Category Archives for "Empowering Young Entrepreneurs"

4 Ten Amazing Life Lessons to Develop An Entrepreneur Mindset

Today we’re looking at ten life lessons that are inherent in developing an entrepreneur mindset.

1. Follow your curiosity – Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the things you are interested in or want to know.  Questions are the key to learning and gaining knowledge.
2. Perseverance is priceless – Stick with whatever you are doing until you have gained what you set out to achieve.
3. Focus on the present – Focus is the key word here.  Keep your eye on your goal and don’t look back because that isn’t where you are headed.  You can only create your future by being in action in the here and now.
4. The imagination is powerful – The imagination is real for it is your relationship with thoughts.  It sounds deep, I know.  Whatever you can imagine can be real, just ask Walt Disney.
5. Make mistakes – Mistakes provide the greatest experiences for learning.  Never be afraid to make mistakes in business as there is always another chance to get it right.  If Plan A doesn’t work for you, don’t forget that you have 25 more letters in the alphabet.
6. Live in the moment – accept yourself and where you are in life at any given moment.  Don’t be envious of what other people have or appear to have.  If you want something different, take action to make it happen.
7. Create value – if you want to make your customers/clients to be happy, you have to provide them with something useful that they can use right away.
8. Don’t expect different results – Albert Einstein said that “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity.”  If what you have tried or are currently trying isn’t working for you, don’t do it again; try something different.
9. Knowledge comes from experience – you can learn things from other people and from books, however, you can never truly know something until you have had the experience of it.
10. Learn the rules and then play better – don’t just play by the rules, play better than rules.  Go a step beyond and your customers and clients will be happy and remain loyal.

6 A Three Step Equation That Equals Success

Welcome to Lesson #10 in the

Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series.

Today we are going to consider an easy three step equation to success that I borrowed from John Williams, president and founder of LogoGarden.com.   He writes, “Assuming the risk of establishing your own company can have a mind boggling return when it comes to career satisfaction [and to your lifestyle].  Your reward probably won’t be determined by just one brilliant idea that you cash in on, but instead by your desire to grow, your craving to build, and your aptitude to evolve.  Those are the unwavering ingredients that determine the entrepreneurship spirit.”

These are the qualities that we need to instill in and model to our young entrepreneurs.  The equation is simple:

1.) Passion + Drive

Passion + Drive will get you through the hard times which include mistakes, rejection and failure.

Talent isn’t the basis for starting a business, passion is.  Without passion about what you are doing, the project is sure to fail; it is dead where it stands.  Passion is what provides your business with the legs it needs to get up and running.

For example, are you an avid reader who loves real book?  Or maybe it doesn’t matter to you if it’s a real book or an ebook.  A used book store or online book trading company might be a perfect match for you.  Or do you love cars and don’t own one yet, how about a car detailing business?

Some people are very passionate about money and the competitive fire that burns within them while trying to make it.  No shame in that!  These people make great opportunistic businesses.  That means your passion is not for a particular business, but for any business that has a chance to be successful that will earn money.  The passion of this type of entrepreneur is planting a tree, watering it, and watching it grow.  It is about more than pursuing a trade that you are familiar with, in fact many entrepreneurs didn’t know much about their industry when they started, but they had the desire to learn about it, and even more importantly the drive to succeed at it.

2.) Organization + Vision

Organization + Vision keep your business on the right track.    

There are always going to be risks involved with starting your own business.  Once you have found your niche (your audience, your clients) is when you should begin visualizing your business and mapping out the goals which will serve as the foundation.  Foundations can shift, and as your business begins taking shape, your goals may change, but don’t neglect this step’s importance.  Without the foundation of goals your business may sink.  Goals give your business the oxygen it will need to survive; they give it A FIGHTING CHANCE!

3.) Networking + Learning

Networking + Learning will give your business credibility.

Getting serious about making this happen?  Now is the time to branch out and learn as much as much possible from other entrepreneurs who have a business similar to yours.  Social media is a great way to do that.  People who are on twitter and have Facebook pages are often easily accessible and very open to sharing their knowledge.  Also, take advantage of all the free videos, teleseminars and other training available on the internet related either to your business or to the skills needed to start a business.  There are some great entrepreneurial experts who create a lot of free content that you can take advantage of.

After learning as much as you can about the business you want to start, look in the mirror and ask yourself, “is this for me.”  If it is, start writing your goals based on your burning desires, your dreams and the vision you have created for your life.

All that’s left is to get started.

4 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Learn The Five Steps to Success

Determine what you really want.  You must know what you want before you can go after it.  Think about why you want this thing and what it will mean to you.  Visualize it in detail to the best of your ability.  Write it down.  Make a vision board.  Focus on your desire as much as possible.

Set a specific goal to obtain it.  To be effective, this goal must include a specific time frame and plan for its accomplishment. The goal should also be written down and studied regularly. Having a specific, written goal with a date for completion is the key to opening the power of your subconscious mind. As you read your goal, visualize or picture in your mind the achievement of what you desire.

Gain knowledge about your goal.  Learn everything that you can about the thing you desire.  Learn it from different perspectives, learn about people who have achieved your desire and about how they did it.  Listen to tapes, talk to experts, go to seminars to learn about it.  The more you know the easier it will be to spot opportunities and open doors and make good decisions.

Associate with people who share your goals and attitudes while avoiding those who don’t.  Don’t allow yourself to be with people who try to bring you down and try to convince you that you don’t have a chance of reaching your goal.  Find people who, like you, have a burning desire for something and are doing everything they can to reach that goal.  Join communities through social media of people who either want or already have what you want.  Talk with them, ask them questions, share the journey with them.

Don’t stop until you get it.  Do not ever give up or quit trying to get what you want.

4 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Get Stuff Done

Time is the one thing that we all have the same amount of every day and time, when lost or wasted, can never be replaced.  Don’t waste your time or anyone else’s time.

Let’s take a look at some facts about getting stuff done.

• What you do is more important than how you do it.
• 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort (time).
• The goal is maximum income from minimal necessary effort.
• Playing like you are busy is not productive
• Be more selective about what you do, do less, and be more productive.  Take an honest look at how much time you spend texting and Facebooking.  Is this productive?  Is it moving you towards your dream life?
• Lack of time is simply a lack of priorities.
• Limit the amount of things you actually do.  Focus on the most important ones.

If someone ordered you to “Stop doing 80% of what you’re doing!” what would you quit doing?  What are your big time wasters?  For example, watching television, playing video games, or just hanging out could be your big time wasters.

To be productive, try to never have more than 1-2 tasks to get done each day.  Do not multitask (doing more than one thing at a time) because it is very inefficient.  For example, it’s not effective to talk on the phone while you are doing your homework.  Do one thing start to finish then move on to the next.  This will save you time and you will accomplish more!

Now, let’s look at how you can get stuff done using a 3 step process.

The three steps we will look at include:

1. Brainstorming
2. Prioritizing
3. Creating a Visual

Step 1:  Brainstorm

Go somewhere different to brainstorm.  Get out of the house and find someplace where you will not be distracted.  You could go to the park, beach, coffee shop, or backyard. Turn off your cell phone and do a brain dump.  Create a list as long as possible of all the things you want to get done with, either for school and your business and your life.  Things you could have on your list include:  Getting on the honor roll, getting your GED, going to vocational school/college, being a role model for kids, volunteering, reconciling with a friend or family member, developing a website, creating a blog, and so on.  Do this for at least 30 minutes.

Don’t judge or analyze anything you write down because it will stop your creative flow. When you are finished, WALK AWAY.  On the next day, (or at least wait several hours) move on to Step 2.

Step 2:  Prioritize

You should begin this step after you have waited 24 hours or at least several hours after you complete your brainstorm list.  Now you will prioritize every idea on your brainstorm list rating it 1, 2, or 3 on the right side of each row or crossing the item off of your list.

• “1” for a high priority item.  It needs to be finished in 30 days.
• “2” for a medium priority item.  It is still important, but can take     30-90 days to complete.
• “3” for a low priority item.  It should get completed, but it may take a year or two.  Finishing it is not a big deal.
• Cross off any items that aren’t a 1, 2, or 3.

Step 3:  Create a Visual

Remember not to assign more than one or two tasks per day.  Your goal is success and completion, and if you feel successful you will keep going.  If you get behind, you may feel discouraged and quit.  Be realistic with how much time you have to get this stuff done.  Create three columns on a piece of paper:

• “What” Column.  List all of your high priority items from your brainstorm list (your #1s).
• “Who” Column.  Who is responsible for getting the task finished?  Unless you have others who are helping you, it is YOU.
• “When” Column.  The date you will finish the task.  Pick a date that gives you a little extra time because it is important to finish it by the date you commit to completing it.  This is the most important step because it is the ACTION step.  Be realistic in deciding when the task is to be completed by looking at everything else you have going on in your life.

Each of us is taking action every moment of every day.  Sometimes your actions will propel you forward with completing the items you have identified as high priorities in your life.  Other times, your actions will hold you back from truly getting what you want out of life.

You can use this exercise to prioritize your most important projects, then do this exercise again for each project you have to complete.  It may take a few extra minutes initially, but in the end it will save you a lot of time.

0 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs – Coping With Rejection

Any training designed to empower young entrepreneurs would be remiss if it didn’t include a lesson on coping with rejection.  We all experience rejection and it isn’t often that we are taught how to cope with it.

7 Easy Tips for Getting Over Rejection

1. Don’t take it personally.  It isn’t about you or the quality of your work.  Rejection in business and life is just of those pesky things we can’t avoid.  What you do or are trying to do isn’t going to be a good fit with everyone.  You just need to keep going.
2. Don’t over think it.  You’ll make yourself crazy and bring up all sorts of doubt.
3. Get mad. By yourself.  If you need to let it out, go somewhere no one will hear you or wonder what the yelling is all about.  Just get it out.  And then let it go and be done with it.
4. Vent to a friend or family member or talk to someone on your dream team or success team.  Someone who will listen to you gripe and offer you some ideas about how to improve your approach.  Be sure to hear what they are saying to you.
5. Write a letter that you’ll never send. Give all the reasons why you or your project should have been chosen. Then wait a day or two and read it.  Chances are you won’t feel as strongly as you did when you wrote it.  You might even laugh at yourself. But UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES do you email or send that letter!  Don’t be tempted.
6. Wait a week or two and then ask for constructive feedback from the person who turned you down.  Send an email or call and be VERY POLITE and as friendly as you can be under the circumstances.  Keep it simple.  Just ask, “May I ask you why I was turned down?”  Or whatever phrase fits here – refused, why did you say no?
7. After you’ve dealt with the loss, start again.   Never give up on your dream.  Did you know that a lot of famous writers, actors and others have experienced rejection?

9 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Be Self Empowered

In the first five lessons we’ve focused on empowering teens to develop an entrepreneur mindset.  This seems like a good time to take a look at encouraging young entrepreneurs to focus on being self empowered.  After all, we can only empower them for so long before they need to take responsibility for their own motivation and development.

In his Ebook, The Self Empowerment Guidebook, Chris Cade (http://www.chriscade.com), provides some tips for empowering yourself for success.  Share these tips with your young entrepreneur:

Stop thinking and feeling as if you’re a failure, because you’re not.

How can others accept you if YOU can’t accept YOU?

When you see others who you envy for any reason (beauty, wealth,etc), focus on your own self empowerment and not on self pitying.

Self-acceptance is not about how you fit into other peoples’ idea of the world, it is about accepting yourself in the world regardless of how others view you.

When people feel down and low about themselves, help them up.

Rather than join others in feeling low, choose to help them out through leading by example.  The more you radiate confidence, the more others will also feel and start to absorb that confidence themselves.

The world is your classroom.

Don’t feel stupid or doomed forever just because you made a mistake or “failed” at something. See how your experience is a lesson to learn from.

Everything has a silver lining—no exceptions!

Take things one step at a time.

Don’t expect massive changes overnight. Self empowerment is a process of taking lots of small steps that ultimately add up to something amazingly beautiful and profound.

Self empowerment results in inner stability, personality development and SUCCESS.

It comes from self awareness, self appreciation and self confidence.

Set meaningful and achievable goals.

Self empowerment doesn’t try to make you an exact replica of your idols or role models.  Self empowerment is the process by which you dissolve all of the false ideas you’ve adopted over the years, and you learn to see yourself for the amazing person you already are.

Little things mean a LOT to other people.

Sometimes, we don’t realize that the little things that we do like a pat on the back, saying “Hi” or asking somebody “How are you?” are simple things that mean so much to other people. When we are appreciative and grateful of all that is around us, it eventually reflects back inwardly and we become more  appreciative and grateful for who we are and our experience here on Earth.

Even though you’re willing to accept change and go through the process of self empowerment, it doesn’t mean that everyone else is.

The world is a place where people of different values and attitudes hang out. Sometimes, even if you think you and your best friend always like to do the same thing together at the same time, be aware that not everybody realizes the value of a path of self empowerment.

We should always remember that there’s no such thing as “overnight success.”  Be grateful for every moment of your life which has brought you to this moment here and now.

We are all here to learn our lessons. Our parents, school teachers, friends, colleagues, office mates, neighbors… they are our teachers. When we open our heart and mind to a path of self empowerment, we increase our chances of happiness, success, and lasting inner peace.

I hope you find these tips to self empowerment useful.  Tomorrow I’ll be posting about coping with rejection.  Having strategies in place to be able to keep ourselves motivated and not lose confidence in the face of rejection is a very important skill that entrepreneurs must have.

While you’re here, please take a minute to to ENTER TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program.   There are only 9 days left to become a winner!  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.

0 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Find Money and Resources to Get Started

One of the reasons that I encourage young people to start an internet business is because it is very inexpensive.  I know because I started my internet business with very little money.

Almost everything you need to learn is available on the internet for free.  Many internet marketers share much of their knowledge with you for free.  It just takes a little time and effort on your part, searching Google, Bing and other search engines to find what you need to know.  Http://www.ehow.com is another great source of “how to” information.

You can now set up a complete internet business on Facebook for no money.  Twitter, Pinterest, Diggs, Tumbler, Linkedin and other social media sites are also free and some are programmable so you can spend a relatively short amount of time in just one day a week programming all the messages you want to send.

To purchase a domain name, a name that is exclusively yours and will be the name of your online business, costs $10 at http://www.godaddy.com.  There are other sites where you can purchase a domain name as well.  Just do a Google search and you’ll find them.  I’m not going to go into the other tools you may or may not need right now as that is not the point of this particular lesson.

What I do want to focus on is how young people can raise the money for what they need.

The usual options for raising money such as car washes, doing odd jobs, pet sitting or dog walking, recycling and so on are all good ways to earn some extra cash.  If your teens explain to your friends and neighbors that that are trying to start a business and would appreciate it if they would donate their plastic or glass bottles for recycling, most of them will be happy to help.  Recycling each week can bring in that $10 to cover the cost of the domain name and in a month’s time might even pay for some needed supplies.

The next way is to form a dream team or a success team.  That would consist of parents, friends and relatives who might be open to helping your teen create their business.  The best way to build this team is for the teen to explain to these people what they are trying to accomplish and ask if that person can help them with either knowledge, cash, or other assistance.

This is called “enrolling” people to your cause.   Many people are happy to help guide a young person in a worthwhile endeavor.  The dream team or success team is like a board of directors that agree to be available to provide information, answers, guidance and in many cases, money.

Enrollment skills are important to success so as a parent, teacher or other caregiver or provider, you should not take over that job for your teen or young adult.  You should encourage them to approach the person directly.  This will help them face their fear of rejection and learn to cope with rejection.  This is another very valuable skill required for any business.  Not to mention that each successful enrollment will bolster their self-esteem and enhance their skills.

The bottom line is that if the young entrepreneur is committed to their business in a serious way, the assistance from others is not that difficult to obtain.

By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program?  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.

4 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Find Motivation

Today’s lesson is an exercise in finding motivation to move forward to create your dream life by building a business based on your passions.

The benefits of a lifestyle are many.  Let’s take a look at nine of them and see if you can come up with any others.

The greatest benefit of having a lifestyle is that it gives you the freedom to do several things.

#1:  focus on what is most important to you. Typically, people with a workstyle have jumbled lives.  A jumbled life leads to self-abuse and lots of stress.  People with cluttered lives normally have disorganized minds.   Chaos in thinking leads to burnout and eventually can lead to self-destruction and illness.  Who do you know that has a cluttered life?  Is it you?  Someone in your family?

Your goal is to create a simple lifestyle.  The acronym KISS can help you remember.  It stands for Keep It Simply Simple.  A simple life gives you:

#2:  freedom of time.  Look back at the pie charts you did where figured out how much time you actually spend on things and compare it to the time you want to spend on things.  Can you find a way to simplify the things you do to create more time?

Simplicity leads to:

#3:  more energy.  A simple life gives you the time to focus on your purpose, gain clarity, and to get the results you desire.

A simple life also leads to

#4:  balance and harmony.  It gives you the time not only to create financial freedom, which is the fifth benefit of a lifestyle.

#5:  financial freedom provides the opportunity to focus on the sixth benefit which is:

#6:  happiness and health.   If you have money, you can focus on having fun, eating in great restaurants, having the equipment and tools you need related to any sport, hobby or recreation you love and so much more.

A simple life allows you to focus on:

#7:  fulfilling work.  Doing work that you love that also helps others benefits us in ways that speaks to our heart and soul and makes us very happy and satisfied.  It also gives you time to create the eighth benefit:

#8:  positive habits which include eating well, exercising, and having more fun.  It also gives you the time and resources for:

#9:  giving back to your family, friends, community, and the world.  Can you imagine starting a successful business that creates enough wealth to be able to hire family members, friends, neighbors and others to help them have a better life?  You can become one of the real job creators.  You can donate money to your favorite charity or help your community improve..

As you think of all of these benefits of simplifying your life so you can live a lifestyle, can you think of any other advantages you would like to add to the list?  Let your imagination free here.

By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program?  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.

4 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs To Jump The Second Hurdle: No Time

The second most common hurdle that young entrepreneurs face is believing they don’t have the time or the money to start a business or to devote to making it work.  This article is going to focus on finding the time they need to start and to work a business.  It’s a really simple exercise.

The first thing to do is start two pie charts that look like clock faces without the hands.

Ask your teens to answer these two questions:

1. What do you spend most of your time doing?
2. What would you like to spend most of your time doing?

The answers to the questions should be put on the pie chart so they can see a physical representation of how much time they are actually spending on something versus how much time they want to be spending on something else.

Most often they spend a lot of time doing things that waste their time.  If they want to create a business, they need to focus on doing the things that will get them more of what they want in life, which are the things they listed in the second question.

By eliminating some of the time wasters, which usually include watching television, playing games, spending time on Facebook, over sleeping and so on, they can find the time they need to do the things that need to be done to create that business.

In the next post we’ll look at motivating teens to focus on doing the things that will get them more of what they listed on the second pie chart.   To motivate them to move in that direction, we’ll take a look at the benefits of living a lifestyle rather than a workstyle which will allow them to have the life they want.

By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program?  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.

5 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Face Their Fear

Empowering young entrepreneurs means to provide them with the tools they need to be successful.  It is essential that we teach them how to jump the hurdles that stand in the way of their moving forward toward something they want.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post there are three basic hurdles that many people have in common.  The first of those hurdles is Lack of Belief: “I don’t believe I can do this.”  There are many fear-based limiting beliefs that get in our way.  They include fear of failing, of succeeding, of not being good enough or worthy enough, fear of what others will think of us and so on.

There are two keys to facing these fears.  The first is to develop a positive attitude by making the decision to be in a positive mindset, believing that you will succeed.  It’s a choice for your teens and all they have to do is make it.  Attitude is one of the only things we actually have control over in our lives, we get to choose what kind of attitude we’re going to move through life with.  One quote I like a lot and have as my tag line is, “Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure.”  Another quote I like a lot is “A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it.”

The second key is to have a game plan.  Having a plan helps us stay on track and interested.  A plan is like a road map that helps us find our way from point A to each point along the way.

There are three steps to take to jumping this first hurdle.  They are:

1. Focus on your desires.  Focus on what you want and get into the feeling of what it would be like to have that desire fulfilled.  Seeing your desire and feeling what it would be like are essential to believing you can make it happen.  Help your teens create a vision board depicting the things they desire so they can focus on the pictures and use their imaginations to feel what it would be like to have what they desire, whether it’s a lavish lifestyle with a sports car and lots of bling and a mansion, good grades or good health.
2. Focus on who you are being.  Concentrate on raising the energy level.  High energy equals higher and more positive thoughts which equal no fear.  Gotta love those endorphins.  Don’t worry, be happy and you won’t be afraid.
3. Take action.  If your teen is a person that requires structure, then have her create a routine that gets her up and moving everyday so she can get that endorphin rush and be happy rather than be fearful.  Stick to her routine as much as possible so that she isn’t leaving room for doubt and fear to creep in.  And encourage her to get stuff done so she can see progress and feel happy about her accomplishments along the way.

Tomorrow we’ll take steps to jump the second hurdle, “I don’t have the time or the money.”  See you then.

By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program?  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.