Top 10 Tools for Entrepreneurs

Sometime ago youngentrepreneurs organized a poll to find out the top tools for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs send in what they consider were the top tool for them as entrepreneurs and finally the site pick eight tools to be the top tools for entrepreneurs.

The youngentrepreneurs list was quite insight for me and here I am going to list those tools and add two tools I think should also be on that list.

Tool #1. Books / Magazines. This top’s youngentrepreneur list and I think that should be experted. Here are a few Reading material: BRW (Business Review Weekly) magazine, How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie), A New Earth (Earkhart Tolle), Loosing my Virginity (Richard Branson). I also recommend reading some classic books such as Competitive Strategy – By Michael Porter, Blue Ocean Strategy – by Chan Kim, Gentleman, A Timeless Fashion – by Roetzel, Market Based Management – by Roger Best

Tool#2. Websites. Interactive Business Planner is great. IBP: New User Registration It’s a really good business plan wizard. Each section is broken down into bite-size pieces, has clear explanations and an example excerpt from a business plan. It’s provided by the Government of Canada but I don’t think there is any reason it wouldn’t be useful to anyone else. SMEtoolkit is another great site for entrepreneurs.

Here are some tools I find to useful as an entrepreneur and think you will find them useful:

- Management Methods | Management Models | Management Theories – I find it useful as a quick reference/refresher tool.
- Docstoc.com. Free legal forms and business templates – It’s a great repository to quickly find free templates for business documents (e.g. b-plans, legal templates, etc.).
- Online Project Management, Group Collaboration and Document Sharing ~ Huddle – Have found it useful for collaborating on projects.
- Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera – Sort of an odd tool, but can be useful for digitizing information you put on a whiteboard.

Most people have also find great ideas for their business from my blog: http://www. askentrepreneurs.blogspot.com

 

Tool #3. Pen and Paper. This is simply a can’t do without tool for every entrepreneur. Remember the saying,” The pen is mightier than the sword.” 

 
Tool #4. Business Cards. Customized Multimedia Business Card and Way To Wealth Marketing System are great tools for entrepreneurs.
Tool #5. Network / Peers. Networking with other entrepreneurs and sharing ideas with them is a must for today’s entrepreneurs.
Tool #6. Mentors. Having a mentor can make a huge difference to your results. Ideally make it someone you can meet with in person on a regular basis which helps keep you under pressure to achieve.
Tool #7. RSS Readers. Google Reader for quickly skimming through industry news and events.
Tool #8. Blogs. This is fast becoming a necessary tool for entrepreneurs. Check out my blog on quotes: http://www.whynotaskmillionaires.blogspot.com
OK, that’s the top eight tools from the youngentrepreneurs site. Here are the other tools that have been great for me.
Tool #9. Google. This my personal top tool.

 
Tool #10. Media. I don’t know how any entrepreneur can do without this.




So, there you have it, my top 10 tools for entrepreneurs.

Tips for Starting a Successful Business

 Here are 10 advices for starting your own successful business I got from a friend of mine.

1) Do what you love.
You're going to devote a lot of time and energy to starting a business and building it into a successful enterprise, so it's really important that you truly deeply enjoy what you do, whether it be running fishing charters, creating pottery or providing financial advice.

2)Don't quit your job yet!
How long can most people live without money? Not long. And it may be a long time before your new business actually makes any profits. Being employed while you're starting a business means money in your pocket while you're going through the starting a business process.

3) Don't do it alone.
You need a support system while you're starting a business (and afterwards). A family member or friend that you can bounce ideas off and who will listen sympathetically to the latest business start up crisis is invaluable. Even better, find a mentor. When you're starting a business experienced guidance is the best support sytem of all.


4) Get clients or customers first.
Don't wait until you've officially started your business to line these up, because your business can't survive without them. Do the networking. Make the contacts. Sell or even give away your products or services. You can't start marketing too soon.

5) Write your business plan.
The main reason for doing a business plan first when you're thinking of starting a business is that it can help you avoid sinking your time and money into starting a business that will not succeed.

6) Do your research.
You'll do a lot of research on your business plan, but that's just a start. When you're starting a business, you need to become an expert on your industry, products and services.

7) Get professional help.
On the other hand, just because you're starting a business, doesn't mean you have to be an expert on everything. If you're not an accountant or bookkeeper, hire one (or both).If you need to write up a contract, and you're not a lawyer, hire one. You will waste more time and possibly money in the long run trying to do things yourself that you are not qualifed to do.

8) Show yourself the money.
Save up if you have to. Approach potential investors and lenders. Figure our your financial fall-back plan. Don't expect to start a business and then walk into a bank and get money. Traditional lenders don't like new ideas and don't like businesses without proven track records.

9) Be professional from the get-go.
Everything about you and the way you do business needs to let people know that you are a professional running a serious business. That means getting all the accoutrements such as professional business card, a business phone and a business email address, and treating people in a professional, courteous manner.

10) Get the legal and tax issues right the first time.
It's much more difficult and expensive to unsnarl a mess afterwards.  Learn what your legal and tax responsibilities are before you start your business and operate accordingly.

Following the advice on starting a business above will make starting a business both a smoother, less stressful process and go a long way towards ensuring the busines you start lasts and thrives.

Tips for Achieving Your Goals

 Setting your goals is just one thing, getting yourself to work on the goals is another thing and actually the most important thing. Setting goals is great but until you work on those goals, merely setting them is not worth the time it took you to set them. Developing the ability to work on your goal is what give life to your goals and turn them into reality. So, here are a few tips that will help motivate and focus your energy on working your goals.

1. Make your goals tangible and visible. Most of us already know that it is vitally important to write your goals down. Writing down your goal put life into it.

It’s no longer just a thought! It’s becomes a commitment. Now, here is something you need to do that will help you to want to work on your goal. Make your goals tangible and visible.

When writing down your goal, describe what you to achieve in complete details. Make your goals as specific as you can.

After writing your goal down in complete details find a way to make it visible. You can have it printed and paste in somewhere you always see it. You can also print it on your business card and put it in your wallet. Or better still, you can print it so it would fit a picture frame, then frame it and put it on your desktop. This will help you to stay focused on your goal and create a clear mental image of what you want.

2. Ask your, why do I want to achieve your goal? This important because if you have a strong why you want to reach your goal, you’ll be most likely willing to work on achieving them. The truth is that, the stronger your reason for achieving your goals, the stronger will be your motivation towards achieving the goal.

Once you’ve defined your reason for wanting to achieve your goal, write it down and find the time to read it daily. This will help keep you focused and motivated.

3. Have a plan. The most difficult thing about achieving your goals is getting started on the goals. Develop a simply plan that helps you work your goals. Here is how to develop a plan that will focus your energy and help to motivate you to work your dream.  Every night write down a small task for the next day, this will help make working your goal easier. The trick is to set small goals that you work on daily that leads to achieving your overall goals.

Let’s say your goal is to write a book and you decided to write a page every day. Your small task will read: “Write a page of my new book.”

Yes, just one page, everyday. It would take you a few hours. And once you get started you will actually find out that you won’t mind even doing more than you planned.

4. Start working. A powerful idea that will help you work your goal is to tell yourself: “Now is the time to work!” And actually get started on working your goals. Most people waste their entire life waiting for perfect conditions or perfect opportunity before they began working on their goals, unfortunately, such things don’t exist, and so they end their life never doing anything. If you are going to achieve your goals, this very second is the only perfect moment to start working

towards your goals. No, it’s not tomorrow or next week or the first day of the

month. Right now is the time to start, so start working your goals.

5. Make working your goals fun. Are you the person who always puts things off and promises himself to do it later? Here is an idea that will help you. Make a game out of working your goals.

Challenge yourself! Set a record how many words you can write in an hour. Then try to beat your own record. Or you can time yourself to see how long it takes you to

write a page of your new book. And beat your record again!

Turn your goals into fun game. Just use a little imagination!

6. Write a success journal. Finally, a wonderful tip for achieving your goals is to keep a success journal. Unfortunately very few of us recognize the benefit of having a  success journal as it relate to achieving our goals. It takes only a few minutes a day to write down your achievements and the tasks you’ve accomplished. But these few minutes a day have the power to transform all your life. Here are three things have a success journal will do for you.

-Success journal motivates you. Writing down your achievements helps you feel the progress. You will see how by small steps you’re moving closer and closer to your

goals, and this will motivate you to want keep working your goals.

-Success journal keeps you focus. The very fact that you know you will have to write down your achievement at the end of the day helps focus your attention on achieving something for the day.

- Success journal simplifies your life. Things become much simpler when they are written down. A journal makes you more organized and focused.

Success!