Guest Post

From a young and upcoming engineer named Daniel Townsend, he is also a designer and compulsive blogger.

Daniel Townsend: Studying Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, and takes part in the Design London Fellowship program, which allows engineers to take the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design modules of the Imperial Business School MBA.

Check out his start up company also, www.dormroomtycoon.com some good stories, lessons and advice

Statements which kill innovation

No way.
Yes, but…
That’s irrelevant.
It is not in the budget.
We tried that before.
Don’t rock the boat!
We haven’t got the manpower.
The boss will eat you alive.
It will be more trouble than it’s worth.
Obviously, you misread my request.
That’s not in your job description!
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Great idea, but not for us.
Get a committee to look in to that.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
You have got to be kidding!
It isn’t your responsibility.
We’ve always done it this way…
Put it in writing.
Don’t waste time thinking.
What will people say?
It will never fly.
Don’t be ridiculous.
People don’t want change.
Let’s stick with what works.
We’ve done alright so far.
The boss will never go for it.
It’s too far ahead of the times.
Do you realise the paper work it’ll create?
I’m the only one who gets paid to think.
It’s ok in theory…but…
Be practical!
Don’t fight city hall!
Because I said so.
I’ll get back to you.
That will never work!

Obviously you don’t want such negativity in your organisation, so why not preempt it by pinning this list somewhere highly visible?

Well its true, information is useless without interaction and vice versa. Think of it as a 1-2 punch combo – budding entrepreneurs ought to get into the habit of combining both on a consistent basis.

According to businessdictionary.com information is defined as:

In general, raw data that (1) has been verified to be accurate and timely, (2) is specific and organised for a purpose, (3) is presented within a context that gives it meaning and relevance, and which (4) leads to increase in understanding and decrease in uncertainty. The value of information lies solely in its ability to affect a behaviour, decision, or outcome. A piece of information is considered valueless if, after receiving it, things remain unchanged.

Take note of the final section of that definition (in bold). It suggests acting on the information. In the context of business, this is carried out by interacting with individuals, companies and groups. Read the rest of this entry »

As we draw ever closer to the end of another week, the 41^st in the calendar year, can I kindly ask you to reflect on your year thus far?

In terms of your business ventures, would you say you were on track, exceeding expectations or falling behind, struggling to get a grip of things? Have you made costly mistakes that you regret? What have you learnt about yourself and your business? Is everything rolling like clockwork – a stroll in the park? Are you too risk-averse? Is fear holding you back? Are you inspired and ready to grab the bull by the horns? What do you call yourself today?

Entrepreneurialism is laced with challenges, a lot of which are foreign to budding entrepreneurs: getting started, dealing with setbacks and keeping your mind and body energised, financing, battling the fear of the unknown.

Personally, I think I’m still miles away from where I want to be as an entrepreneur. Like a lot of people, the start of the year brings with it a new wave of expectation, optimism and milestones to attain. How have I faired thus far? Well, if I were to mark myself out of 10, I’d give myself a conservative 6.8.

The biggest change for me this year has been a shift in mindset towards action. Every action creates a reaction, basic laws of physics. In order to get a reaction, one must act, irrespective of the potential outcomes. It was all too often the case that I would do more thinking and researching than acting. I’d spend too much time painting an image of the potential scenarios and wondering how I’d feel and react to this at the expense of acting. How was I expecting to get anywhere?

One of the biggest mistakes one can make as a budding entrepreneur is letting your fears govern your actions. Naturally, the unknown does present an element of fear but learn to harness the emotion rather than hamper you. Fear can be used to consolidate your plan by creating key performance indicators. Remember however, the plan is an ACTION plan. If you don’t plan to act, there’s no use having one.

We all lie of different parts of the standard growth ‘S’ curve, whether it’s the early stage (hard yards) or the rapid incline (overnight success) or the point where you’re thinking of the next big thing. Wherever you are, remember the power of reflection and critical self-analysis. It really does help to put everything into perspective.

The beauty of a business networking platform is that ability to meet peers that can help educate you about yourself and your business – realign your goals and strategies. Relationships are there to be formed and leveraged on in a positive manner. I often take for granted the relationships I have amongst my peers. When in doubt, they are a great source for inspiration and renewed drive.

I implore you to keep on persevering. There will always be early adopter critics or investors wanting rigid and proven tactics but stay true to your vision. Remember to act if you want a reaction.

What part of your game do you think you need to work on? Would love to hear your thoughts and what you have done to improve it.

Once again, the latest update with BiWhizz. Signed, sealed, delivered.

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Earlier this week, I wrote a tweet, inspired by Adam Singer, which said:

‘U wouldn’t think it but enemies r vital. Not those that will snipe u, but industry-wise (opinions). If u have none, find a way to make sum’

In tweeting this, I was referring, in line the post that inspired it, to one of the proven blog marketing tactics that are used today.

Little did I know that some of my followers, many of whom are budding entrepreneurs, took this as an interpretation of how to operate in the business arena – and quite justifiably too.

What ensued was a tweet from a follower in reply saying:

‘There’s some truth in that, read this post by @maxklein on business and enemies it might help shed some light http://bit.ly/bxT7eT’

‘Great’ I thought to myself. I’m always one for reading new content and expanding the source pool of knowledge, so I proceeded to read. Read the rest of this entry »

SPOILER: STRONG LANGUAGE CONTAINED WITHIN THIS ARTICLE

Sometimes the toils of being an entrepreneur and the general cycle of entrepreneurship can be a biatch. There, I said it – you know i’m right though. Its stressful, tiring, emotionally draining, drastic, dramatic, all the ingredients found in a good film.

I mean the highs are bloody brilliant, striking a new partnership, winning new clients, raising the good cash you risked your life-savings for. The highs definitely make being an entrepreneur the perfect job/career, call it what you will – its just so damn sweet.

BUT, yes of course there is a BUT – the flipside of any high is the heavy-hitting low. I mean these can be so brutal, leaving you jaded and completely disillusioned. The constant need to bootstrap implies not knowing whether you will make the next month’s server payment, engineering costs or some other soul-damaging expense. I know there will be readers thinking ‘ah, you can’t be very astute at business, neglecting budgeting’ or some other snarky comment. Truth is, for most fledgling start-ups, especially young bucks in the game, the stark reality is that there is no ‘real’ money in the bank to even begin drawing up budgets, cash flow forecasts or any of that sort. Read the rest of this entry »

As budding entrepreneurs you’ll find yourself doing a lot of reading (books, magazines, newsletters, blogs, whatever tickles your fancy really).

It could be that you have your relied sources from which you gather your reading material and don’t venture out of these boundaries. However, I believe that budding entrepreneurs that truly seek to grow, irrespective of industry, development stage or age, would look for new sources or stumble upon new sources to expand their source pool and subsequent knowledge.

Social media and business networking does enable this, however I thought I’d use this blog post to share my top ten articles/ blog posts that have changed me as an entrepreneur and business owner. I have them bookmarked and consistently refer to them – they’re timeless pieces of information.

I have purposely left out any brief descriptions about the post, just to not influence your choice – let the titles by your guide. Hopefully you will read them all, if not at least skim over them.

Enjoy!

1. A Secret Of The Social Web: Passion
2. The Godfather Approach to Internet Marketing
3. Russell Bishop: The Universe Rewards Action, Not Thought
4. How to Make Sure Your Product Rocks
5. VatorNews – Three fremium strategies
6. From Nothing To Something. How To Get There.
7. What if your company were a startup?
8. Why People Fail | Chris Garrett on New Media
9. Shaping Social Business Ecosystems as Learnscapes « Skilful Minds
10. Social Networking Features are Toilets | chrisbrogan.com

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