We Tend to Take a Different Stance on What Entrepreneur Education is all About

Our team has MBA’s, self-started Entrepreneurs, and a guy known as the “Silver Fox” who’s seen it all. We know a thing or two about entrepreneurship, and what it really means (although they won’t tell you that in B-School). One of our beliefs about entrepreneur education is that anyone can learn and be innovative if coached and given the correct enablers. The real problem with 99.9% of innovative people out there is they never realize the full extent of their ideas. We stress the term “realize” because you can go out and get the best education money can buy, but that in itself will not guarantee success without real world enablers [QUALIFIER: Harvard, Stanford and Wharton = guaranteed success].

The True Entrepreneur Education is Innovation

The term “realize” is also a key differentiator with our team you will not find elsewhere, and reason you need us although you may not have realized that yet. If we want to tie a lesson of entrepreneur education into innovation, let us start by looking no further than the most innovative company on the planet. That company is Apple. Apple’s name originated from a time period when their legendary founder Steve Jobs spent his summers working on small farms, and was rumored to have eaten diets consisting of only fruits and vegetables.

Completed your Entrepreneur Education and ready for the next step? Pitch us your idea, and let us help you realize it.

When it comes designing websites, start-up companies are many times victim to the old saying that states “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Unlike large corporations who have in-house design teams, start-ups and small businesses are left to their own ill-equipped devices or left in the hands of an overseas design firm.

It generally takes a third party to point out a website’s physical and esthetic flaws. Sometimes it takes a few hundred of your dearest friends and colleagues to convince you that your website is ugly or worse, doesn’t functional as intended. An ugly or broken website can come in many shapes and sizes. It may have a horrendous color scheme, a nasty logo, outdated architecture, inappropriate images, spelling errors, or it just might be difficult to navigate and locate information.  Forms may be broken or images replaced with large red Xs.  Regardless, these ugly ducklings exist and they seem to be growing and living well past their intended lifecycle.

As a entrepreneur you need to listen to those around you and seek outsiders’ opinions. If someone you know and trust or even a prospective customer tells you your website has “issues”, it probably does need a refresh or a complete overhaul.

Seek outside help and seek it quickly. On the internet, you could be losing potential customers and sales every day without even knowing it.

It has come to my attention that in the arena of social media manners, I am an underground cave dweller, who should not be allowed to see daylight because there is too much of a chance that I could misstep and bring shame to myself, my company, and possibly my mother. I have not figured out which is worse, shame to my company or shame to my mother. I’m thinking my company because my mom doesn’t pay my bills.

I, the social media novice, was shame shamed yesterday by our resident social media expert. I drove my car down the road of good intentions and got pulled over and ticketed by the social media police. I have to go before him tomorrow and I think he may take away my iPad, or worse, my company Facebook administrator status. For you see, there are rules to social media and those rules must be followed.

Social Media Rules to Live By

• Rule Number One: Unless you are deemed by your company as THE expert, you are not the expert. if you went to the circus and saw the lion tamer put his head in the lion’s mouth, would you run over, push him out of the way, and yell, “Shove over, bud, I’ll show you how it’s done!” No, you wouldn’t. Why? Just because you own a cat doesn’t make you a lion tamer. Just because you have your own Facebook and Twitter account doesn’t mean that you have the skill set to drive your company’s social media campaign. Shove over, bud, and let the experts do their thing.
• Rule Number Two: Have guidelines for your company regarding social media. You probably laugh every time you get a cup of coffee from a drive thru and it says something to the effect of CAUTION: CONTENTS HOT because you’re thinking to yourself, “Seriously?” Personally, I read the back of the shampoo container when I’m feeling blue just to laugh at the instructions of how to wash your hair because, to me, if you can read, you should have mastered the art of washing your hair. The world needs processes, parameters, instructions, reminders, and to learn from other people’s mistakes.
• Rule Number Three: Never, ever ,ever, for ANY reason swear in social media. EVER. This will cripple your company. Let me say it again. This will C-R-I-P-P-L-E your company. It is bad manners, rude, crude, and not the way you want to present your company. There are no takey backeys on this one. As Juno’s dad said, “This is one doodle that can’t be undid, home skillet.”
• Rule Number Four: When in doubt, don’t. We were all given a conscience for a reason. It keeps us from doing stupid stuff. If you have a thought that rides the line, either just don’t do it, or run it past the person that can fire you. If you shy away from the thought of running it past the person that could fire you, there. Your conscience is working. Congratulations.
• Rule Number Five: Don’t run away from negativity, run towards it full throttle like you are on the last lap at Daytona. My favorite phrase is “fall on your sword”. Yes, someone in your organization screwed up and a customer took the time to put it out in cyberspace for all to see. Take the bull by the horns and make it right. Make it right in front of everybody. Make a negative a positive. It might take a group think, but it can be done.
• Rule Number Six: Most companies that are big into social media want their employees to embrace it. This comes with great responsibility. You’ve heard of guilty by association, right? Well, if you post on your Facebook with a link to your company’s website with the most thought provoking and well delivered post of your life, but your profile picture shows you doing body shots on spring break in Panama City your senior year of college, you have just disgraced yourself and your company.

There are many more rules, but you get the idea. Have fun with social media! Go forth and gather massive amounts of followers and likers, engage with your people, gather Twitter karma, but be careful not to anger the social media gods.