Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?
The Harvard Business Review posted a test this week, “Should You Be an Entrepreneur?”
The test of 20 questions was created by the author of the article, Daniel Isenberg, who is a professor of management practice at Babson College.
I thought it would be fun to pose these questions to those of you who are entrepreneurs, like myself, or to those of you who are considering taking the leap to starting your own business.
Here they are:
- I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.
- I like challenging myself.
- I like to win.
- I like being my own boss.
- I always look for new and better ways to do things.
- I like to question conventional wisdom.
- I like to get people together in order to get things done.
- People get excited by my ideas.
- I am rarely satisfied or complacent.
- I can’t sit still.
- I can usually work my way out of a difficult situation.
- I would rather fail at my own thing than succeed at someone else’s.
- Whenever there is a problem, I am ready to jump right in.
- I think old dogs can learn — even invent — new tricks.
- Members of my family run their own businesses.
- I have friends who run their own businesses.
- I worked after school and during vacations when I was growing up.
- I get an adrenaline rush from selling things.
- I am exhilarated by achieving results.
- I could have written a better test than Isenberg (and here is what I would change ….)
According to Isenberg, if you answered “yes” to 17 or more of these questions, you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. I can tell you this. I passed this test with flying colors!
I’m interested in getting your feedback on the questions. Do you think they are a good test of entrepreneurship?
How did you do on the test and what does that say about you?
I couldn’t help but notice #18, “I get an adrenaline rush from selling things”. This is definitely true for me, but what I believe is important for an entrepreneur is not necessarily getting a rush from selling things, but having the confidence and passion to sell YOURSELF . When you own your own business, you are not selling someone else’s products or services. You are selling YOU.
Your thoughts?
Are Women Good Networkers?
The Times Online from the UK, published an article in March called Why Women are Such Bad Networkers.
It’s no good thinking that hard work will get you anywhere. If you want to make it to the top, you’re going to have to overcome your fear of socializing and start schmoozing like men.
Of course, this caught my attention! Is this really true? Is it valid that women have a fear of socializing? Is it a valid point that women don’t schmooze like men? The implication is that men are better at building the social capital to advance their careers.
Let’s take one point at a time. I do believe that many women still feel that working hard is the best way to get ahead. Working hard yet being invisible in your company will not get you anywhere. While you are toiling away in your office long hours, men are working smarter by building social capital within the organization. Though this is a generalization, men do tend to be more visible. They promote themselves better than women. They take credit for their accomplishments and let other know the value that they bring; all this along with doing the tasks at hand. I’ve heard countless stories of women passed over for promotions due to a lack of visibility.
Lesson learned: Consciously put time aside to perform activities in your organization that will bring you more credibility and visibility. As an example, do you always work through lunch? Set aside at least one day a week to set up a lunch with a colleague. Be strategic about who you invite to lunch and widen your circle; increase your web of influence.
Next point: women are fearful of socializing. I do not believe this is true. Women love to socialize and, in fact, excel at building relationships. So what does the author of this article mean? I think the point is that women socialize differently than men. When it comes to building social capital to advance their careers, men are more direct.
In the article, Liz Cable, a social media expert, says,
I think when women hear the phrase ‘social network’, they hear social. Men hear network….Women are not promoting themselves in the right way. Many of them are slipping under the radar because they are afraid of people they don’t know saying no, either in person or online. Men don’t worry so much about rejection – they just go for it.
Despite 84 percent of users on the main social networking sites being female…twice as many men as women are likely to approach an unknown contact from an online network for business purposes’
Interesting statistic. Do you believe this is true? I’m not sure where the facts come from, but the point is still a good one.
Lesson learned: Widen your social circle online as well as in person. Make it a point to be more strategic about your online connections and contact people who will be able to build your business or increase your visibility in some fashion. It’s nice to accept invitations from others to connect online, but you can also be in control of who is in your network. Everyone who wants to be your “friend” online, may not be your best choice of a network contact. Do your own searches. Request introductions. Take the time to strategically build your network. Don’t leave it to chance.
I personally do not believe that women fear socializing. I just had the opportunity last week to do a presentation at the eWomen’s Network Boston Metro West chapter. Many of these networking organizations are now taking a different approach to the meetings in that they are facilitating networking by structuring activities that force women to connect, introduce themselves, and ask for what they need from others. I think this is great practice for women and I wondered to myself as I was participating in this exercise, if the dynamics of the meeting might change if men were present.
The author of the Times article expresses her point of view on women’s networking events,
In a business world still dominated by men, networking solely with other women is not much use.
There are many networking opportunities for women. For women who need practice promoting themselves and pitching their businesses, this is great. If your target audience is women, this is a great venue. However, I think we, as women, need to be more strategic with in person networking as well.
Lesson learned: Expand your networking events to include those events that have both men and women to build the social capital you need to advance your career and build your business. Be visible in your community through charity events. Volunteer to manage committees or projects at work that will help you stand out and then, of course, take the credit when you are successful.
Women are great at socializing but I think we need to be more strategic about how we network, who we include in our social networks, and how to promote ourselves to create the credibility and visibility we are need to advance our careers and build our businesses.
I would love to hear your thoughts on women and networking. Are we good at it?
What Is Your Attention Grabber?
I was in Orlando this past week with some colleagues training a medical device sales force on “purposeful communication”. “Purposeful Communication” is communication that has a goal or desired outcome and when applied to sales presentations, the objective is to create a sales presentation that is well organized around a desired outcome with your target audience.
Selling to a large or small group of potential decision makers has many similarities to promoting yourself and your business to prospective clients. One similarity is in the way you open a presentation. The opening of a sales presentation or “attention grabber” is much like the way you start your elevator pitch or promotional message.
Attention grabbers are just that. They are designed to get the attention of the audience from the start so that they will engage and listen to your message.
How effective is your attention grabber?
Here are some different suggestions on how to open your pitch to grab attention from the listeners.
- Open your pitch with a statement or question that creates some kind of an emotional bond. A good way to create an emotional bond might be to say, “Imagine yourself….. or how would it feel if….”. You can move your listener to a state of mind or emotion where they will connect with their need for your product or services.
- Ask a poignant question that demonstrates that you get their problem or challenges. “Have you ever experienced….? What do you do when….? etc.
- Share a story about yourself and your journey that connects with your business in some way. Maybe you experienced similar issues, overcame those issues and now are passionate about helping other people.
- Make a statement that has an unexpected ending or is surprising in some way.
- Use a quote or song title or lyric that people can easily identify with and fits well into your message.
Starting your promotional pitch with your name and company name is NOT a great attention grabber. You need to give people a reason to remember you before you give them this information.
Draw them in first with something that gets their attention and then talk about your business and the benefit your product or service will provide to them. NOW, they will remember your name and company!
Create a Great Elevator Pitch
Have you ever been to a networking event where everyone needs to stand up and introduce themselves? I don’t know about you, but after about 3-4 people stand up and recite their elevator pitches, I can’t remember who does what. Very few of them capture my attention. Even less of them are memorable. They all sound alike because everyone is using the same approach, the same boring approach.
How then can you distinguish yourself? How can you stand out in the crowd?
We all want to sound professional, but in our quest to be professional, our pitches often fall flat. The goal of a good pitch is to attract clients and be memorable. So how do you create a great message; one that is effective and “sticky”?
I find that most of the pitches I hear do not have the “sticky” factor. And many of the pitches are very difficult to deliver. They are too technical or too wordy and, therefore, lose the audience. Some of the pitches are too vague. Sometimes we use jargon that no one understands in an effort to sound professional. The end result is that people may think we’re smart, but they have no idea what are business is.
Here are some tips on how to create a great elevator pitch:
- Your message should be authentic. Don’t use a lot of jargon or professional language that is off putting. You won’t connect with people this way.
- Your message should be personal. Tell your story. People love stories and they remember them.
- Put energy and passion into your message. Let people know that you love what you do. Don’t you want to work with people who love what they do?
- Make an emotional connection with you message. Identify the need and pain of your target audience so that people can easily identify with what you provide and they will remember you.
- Make your message easy to deliver, conversational. Don’t write a speech that you need to memorize and recite. It doesn’t sound authentic. It’s boring.
- Stimulate curiosity. Give a teaser or enough information so that they want to learn more about you.
- It might be appropriate to make it light and fun. Try using cliches, song titles or quotes to begin your pitch and get people’s attention.
Promotional messages take time to create. Start big, not small. Brainstorm and write down all your ideas about how to present yourself and THEN review your notes and pull out sound bytes to craft a great message.
For more tips on how to create a great elevator pitch, listen to my Women Mean Business show, Tune Up Your Pitch. On the show, I coach 3 women entrepreneurs through a process to tune up their pitch!
www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=43836
What’s Your Story?
We all have unique stories to tell about our careers and our businesses. I did a presentation last week on self-promotion in Boston to the Downtown Women’s Club and heard many great stories from the attendees and I was reminded again how truly wonderful all our stories are. Each story reveals something personal about us.
What is the story behind starting our business? Where did the idea come from? Why did we choose to start this particular business?
What’s been our personal journey thus far? How have we taken our passion and turned it into a business?
What attracted us to a particular company and career?
When we incorporate stories into our promotional message, it creates a message that attracts listeners. People love stories so why don’t we tell them? Why do we hesitate tobe personal in our approach to self-promotion? Often we get so hung up on presenting a “professional” persona that we end up with a promotional pitch that falls flat.
If, in fact, the goal of a promotional pitch is to attract interest and be memorable, it only makes sense that we should infuse more of our personality and passion into the message.
What is your unique story and how might you include some of that story in your conversations about your business and career?
Telling your story can make a huge difference in a job interview. It’s certainly an improvement over just reciting your resume. Think of an appropriate story about your accomplishments that will set you apart from the other applicants.
At a networking event, how do you answer the question, “What do you do”? Keep the conversation lively by revealing something personal (o.k. maybe not too personal) about how and why you chose to start your business, about your passion for what you do. People will remember you as they also tune out everyone else’s boring elevator pitches.
In our quest to be professional, we create messages that are dull and forgettable.
Step out of the box and say something that will set you apart.
Isn’t that the goal after all? To have a message that people remember?
I’m offering a teleclass in November on “Promote Yourself to Success”. This class will be 3 consecutive Wednesday evenings 7-8 pm EDT starting November 4th. Three one hour sessions $99. Class limited to six.
Participants will:
-
create a new promotional message
-
develop an action plan for self-promotion
-
practice delivering their message
http://womenssuccesscoaching.com/november-teleclass-workshop-registration/
Promote Yourself With Passion
My first corporate job interview was for a health care management company that was looking for someone to manage their 30 physician cardiac rehab center. At the time, I was recently divorced with two young children and I was looking for a 9 to 5 job. In my interview, I didn’t talk about my business experience because I had none. I didn’t talk about my resume or skills because my background in education was not relevant. I spoke about my passion for cardiac fitness. (I was an aerobics instructor). I talked about how their mission to help patients transition back to a normal life post cardiac events resonated with me. I shared my personal story about my Dad who had a heart attack in his mid-fifties and how we dramatically changed our lifestyle to accommodate his new exercise and diet regimen. I believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing.
Long story short: I got the job! and a year and a half later I was managing eleven rehab centers for this company up and down the east coast. This was the beginning of a very successful corporate career for me. Though I was not conscious of what I was doing during that interview, I was promoting myself with passion and purpose.
This is a lesson that I share with all my clients and speaking audiences. If you are in a job interview, talking with a potential clients or making a sales presentation, it is important to connect with the passion and purpose for what you do. When you are authentic and enthusiastic about your job, your potential job, your product or services, people respond in a positive manner. People want to work with someone who is not only competent but has energy and passion for what they do. Wouldn’t you?
Choose Three Adjectives
Carla Harris, Managing Director on Global Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley, is quoted as saying that she believes the key to success is identifying “three adjectives you want people to use to describe you and then training people to see you that way”.
I love this idea! What Carla is really doing is creating her personal brand message by choosing these adjectives.
So, how do you decide which adjectives best describe you?
Try this exercise.
- List your top 3 personality “pluses” or your personal strengths that have contributed to your success.
- Record 3 of your recent accomplishments and review the list and reflect on what these accomplishments say about you. Write your answers.
- Look at both lists and choose the top 3 adjectives.
Now you are ready to go. Develop your personal brand message using the three adjectives. Incorporate your message into your social media profile, your website, your resume, your bio.
Write a personal affirmation using the three adjectives and keep it visible. Recite the affirmation daily so that you can easily identify with your message and the adjectives that best describe you.
How are these adjectives for a starter?
- Competent
- Self-confident
- Successful
What are your three adjectives? Let everyone know who you are and what you are all about.
Stop Talking Already!
This is a guest post by Laura Caton from The Cornerstone Group Inc. www.thecornerstonegroupinc.com
To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, and is as essential to all true conversation. ~Chinese proverb.
On May 21, more than 200 people attended the Sales 2.0 Conference hosted by Selling Power Magazine in Boston; unfortunately I was not one of them. However, a good friend of mine did attend and she came back from this meeting, brimming with enthusiasm. As we sat enjoying a delicious glass of chardonnay Saturday night, she explained her renewed gusto for selling–she was reborn. We talked about social networking and how this was the new way to generate leads. We both bemoaned the lead time for closing a sale and how businesses appear to be paralyzed by spending, any spending!
One of the more interesting observations that apparently came out of this conference for her was from Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and CEO of Personal Selling Power Inc. In his opening speech, “7 Key Trends in Selling,” he talks about ditching the pitch. (btw, Bonnie offers a program called Ditch the Pitch). She said, “You know, it’s more about having a conversation. It’s more important than ever before to talk with prospects, as opposed to at them.” Wow, I didn’t know this was a news flash. I was even more surprised to hear my friend, who I also saw at the hunter/sales person personified, say this straight faced—as if this was news to her! Quite frankly, I was more interested in drinking my wine and talking recipes from this month’s Food and Wine.
Curious as to what else happened at this conference, I went on the Sales 2.0′s web site for more information. I stumbled upon this, Barry Trailer, a Partner at CSO Insights, was quoted as saying, “The number one mistake I see in the area of “customer engagement” is that the Sales Reps think they should be doing all the talking”. Okay, maybe doing the stop, listen and listen is a news flash!
As a wholesaler for a large mutual fund company in the early 80′s, the sales approach was the same; product, product, product. Every quarter was devoted to hawking a particular sector. Jam it down their throats whether it fit our audience’s business model or not. It was a matter of shelf space for prospectuses at the Merrill Lynch office and points earned for fantastic due diligence trips. Just pitch the fund du jour and move to the next office. It was an unfulfilling sales position to say the least and I felt, dare I say, whorish at times.
Taking a more customer focused/consultative sales approach to selling is all about listening, and then asking strategic and investigative questions (so you do get to talk!). It applies to every sales appointment, phone conversation, and meeting you have with a potential buyer. Nancy Martini, CEO of PI Worldwide, states, “In a selling situation, the real world is divided into two “worlds” – yours and the prospects/clients. Often, sales professionals only focus on the “world” they are familiar with, their own.” The key is you can’t ask strategic questions if you don’t start by listening to the client or prospects’ needs.
Listening provides you with the information you want to work effectively in the prospect’s world. Good listening means you can link your value proposition to the client’s specific needs. It also means you can have a meaningful, shared conversation, as Mr. Gschwandtner suggests.
Most of us love to talk and listening is pretty hard. Many of us in sales love to share and socially connect with a person; which means talking.
So here’s a question, how well do you listen? Listening does not mean nodding your head in agreement and waiting to say what you want (this is my big listening challenge). It truly means putting your agenda aside. Make a point to practice good listening skills. Good listening is a commanding skill, which can set you apart from other out there. Ditch the pitch, sit back and never stop listening.
With extensive expertise in organizational & leadership development, the Cornerstone Group helps clients to build more productive organizations by better leveraging their most important asset, people.
Their unique approach to assessing people, finding their core strengths, and leveraging those strengths in current and future roles helps their clients to hire smarter, manage more effectively, and develop stronger leaders. Their unique process of assessment, training, consulting and ongoing support allows them to partner with their clients and create a road map for organizational success. www.thecornerstonegroupinc.com
Create Visibility to Market Your Personal Brand
Visibility is the key component to any successful marketing campaign. There is no limit to the ways that you can market yourself. Visibility is contagious and once you get started it takes off. The biggest challenge is to get started.
Be aware that everything you do and everything you don’t do or choose not to do is all part of your personal brand. It all communicates your value and character. The way you answer your phone is part of your brand message. Your voice message, the way you respond to emails are all part of your brand so it’s important to be conscious of the way you are communicating to people.
Here are some tips on how to create visibility for yourself to enhance your profile at work:
- Sign up for a special project or committee that has visibility within your company which will introduce you to new colleagues and showcase your skills or teach you new skills.
- Become a SME (subject matter expert). Teach at a community college or an adult education course.
- Start a blog on the subject. Create buzz about you and your brand.
- Write a contributing article/column for your local newspaper or alumni magazine. You will have a track record of your work.
- Sign up to speak at a conference. Volunteer for a panel discussion.
- Be strategic about social media networking sites. Choose the sites that best suit your needs to promote your brand and carefully craft your promotional message and profile online.
- Nurture your network. The best way to market your brand is word of mouth marketing. Find conscious ways to communicate your message to your contacts. What they say about your contributes to the value of your brand.
Marketing your brand requires you to act selfishly to promote yourself and to grow yourself. This is a win-win situation for you and your company. Everything you do to promote your personal brand and grow professionally is gravy for them. When you are learning, growing, building relationships,and delivering great results, it’s good for you and good for the company where you work.
10 Tips to Prepare for Your Job Interview
With good preparation, job interviews can be a great experience to not only showcase your talent but build new relationships.
Here are some tips to help you prepare for the best possible interview.
- Thoroughly research the company and the people who will be interviewing you. During the interview, refer to any pertinent information you learned in order to demonstrate your resourcefulness and interest in the company.
- Go back and review your strengths and accomplishments. Focus on why you are the best person for this job.
- Write down how your current boss would describe you and incorporate it into your interview.
- Emphasize your strengths, but don’t stretch the truth.
- Acknowledge your weak points if asked and be prepared to stress the positive side that outweighs any perceived weakness.
- Do NOT just recite your resume. Face to face interviews give you so much more opportunity to convey your passion, drive, energy, personality and enthusiasm for the job.
- Prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for the interview. Say to yourself, “I am thrilled to be here and I am so excited to tell you about my experiences. You will definitely want to hire me.”
- Create memorable messages and stories about yourself to use in the conversation. Is what you’re saying about yourself compelling and interesting? If not, go back and add some passion to your message.
- Practice a mock interview with a friend.
- Smile!
Need practice with your positive self-talk?
Join the Friday Breakfast Brag Club
starts this Friday, May 1st at 8-8:30 am EDT
or
enroll in the May Group Teleclass
The Power of Positive Self-Talk.
For more information and to register online:
http://womenssuccesscoaching.com/services/group-coaching
-
20 Minutes For $20
20 Minutes of Interviewing Coaching For Only $20...
Present yourself with confidence!
