10/09/2010
Generation jobless: ‘Millennials’ struggle with unemployment | Need to Know
The struggles of middle-aged and older Americans during this economic downturn have been well documented. But what about the “millennials,” those born during the Reagan-Bush era?
It may be no surprise that many of them are unemployed — nearly 40 percent of Americans age 18-29 are out of work. That’s the highest rate in more than three decades.
But did you know that starting your first job search during a recession can result in challenges that last for years? That’s what the studies say. Need to Know’s Alison Stewart spoke with some recent grads who are just starting out — pounding the pavement to land that first job.
Share your own stories of the recession in The Pitch Room
Interactive: Jobless rates in context
Video: The young and the jobless, an interview with The Atlantic’s Don Peck
Video: Help wanted: The recession and the unemployment picture, from Nightly Business Report
Making Your Mark With The Millennials | house for rent flyer template
Generation Y–The second-largest crop of young people in America’s history, offspring of the Boomers–80 million of them, nearly 27 percent of the U.S. population–are in their late teens and 20s, and already a market force to be reckoned with.
The Millennials are here big time! “They’re demanding their own music, defining their own trends and starting to matter to advertisers, to retailers, to politicians,” chirped a recent Chicago Tribune editorial. What’s more, they are (or soon will be) buying cars and homes, getting married, starting families–and are going to matter very much to American business.
Neo-traditionalist in many ways, the Millennials are not cynical about marriage and having families. These young people value such intangibles as personal fulfillment, family well-being, freedom, security–lives on track. As a result, count on the Millennials to step up to the issues and needs most of us have no matter which generational cohort, market segment, or stage of life we’re in. “They don’t want to make the mistakes of either Generation X or the Boomers, to wait until the panic stage to have babies,” writes columnist, Suzanne Fields.
A High Dose of Reality
But no matter how great their marketing potential, Millennials with ground-floor incomes may be struggling to negotiate rent and other living expenses on top of college loans that the Christian Science Monitor estimates average $17,000. Or they may still be living with Mom and Dad!
So all is not a bed of roses, and even the most astute members of this (or any) generation will find the choices marketers ask them to make confusing. Or (worse) they may think they know it all or imagine they can get everything they need online, and don’t need help.
With so much at stake, indecision, inaction or mistakes born of misplaced self-confidence (“It can’t happen to me”) can be expensive–especially in periods of economic uncertainty. Yet this generation, which has known nothing but prosperity, is not used to doing without. Handed the choice of paying health insurance premiums or maintaining their savings and other financial security plans–and forgoing their cell phones or hanging up their social lives, many of these young people make the wrong call.
Setting priorities can be critical and shouldn’t be ignored no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, That’s one reason why realistic expectations should be communicated to consumers in this or any other age group. A difficult pill to swallow, but exactly the advice young families in that difficult position should hear.
How to Reach The Millennials
Generation Y is generally more comfortable using the Internet as a research tool to aid in making saving and investment decisions, rather than as a means for on-line banking or trading. “To effectively reach the youngest generation of adult Americans, whose lives are being shaped by digital media, marketers must deliver smarter, more sophisticated messages and build brands with them rather than for them,” a study by advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi suggests.
As described by Jane Levere in “Generation Shaped by Digital Media Presents Fresh Marketing Challenges,” in the The New York Times: “Saatchi & Saatchi, a unit of Saatchi & Saatchi PLC, based its study on interviews by child psychologists with 84 people ages 6 to 20 across the United States. They were asked what they thought about digital media like personal computers, the Internet, CD-ROMs, video games and cellular phones and other communication devices, and how these media affected their lives. Cultural anthropologists also observed 10 families at home for 50 hours each.
According to the agency, the digital media have several functions for the 80 million Americans born since 1977, the largest generation in the nation’s history. “The media serve as toys for these young people but also provide developmental challenges. Digital media also function as a virtual hearth at home,” the study said. It found that “most families have their digital media set up in a public room of the house; consequently, a lot of digital activities are shared by the family, making these media a center of family life.
“In addition, the study learned that the new media could function as a ‘cool library’ for the new generation.”Generation Y uses digital media as an extension of self socially, intellectually and emotionally,” the study said. ‘By extending the self in these ways, the new media help young people find their identity.’ It concluded that digital media act as “power tools” for the Millennials, giving them tremendous access to knowledge.
Generation Y is generally more comfortable using the Internet as a research tool to aid in making saving and investment decisions, rather than as a means for on-line banking or trading. “To effectively reach the youngest generation of Americans, whose lives are being shaped by digital media, marketers must deliver smarter, more sophisticated messages and build brands with them rather than for them,” a study by advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi suggests.
Social Security Reality Check
Despite Democrat and MSM protestations, many young adults are pushing for a privatized or partially privatized Social Security program, which would maximize their two greatest wealth accumulation assets — time and compounding returns.
Prediction: Petulently refusing any mention of privatizing Social Security won’t cut it for long. Washington must find the stones either to a) call time-out and switch over to a privatized Social Security system for everyone over a certain age, b) permit wage earners to invest x-percentage of their payroll tax into personal accounts, or c) come up with some other fiscally feasible, politically palatable version of Social Security reform.
Failing that, the discontent of Millennials and Generation Xers will become the political time bomb for future presidents and Congresses that Social Security had been until George Bush’s bold 2005 initiative.
Want More? Send questions and comments to w.willard3@knology.net.
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Millennials Magazine
“Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test and if I am asked, I am prepared to appear before judge Fox next week as a result.”
-Lindsay Lohan’s Twitter, September 18 2010.
THIS SUMMER, I wrote a lot of stories about a lot of things. When you blog, sometimes you’re going to spend a good 30-40 minutes scanning your Google Reader and sweating it out, hoping with increasing desperation that someone with good SEO will do something. You can’t just sit there twiddling your thumbs, and sometimes nothing is going on, so you find something, even if you’ve written about it a lot.
I wrote a lot about bedbugs. I wrote a lot about American Apparel. I wrote a lot about Jersey Shore. And I wrote more than I expected to about Lindsay Lohan. By the beginning of this past summer, she had already been a tabloid fuckup for a few years. If you search “Lindsay Lohan” on TMZ, you’ll come up with almost 1,700 results. She had entered into the realm of Constant Mess (class: We No Longer Can Keep Your Fuckups Straight Anymore), joining fellow victims of tabloid fame like Paris Hilton, and looking farther back, River Phoenix. Even Marilyn Monroe. Jail, DUIs, a stormy relationship (with the tabloid-friendly bonus of being a homosexual one), erratic behavior, drugs, disconcerting photographs with knives, incriminating photographs with drugs, the whole bit.
This summer she was sentenced to jail for violating her probation stemming from a DUI charge in 2007. I wrote a quick post about it. I embedded a video from The Parent Trap, which came out when Lindsay Lohan was 12 years old. It’s the scene in which the American twin, posing as the British twin, meets her mother for the first time since she was a baby. It’s sweet. Above the video, I wrote, “Poor girl. It’s been a strange trip since this, huh.”
My post got two comments: “Ha! This is what Lohan gets. You break the law, you pay.” And: “Lindsay really is a great example of all the things wrong about America today. I definitely can’t believe why she would get so much blog attention!”
“Hey, buddy, you’re not pretending anymore. You’re plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic.”
-Janis Ian, Mean Girls
AFTER A FEW DAYS, I grew tired of the LiLo blitz. I wrote a post called, “Let’s All Stop Giving a Shit About What Lindsay Lohan is Doing in Jail,” and I argued (even though I had written a post only one day before about that exact subject) that it was time to call off the dogs.
Listen: whatever. It was fun for about five minutes to speculate about what she’s doing in there, but a reading list? Talking on the vents? Come on. She’s probably not going to do a damn thing, she’s in solitary confinement. Then she’ll be in rehab, and then after that, she’ll be back in the public eye, probably messing up again, and then let’s get back to talking about her endlessly, as is our duty as a culture. Let’s consider this a well-deserved vacation for all of us.
A vacation, for us? As if tearing into this girl’s disastrous life is normal and expected? “Our duty as a culture?” David Foster Wallace would have a fucking field day with the above.
Yeah, I was that presumptuous, although I don’t know if my heart was really in it. It’s funny, because when you say that you pity celebrities like her, people scoff. Stars have money, opportunities. In the most obvious ways, I guess. But just try to look at a recent picture of this girl and tell me that “tragic” is not the right word. It’s just that – and it’s hard to put your finger on – something is really wrong, and not just with her.
Famous people exist in two worlds, though: the world of their actual work/product, and the world of their tabloid escapades. Both of those worlds were fine for a while, for Lindsay. Mean Girls was and still is awesome. Although now – frankly – who could even name the last two or three movies she’s done?
If you count the one we live in, then celebrities live in three worlds. I’m not sure that Lindsay Lohan does, though. And that, I think, is the problem. Her career: down the shitter. Her reputation in the media: see above. And the girl’s been living in this awful cage of cameras and entourages and drugs and people whispering in your ear and telling you, “Lindsay, you’re gorgeous” for years now. Plenty of drugs and plenty of money. And what else is left?
As of last week she’s back in rehab, after failing a court-ordered drug test. At this point, it is almost white noise. “Our duty as a culture?” I don’t know what it is, or if we ever had one. Maybe we can’t help her now, but we might be responsible for her. I feel responsible for her, personally. I wrote about her, but I didn’t think about her. I engaged in the dissemination of the Lindsay Lohan Product, while forgetting about the Lindsay Lohan Person, who does, I think, still exist.
Internet Behavior of Auto Buyers: Analyzing influential studies
The relationship between internet usage and car purchases have consistently increased over the last decade and have now become part of the car buying experience as consumers look for local car dealerships.
Auto manufacturers, dealerships and the auto industry in general have accepted this reality and incorporated the internet and related technology as part of their marketing and advertising efforts. Some of these business entities have embraced the power of the world wide web, while others are struggling to keep up with the constant upgrades, developments and latest trends. Becoming aware of internet behavior of auto buyers is important in developing and maintaining cost effective and money making marketing strategies.
Billions of dollars are spent on website development and maintenance, software, tools, gadgets, widgets, search engine optimization, social networking, on and on. This does not take into account time spent trying to figure out what works and more importantly, what does not work. Spend only a couple of hours online reading blogs and forums about online marketing and one quickly figures out that even the so called “experts” disagree and sometimes just can’t keep up themselves with the warp speed of technological developments, whims and algorithms of online corporate giants.
There is one way to tame the wild west of the online world and that is to become familiar with research findings regarding internet behavior of auto buyers. Being armed with this valuable knowledge will enable car related businesses such as auto dealers, insurance agents, lenders, and after market retailers to tailor not only their advertising budgets but time spent on understanding the multitude of marketing services. Here are some key findings and discussion about the data.
Research Findings
JD Power and Associates conducts annual surveys to measure online usage of auto buyers. In 2008, JD Power and Associates found that 75% of the public spend on the average close to seven hours on the internet when making a new vehicle purchase. They also found that consumers focused on three types of websites for information.
1. Third party auto websites were used for referrals and recommendations.
2. Auto manufacturing websites were used for product information.
3. Auto dealer websites were used to search for inventory. (source: theautochannelnews)
This same trend is also seen when it comes to used car purchases and other auto related servies such as insurance and loans.
Web Rides TV in 2008 conducted a survey of their users titled “User Attitudes Toward Cars and Automotive Content” which found that consumers were most likely to turn to third party reviews over other information sources when it came to auto products. The findings showed that there was a decrease in using auto manufacturer websites as a primary source in one’s decision making (source: emdiawire).
Another interesting statistic is the amount of time the average consumer takes to make a vehicle purchase. According to a study by Kelly Blue Book, these figures range anywhere from six months or longer to less than a month. Embedded within this time frame are the different stages of decision making. In the same study, Kelly Blue Book found three groups of car buyers:
1. “Just looking” group consisted of consumers planning to make a purchase within a two to six month range
2. “Ready but undecided” group consisted of consumers planning to make a purchase within one month and
3. “Ready and decided” group consisted of consumers planning to make a purchase within one week
Kelly Blue Book concluded that “vehicle shoppers look to the third-party sites as a relevant and necessary source of objective information that spans across all makes and models. While consumers seek information and opinions, what they really come to the third-party sites for is confidence– that they are making a good choice, that they won’t have ‘buyers’ remorse’ after their purchase, that they won’t pay too much, that they are buying a safe vehicle, that they have weighed all their options” (source:imediaconnection).
Keynote Systems, a company that studies attitudes and behaviors on the internet, found that auto buyers prefered to conduct research about vehicle capabilities over price comparisons. In fact they found that price comparison ranked the lowest in online satisfaction. In addition, only 20% of participants in this particular study reported a willingness to request an online quote. Frustration over uncertainty about the end user of submitted information was a main concern of the 80% of respondents who declined an auto quote request (source: Keynote Systems).
Comscore, another company that measures consumer behavior and attitudes conducted the first study of blog readers back in 2005. While this study is now dated, we can assume that blog usage is even more influential today due to their growing popularity. One of their key findings were demographics of the average blog reader. Blog readers tended to have above average incomes, shopped online, and spend almost twice as much time online over regular internet users. “The fact that we found 30 percent of the online population to have visited blogs clearly underscores the commercial importance of consumer generated and driven media” (source: comscore.com).
Looking toward the future in trying to predict trends on the horizon, KRC Research and Microsoft conducted a study that focused on the “millennial generation.” The eldest of the millennials are now becoming established in their professions making them a sought after consumer. Who are these millennials? Consider these statistics:
“Millennials are born from 1982 to 2003. They are the largest generation in U.S. history; they are also the most ethnically diverse generation. Forty percent are African-American, Asian, Latino or mixed race. One in five has an immigrant parent. There’s a million more Millennials than boomers. Though no more Millennials are being born, some are immigrating, so the generation keeps getting bigger. Boomers are leaving us and Millennials are still gaining in size” (source: Mercury News).
This generation has already transformed our society. If you doubt their awesome power just ponder the immense popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The millennials do not know life without the cell phone, internet or MP3s. We can predict that their social behaviors will carry over to consumer behaviors. Microsoft found that this group of consumers want an interactive online shopping experience. This includes interaction through blogs, instant messaging, and social networks. While over 90% still want to visit a showroom in person, once there they expect an automated rather then in-person experience. Additionally, “large percentages of millennials were open to seek advice from third-party consumer website (65 percent), third-party consumer blogs (45 percent), friends or colleagues via social networking sites (61 percent), and friends and family (87 percent).” (source: CXO Today).
Discussion
In examining the above findings, we can see a few patterns emerge. Whether due to the overwhelming presence of the internet in our daily lives or current economic conditions, the traditional print media is fading and may even become extinct in the not so distant future. An overwhelming percentage of consumers rely on a combination of online resources for information. This means that auto dealers who network with a variety of websites can expect positive returns since the data shows a trend toward third party websites such as All About Cars Online.
The data also suggests that instead of spending resources on third party sales leads, dealerships might focus on developing technology that captures sales leads from their own websites since consumers find third party quotes less then trustworthy and actually visit dealer websites to find inventory.
Another significant trend is the emergence of social networking through a variety of online tools. As more millennials come of age, this trend will quickly become a norm in the world of business and sales. One of the greatest advantages of social networking websites and blogs is that they are free and easy to start. However, this is also the downside for companies. Trying to keep up with maintaining blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, Digg, Youtube, wikis, and one’s own website is overwhelming to say the least.
Marketing Strategies
With all of this in mind, it is clear that auto dealers must have an online strategy that takes into account internet behaviors of auto buyers. Through the analysis of the above influential studies, one can use the data to develop effective marketing strategies. Using Kelly Blue Book’s stages of decision making can also be helpful in targeting specific groups of consumers:
1. Just Looking – since this consumer has no immediate plans to make a purchase, this group will most likely not be interested in viewing the dealer’s website. They are however most likely seeking information and conducting research on makes, models, and options. Older consumers are more likely to want to read (blogs) and younger consumers are more like want to view (videos).
2. Ready But Not Decided – This consumer is actively seeking referrals and recommendations. They have their antenna up for reviews on makes and models and are asking questions. Older consumers are more likely to interact in forums (blogs) and younger consumers are more likely to twit (twitter, facebook). Both age groups are also seeking information from third party websites.
3. Ready and Decided – This consumer is ready to make a purchase. They are actively searching for dealerships that offer their chosen make and model. This group will go back to third party websites, online directories and search engines. Once they find a number of dealerships, consumers in this stage will then visit these dealers’ websites to view inventories. Car dealers should have a reliable system in capturing visitors and use live chat software to satisfy the need for instant messaging behaviors of the millennial generation.
Car dealers and other auto related businesses measure the effectiveness of advertising strategies through sales and leads. However one thing to keep in mind is that leads and sales only come once the consumer is in the third stage of decision making. By not investing in websites that capture the “Just Looking” and “Undecided” groups, one ends up with a shortsighted strategy. According to a study conducted by cars.com and Synovate in 2008, “”tracking email and phone leads alone gives dealers an incomplete picture of how their internet initiatives perform” and “one-third of car buyers cited independent websites as a significant influencer affecting their decision to visit a dealership.” The study also found that a third of these consumers do not contact dealers prior to visiting showrooms (source: cars.com).
Furthermore, investing and networking with third party websites also has a hidden advantage. Investing in a multitude of third party websites that publish links to dealer’s website will increase that dealer’s search engine rank. This becomes immensely valuable when the consumer is ready to make the purchase in stage three. The rule is to get as many different websites to link to dealer’s website. Even if the third party website may not necessarily be the perfect fit for targeted audience, links play an important role in search engine ranking.
Blogs definitely are also valuable because they serve as an important source for education and information. Posts are usually set up with forums allowing visitors to comment and ask questions. An ideal situation would be to create multi-blogs with different URL’s (different website locations and names) all linked to the dealer’s main website. This increases one’s presence on the internet, improving one’s ranking with search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing as well as increasing the odds that a consumer will find the dealership. Creating multiple blogs is a much more cost effective method compared to microsites. Microsites are generally used for the same purpose, come with contracts and have significantly higher fees that when compared to blogs seem unrealistic. Automotive consultants advise that “every dealership should have one or more blog focusing on current dealership happenings, service specials, seasonal car care tips, car buying tips, customer testimonals and highlighted inventory” (Paul Rushing).
Blogs and multi-blogs are a cost effective marketing strategy although very time consuming. Many entities start blogs but quickly abandon efforts because one has to make regular updates. Anywhere between 60% to 80% of blogs are abonded within one month of creation (source: Caslon Analytics). Software exists that automatically generates multiple blogs, but search engines recognize this as “splogs” which are frowned upon like spamming is in the world of e-mail. Multi-blogs have to be maintained by humans.
Analyzing internet behavior of auto buyers is imperative in today’s economy because this knowledge goes a long way in saving valuable advertising and marketing monies and increasing sales.
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Tags: Analyzing, Auto, Behavior, buyers, influential, internet, Studies
Earth to Gen Y: NASA’s Millennial Makeover | Millennial Marketing
Gen Y represents a specific culture with its own mores, references and preferences. As with other multi-cultural marketing efforts, cultural relevance is a key factor in achieving results. To be relevant, marketers must literally learn to speak the language and communicate ‘we get you, we know who you are and what you like‘.
NASA turned to the Millennials on their own team to ensure cultural relevance.
Three years ago, NASA recognized it had a relevance problem. Research showed forty percent of Gen Y opposed NASA’s mission and 39% believed nothing good had ever come out of it. The numbers were even worse among Hispanics.
So NASA leadership asked some of the Millennial members of their own team to help them figure out how the space program could better speak to a Millennial audience. They put together a remarkable presentation that is still available on Slideshare, called “Gen Y Perspectives”.
The Gen Y team helped NASA understand why it wasn’t connecting with a younger audience, explaining how their generation was different in the ways they grew up, in theirir values, workstyles and especially in their need to be heard:
“Gen Y is a completely new generation…Gen Y is currently 25% of the workforce and is projected to be 47% by 2014. Is NASA ready?“
The Millennial advisors said it wasn’t enough to just explain the space program and why it mattered, NASA needed to connect in a meaningful way. The team provided recommendations for how to engage a younger generation, explaining that after all, the space program is inherently cool – it is rocket science!
“For our generation TV is not passive entertainment, it is an interactive experience. And our lives and outlooks have been shaped by this. Anyone can be a star. Everyone deserves to have a say. Getting heard and having a say are not only easy they seem natural. Our generation is not interested because we don’t see the point, we don’t understand the facts and we can’t participate.”
The presentation was widely circulated among NASA leadership and led to close examination of its recruiting and management approaches as well as external communications. It also led to an early embrace of social media internally and by its office of public communications.
Mike Massimino, @astro_mike
Externally NASA now has a ‘Connect’ tab on its home page which offers multiple was to interact with the program, including multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, apps, Ustream and Youtube channels, Flickr and and more. There are over 100 official twitter handles including @NASA and @NASA_Astronauts covering the gamut of its centers, programs and projects. One astronaut, Mike Massimo, has over 1.25 million Twitter followers and has even tweeted from space (@astro_Mike). There are podcasts, tweetups, and chat opportunities. No social media stone has been left unturned.
Internally, the change was equally dramatic. Rather than rely on open systems which had the potential for touchy asynchronous relationships, they created a proprietary intranet called Spacebook that mimicked the functionality of Facebook but was exclusive to NASA employees. They also leveraged Sharepoint and other Web 2.0 technology and report great success in changing the culture to one that is more collaborative.
“One of the most amazing things about these Web 2.0 technologies, and the greatest value to NASA, is the ability to help us create a culture of engagement and collaboration that makes each individual employee much more effective.” – Linda Cureton, NASA spokesperson
Is it working? According to NASA they have been amazed by the effectiveness of using social platforms to demystify issues and connect with younger generation who have an untapped love of science and exploration.
The second ‘Tweet-Up” in Sept. 2009, advertised through the main Twitter account, brought the first 190 registrants for a day at the pressroom at NASA HQ in Washington, D.C.. Here’s how a participant described the event on the Aviation Week blog:
We got to hear Commander Mark Polansky and the STS-127 crew describe their mission to the International Space Station, complete with documentary video, then after a lengthy and obliging Q&A session, we could walk down and shake their hands, get autographs and pictures, and sneak in at least a few minutes of one-on-one conversation. Michael Curie, the “voice of NASA launches,” played host for the afternoon. We also took home a stuffed bag full of space schwag and got to wander around NASA HQ (where Dr. John C. Mather’s 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, as well as NASA TV’s recent Emmys are on display; visitors can browse the library and gift shop, and run into all the space big-wigs wandering the halls). People have come from as far away as California, Venezuela, and Spain for the Tweetups.
Would NASA have been as successful without the involvement of their Gen Y panel? It’s doubtful. If your brand is looking to do a better job connecting with Millennials, why not just ask them? After all, it isn’t rocket science.
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WiFi withdrawal harder than coffee withdrawal - DeviceMAG
In seems like everyone, in America at least, drinks coffee, watches television and connects to the Internet — at home and in restaurants — via WiFi. So, which is more important? For “millennials,” those men and women aged 17 to 29, the answer is WiFi.
According to a survey by the Wi-Fi Alliance, 75% of American respondents preferred WiFi to coffee or tea. Two-thirds of respondents in the United States and four-fifths of those in China reported they spend more time on Wi-Fi devices than watching television.
The poll, conducted by Wakefield Research, includes responses from more than 1,000 millennials (those between the ages 17 and 29) in the United States and 400 millennials in China, Japan and South Korea. “There is a desire for constant connectivity,” said Edgar Figueroa, chief executive officer of the Wi-Fi Alliance. “They want to connect while in a car, in a plane, while shopping.”
Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly available on airlines in the United States, with more than 1,200 planes expected to offer in-flight connectivity by year’s end. Cars remain a moving target, however, and connecting to Wi-Fi in a mall can be tricky because it’s difficult to determine which network to join.
Source: New York Times
Tags: WiFi
6 Solid Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Go Back Home to Sleep and Forget Their Entrepreneurship Journey | Small Business Ideas|Entrepreneurship Advice|Entrepreneur Blog |
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The entrepreneurship journey is not a type of journey you can just walk through and achieve overnight success, No! You need to be careful also you must be hard-working and you must exercise patience. In the entrepreneurship world only the mind with consistency wins.
It hurts to see an entrepreneur giving up at the stage when he or she is already close to success. Most entrepreneurs that go back home to sleep and forget about their entrepreneurship journey never knew they are close to success, if only they knew they wouldn’t have taken that action.
In this post I will be talking about the reasons why entrepreneurs go back home to sleep and forget about their entrepreneurship journey. Below are reasons why entrepreneurs go back home to sleep and forget their entrepreneurship journey:
They Lack the Self-Belief:
Tell me, without self belief do you think that you can achieve anything in this life? No I doubt it. Things might look tough during your entrepreneurship journey but that doesn’t mean that you should quit. Besides the entrepreneurship journey will not be interesting if you don’t face challenges of different sorts. Facing challenges will make you get tougher, wiser and smarter. This is one of the reasons why most entrepreneurs go back home to sleep and forget their entrepreneurship journey. They lack the self-belief that they can break new grounds. If only they can put on the spirit of self-belief they wouldn’t have been in that state, they will still be striving, so that one day they can be a soul survivor.
They Lack the Networking Skill:
They lack the networking skill; they are not a good networker. As you all know that networking means a lot in this life if you don’t know how to network in this life then you are lame! If you can cultivate the habit of networking, it will help you out big time. If you are a good networker, the easier and smoother things will be for you in your entrepreneurship journey. Individuality cannot make us tall; learn how to work with other people, other people from different races. It will help a lot but most entrepreneurs that went back home to sleep and forget their entrepreneurship journey don’t have a good networking skill. They failed to build it. I used to say this, being a good networker doesn’t require a degree it’s just about using “common sense”. I’d been they were good networkers am very sure they wouldn’t have gone back home to sleep and forget their entrepreneurship journey.
Bad Mentor:
They take amateurs to be their mentor. They get counseling from the wrong set of people. They failed to stick to the right mentor due to ignorance. A person that can help them out is someone who can give them what they need and not someone who will not add values to their lives. Seeking advice from an amateur will ruin one’s entrepreneur journey. So that’s why it is advisable for every entrepreneur to know the type of person he or she will take as a mentor. Read my previous article on how to seek for the right business mentor.
Imitation:
They don’t have a main purpose for their journey in the entrepreneurship world. They are in the entrepreneurship world just because of their friends. They failed to follow their gut. Imitation does bring about limitation to one’s success. That’s why it is good for every entrepreneur to know why they are in the game, know your mission in the entrepreneurship world. Failure to figure out your main aim in the entrepreneurship world will cost you a lot. So to avoid going back home to sleep and forget the entrepreneurship journey, you must know why you are in the journey.
They Fail to Admit:
They believe they can do it all alone and they don’t need anybody to help them. As an entrepreneur, you need to work on the area you know you are capable of holding and try to outsource people who are good in the area you have no or less capability to hold so as to make things easy. But if you believe that you don’t need anybody to help you in the area you are lacking, it won’t help you at all, you are only wasting your time. So in other to avoid going back home to sleep and forget the entrepreneurship journey, try to avoid this mistake. Get people you know they can do better in an area you are not good at to help you out and you work on the area you are good at.
Life Factor:
Yeah, this might sounds somehow but it’s the fact. Most entrepreneurs go back home to sleep and forget their entrepreneurship journey due to life factor, the life factor may be spiritual, family factor etc. That’s why every entrepreneur should always pray hard. I am not preaching but it’s the real and absolute fact. As you all know that nothing is impossible through God, so try to pray hard, always remember to pray and ask for his mercies. Nobody is perfect we are all trying our best, but for us to keep going and providing the best we need God’s favour. Don’t neglect the idea of praying, it will help you if you can encourage the idea.
Speak Your Mind!
What other things do you think can make an entrepreneur go back home to sleep and forget his or her entrepreneurship journey? Feel free to comment below by sharing your opinion! Don’t forget to share this post with your loved ones also don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get more of this! Thanks a lot.WHAT TO READ NEXT!
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Tagged as: Entrepreneur, entrepreneurs fail, entrepreneurs journey, Entrepreneurship, go back home
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Young entrepreneur honored
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Not a Newsday or Optimum Online® subscriber? Click hereYoung entrepreneur honored
Thursday October 7, 2010 8:20 AM By Joseph Mallia
A Valley Stream teen inspired by her mother's battle to overcome breast cancer has won a $10,000 prize from a youth entrepreneur organization for her bakery business. She plans to donate some of her prize money to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Nia Froome, 17, "was crowned champion of the 2010 OppenheimerFunds/NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge" on Tuesday. She bested...
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Promoting Job Creation and Economic Growth
Promoting Job Creation and Economic Growth
By Doug Schoen
Published October 08, 2010
| FoxNews.com
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Given the Rasmussen Reports polls released this week that show that 86% think the issue of the economy is very important, and just 38% of Americans say the economy will be stronger in a year, it is clear that creating jobs and stimulating the economy is a top priority for our country.
Despite the significance of this issue, there has been no rational discussion among political, business and academic leaders on how to create jobs and encourage entrepreneurship.
As Kauffman Foundation CEO Carl Schramm points out in the Economist, government policy debates lack a real discussion on how we spend and tax, and politicians often simply champion small businesses as the key to job creation, when in fact, firms less than five years old are responsible for nearly all net job creation. Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post adds that this distinction between new and old firms is much more significant than the distinction between small and big firms: over long periods, almost all job growth comes from new businesses, due to high failure rates among existing firms.
The White House lacks a coherent job creation strategy. The administration has passed a stimulus package that has not produced the results that were anticipated and promised, it has given bailouts to banks and automobiles to simply stop these companies from going under, and it wants to increase taxes for those making over $250,000 annually by letting the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year. Most recently, Obama proposed a plan to invest $50 billion in infrastructure – a plan that was met with skepticism, as infrastructure investments do not usually stimulate the economy quickly.
The Republicans meanwhile, have simply opposed all of the Democrats’ ideas. They are against stimulus plans, against the health care bill, against cap-and-trade, and against tax increases. In the Pledge to America that the Republicans released last month, Republican simply reiterated their positions of “no.” They called for taxes to not be raised, the health care law to be repealed, federal spending to be limited, and Congressional approval for any federal regulation that would add to the deficit.
The White House and Congress need to put forth a bold, centrist agenda that focuses on fiscal discipline and fiscal stimulus initiatives that target the private sector and encourage entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial activity is key to a sustained economy recovery. Not only are entrepreneurs responsible for net new job growth in the U.S. economy, but a majority of the employment they generate remains as new firms grow, which creates a lasting impact on the economy. Although only a fifth of start-ups make it to their 25th birthday, employment figures stayed at 68 percent of the initial number. Thus, the number of start-ups that flourish and continue to create jobs balance the jobs lost by companies that close.
The Kauffman Foundation has the most comprehensive plan on how to create jobs and promote entrepreneurship. Here are some ideas that should be included in such an agenda to promote job creation and economic growth.
• Promote a culture of freedom and innovation in America by reducing overly burdensome regulation and limiting the impact of punitive lawsuits of those who create new businesses.
• Develop policies that promote innovation to develop incentives for successfully commercializing innovative new ideas and new businesses.
• Invest in innovation, especially in sectors like energy and health, to create jobs.
• Ensure a skilled workforce through entrepreneurially-driven improvements in our school system, entailing better training in the sciences and engineering, and government policies to support programs that train future entrepreneurs and encourage entrepreneurial activity.
• Promote more open-minded immigration policies to encourage the world's best and brightest to study work and start businesses here.
• Remove red tape and regulation from small businesses to encourage job growth and job creation in smaller firms.
• Offer tax credits for high net worth individuals who invest in small or new businesses.
• Reduce or eliminate taxes for entrepreneurs during their first six months or a year of business activity.
• Set up federal government and state sponsored investment funds for new businesses generally or in areas where it is particularly productive to encourage new entrepreneurial activity.
• Develop coaching or mentoring policies for entrepreneurs to encourage business development and job growth.
• Support efforts by state and local government to encourage entrepreneurial activities through the development of strong local educational systems and institutions and supportive infrastructures designed to attract and stimulate new business development and creation.
The bottom line, creating jobs and promoting entrepreneurship is paramount to our nation’s recovery. The voters already know this, and it is time for the politicians to act.
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Derek Elliott – The Spirit of Entrepreneurship
The entrepreunership is some force which inspires people to leave behind certainity to pursue their vision through creativity and entrepreneurship? The heart of the entrepreneurship includes, imagination, creativity, novelty, and sensitivity. Thus it could be called as the spirit of entrepreneurship, a spirit that involves the ability to handle the experimental nature of entrepreunerial activity. There are certain qualities to develop a new product or service and bring it to market to envision the possible impacts.
Thus the entrepreunerial qualities are very important for a moral decision making, and an ethical approach which emphasizes imagination, creativity, and has an experimental thrust which is much better adapted to the entrepreneurial activity and much more relevant to the unique situations that entrepreneurs face. In this sense, the process approach to ethics developed in this article is a unifying framework that brings together the activity of entrepreneurship and moral decision making.
Related CoverageDerek Elliott – Importance of Confidence in Entrepreneurship Derek Elliott – Entrepreneurship and Freedom Derek Elliott – How Entrepreneurship Improves Your Life Entrepreneurship is beyond "quick money", where no one can underplay the importance of wealth creation, job creation, market capitalization etc., But often the spirit of entrepreneurship is lost in the cacophony through some of the business plans, term sheets, sweat equity, share of equity, loans, deals with venture capitalists and angel investors etc.,
But for many reasons admitting mistakes is difficult. If you make a mistake then you will be mistaken always.The second point is that entrepreneurship is not limited to business alone. Finally today's entrepreneurs should study and know about the early days of successful entrepreneurs .Not to study in depth but try to know about the struggles of the pioneers in their early years. Such an experienced study will teach tomorrow's entrepreneurs many lessons.
In short the spirit of Entrepreneurship goes beyond money , prescriptive details of Venture financing and finally not limited to business alone. It is worthwhile studying the early struggles of successful entrepreneurs. It is all the money which is a the too shallow prescription for Entrepreneurship!
For More Details Visit Here http://www.derekelliottrealestate.com
William Aulet: 10 Steps To Improve Entrepreneurship Education
This is the first part of a four-part series from the MIT Entrepreneurship Center on how to improve entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurs and educators agree on two fundamental points. The first is so obvious that it hardly bears repeating but let’s restate it anyway: entrepreneurship is very, very important. Entrepreneurs are the critical driver of job creation and economic prosperity. The second is equally important and often left unsaid: academic institutions can and should play a more central role in improving the quality and quantity of entrepreneurs. While many conversations we have on this topic start by someone asking whether entrepreneurship can be taught, they typically end with an impassioned discussion on how to improve entrepreneurship education in the United States and around the world. Why not learn lessons from successful and failed entrepreneurs and the many entrepreneurial “experiments” they have undertaken? To ignore this wealth of knowledge and expertise, to insist that entrepreneurship is an art learned only through experience is to ignore the potential to develop systematic lessons, to ignore the power of analysis and to fail to apply tools of social science to a critical part of our economy. We at MIT have engaged in this process of systematizing the lessons from entrepreneurs around the world especially from those engaged in the sorts of science and technology-based entrepreneurship that can lead to high growth and job creation in sectors as diverse as biotechnology and clean energy. Recently we were asked to think more deeply about what could be done to improve Entrepreneurship Education based not just on our research and our teaching experience at MIT, but from what we experienced through our involvement and dialogue with dozens of other institutions providing education experiences for students with entrepreneurial aspirations — whether they hope to start companies on graduation, later in their careers or from inside large corporations. A group of us at MIT deeply associated with entrepreneurship education, after considerable discussion, have drawn on lessons we have learned at MIT and elsewhere to identify a list of ten suggestions for organizing education and programs in this area at university campuses. While at first, it seems simple, upon further reflection the list of ten points we agreed upon was anything but; it is a mix of the obvious and (we think) the not so obvious. We believe these ten steps, many of them requiring educators to look well beyond the walls of their current classroom, have the potential to build an educational experience that produces many more successful high impact entrepreneurs. At a minimum, by laying out our approach we hope to engage in a meaningful dialogue on what should be done in this area in order to meet the needs of our increasingly sophisticated customers, students at institutions of higher education, and to meet the needs of our economy. 1. Make the Case Why Entrepreneurship is Important: High performance organizations aspire to make the world a better place rather than simply to perform a task. Centers of Entrepreneurship Education must do the same. Entrepreneurship is not just another course in the catalogue; it is something that will have a high and positive impact on the world we live in. Job creation, economic prosperity and improvement of social welfare are critical goals and entrepreneurship is a catalyst on the path to their accomplishment. Educators must make the case for the importance of entrepreneurship to cities, regions, nations and continents. There are plenty of enough reports and evidence to support the case — it does not have to be a statement of hope, it can be a statement of fact. The Kauffman Foundation has a great deal of data to support the case. Universities around the nation have spun out companies from their labs and created new industries and new jobs — Google, Akami, Biogen, A123 to name a few. At MIT, we conducted our own study released authored by Professor Edward Roberts and PhD Student Charles Eesley. It showed that MIT Alumni are entrepreneurs who create 200-400 new companies each year. Just to put this into perspective, the report calculated that the companies started by MIT Alumni who are still alive and whose companies still exist, number over 25,000. Their combined yearly revenues total almost $2 trillion which, if it were a stand alone economy, would put it just behind Brazil and neck and neck with Russia. Entrepreneurship, new venture creation and venture growth is what we need to ensure future prosperity. It is also one important way that we translate the valuable research we do here at institutions of higher learning through our investments in science and engineering to the real world. This message needs to be clearly communicated to all. Action: Educators need to gather their facts and make the very compelling case of why entrepreneurship is real, real important. The educator must then work to educate other stakeholders outside the classroom (i.e., proselytize) to achieve the steps below. 2. Tone at the Top: For an organization to succeed, especially when it seeks to change, it needs support from the top of the organization. It is no different at institutions of higher learning. Probably the most important person who must believe in the compelling case you develop in Step One above, is the President of your college or university. Without their support, your impact will be limited. Therefore, you must have a plan to win their support and gather the necessary resources to build the Entrepreneurial Education platform you need. The university president does not have to be an entrepreneur. MIT President Hockfield, for example, is not an entrepreneur, but she understands the importance of entrepreneurship as an element of the broader educational experience. The leader of the institution does not have to be actively involved but the tone setting that this person does is critical. If university leadership is ambivalent, this can be crippling. In most universities (MIT included), some faculty are openly hostile to entrepreneurship. These faculty regard it as a corruption of the pure mission of their institution of higher learning — something unteachable or a set of stories that don’t match the rigorous traditional discipline-based courses. Resolution of this issue — building an evidence-based case for the role of entrepreneurship in the economy and for the rigorous lessons we have about entrepreneurship — is key. This is an activity that requires faculty and practitioners to work together, and can be a complex undertaking. But no bottom-up curriculum effort will overcome indifference at the top. Action: Educators need to educate the leaders of their institution about the benefits of entrepreneurial education based on real evidence and jointly develop a plan for its role on campus. Outside resources (e.g., alumni, other institutions, Kauffman Foundations) should be used if helpful to help make this case. Real and visible support (e.g., quote for brochures and website, regular briefings, support for cross-campus programs, and attendance at events or programs) is essential for achieving a meaningful impact. Steps three through six to follow next week.
Excerpt from:
William Aulet: 10 Steps To Improve Entrepreneurship EducationTagged as: careers, companies, entrepreneurial, entrepreneurship, importance, learning, president, professor, world
