A few days back I posted a question in LinkedIn whether an entrepreneur should use his or her own money or secure outside financing to fund his own brilliant idea and turn it into reality. Most answers came from individuals who have successfully built their own company based on their own brilliant ideas using their own money. They have offered several sound advices. Some answer came from those who are already in the financial services world. My most sincere appreciation and thanks to all those who have answered my question.
The common answer is that any entrepreneur should try to use his or her own money/financial resources first before getting outside financing. This Q&A can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/answers/startups-small-businesses/starting-up/STR_STP/213498-4071074. Several good reference and readings were also provided by those who posted their answers. Links below:
http://www.changethis.com/8.BootstrappersBible http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_truth_about.html http://blog.guykawasaki.com/venture_capital/index.html
http://tomthemoneyman.wordpress.com/
http://www.guykawasaki.com/
http://www.askthevc.com/blog/
http://www.gruntmedia.com/venturecast.html
In my point of view, anyone who has a brilliant idea should try to nourish it and build a future on it. It could be that the idea turns to a person’s own company or a project in his or her existing corporate environment, one thing is certain that is: successful nurturing and implementation of the idea is highly rewarding.
In the even that such idea turns an ordinary person to an entrepreneur and follow his or her dreams and successfully launch and operate his or her own company it would start in that person using his own money and financial resources to start-up his own company. Financial resources for common people are finite so there is a certain moment in time when additional funding is needed. This funding can be provided by friends and family or angel investors and later once the operation requires higher level of funding bigger organisations like venture capitals and investment firms step in.
Each of us who have taken that step knows well the decisions made to use your own finances in starting up a company. It takes a lot of hard work, long days, sleepless nights, dedication, courage, perseverance, sheer brilliance and faith in your capabilities to start-up and sustains a new company based on a new concept. Sometime the gratification is so delayed but for a true entrepreneur persistence and consistency equates to success.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Business On-Demand: Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child
The proverb or old adage "See through the eyes of a child" is commonly used to emphasize love, compassion, equality, friendship, happiness and satisfaction. Most people use to it to remind us to look back to where we came from and use that to go where we will become. However such a proverb also applies to business. You might wonder how, if you have not realised it yet.
Let me put forward an example very common and can be easily related to any of us who have children. Do you ever notice that kids seem to demand too much of everything? They demand time and attention, they demand things be done the way they want it. Did you ever think of why they make such difficult demands? The answer is actually quite simple they observe what we can do and expect us to do more for less and get what they want when they want it. This comes about because children see what we are capable of doing but for us we don't realise what we really are capable of, since our attention is focused somewhere else. Children at an early age have figured-out the real meaning of efficiency, effectives, multi-tasking and performance on-demand. What can we learn from a child?
Now going back to business, we receive similar demands all the time. The pressure is there to always make and get the most for less. Is there a good answer to this challenge? I believe there is and it is simple, it is called Business On-Demand. Business On-Demand could very well the best things in business we can learn from children. This means operating your business to:
- make and get more for less (cost effectiveness)
- produce more for less cost (efficiency)
- pay only for what you really need (sensibility)
- shorten response time (agility and responsiveness)
- implement changes easier (flexibility)
- create new and exciting products/services (innovativeness)
So what is Business On-Demand? Is it another fad or a valid solution? Business On-Demand is making the most out of your business, getting the most for less cost. This is done by paying only for the things you really need, when you need it, where you need and how you need it. This also means the elimination of costly infrastructure such as service delivery platform (SDP). In SDPs this can be achieved through multi-tenant operations wherein more companies benefit from a single infrastructure instead of each single company having their own infrastructure.
Let's consider a simple analogy. Take into example houses in a small island where we designate (and correlate to real business that)
- the island is the money/funding
- houses are companies
- roads are SDP infrastructures
To go from one house to another the house owners would need to build a road to the other houses. Now if they work independently without collaboration they will be building a mesh network of roads while turning a big chunk of the island into roads that can not be used for other purposes. Now if they work in collaboration with each other they can build the most optimal road infrastructure that connects all houses with the least use of land. Which approach do you think is better?
Does this make sense to your business? If it does and I believe it will, then we have learned a very important lesson in business by seeing through the eyes of a child.
Let me put forward an example very common and can be easily related to any of us who have children. Do you ever notice that kids seem to demand too much of everything? They demand time and attention, they demand things be done the way they want it. Did you ever think of why they make such difficult demands? The answer is actually quite simple they observe what we can do and expect us to do more for less and get what they want when they want it. This comes about because children see what we are capable of doing but for us we don't realise what we really are capable of, since our attention is focused somewhere else. Children at an early age have figured-out the real meaning of efficiency, effectives, multi-tasking and performance on-demand. What can we learn from a child?
Now going back to business, we receive similar demands all the time. The pressure is there to always make and get the most for less. Is there a good answer to this challenge? I believe there is and it is simple, it is called Business On-Demand. Business On-Demand could very well the best things in business we can learn from children. This means operating your business to:
- make and get more for less (cost effectiveness)
- produce more for less cost (efficiency)
- pay only for what you really need (sensibility)
- shorten response time (agility and responsiveness)
- implement changes easier (flexibility)
- create new and exciting products/services (innovativeness)
So what is Business On-Demand? Is it another fad or a valid solution? Business On-Demand is making the most out of your business, getting the most for less cost. This is done by paying only for the things you really need, when you need it, where you need and how you need it. This also means the elimination of costly infrastructure such as service delivery platform (SDP). In SDPs this can be achieved through multi-tenant operations wherein more companies benefit from a single infrastructure instead of each single company having their own infrastructure.
Let's consider a simple analogy. Take into example houses in a small island where we designate (and correlate to real business that)
- the island is the money/funding
- houses are companies
- roads are SDP infrastructures
To go from one house to another the house owners would need to build a road to the other houses. Now if they work independently without collaboration they will be building a mesh network of roads while turning a big chunk of the island into roads that can not be used for other purposes. Now if they work in collaboration with each other they can build the most optimal road infrastructure that connects all houses with the least use of land. Which approach do you think is better?
Does this make sense to your business? If it does and I believe it will, then we have learned a very important lesson in business by seeing through the eyes of a child.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Why Start Your Own Company?
Have you ever wondered how famous business names got into where they are today? Think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Ingvar Kamprad, Warren Buffet, Roman Abramovich, Liliane Bettencourt, David Thomson, Li Ka-shing, Paul Allen, etc. You can find out about them at http://www.forbes.com. You would notice that some of them inherited their fortune; however most of them are self-made billionaires and philanthropist. Have you ever dream about being one of them? Have you ever though of sharing your fortunes to help humanity and for a good cause?
Let's look closely on these self made billionaires and focus on their humble beginnings. A lot dropped out of school and had almost no money when they started their business. The one thing each all have in common is a vision and a dream.
Do you have a vision towards your successful future? A vision is all it takes, an idea powers it. If you think you have a brilliant idea that have a potential to grow to a good business then by all means nurture that idea, nourish it, and make it a great idea.
In most cases we keep the ideas to ourselves or share it to friends and family but there are the brave few who are entrepreneurial enough to showcase that idea for all to see by making it a reality. The most successful ones start-up their own company and keeps on growing, the least successful ones gains from giving their ideas to their current employers. The question is where do you want to be? Do you want to craft your own destiny or do you sit back and watch?
One good reason to start up your own company with your brilliant idea... just look up the richest person's list at Forbes.
Let's look closely on these self made billionaires and focus on their humble beginnings. A lot dropped out of school and had almost no money when they started their business. The one thing each all have in common is a vision and a dream.
Do you have a vision towards your successful future? A vision is all it takes, an idea powers it. If you think you have a brilliant idea that have a potential to grow to a good business then by all means nurture that idea, nourish it, and make it a great idea.
In most cases we keep the ideas to ourselves or share it to friends and family but there are the brave few who are entrepreneurial enough to showcase that idea for all to see by making it a reality. The most successful ones start-up their own company and keeps on growing, the least successful ones gains from giving their ideas to their current employers. The question is where do you want to be? Do you want to craft your own destiny or do you sit back and watch?
One good reason to start up your own company with your brilliant idea... just look up the richest person's list at Forbes.
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