The Dangerous Rise of "Entrepreneurship Porn" - Morra Aarons-Mele. By Morra Aarons-Mele | 12:00 PM January 6, 2014 Sir Richard Branson has proclaimed 2014 “The Year of the Entrepreneur.” Breathless coverage abounds: sexy stories of the young and old who threw off the yoke and started their own businesses. It’s all goodbye cubicle — hello freedom, vitality, creativity. Fed by media and online coverage of an idealized lifestyle, this “entrepreneurship porn” presents an airbrushed reality in which all work is always meaningful and running your own business is a way to achieve better work/life harmony. But the reality of starting and running a small business is different from the fantasy – and I should know, because I run one, and am married to a long-time entrepreneur.
Starting a company doesn’t mean being freed from the grind; it means that the buck stops with you, always, even if it’s Sunday morning or Friday night. Moreover, it’s just not possible that every smart young graduate can launch her own successful enterprise. Daniel Priestley | It’s only a game. The most powerful move in Monopoly isn’t mentioned in the rulebook. It’s the moment when you realise it’s all just a game. The money is made up, the lines on the board are made up and your identity is made up. You remember at any time you can walk away from the game and there’s a big wide world to explore that you’d forgotten even existed while you were fixated on every role of the dice. In the game of Monopoly, the powerful player who’s locked down the board only remains powerful while the other players stay fixed on the game.
Every time the dice is thrown, the weaker players grimace, cringe, sigh and shrug as their “life” gets tougher and tougher. But then it happens, as it always does, the weaker players say “you know what, I’m done, I’m not playing this game any more – you win – I’m walking away”. The same is true for life, the moment you realise it’s all just a game, you’re free to play it however you like. If you released yourself from your current “game” what would come next? Seven urgent challenges for your business in 2014. I’ve felt for a long time that from 2010 – 2015 is a transitional “grace period” whereby the market will let you figure out how to transform your business and your life to match these new trends. After that, I believe that a lot of people will be left behind while a small percentage of savvy entrepreneurs do extremely well. From 2015 onward, you better have your house in order as the new, enhanced, digital economy really starts to take flight. What that means is you have this year (2014) to really shift the way you make money and live your life.
Get it right and the next 10 years will feel like you’ve got super powers, get it wrong and the next decade will feel like you’ve been robbed. Here’s my top 7 things to focus on for 2014: 1. 2. 3. You need to know what’s worth paying for, what’s worth doing in-house and what you can bolt together for free/almost free. 4. 5. 6. 7. This year could be a pivotal year for you but only if you get onto the front foot. The Surest Way to Succeed as a New Entrepreneur (+20 Tweetable Quotes) There’s a lot of stuff to read isn’t there? So much stuff that it can make your head spin. My “to read” list keeps growing on a daily basis. And it’s very easy to get stuck in the trap of constantly absorbing new information. Then some of that information contradicts each other. And now you’re in real trouble. You start analyzing. As a part of this month’s “Word Carnival” I am to pick ONE piece of advice to give to new entrepreneurs.
I had to rattle my brain a bit…because boiling it down to just one thing is really freaking hard. You see, I’m a thinker. I think and analyze, then analyze some more. But in business, good enough is often good enough. The thing is, business is fluid. There’s No Such Thing as Perfectionism It’s easy to write off delays in attempting or launching something new as “perfectionism.” There is always something you can test and improve.
That’s the beauty of business and marketing (by the way, every business is in the business of marketing). You Need a Baseline Launch. For your health / What to do when your business buckets overflow. The Bigger Plate Phenomenon | WTF Marketing - Fort Collins Colorado Marketing Experts. I’m struggling with this post. I wanted to start it by being funny. I’ve built a business on funny. You’re expecting funny. Knock, Knock? The truth is I haven’t felt like writing much of anything lately. The particulars of why aren’t important – but the vagaries are: I felt like my life turned sideways. Here’s what happened (and while I hate to mix metaphors, I won’t ever hit the publish button without doing so): think about a bucket. Seriously. I had to retool and reset.
That probably makes no sense. Given that you, I, and everybody else act like clueless cud-chewing cows in the mere presence of larger containers, it stands to reason that a similar mental loophole could be applied to work in our favor. Consider how you protect your psyche when you get overwhelmed: almost everybody seeks out smaller and more focused tasks until you can score a victory. In my mind, each new project is a new food group that has to be accounted for with its own dedicated space (kind of like Thanksgiving). Marketing Con Queso by Michelle Macphearson & Justin Brooke.
Call A Biz Hero by Nicole Fende & Laura Petrolino. 15 Online Resources For Women Entrepreneurs. Business Published on September 4th, 2012 | by Priti Ambani In the spirit of Women’s Week on Important Media, I had to write about one of the best ways to empower women all over the world- entrepreneurship. Are you a women entrepreneur looking for some tools, tips and advice? Or plain ideas on how to make a positive change to your community and the world? Here are some of my picks from around the internet. Women Entrepreneur: The women’s center of entrepreneur.com. There you go! Women entrepreneur image via shutterstock Tags: business resources, startups, women entrepreneurs About the Author Priti Ambani Hi there! Marketing Ideas & Business Advice ➤ For Women Entrepreneurs.