An entrepreneur is someone who starts a new business. Starting a business involves a number of risks. It is not a comfortable path for everyone. Here is a quiz to help you decide if entrepreneurship is for you. (Usahawan adalah seseorang yang memulakan perniagaan baru. Seseorang yang memulakan perniagaan perlu menghadapi beberapa risiko dan ianya bukan jalan yang mudah. Kuiz berikut dapat membantu anda membuat keputusan sama ada keusahawanan adalah bidang yang sesuai untuk anda).
Rate yourself honestly on each of the following questions using this criteria:
If this is something you are missing or not good at, give yourself a -1
If you are okay in this are, give yourself a 0
If this is one of your strengths, give yourself a +1
Are you a self starter?
How well do you get along with different people?
How well do you make decisions?
Do you have the physical and emotional stamina to run a business?
How well do you plan and organize?
Is your drive strong enough to keep you motivated when the going gets rough?
Is your family supportive of you doing this?
Do you have the financial resources to keep you going for at least a year if you don’t have income from the business right away?
Total
Add up your scores.
A score above 0 means you have the potential to be an entrepreneur.
A negative score means that entrepreneurship might not be the right career for you.
A score of 8 is the highest score. You have a strong potential to succeed as an entrepreneur.
Research shows that most new businesses fail because of poor organization. Make certain that your business has someone with these skills if it is one of your weaknesses.
It is important for the people who rely on you for support to be aware of the financial and time limitations a new business may impose.
Look at what you do for fun and see if there is a way to start a new business in that field.
a) What are my objectives and my role?
b) What is the context of my presentation? (Audience & room size, location, time, what precedes and what follows).
c) How will I close the presentation?
d) How will I open the presentation?
e) How will I organise the body of the presentation?
f) How will I get their attention?
g) How will I keep their interest?
h) What questions will I ask?
i) What visual aids will I use?
j) How will I tailor the presentation to this audience?
k) What questions might the audience ask?
l) What notes do I need?
m) Do the audience need any form of handout?
“How to make nothing but money: Discovering your hidden opportunities for wealth”, Dave Del Dotto, N.Y.
Successful people:
• Never forget their goals and always work towards them.
• Adapt to changing situations making decisions along the way.
• Believe in themselves and what they are doing.
• Do not get disheartened by other’s lack of enthusiasm for their projects or goals.
• Spend their pennies wisely.
• Are up-to-date with topical changes and how these will affect their business.
“Experience has shown that some strategic actions fail more often than they succeed. Ten examples of strategic moves that usually produce poor results are presented below:
a) Imitating the moves of leading or successful competitors when the market has no more room for copycat products and look-alike competitors.
b) Spending more money on marketing and sales promotion to try and get round problems with product quality and product performance.
c) Establishing many weak market positions instead of a few strong ones.
d) Using debt to finance cost-saving investments in new facilities and equipment, then getting trapped with high fixed costs when demand turns down, excess capacity appears, and cash flows are too small to cover interest costs and debt repayment.
e) Allocating R&D efforts to weak products instead of strong products.
f) Attacking the market leaders head-on without having either a good competitive advantage or adequate financial strength.
g) Making such aggressive attempts to take market share that rivals are provoked into a strong retaliation and costly “arm-race” struggle. Such battles seldom produce a substantial change in market shares; the usual outcome is higher costs and profitless sales growth.
h) Initiating price cuts to win added market share without having a cost advantage.
i) Going after the high end of the market without having the reputation to attract buyers looking for name brand, prestige goods.
j) Depending on cosmetic product improvements to serve as a substitute for real innovation and extra customer value.
These mistakes are usually born out of acts of desperation, poor analysis of the industry and competitive conditions, and/or misjudgements.”- from unknown source.
