The Venture Edge

Although entrepreneurship in its essence is about startup—creating an opportunity and gathering the resources to make that opportunity a successful enterprise—it really is also a way of life. Once you’ve been bitten by the excitement of discovering an opportunity and creating and designing a new business, it’s hard not to see opportunity everywhere you look. But despite the fact that I’ve clearly drunk the entrepreneurial Kool-aid, I do recognize that this lifestyle is not for everyone. 

I have lost count of how many entrepreneurs I have spoken with who have told me that the secret of their success was to throw out their carefully crafted business plan and to instead take advantage of the opportunities that came their way -- WHEN they came their way. Business plans serve a purpose: they help you determine what products and services your company might develop and deliver, who might buy them, and how much they will be willing to pay. And they can help you determine how much money you'll need to invest to achieve a particular outcome, and on what areas to spend it.  

I just LOVE top-10 lists. There's just something about them that get my attention every time. So today I'm going to double the fun by offering up Springwise's top-20 list of new business opportunities for 2011. If you've been feeling stuck in a rut in your current business, or if you've been looking for a business opportunity that offers a lot of upside potential, then this might be just the list for you.  

Are you one of those people who claims they have no time?  Today most of us are carrying mobile devices that deliver a constant stream of information 24/7, whether we want it or not. Look around you—chances are you’ll see more than one person with a cell phone to their ear or worse yet looking like an escapee from a psychiatric institute talking to themselves through Bluetooth.  Problem is, entrepreneurs of the world, if you don’t shut off the noise once in a while, you’re going to miss a great opportunity. Don’t suffer from information overload. 

 I'm as bummed as the next business person about the government over regulating the marketplace, mostly because it means higher costs for businesses, which translates to higherprices for customers.  Businesses generally can't survive unless they pass on those higher costs to their customers whether they want to or not.  But, being the glass-half-full kind of person that I am, I believe that every negative situation usually contains the potential for an opportunity that someone will take advantage of, and regulation is no different in that regard. 

This afternoon I was monitoring NASA TV for what was to be the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor.  Ultimately, once again, the mission was aborted for weather, but as I listened to the rocess leading up to the scrubbing of the launch, I couldn't help but see the parallels with the kinds of things entrepreneurs go through at the run-up to the launch of their ventures, or the challenges that thwart a company attempting to secure an investment or complete an IPO.  As with a shuttle launch, it's all about timing and polling all the relevant stakeholders for a go/no-go decision before the final committment is made.

Make no mistake about it -- the current economic downdraft is having serious consequences across our nation -- and around the globe -- and there is no end yet in sight. However, it's at times like these -- when everyone seems to be placing their bets on a continued downward slide -- that great companies are built, and that sigificance is found. This fact has been borne out time and time again by many of today’s greatest companies, which either began or grew substantially during recessions and/or depressions.

Recently Peter posted an interesting piece on Mark Cuban's solution to stimulating the economy.  While I agree in principle that entrepreneurship is the way to make things happen, one could question Cuban's motives in his approach.  Actually last night one of USC's great grad students did question those motives, so I'm sharing his thoughts in my post. 

If you haven't yet seen a copy of the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed recently by President Obama, then you're in for a treat. At more than 1,000 pages, it's not exactly light reading. For busy small business owners, ferreting out programs of particular benefit to them has not been an easy process. But, according to a recent New York Times article, the benefits are definitely there. Here's some of the good news for small businesses:

Last week Mark Cuban -- the billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team -- announced an interesting new approach to stimulating the U.S. economy: an open source funding environment that he would fund with his own money. Says Cuban, "Rather than trying to be a Venture Capitalist, I  was looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding. Businesses that just needed a jump start to get the ball rolling and create jobs. I'm a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help." Here's how it works: Simply post your business plan on Cuban's blog, and he will personally consider it for funding. There is no minimum and no maximum funding limit, and with a couple billion dollars in the bank, Mark can clearly afford some serious funding.