The Entrepreneurial Carpe Diem

By Laura Shaheen

We could fill this space with the normal platitudes: “There’s no time like the present!” “Time waits for no man!” “Don’t put off on tomorrow what can be done today!” But besides those being irritably cheery, the core message is the same, and it’s one that’s existed since the start of humanity: get going. There are 24 hours in a day, and oftentimes we feel like we’re barely treading water as it is. That is when our real nemesis creeps in. Our worst enemy isn’t our schedule, or a bothersome coworker, it’s the mentality that perhaps, when the time is right, we might start buckling down to making things happen.

That’s the biggest excuse we hear from budding entrepreneurs about starting up their companies. There are a host of others: money issues, age issues, experience and confidence issues, but what all of the issues boil down to is that we live in a nation ruled by procrastination. There will never be a time when all the stars align, when you’re making more money than you’ve dreamed, and you have vast quantities of free time (However, if you do manage this, hats off to you. Perhaps you should look into motivational speaking.) For the rest of us normal folk, entrepreneurship is intimidating and we put it off.

No longer. Check out some of these tips, and get going.

1.)    Make the time: We’re all strapped for time. Honestly, sometimes it might seem like you’re pulled thin enough, by work, by your family, by your friends. The point is, however, that everyone you know is in the same boat. Twenty-four hours a day is all we have to make our impression, day after day. You have exactly one lifetime to leave a legacy. In the case of dithering over whether to get into the franchise business, follow the rest of our tips. Make time to research, and then think long and hard about whether the decision is right for you. Learn to prioritize and time-manage. A firm handle on those is like the key to the universe.

2.)    Turn struggle into a lesson: It’s tempting to ignore your struggles. It would be so much easier to turn a blind eye to your failures, and to avoid thinking about the mistakes you’ve made coming to the point you’re at this very second. While it’s not healthy to overly dwell on mistakes, neither is it beneficial to simply push them from your mind, time and time again. Learn from your mistakes, and then learn to push them away once you’ve established what you did wrong. As human beings, it’s instinct to make excuses, even to ourselves. Getting past that barrier of lying to oneself is like its own victory in the war of success.  

3.)    Research until you drop: This point, though down here at number three, is the cornerstone on which this entire article rests. Research. Perhaps opening a franchise isn’t right for you. But without research, you will continue to devote day after day to it in the back of your mind, hemming and hawing as you go over points with no facts to back them up. But perhaps entrepreneurship is the right road. Without making the time to learn, there’s no way that you can move forward. This is procrastination at its most aggressive and damaging. Arming yourself with knowledge can be what defeats the fear, and keeps procrastination at bay. Succeeding in this one aspect is one of the more vital aspects of entrepreneurial victory.

4.)    Discover online tools: Though this ties into research, we felt it deserved its own category. There are so many online tools available to the starting business owner. Cloud computing has become big, allowing you and your employees to access files no matter where you are on the globe. Skype can allow you to make international visits face to face, while other social medias keep you connected in a way that would have been unimaginable just ten years ago. There are also online tools to help you cut costs, like online faxing.

5.)    Buck up and accept responsibility: Finally, responsibility is what separates the go-getters from the mosey-alongers. Accepting responsibility for yourself, your customers and your employees is what can end up maximizing profits and allowing for growth. It’s easy to glide along on a wave of excuses, and most of the time people won’t even call you out on it. They probably recognize their own shortcomings in your words. “Yes, the economy is bad. I would do the same thing,” they say. However, if you accept responsibility and work through your struggles, you will command respect, something that can never be bought, and you will succeed where countless others have failed. That makes you special. That makes you unique.

Make the time, do your homework and take the reins of responsibility. It’s tough, it’s everyday, and it’s not for everyone, but those, as bluntly as possible, are the qualities that will push you into success.

By Laura Shaheen

At first glance, social media looks like a zoo. Between phrases like tweeting and retweeting, Facebook “likes,” and Foursquare “check-ins,” it’s easy to see how many business owners simply take a look and then leave the social networking to someone, anyone else. However, it’s unlikely that you’ve avoided social media completely, and that is a step in the right direction.

Social media experts (both self-proclaimed and the one or two Mark Zuckerbergs out there ) are a dime a dozen, but what they’re saying does have value: embrace social media. It’s here to stay, and where else can you potentially reach 250 million people in one place? When the internet rolled around, a new playground was born and rules changed. The same thing is occurring now, instigated by websites like Facebook and Twitter. With a firm grasp on social networking, your company can quickly not only announce its presence, but it can add something to your client relations that’s impossible to find in a newspaper ad or a television commercial: real, human interaction.

One of the most important and worthwhile things to remember about social media is that there are real people behind the blocks of type. When a customer writes on your company’s page wall to thank you for the service you provided, you get a chance to write back to them and actually interact. That tiny effort, that simple acknowledgement, can do wonders for the good will of your business. If a customer complains on your Facebook wall? Don’t delete it out of hand. Talk to them, figure out the problem, and then try and make reparations. A client you might have lost forever could now be telling all of his friends about how Your Company so quickly addressed his problems. People idly scrolling down the page can see how you treat customers and just like that, more business.   Facebook, Twitter and other social medias are powerful tools, and they don’t have to be intimidating. Check out some of these helpful tips for social media and your page will blossom.

1.)    Create an account and maintain it. This is one of the most critical steps, and though it may appear self-explanatory, it’s the one that companies most often forget. Once you make your Facebook Page, or create your Twitter account, do not simply leave it there to wallow in the internet wasteland. Assign someone to monitor your social media. Without proper monitoring, you might never even get this wonderful opportunity off the ground. If you’re finding yourself strapped for time and knowledge, consider creating a marketing internship position. College students in the area thrive on social media, and marketing internships are highly coveted and highly sought after. Pretty soon you’ll be weeding out the best of the best from your applicants and setting their minds on improving business for your company.

2.)    Create content, don’t merely advertise. One of the reasons that people elect to “like” your page or follow your tweets is that they feel you have something to add to the table. Use this opportunity to inform your fans about things they might not know. Give them a reason to consult your page, and above all else, keep them from regretting they added you.

1. a.       Creating content

i.      Post helpful tips that apply to your customer’s needs. In the yard business? How about some free tips on landscape management?

ii.      Make your company human: post pictures of your employees, have interviews with satisfied clients. The more interactive your page is, the longer people will stick around to look at it.  

iii.    Ask questions, use polls, and get people talking. Make people want to check out your page in the mornings.

3.)    Always keep your eyes open for new ways to advertise. With the proliferation of social medias mobbing the internet, Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only options around. This is especially true depending on the typical demographic of your specific clientele.  A new contender, Foursquare has hit the market hard, increasing their users from 1 million to 10 million in one year. Foursquare is a check-in application at its heart, and as a company owner, if a user checks in at your location, you can offer them a variety of small discounts while they create buzz with their location being posted on various internet profiles. In addition to Foursquare, other social media platforms are changing the ways that people find businesses.

Overall, social media has proved time and time again that it is here to stay and that it can be an effective and inexpensive way to reach consumers you might never have anticipated. If you have a social media page already, give it a makeover, if you don’t have one, well then, what are you waiting for? New ways to spread your company’s name are being created almost more quickly than companies can keep up with, and that simply is an opportunity that cannot be missed.