5 Hats All Budding Entrepreneurs Should Expect To Wear

Preparing For Business

Nowadays, you can’t sift through a business news feed without hearing news about small startups that went from rags to riches and made it big. And if a success story provides you with anything, it’s the idea that anyone can do it, that all it takes is your passion and one great idea.

But that is NOT enough.

As a successful entrepreneur, you need to be versatile, open to risk, and committed to seeing your vision through. Not only that, but there are a ton of hurdles known as “work” standing in your way. They’re all too easy to forget when you’re excited about your idea, brainstorming on how to finance and pitch your product. Keeping your business afloat will mean a lot of business-related stress and becoming a jack of all trades.

Already have the entrepreneurial spirit and ready to take that first step? That’s great. But before you do, think about your second step: what roles and shoes will you have to fill?

To prep you with an idea of what to expect, consider a few of these essential hats you should expect to wear as you turn your pipe dream into a successful startup.

The Administration Hat

At the beginning, entrepreneurs will need to consider the nitty-gritty details of handling business operations on the most basic level.  Depending on what your business is, this will include any aspect needed to keep your company and product line running: office space, payroll, supplies, accounting, and setting up workflows, just to name a few.

If one part in the administration chain doesn’t work out, you have to be open to different solutions, looking at the process from all angles. That first year as an entrepreneur will be about discovering and testing both yourself and your ability to think outside the box. So be prepared.

The Team Management Hat

Don’t forget that it also takes interpersonal skills to build a successful company. Once you build a solid business team, you need to be able to work with and lead them.  This means being able to delegate tasks, mediate conflicts, listen to concerns, know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, or simply give credit when and where it’s due.

Managing Office Teams

Whatever decisions you make regarding the team and your office, you need to be able to listen to the dynamics going on around you. With the management hat on, you lead and generate the company’s culture, creating an atmosphere and tone for the company.

The Marketing Hat

Nowadays, new businesses won’t even make an impact without some online exposure. Marketing will play a major factor in staying ahead of the field. On the technical side of things, this means being familiar with web technology, SEO, ads, marketing tools, and analytics.  On the human side of things, it means having a clear goal in mind to create a sincere brand you and loyal users can stand behind.

Once you have both, you’ll have to be able to decide what type of marketing works for your business and what doesn’t. And while it’s easy to mimic what other companies are doing, remember that one size doesn’t fit all. When it comes to marketing, expect to invest some serious time in researching your own demographics. A marketing campaign is only successful if it fits your company and your vision.

The Social Hat

Web presence and social image is everything now. From blogging to networking, wherever you choose to promote your business, you need to have a community behind you. It’s a great way to get feedback, support, and loyal fans. The relationship you build with your users is what will set you apart.

Making Business Connections

And note that this social hat doesn’t only apply to an online audience. This also includes in-person meetings, presentation pitches, board room discussions and even swapping business cards at conventions. Making the right connections can help put you in a good position in your niche.  No one ever does it alone!

The Tech Hat

Before you even start pushing your product out there, be sure you know the tech behind it—especially if you’re a tech start up. Be active in the development and testing stage. Do everything you can to be in-the-know about your niche, don’t leave this side of the project to only one person on the team. Don’t forget, if you’re helping to field the support lines too, you can’t blank out on basic usage and troubleshooting issues.

Learning New Business Technology

For non-tech start ups, this is still a necessity. No matter what product or service you offer to the public, you need to know about the tools needed to run your business. Dealing with customers online, for instance, may mean creating an entirely new database and digital document management system.  From simple emailing to document processing, you have to make sure your tech makes things work smoothly.

Debating on whether or not you can hack it?  Just reading about someone else’s success is enough to inspire you to make your own entrepreneurial dream happen. So before you quit your day job, do your homework first.  Be prepared for the tasks you’ll be spending most, if not all, of your time on.

Ever dreamed about starting your own business? How do you plan on getting it off the ground?

6 Innovative Alternatives To The Traditional Business Plan

Business Plan Alternative
Got an idea you think the masses will love? Thinking of starting up your own business? You’re not the only one.

Competition is fierce and many ambitious individuals have the same vision of success as you do. And the best place to start beating the competition (after coming up with a killer idea) is with a well laid out business plan.

Now if you’ve looked into the topic, then you know that there’s a lot of debate on whether or not the traditional business plan is still effective. For budding entrepreneurs today, the business plan is outdated, overly complex and unnecessary. This leads us to ask the obvious question: If you still need to map out your business idea for others, where does this leave you?

If you’re looking to create a business plan that can impress investors, here are some modern ideas and innovative services you should consider.

Use A PowerPoint Slide Deck For Effective Pitch Meetings

PowerPoint has always been the tool of choice for presenting ideas. Why not use it for pitching your business?

Walking potential investors through a PowerPoint presentation on your iPad can be very effective. Take Tim Young, founder of Socialcast, for example. He used 5 slides for a business pitch in 2010 and managed to raise over 10 million in investment funds for 2 startups.

From his experience, he found that a presentation can help your pitch because “by sharing a screen and sitting in close proximity to each other, the environment naturally becomes more comfortable and relaxed.” Certainly an idea worth considering if you get nervous while presenting.

Create A Successful Business Model With LaunchBoard

With LaunchBoard, you can create, both simple or complex business models in no time. The tool is a perfect solution when you need to define your business and understand your customers. With several important features, such as analyzing data and deciding the best way to move forward, the tool has all the necessary options for any companies to succeed.

Business Model Tool

Image Source: LaunchBoard.io

You can track your team’s progress with an easy access to members KPI’s and the ability to get involved in every decision-making process. Discover and develop new market opportunities, brainstorm and test ideas, organize files quickly and make all information understandable to everyone.

Use A Lean Canvas For Concise Business Plans

Just because your business plan is short doesn’t mean it isn’t well thought out. When you create one with Lean Stack, you can boil down the essentials down to a one page blue print for quick at-a-glance reading.

One Page Business Model

Using a Lean Canvas is best for those situations where you’re making a pitch to investors who  have very little time and can’t go through all the nitty-gritty details. This is a paid service, but offers  free 30-day trials for both individual and team plans.

Grow Your Busines With StrategyzerBusiness Plan Strategy

Image Source: Strategyzer.com

With Strategyzer’s business model canvas, you are getting a platform and services that  understand their customers. The numbers speak for themselves — over 5 million active users. With Strategyzer you can easily create better products and quickly grow your business. Moreover, with this app, you can analyze any business idea and identify its market potential. It offers training options for the entire companies or simply one person.

Create  A Visual Business Plan With Pinterest

This idea may go against what you know about best business plan practices, but using Pinterest can be a creative way of visualizing your idea for others. In fact, Tim Berry, angel investor, business planner and entrepreneur, stands behind the idea.

According to him, a  business plan created with Pinterest is more accessible than a slide deck and is helpful in steering your business in the right direction. This method doesn’t describe your business; it focuses on the output of the plan.

As Tim Berry points out, “a business plan is worthwhile because of the decisions that result from it. If the Pinterest plan helps you organize a team and set the main points so you can move forward logically, why not?” I think that sums it up exactly.

Use Live Plan For Easy To Read Business Plans

Like the other suggested ideas, Live Plan tries to combine the serious nature of business plans with easy to read formats. It offers everything needed to keep your financials, business pitch and plan in check with an admin dashboard and support for team collaboration.


LivePlan Explainer from Palo Alto Software, Inc on Vimeo.

Live Plan makes it easy for you to forecast and prioritize the main financial elements of your business strategy like value propositions, key partnerships, cost structure and so on. This service is perfect for pitching a concise business plan investors and banks can instantly understand.

In this day and age, packaging and presenting your business plan effectively is becoming increasingly important if you want to stand out. Have you created a traditional business plan in the past? Which alternative would you use?