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Editor's Note: This is the first in a four-part series By Cheryl Antao-Xavier » The Wikipedia online encyclopaedia defines an entrepreneur as one who takes “a high level of personal, professional or financial risk” in pursuit of opportunity, yet is more of a “passionate expert than a gambler”.
Fashion designer Katya Revenko was both a passionate expert and a gambler when she launched her label Desperately Different on the Toronto fashion scene. “There were many who said it was not the right time in the market and tried talking me out of it.”
But Revenko, who arrived in Canada in 2002 with nine years’ experience as a designer in her native Ukraine, had already savoured the independence of an entrepreneur driven by the success of her own brand. She was confident she could surpass that success in Canada.
Desperately Different has stood apart as a unique label in a trend-obsessed fashion world. “I don’t follow trends,” says Revenko. “I have my own vision of things. I work from intuition and sometimes I feel my ideas on my fingertips. I am not bound by season, shape or colour.”
The results are timeless pieces. “I don’t give my customers just a coat or a dress, I give them a part of my own energy. Many of my customers say that they will keep my clothes forever.”
Such words are music to her ears. Revenko has huge plans for standing out from the crowd of big name labels strutting the Toronto catwalks. Those plans have started to rapidly unfold. In 2005, Holt Renfrew picked her designs to run in their World Design Lab alongside internationally recognized brands. In 2006, she won the prestigious Elle Canada New Labels award, which is part of the Toronto fashion incubator program. Following that win, Toronto Sun Style Editor Sylvi Capelaci wrote: “Desperately Different wants to be just that…She has a long road ahead, but Revenko has the ambition and tenacity to make it.”
That kind of driven ambition is typical of the true entrepreneur, says Bradley Foster, Toronto-based life, leadership and executive coach. “Successful entrepreneurs are hunters compared to their counterparts the farmers, who are content to plant seeds and wait for the crop to grow. Hunters see the opportunities and pursue it with a clear vision of what they want.”
Foster’s company Giant Steps Coaching guides entrepreneurs through the business start-up phase and at critical points in business development. “Self-starters learn the discipline and willpower to work hard against all odds. Their persistence and belief in themselves pulls them through disappointments.”
Be different, be you. In their recently-launched book Be Different, Be You, authors Patrick Rhein and Yvonne Attard advise the entrepreneur aspirant to stop functioning on ‘autopilot’ and ‘working towards other people’s goals’ and “give yourself permission to claim your life and reach for what you want”.
Says Attard: “Being in tune with yourself directly influences the way you create and grow your business. Entrepreneurs are fascinating to watch as they follow their passion through their business. When they learn what truly drives them – their core values at their highest vibrational energy – and align that with their purpose, the results can only be extraordinary.”
It is not a one-time discovery, but a journey through life. “Cultivate a high level of self-awareness and be aligned with your unique greatness,” says Attard.
Research spells success. The standard advice for a business start-up is: Know your market.
A successful businessperson knows his/her potential clients and competition and positions the business to cater and compete successfully. Yet even the most gung-ho self-starters will procrastinate over their least-favoured task and very often that task is doing a thorough research of the market they are about to enter.
Thereafter, continuing with market research can become a tedious chore once the doors have been opened for business.
Coach Bradley Foster says: “Entrepreneurs are often their own worst enemy when it comes to getting routine stuff done. They think in terms of the big picture and get bogged down with the details. They know the bookkeeping and market research needs to be done, but find little pleasure in it. Rather than letting things slide, one solution is to outsource or trade services.”
For Cellie Gonsalves, market research was responsible for the success of her business startup and continues to define its growth.
In 1998, Gonsalves followed her dream of entrepreneurship and made a radical career shift from corporate finance to owner of an online flower shop. But prior to doing this, she put in a year’s research on internet marketing and composed a typical customer profile. Then she left her high-paid corporate executive position to start Cyberflowers.com.
“We found that the profile of the average internet purchaser fit the profile of a flower purchaser,” says Gonsalves. With that knowledge she drew on her 30-year experience in high-level management and strategic planning to start her new business venture.
The online flower shop went international from the get-go and capitalized on its advantages over brick and mortar stores of being open for business 24/7, with virtually no geographical restrictions.
Gonsalves’ research told her that the biggest concern for customers buying online was security of information and she took the crucial steps to ensure tamper-proof encryption and limited access, tacking on an additional guarantee of a repayment if any credit card misuse occurred through her site.
Her market research is on-going and gives her valuable information on changing customer preferences and innovation in e-business technology.
“The personal contact with your customer is not there, so you have to make the site user-friendly and innovative.” Cyberflowers.com does this with offers of unusual gifts of seafood and chocolate bouquets, free online card bouquets and membership benefits to attract customer loyalty and bring in repeat business.
“You have to keep on top of changing demand,” emphasizes Gonsalves, “particularly if you are a small business and the bigger competitors get aggressive in the field. It is a continuous improvement process to stay in the game.”
Eyes on the Prize. There is something very infectious about the tremendous enthusiasm exuded by a new entrepreneur. Their buoyant optimism and brimming confidence illuminates the world around them. However, along with customers and the curious public may come the dream-stealers and the naysayers.
“Most of us have negative self-talk going on in our heads that is demoralizing and robs us of our motivation. We don’t really need naysayers to add to the negativity,” says Foster. “It is so important to stay focused on the positive, hold on to that can-do attitude.”
Small business owners often find themselves fending off tempting offers to align their businesses with that of others that may be inherently different from their own. There is the danger of large corporate clients and allied service providers monopolizing time and resources, thus overshadowing the small business identity with their own corporate brand.
“Keep your business vision in sight,” says Foster, “and refine your market positioning statement as your business matures. This is a particularly useful exercise to help you stay focused and on track towards your own goals.”
The Big Idea. Entrepreneurs see business ideas in virtually any and everything.
“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something,” says Nolan Bushnell, founder of more than 20 companies including Atari. “It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a do-er, not a dreamer.”
For Bruce Whitaker, the big idea came while he was doing a run-around of service providers while buying his new home. Sensing his frustration, his business partner Rodney Litigio suggested a website that would be a one-stop shop for all home purchase-related services.
“We are all making the same calls, going through the same frustrations and getting burned out before we turn the key in the lock of our new home,” says Whitaker. “Why not have someone handle it all for us?”
Whitaker and Litigio set up Buyingblock.com, an interactive website that harnesses consumer purchasing power to strengthen the negotiating platform with service providers. The site offers services that run the gamut from realtor, home inspector, lawyer, mortgage broker, appraiser, insurer, movers, renovators, to post-purchase services like arranging the phone and cable hook-up.
“We stickhandle the home buyer through the minefield of service providers and put some of the fun back in the process of buying a home. Better yet, as a group of home buyers we get the preferential rates that we simply wouldn’t get on our own.”
The business idea drew on the experience of both partners in banking and real estate, as well as their strong commitment to community service.
Within a year of operation, Buyingblock.com has racked up glowing testimonials from satisfied clients.
According to executive coach Bradley Foster, “A maxim I often see played out is ‘If you do what you love, the money will follow’. Whether you are a hunter-type entrepreneur or a detail-oriented farmer, you have to love what you do to be good at it. When it is a good fit with your core values and strengths, you get passionate about it.”
The professional touch. “The first thing that a client perceives of a company is its public image or corporate identity,” says graphic designer Yails Hernandez of Graphisual. “The look of professionalism transmits into interest and confidence in your product and company.”
Graphic design and visual image are key elements in a corporate image, says Hernandez, “Careful development of this image is as important for a small business as it is for a large corporation.”
The tricks to remember when designing your image are to keep it simple, clean, and straightforward. “Complex logos are distracting.”
“Your values, goals and ideas should be reflected in your design elements such as your logo. You must determine the message you are trying to convey, and incorporate it into your design and have it consistently identifiable in everything that represents your company,” says Hernandez. “The object of the design is to achieve a look of professionalism.”
The professional look should ideally extend to the owner of the business and its frontline staff as well.
“You are the face of your company,” says Bradley Foster. “Being in business entails giving out the right signals to appear competent and professional before clients and colleagues.”
Presenting a confident front can be a challenge when speaking in a language other than one’s own, and struggling with vocabulary and pronunciation. For budding entrepreneurs trying to explain the technicalities of their business, language problems can have a muzzling effect.
“It can make some people self-conscious,” says languages and linguistics expert Elizabeth Greig. “They may worry that it reflects negatively on others’ perceptions of their knowledge and competence.”
Greig, a new entrepreneur herself, uses her fluency in English and French to coach speech and accent reduction.
“Developing a more ‘local’ accent can elevate confidence levels with such a domino effect in your life, cause you to strive for more, open up opportunities, and spur career changes. For the business entrepreneur, it can make business presentations more seamless.”
According to Greig, “Achieving clarity is the main aim, ensuring that the message that is delivered is the same as the message that is received by the audience.”
Make space for success. For the self-employed, especially those with a home-based business, maintaining a professional environment can be a challenge and add significantly to the entrepreneur’s daily to-do list. Defining the boundaries of home and business can be an ongoing challenge if not demarcated early on in the business start up.
“It is not a good idea to have your office in your bedroom,” says Cecilia Moorcroft, a lifestyle coach and Feng Shui consultant. “Bedrooms are for sleeping and sex, and it pays to respect the sanctity of that. Having your office in another room keeps your mind focused on work and allows you to wind down in the bedroom.”
Moorcroft applies Feng Shui techniques in her consultations on workplace set up.
“It’s all about intention,” she says. “What is your vision for your business? Create a space that keeps you moving forward.”
According to Moorcroft, the décor as well as the arrangement of furniture can impact your concentration level.
“You have to seat yourself in a ‘place of power’,” she says. “Face the door and the rest of the room. If you are seated at a desk facing a wall, with your back to the room and the door, your ‘animal mind’ is not at rest. You are in a position of vulnerability in not knowing what is going on behind you.”
“If you think about it, cubicles were designed to keep people ‘contained’ and focused on tasks at hand. It promotes the worker-bee mentality and does not promote empowerment. You would never see the president of a company in a cubicle.”
“Everything in your work environment is important, from the pictures on the wall, the size of your desk, to the absence of clutter. All this should empower you and inspire you. Allow success to happen.”
The importance of de-cluttering is crucial to helping an entrepreneur stay focused, alert and ready for business, says Anna Prezio of Clear That Clutter! A self-described ‘Clutter Terminator’, Prezio combined an eclectic mix of skills and experience in interior design, renovation and management with her own innate organizational skills to create her company that specializes in helping people de-clutter their homes, offices and lives in general.
“We are what we clutter,” says Prezio. “We acquire ‘stuff’ and amass it, and then we hang on to it for sentimental reasons. The result is we are surrounded by all this clutter that adds to our stress and drastically reduces our efficiency.”
A cluttered office environment does not look professional and leads to poor time management, disorganization and consequently high stress levels.
“I am a clutter-survivor myself,” says Prezio, “so I know from experience that in de-cluttering I took back my life and space. I began to clearly identify my priorities and life became less of a struggle.”
Prezio works with her clients to chalk out an action plan that “organizes, edits and strategically places the ‘keepers’ from the dispensable.” Then we just get rid of the latter, she says.
“Clearing out the clutter is liberating,” says Prezio. “Clarity, peace and serenity awaits at the end of that tunnel.”
Shape up for success. “The best advice one can give an entrepreneur is ‘know yourself’,” says Bradley Foster. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Use your strengths to their full advantage and get help where you need it. Above all, keep an open mind and listen to those who show an interest in your business, especially your customers.”
“You may have stumbled on a great opportunity, but there could be a greater one just below the surface.” |
