. Being flexible is a key trait of successful tech entrepreneurs.

Wake Up Early and Be Flexible In Your Day

It’s no secret that succeeding as a tech entrepreneur includes waking up early. Good tech entrepreneur advice is to wake up before the sun rises to get the most out of your day. You don’t have to get started on work right away; rather, you may use this time to work out, read the news, or take your dog for a walk. It’s also important to be flexible in your day. Things come up as an entrepreneur and you want to be in a position that you can drop what you’re doing to put out any fires that pop up.

Find A Business Partner That Complements You

A business partner can help you manage aspects of the business with which you may not be familiar. Finding a business partner can be a challenging task because you want to find someone qualified for the position. You also want a business partner that can complement your work ethic and personality traits. If you work better under pressure of deadlines, having a business partner that likes to stay ahead of them may help your organization grow.

Face Your Fears and Be Persistent

Starting a business is hard work and it can be daunting. You often have to wear multiple hats, even when you have a business partner, and it requires you to occasionally do things you don’t enjoy doing. For example, 75% of people have speech anxiety. If you need to make a pitch to investors, you are going to need to brush up on your public speaking skills. This is just one of many instances in which a tech entrepreneur is going to need to face their fears and be persistent with it. As they say, practice makes perfect.

It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting a new venture or if your tech business is already underway, these four pieces of tech entrepreneur advice will help you and your business succeed.

The First Steps To Starting Your Own Business

Aug 8, 2019

According to one study, 82% of people learning how to start a business will fail, due to cash flow problems in their startup.

That’s a pretty big deal. It means that if you plan and launch your startup in a way that will avoid cash flow problems in the first place, you’ll have eliminated the single biggest risk in launching a business — dramatically increasing your chance of success.

Whether you want to learn how to start a business to support your travels or creative life, or whether you have a unique product or business idea that you’re passionate about, it’s important to start on the right foot with your business planning. To help you avoid common entrepreneur mistakes, the following entrepreneur tips will help you determine how to start a business.

Conduct Research

Since you’re learning how to start a business, you’ve probably already settled on a business idea you’d like to get into. But before you take off and run with it, you’ve got to compare that idea to what the market wants.

To be successful, a business has to solve a real problem, fulfill a real need, or provide something people genuinely want.

However, for a new business to succeed, it isn’t enough to just offer something the public wants. The public has already been getting what they want, or else doing without it, for a long time. Your job as the business owner is to convince them that your offer is going to be better for them than anyone else’s. It’s not enough to give them another option — you’ve got to give them an option they can’t say no to.

On the surface that may sound daunting, but it’s very doable, as long as you’re willing to do some hard thinking.

You can identify what the market wants by talking to your target customers directly; by starting a blog on your target industry, and building an audience of ideal customers; or just trying different ideas until you come upon one that sticks.

The following are some questions you should try to answer, as you formulate your ideal business idea:

Is there a real need for this product or service?
Who needs this product or service?
Who is my ideal customer?
What other businesses are currently providing this product or service, or something similar?
How much competition is there for my idea?
How will my business idea fit into the existing market? How will it contrast from other options already available?
Am I a member of the community I’m trying to sell to? Am I my own biggest fan and customer? Will I enjoy building this product or providing this service long-term?

The last question may be the most overlooked idea for aspiring entrepreneurs, often considered only as an afterthought. It’s important to remember that your business is going to be your full-time job, at least at the beginning. Make sure you’re doing something you’ll genuinely enjoy.

Make a Business Plan

Before you can start building your business, you’ve got to have a plan for what you will do. Your business plan will act as a blueprint, guiding your decisions from startup through initial growth to keep you on track.

A business plan doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re funding the venture on your own, and it’s just going to be you and perhaps one or two other people working on it part-time, a basic one-page outline of steps to follow is all you need.

If you’re going after investor funding, you will need a traditional business plan to show investors or banks. This type of plan is usually very long, very thorough, and very specific. Business plans of this kind always provide a common set of information that investors always look at before deciding on whether or not to invest in a startup.

Even if your business is going to be simple — a blog that you intend to monetize, for example — it’s still incredibly important to have some kind of written plan. It doesn’t have to be long or complicated. You just need an idea of where you’ll be going and what you’re going to do before you get started.

Armed with these insider tips for entrepreneurs, you’ll be well ahead of the competition when you launch your startup.

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Public Speaker

Aug 6, 2019

For entrepreneurs, public speaking is a vital skill that could make or break your business. An effective speech could greatly boost your sales pitch, motivate your workforce, or efficiently communicate your plans and ideas to concerned parties. A terrible speech, on the other hand, could send the wrong message to potential clients and staff members.

The thought of delivering a speech in public, however, sends shivers down the spines of many entrepreneurs. If you happen to be in this large pool of entrepreneurs who dread public speaking, don’t be discouraged, you’re not alone.

In fact, three out of four individuals get anxious right before or when delivering speeches. Most people would rather walk on a path of burning coal than deliver a 20-minute speech on quarterly returns.

This article is for all those tech entrepreneurs who are brimming with incredible ideas or amazing tech entrepreneur advice but suffer immensely when it comes to delivering speeches. The piece could also help those who need to refine their public speaking skills or those who want to be better when delivering tech entrepreneur advice.

Without further ado, here are a few tips for entrepreneurs to improve their public speeches.

It’s All About the Audience

We understand how nerve-wracking it can be before your speech. However, most of us get so caught up in speech preparations that we forget the most important element of the entire speech: the audience.

While how we look, how we stand and the gestures we use will determine how good our speech will be, the overall message and how it is conveyed to the audience is the most important aspect of your speech.

With this in mind, it is important to prioritize your audience above everything else. Doing so will also help take the pressure off of the whole idea of delivering the speech, as you’ll be focused on just one thing.

Practice Makes Perfect

Any successful entrepreneur knows the importance of practicing for a speech beforehand. Consistent practice will help you familiarize yourself with the contents of your speech and greatly boost your confidence.

Delivering your speech in front of your family, close friends, or co-workers is a great way to practice before the actual speech. Ask them to give you feedback and point out areas where your tech entrepreneur advice could improve. With consistent practice, you’ll improve your speech delivery and content in no time.

Get Familiar with the Stage

If you have the chance to inspect your stage before the speech, go for it. Even international public speakers highly recommend getting familiar with your space for a couple of reasons.

First, you’ll have a firm grasp of the surrounding space, including where to stand and how to face your audience. You’ll also understand the layout of the room, including the placement of cables and speakers, so you don’t trip or knock over anything.

Use Informative and Appealing Slides

The digital entrepreneur of today will never deliver a speech without a slideshow presentation to go along with it. If you opt for a presentation, remember to keep your slides as informative, engaging, and visually appealing as possible.

Remember, each bullet should be concise and capture only useful information. For the best presentations, avoid any and all fluff. Consider adding a bit of color and transitions to your slides, so they don’t come off as boring.

Lovely slides that go straight to the point will pique your audience’s interest right off the bat.

Don’t Forget to Breathe

It seems outrageous, but the all too important act of inhaling and exhaling can take a back seat the moment you’re up on stage. Therefore, remember to take short deep breathes before the speech to calm your nerves and maintain the same poise during the speech delivery.

These few tips will have you well on your way to becoming a paid international speaker, or just help you get through your speech. You can also read through our other articles for more useful tech entrepreneur advice.

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.