Tweet

Entrepreneurs Demonstrate Resilience and Determination in Action

Guest post by: Kerri Salls

Article Overview: I encourage you to read the full report for more ideas you can use now in your sole proprietorship.

Entrepreneurs Demonstrate Resilience and Determination in Action

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and strong in the US. It’s a big part of what continues to draw people from around the globe to our shores. Across the board over the last 18 months, businesses large and small have had to step back and regroup in and as a result of this recession. That exercise in and of itself is a great opportunity to shift from the 20^th century Information Age, as knowledge workers to the 21^st Century Conceptual Age as creators and empathizers. This economic shift is an external force you had no control over, but you leverage it as an opportunity for success.

I’m not just talking about taking lemons and making lemonade. Yes, that determination and resilience is essential for small business success and prosperity. In fact the statistics from the Kaufmann Foundation on Entrepreneurship and even the IRS prove that during ‘tough times, the tough get going’, by building their own businesses or redefining their existing business to adapt to the evolving market. It’s part of the DNA of entrepreneurship. It has to go deeper into the essential purpose and value of your business in the marketplace and your commitment to service your customers.

Network Solutions and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business surveyed small business owners in December 2009. They published State of Small Business Report in January 2010. It was posted to the web in February 2010.

This 50 page report is a wealth of information to help you regroup and strategize your next steps in this economy. They offer substantive insights for business owners to take to heart and consider in their own business in order to focus efforts on what will bring the most success.

Business owners are:

· Increasing efficiency

· Competing by offering superior service and creativity

· Embracing social media to engage with customers and tap knowledge resources

While “The prolonged recession has restrained the ability of small businesses to improve their situation.”; they also found that “The more competitive a small business is, the more likely it is to meet the personal and business goals of its owners and show positive financial results.” (p3) That’s the win-win we all want.

The major ways that small businesses are differentiating themselves from competitors are through:

· Superior customer service (78 percent)

· Higher quality products and services (76 percent)

· Creative ideas to address customers’ needs (65 percent)

· Lower prices (44 percent)

Notice that the top three ways are by increasing the value proposition for the customer. Lowering prices is a distant 4^th place. The report goes on to say: “superior service and creativity are correlated with competitive success, while quality and low prices make little difference to small business success.”

We all know that cutting prices is not sustainable; this report confirms that competing on price alone will not ‘save’ a small business.

The economic downturn has affected small business in a number of ways. Some are very positive:

· Find ways to operate more efficiently 72%

· Find new products and services to benefit customers 47%

· Become a better team 43%

· Reduced inefficient or unnecessary staff 31%

Some have been harder or impacted overall success more deeply:

· Discount products and services 52% (which correlates with failure)

· Hurt company morale 43%

· Accept a lower standard of living 42%

· Make pay cuts 35%

· Reduce employee benefits 29%

· Shorten the work week 25%

· Reduce valuable staff 23%

· Implement furloughs 13%

The strategic planning lessons small businesses have learned in the past 12 months are apparent from the answers to the question about their top priorities when the economy improves. Small business owners said their top priority will be:

· To replenish owner savings 20%

· To purchase equipment 17%

· Marketing 16%

· To build a larger emergency fund for the business 11%

· Information Technology 8%

· Additional staff 7%

· Personal amenities for owners 6%

· Training for owners 2%

· Training for employees 1%

· Other 7%

I encourage you to read the full report for more ideas you can use now in your sole proprietorship.

Related Articles
  The Optimistic Sales Professional
  How Determined Are You?
  5 Personality Traits of a Super Affiliate
  Resistance and Resilience Reflect Each Other
  Determination Factor
  3 Keys to Internet Marketing Success
  Don't Let It Get To You
  Wealth Creating System Step 10 - Wealth Creation Secrets
  "How Do I Change Things?"
  Are You An Entrepreneur Who Takes Action? Take The 4 Trait Test
  Sales Courage and Resilience
  Emotional Resilience – A Recession Buster
  Optimism, Resilience and Leadership
  Bounce Back Power is Emotional Resilience
  Who Are You Becoming?
  Resilience, Resilience, Resilience
  Six Principles of Effective Leadership Training for Entrepreneurs
  Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs
  SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER: Part 2
  Business Opportunity Entrepreneurs Beat Recession

Article Tags: Conceptual Age, determination, DNA of entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurship, increase the value proposition, prosperity, resilience, resilient, small business success, sole proprietorship



Related Forum Posts
Re: Blog sells for up to $15 million - Action speaks louder than dream. What are we doing about GT suggestion? We can make this work in 2010
CEOs and Email - Slaves? - I wonder if the emails they are responding to are filtered thru their assistants first 'cos they seem to spend a lot of their off hours responding to them. True they are successful but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay that price. I'd be interested to know what's the in the typical day planner of Entrepreneurs on the Forum. Entrepreneurs are a different breed than Paid Employees- so it would be interesting to view the contrast.
Website Name Help - this was supposed to be posted in the business name topic but i clicked the wrong button lol but this its own topic on itself also... I wanted something international, and something unique since a lot of names are taken. So i came up with Azima which in arabic means Will and Determination. The only problem now is the website. Azimainc.com is taken and so is Azima.com. I am starting a business solutions company, so Azimabs.com is out of the question obviously. I registered Azima-intl.com but dont really want to use that...Any ideas for websites lol. I'm kind of stuck and i don't want to print my business cards unless i have something concrete for a website name.
Advertisement that sales - Plan your marketing programme. It should include commitment to capital resources. If you run a small business, you aren't likely to have a generous enough advertising budget that will allow you to run costly branding or campaign ads. Every advertisement you run must convey to your prospect a solid offer and attractive reasons to act quickly, and result in increased sales and an enhanced image of your company. Good advertising always pays its own way through increased sales and profits, improved cost-effectiveness, reduced selling costs and shortened selling cycles. A useful formula that will help you increase the effectiveness of your advertising efforts is A-I-D-A, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. When creating an advertisement, always remind yourself that it should: (1) capture your prospects' Attention, (2) arouse their Interest in your offer, (3) create their Desire for your product or service, and (4) provide a powerful spur to Action, that is, turn your prospect into buyers. Remember, bad advertising is an unproductive expense, and good advertising is an investment in future profits!
Fundraising for 3rd world Entrepreneurs - How great to learn that Evan is doing something for Entrepreneurs in Africa! It just makes me even more thankful to be part of this forum! After helping create a new charity for animals in my local community last year, I created a vision for a charity empowering Women Entrepreneurs. It won't happen for a while yet, but I know it is something I will do within the next few years. As we allow ourselves to think bigger, the opportunity to impact people becomes much bigger as well. Does anyone else have a desire to really make a difference in the world through this means?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Do You Pretend To Listen To People?

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.