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MenuHow could I seek out a Mentor? Preferably a Mentor who's already had a successful Business.
i'm 18 and looking to find someone who can help me pursue my dreams and my vision, Im willing to work for free if i have to, as long as someone can help mentor me.
Answers
Great question! I recently came across a mentoring website called http://www.micromentor.org/ which could be a great place to start. Additionally, I like this site as well: https://www.dreamseedo.org/. One final way you can approach this especially if you are looking to start a business is to do the e-learning route through a website I found called http://startitup.com. It is completely free and takes your through an interactive Lean Launch Program so you can better articulate what your vision and dreams are. One final mentor source that I have found to be most valuable, read inspiration and motivational business books. They will ultimately create within you a thirst for knowledge. Think and Grow Rich is my all time favorite and is a timeless classic. Good luck my friend!
This is a great question. I had the same question 15 years ago.
I recommend you this:
1-Write on a paper what you would love to learn about. What would be something that if someone gives you 10 books about it you will read them all without any problem. What is that thing that if someone would ask you to do you will do for free over and over again.
2-Who are the people (close to where you live) that are the best in what you find out in point 1. Your "heroes". Find who they are and how they interact. Read what they write and listen to what they say. Would you like to work for them?
3-Approach them. This is a whole thing on itself! Depends on each person and where you are.
Get started !
I recommend the site Mentorcity.com. It connects with your LinkedIn profile and you set up more details describing your soft skills and professional expertise, the things you are looking for and the things you have to offer. Then up to four recommendations come up for you to consider as a mentor, you set up a 15 minute conversation to see if you want to work together and you go from there. The site has very useful forms and resources, references and ways to connect. You can very specifically target the skills and type of support you are looking for in a mentor and there is less likelihood of the "chemistry" not working. Give them a try and let me know what you think! Oh, did I mention it is free?
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What is the best way of coming up with business name ideas?
A good name is unique, and stands out but should ideally create a positive association with it, especially your target demographic. When it comes to naming new products, companies will spend sometimes months and go through thousands of options before arriving on the one that they'll ultimately go with. Don't rush this process because its ultimately much more costly to have to go back or change, or ultimately fail because the name did not resonate enough with your target demographic. The name is not everything but it's a huge part. Go to techcrunch or cruncbase and look at any number of new start ups which are probably all great ideas or products but because they have either a dumb name or a not so unique name, they can fail. My personal pet peeve is the stilted and formulaic neologism of adding "ly" at the end of any noun or verb---perfectly hilariously noted throughout HBO's Silicon Valley. At this point, we are all more clever than this. Anyway, when you have only seconds to make an impression on a consumer, the last thing you want is cognitive dissonance caused by the name. Cognitive dissonance occurs when the signifier is not what is signified and vice versa; you're looking at a bicycle but someone insists it's a fish. And you're like, wtf. This happens when you're looking at a great product but then it unexpectedly has a weird or dumb name, a range of slight neorological impressions then occur, effecting the emotional relationship between consumer and product: confusion, annoyance, distrust, etc. All of these slight negative responses are not what you want associated with your product when you only have seconds to make an impression. That's why a good name matters. Now to your name: Dude Undies. Scrap this immediately. First of all, when it comes to men's underwear (I'm assuming this is your product), this is dangerous minefield territory because whether you like it or not, you're automatically dealing with issues of male insecurities involving self worth, virility, potency, etc Some light word association exercises (maybe among your friends) might be helpful in yielding an alternative to "undies" which i associate with: children, bedtime, potty training, etc.Absolutely not what men want to be wearing. You can see why this word next to "Dude" is cognitive dissonance in and of itself, never mind your product. I suggest you go back to the drawing board on this. Think about what makes your product different from your competitors', what value are you bringing to the market? Play with these ideas make a list of at least 50 words (thesaurus.com is very helpful) find a word or words that at least create that same impression. From my own observations, I've found that men love products with as few syllables as possible. If this is too daunting for you, enlist the help of a good copy writer with experience in product naming (I know a few if you need one), they should be able to give you a list of ad campaigns that they worked on. Paying them $100 for a good name is worth it in the long run. I hope this helps, best of luck to you!VG
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What is essential for the skeleton of a business plan?
1. Lucid understanding of the objective behind business plan development 2. Customizing the content plan (skeleton) per objective 3. Adopting planning the business approach than writing a business plan 4. Knowing "How-To" and "What-If" Hope above to be of some help. Looking for anything specific? Feel free to reach out.SB
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Any advice on starting up small businesses in two countries at the same time?
Please realize that my suggestion would be slightly different if I knew which two countries. However, without knowing that here's what I'd suggestion: 1. Since you're just getting started figure out which country provides the best legal benefits for starting a company. This should include tax benefits, legal protection, and ease when it comes to filing paperwork (incorporating, managing payroll, taxes, etc.). This will undoubtedly save you time and money moving forward, and staying lean. 2. Once you've established your home base country, you'll still need to hire people in the other country as you scale. You may want to think about using a service like oDesk or Elance, not necessarily to recruit people but to manage ALL the paperwork associated with hiring international people. They will of course be given contract status. If you are going to be providing employees equity then I'd suggest consulting a lawyer for how people in the non-home base country will be treated. 3. Reporting revenue. You need to be very careful about whether you are providing goods and services. If it's goods keep in mind that you might be subject to tariffs. If you're providing services then I think you might be in the clear, but please double check. Finally, some countries might have an issue with where the revenue was actually made i.e. are you sitting in your office in your home based country while servicing clients in the non-home base country, or are you actually in the non-home base country. 4. No matter what you'll need to setup a remote working environment for yourself. Invest in the best technology you can, and find clients who are willing to utilize your services on a remote basis. Here are a few additional posts on running a remote team that I've written: http://femgineer.com/2013/09/running-remote-and-making-progress/ http://femgineer.com/2013/03/how-to-transition-to-a-remote-team/PV
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What should be the top priorities for an entrepreneur when starting a company?
Making sales and figuring out what potential customers want. Really, everything else can be done after you've proven that there really is a business opportunity. www.DavidCBarnett.comDC
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What is Xiaomi truly selling?
Assuming links work here, a couple good articles: http://www.techinasia.com/xiaomi-reports-monthly-revenues-49-million-miui-android-ecosystem/ http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/09/06/heres-why-you-should-care-about-rising-chinese-smartphone-firm-xiaomi/ http://www.rioleo.org/xiaomi-miui-and-the-android-ecosystem-within-china.php In short, everyone wants a piece of the ecosystem game. Some is poorly thought out (Leap Motion is doing it badly) but for the core concept I refer you to Motorola's mobile phone business. Several times they have been the absolute dominant force in the industry. But, when you sell consumer hardware only, busts can follow booms. And did for them, many times. An ecosystem means ongoing revenue, not just periodic hardware sales. It means secondary market sales are the same to you, as the ongoing revenue is what you want, and it means increased stickiness. Apple lives by this, and embraces their customers being stuck on their products. There is almost no such thing as an apples-to-apples comparison consumers can make when the get used to your ecosystems. Perceived or actual switching costs muddy the waters for them, so you have them longer. Xiaomi is getting this sort of loyalty. There's other interesting issues having to do with their market. Play store, for example, is not really a thing in China. I can go on and on about this, so ask me if you have additional questions.SH
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