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.

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.

Everybody makes mistakes. However, most people don’t hold the fate of a product, brand, or entire company in their hands. Welcome to the world of startups.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Three out of four individuals experience speech anxiety, which can severely diminish your effectiveness as a business owner. After all, it’s up to you to communicate your vision to your team, and often to your customers.

Besides lacking any skill as a public speaker, the following are four common entrepreneur mistakes to avoid as you learn how to start a business.

1. Being a Solution in Search of a Problem

This is one of the most common entrepreneur mistakes. When you’re creating your product and developing your business, it’s imperative to have a customer-first mentality. And when you’re just starting out, that means finding a real problem to solve, and then creating a product to solve that problem.

Most people go about this backwards — they have a product idea, or they discover something they’re uniquely gifted in. Then they go about developing a product based on that idea, all along assuming that people will actually want it.

Sadly, it’s not always the case.

Unless you start with the problem you want to solve, you can’t be sure that the solution you develop is going to really benefit people (and thus be profitable).

So instead of asking yourself, “What am I good at?” or even, “What can I do to help people?” Ask yourself, “What problems are people in my niche experiencing, and how can I solve them at scale?”

2. Going at it Alone

It’s almost a cliche, but it’s true: people thrive and work better with friends. That may be truer in the startup world than anywhere else. This leads us to another of the most common entrepreneur mistakes: trying to go solo.

Of all companies worth over a billion dollars, roughly 85% of them were launched by at least two founders. It’s fairly uncommon for a business to see massive success when it’s driven forward by just one person.v

It’s not fun to think about, but launching and scaling your business to profitability is going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. There are going to be days—weeks, even—when all you want to do is quit. Without a cofounder, coach, or at least an accountability partner, you‘ll most likely give up.

3. Never (Really) Getting Started

This is a more elementary mistake, but it’s a very common one among budding entrepreneurs.

Many would-be entrepreneurs fall into the trap of being busy doing nothing—attending seminars, watching lectures, reading books, and taking copious notes, without ever really putting themselves and their ideas out there for the world to see.

Business development is a public process—if you don’t launch a campaign, talk about what you’re working on, and get other eyes on it, you will not have a business.

This is usually a side-effect of fear. Sometimes the antidote is education—you need to learn about your field, and how to manage your own success when it comes. Just as likely, you’ve done enough learning and it’s time for action.

4. Assuming You Have No Real Competitors

Let’s be honest: when you’re a product developer or startup founder, you’re as proud as a new parent. And like a new parent, you’re pretty much convinced that your baby can do no wrong and that no one in the world could possibly replace it.

This assumption is another of the most common entrepreneur mistakes. It’s natural for new founders to feel this way, given the excitement of the startup process. However, it can lead them into believing that their product is so superior to everything else that’s out there, that they have no direct competitors.

In actuality, it’s incredibly unusual for a product or business to have no direct competitors. Unless you’ve invented something absolutely original (hard to do, and even harder to sell), there’s absolutely someone out there with an alternative product that people are already using.

It isn’t always necessary for a product to be ten times better than the competition to be profitable, but it’s still a good goal to shoot for. In any case, you must do your due diligence in finding the companies already serving your target audience, and discovering how you can differentiate yourself and your business.

Avoiding entrepreneur mistakes is the only way startup companies can reach their fifth year of operations. Recent studies indicated that 80% of the small businesses that were started in 2014 made it to the second year of operations, 2015. However, several research studies have proven that less than 70% of the small startups don’t get to see their third year of operations, let alone the fifth. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the entrepreneur tips that small business owners can use to succeed in business.

1. Adequate Capitalization

One of the most important entrepreneur tips that startup entrepreneurs can use to succeed in their investments is having adequate capitalization, otherwise known as money. There is no way business can succeed without sufficient capital. Entrepreneurs make the mistake of having little capitalization at the onset of the business. Little do they know that the company will not be able to withstand market forces and turbulence in the first few years.

2. Excellent Planning

One of the most common entrepreneur tips that all potential investors know is that they need to plan for their businesses. Most failed businesses have attributed failure to poor planning and lack of contingency plans. Reading a reputable entrepreneurship blog could provide an entrepreneur with some important details on how to formulate simple plans and contingency strategies that the business will follow, especially when the original strategy fails to deliver results.

3. Understanding the Market

For a business to succeed, understanding the market is an essential factor. Many entrepreneurs know everything concerning their product and they are convinced that it is a great product. However, they fail to understand whether the product they are offering fits the market. Entrepreneur mistakes don’t just happen, but they result from a series of minor mistakes, such as not analyzing the market and not understanding buyer behavior. Professional understanding of the market generates the expected results and helps the business to succeed.

4. Hiring Professionals

History has proven that it is very difficult for a business to succeed without the support of professionals. Small business owners tend to cut costs by doing everything themselves. That is one of the methods of bringing the business down. Startup companies are very delicate, which means that they require the services of experts to stabilize. Hiring an attorney, an accountant, and an experienced marketing expert is a great recipe for growth. As a business owner, you cannot handle everything by yourself, unless you’re planning to fail.

5. Working with Partners

Hiring professionals has been highlighted as one of the tips that entrepreneurs can use to succeed. However, finding a business partner is also a strategic method of moving the business to the next level. Although a partner will reduce the share of profits, they will be offering professional services that you’re not likely to get when working alone. Moreover, a partner can inject funds into the business while helping in critical decision-making processes.

6. Incorporating Technology

Technology is one of the strategies that small business can use to succeed in a competitive market. A business that uses advanced techniques to handle most of its services cannot be compared to the brick and motor companies that still use manual operations. Besides cutting down operational costs, technology increases productivity and efficiency while improving service delivery to customers. Businesses that want to succeed in the digital era must use technology as one of their operational pillars.

7. Get a Motivational Speaker

You can occasionally hire a motivational speaker to speak to your employees and keep motivated. A paid international speaker could prove to be relevant to your employees because they will instill a sense of belonging to your employees and keep focused on the goals of the company. Corporate speakers have for a longer period been known to provide entrepreneur tips that could also be important to the owner of the business.

Not one of these entrepreneur tips will deliver results alone. All these factors and business tips must be incorporated in tandem by the entrepreneur and employees working in the company. This is the only way the company will be able to break the curse of collapsing with the first three years of its inception.