What is an Entrepreneur? Are you one? Do you have what it takes to become one? Are entrepreneurs born or made? Why do you want to become one? How do
you become one?

"Entrepreneur" is a word that is used everywhere nowadays, whether describing the unlucky victims on Dragon's Den or Bill Gates, to people in the local community centre or Silicon Valley, but how often do we take the time to actually think about what it means? How can we possibly be working towards something if we don't really understand it fully?

Why would anyone want to become an entrepreneur? The answer is to be able to get and give more value in line with what you want from your life.  Fundamentally we are all doing it for the same reason; to get more life, more happiness and all of the things that mean life and happiness to us.

Sadly, all go in with this vision, but very few achieve it and ironically most get the opposite... less life, less happiness. Why? Very simply, because they thought they were something that they were not. They went in thinking that because they started a business it made them an entrepreneur. This is the equivalent of a medical student saying they are a doctor on their first day of university.

Why then do so many think that they will be able to get by, start a business and succeed, without going through the relevant due diligence? The answer is lack of understanding and awareness of what it really takes to be an entrepreneur and build a business that works for them, rather than them working for it. This is why 95% of all small businesses fail within 5 years. However, if you are willing to pay the price up front in terms of your own growth and development as an aspiring leader and entrepreneur and indeed you know what that price is, then you will ensure your success. This is why we have created the Club, to provide an environment where people can learn, grow, connect and build their lives and businesses from the security of their jobs or studies to get more life and more happiness.

Well then...what is entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is the ability to create a vehicle that works without you, giving you the life and happiness you desire. This happens by adding more and more value, in less and less time, at higher and higher levels of quality in a way that can be duplicated. What does this mean to you? Well that is for you to find out. Use the Club and its initiatives to help you. The Club is growing rapidly, both in terms of the number of people involved as well as the immense value that is being added between members. The more involved you are, the more you will receive in return, the sooner you will become who you want to be and begin your entrepreneurial journey.

Latest EClub Event

  Creating business certainty in uncertain times
by Paul Waugh - Chairman and CEO of FranklinWaugh

I have a very important question for you! Are you still going to be in business in 2 years time? I pose this question as an extremely pertinent one because there is about to be a natural business clear out of massive proportions. We are all without a doubt, in the process of entering tough economic times. So tough that Mervyn King was moved to state that this recession will be one of the worst since the recession of the seventies and may be even worse than that. These are extremely daunting words that we all need to act on right now if we are to survive intact or survive at all. The question is thus, what do we need to do in order to survive this downturn?The small business problem of too much independence

In order to find a solution to the problem of how to find more certainty in uncertain economic times we need to understand the biggest vulnerability of small and medium sized businesses. Contrary to popular belief it is not the smallness of the business that is the biggest threat to it. In fact the small business has many advantages over its bigger corporate counterpart: speed, agility and flexibility being just a few of them. The biggest threat to the development and sustainability of a business through good and bad times is the overly independent mindset of the business owner. In order for the larger corporate to compete in the market place they are always looking for an edge. In order to create the competitive or otherwise edge, big businesses are always striving to develop strategic partnerships and business alliances.However, small business people encumbered with small business myopia very rarely form these partnerships when it is small business people who need it the most. Because of this myopic over self reliance SMEs pay over the top in time, money and effort for nearly everything. It is time for proactive SMEs to differentiate themselves from the rest and truly create the advantages that good solid strategic relationships can bring to our individual and collective businesses.

What to do about it?

So it is clear! If we are to survive the impending economic winter of uncertainty we need to strengthen our businesses in order to withstand the pressures that will result in so many businesses failing over the next several years. We also need to prepare ourselves for any opportunities that will be there for success. In fact, if we do our preparations correctly we may even come out of this economic downturn as market leaders in our SME sector.So what to do about it? Learn how to build strategic relationships, get involved with people and organisations that specialise in building strategic partnerships in order to get more business, cut back on costs, increase profitability and sustainability. If we come together to do this business saving and enhancing work now we can all thrive and not just survive through this period and be brilliantly placed for real growth to take advantage of the next economic boom.

Where to from here?

The above however is easier said than done. It is difficult to form the right relationships with the right people and is made harder by the lack of knowledge in forming these business enhancing partnerships and alliances. It is imperative that the small business owner be guided by experts in the field. To do it on your own would result in a lot of wasted time, a precious commodity that we have little of in terms of positioning ourselves for more certainty in tough economic times. I would by all accounts suggest that we have until Christmas in order to reposition our businesses strategically and tactically. Any later than that would be a major gamble and would probably prove to be too little too late.

I would like at this point to refer you to a community interest initiative that we have been championing for over a year now. It is called E-Club and it serves the purpose of bringing people together in order to build strategic relationships in all areas of business. This process of relationship building and partnering is called EBEN (Entrepreneurial Business Exchange Networking). Membership to the club is complimentary, so if you would like to join and find out more, then the registration website is www.e-club.org.uk.

In conclusion, let's build together in order to turn these tough times of economic uncertainty into certain business opportunities and growth.

Paul Waugh