Women from Venus, Men from Mars

This posting touches on the comparisons between male and female entrepreneurs. Being comparisons, there will be similarities and differences. Are they really that different? In my view, there are more similarities than differences.

Motivation - The factors that motivate male and female entrepreneurs seem to be more intrinsic than otherwise, if you like, such as the need for achievement, the need to be independent, and the need to be in control of their own destinies. These factors seem to be common among males and females. Nevertheless, studies have also shown that females are greatly motivated by the flexibility and work-family balance afforded by being in a business of their own. Running their own businesses also allows females to work at home, thus overcoming the problem of finding child-care. On the other hand, it is more likely for males to cite money as a primary motivational factor. Males have the tendency to prioritize the financial issue more highly than females.

Departure point - This refers to when they leave employment to jump into the cauldron of entrepreneurship. It could be due to work frustration, lack of promotional opportunities, or even enforced layoff due to a sluggish economy. It could also be due to the opening of a window of opportunity which makes it worth jumping out of employment into starting their own businesses. Females may also decide to jump into fire when there is a change in their personal circumstances. For instance, when their children have all grown up and with less parental commitment now, females may start their own businesses to realize their personal dreams. Remember the story of Julia Chong? Females tend to talk more about how and why their businesses got started, whereas males would prefer to harp on how big their businesses will grow.

Sources of funds - Popular sources of funds for both male and female entrepreneurs tend to be from personal savings and borrowings from family members or friends. Being the more aggressive gender, male entrepreneurs are more likely to seek out investors and request for bank financing. Females tend to have a lower risk profile, preferring to start business on a smaller scale and therefore requiring less funding. Females may also find it difficult to get financing from banks or venture capitalists due to discrimination.

Occupational background - Most entrepreneurs, male or female, tend to have some employment experience before they start their own businesses. This working experience is necessary to put them in good stead when they are on their own. There is a tendency for female entrepreneurs to have less formal or corporate experience than males. Male entrepreneurs are more likely to possess greater amounts of experience with personnel, technical and financial issues. This most probably explains why females usually go for home-based businesses while males go for ventures which are much bigger.

Personality characteristics - Both gender portray similar personality characteristics such as being innovative and creative, enthusiasm in their pursuit of success, energetic, goal-oriented, and industriousness. Nevertheless, there is a question mark on the level of confidence of female entrepreneurs. Female entrepreneurs are less likely to believe that they can undertake the key tasks of starting a new venture, such as obtaining bank financing and attracting customers. Male entrepreneurs show more perceptions about opportunities and their own capabilities. They also have a lower fear of failure.

Background - Male entrepreneurs tend to start earlier in life compared to females. Young male entrepreneurs are more likely to perceive opportunities but this drops after the age of 35. Young females have a lower perception of opportunities, but their perception grows and even exceeds that of males in the 45 or higher age group. Females in the younger age groups have a much higher fear of failure than males but this declines across older age groups. For males, the opposite is true - the older they get, the more chicken they become!!

Support groups - For both male and female entrepreneurs, they get a lot of support and encouragement from their spouse, children, and well-meaning friends. Female entrepreneurs, particularly, also get support from women's organizations. These organizations support female entrepreneurs by giving out micro loans or providing training and networking opportunities. Examples of women's organizations in Malaysia supporting female entrepreneurs include the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Malaysia, National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia, and Persatuan Usahawan Wanita Bumiputera.

Type of business started - Male and female entrepreneurs tend to go different directions when it comes to the type of business to start. Male entrepreneurs are likely to be found in the manufacturing and high-tech industries. On the other hand, female entrepreneurs are usually engaged in the retail and personal services sector. Female entrepreneurs tend to start businesses that are less growth oriented, but more oriented towards wage substitution.

From the above, it's quite obvious that male and female entrepreneurs do not speak the same language. I cannot make up my mind who is better, but currently it's still a man's world. Don't you think so? Well, you can leave your thoughts in the comment box below.

What, How and Whom

If you look at the title of this post, you are basically looking at what a business model is all about. Simply put it, a business model is a representation of how a business earns its money. It is a simplified picture of the real thing - that is to say without all the complexities of a real business - the organisational structure and culture, work methods, operation systems, intertwining human relationships, corporate strategies or production processes. Having a business model enables us to understand the essence of how a business works without having to deal with all the complexities.

A business model basically is just a story explaining how a business works. It provides answers to questions such as:

• What is it that we are offering to the market?
• Who are our customers?
• How do we distribute to them?
• In what ways do we communicate with our customers?
• What are the resources that we need?
• What are the key activities to be performed?
• Who are our business partners?
• How do we make money in this business?
• What is our cost structure like?

Business models became very popular in the late 90's during the internet boom. Many new ways of doing business became possible due to the low cost of sharing information among businesses and which reached all the way to customers. New distribution channels were created and more customers were reached. Value chains were broken up and reconfigured. This led to globalization, intense competition and new ways of doing business. There is now a larger variety of ways of how businesses make money in terms of what they sell, how they sell it, and whom they sell to.

Today, it is just not sufficient to be in a lucrative industry. There can be many different business models operating in the same industry. For startup entrepreneurs, you may want to create new business models in order to make your mark in the market. It is important to have a competitive business model to differentiate yourself from the crowd. Not only that, but if your business model is successful, most likely it will be copied by your competitors. Therefore, it is also important to regularly innovate your business model to give yourself that competitive edge.

Some business models used by companies which most likely you will know:

• AirAsia - bringing air travel to the masses
• Dell - using the web as a distribution channel
• Walmart - slashing costs in all its activities
• Gillette - establishing continuous relationship with its customers
• WorldVentures - combining fun with income earning capability :))

Entrepreneurial Decision Process - To Be or Not To Be

The entrepreneurial decision process is about deciding to become an entrepreneur by leaving your present lifestyle to form a new enterprise. It may mean quitting your current employment to become a full-time entrepreneur. Very easy to say, but this is certainly a gut-wrenching decision. Well-meaning friends may tell you "Anda Boleh" (You Can Do It!!) or "Buat Saje" (Just do it!!) but a decision of such scale needs to be analysed thoroughly. We call it a "process" because it involves several activities.

Analyse the industry that you wish to get into. Getting into an industry with high growth potential, such as the travel and education industries, will give you a better chance of success. People love to travel - look into the mirror, don't you love travelling?? As income goes up (we are going to become a high income nation come 2020, said Ajib Kor) more and more people will spend on travelling. Education is recession-proof. Come what may, people will still send their children to college. On the other hand, it wouldn't be wise to go into an industry that is already mature, saturated with competitors, and with declining growth rate. Try selling groceries - most likely you would fail or you would earn much less than what you could have earned elsewhere.

Analyse your work experience. Do you have the necessary and relevant experience to go into a particular industry? Chinese say, "Don't know, don't do". And you have to believe them - they are great entrepreneurs!!! LOL!!! If you wish to go into an industry which you do not have previous experience, go find a job in that industry first. Learn the ropes of the trade before starting your own business. When you are already in business, learning can be a very expensive affair. Very high tuition fees you would have to pay!!! So the trick is - "learn first before you go in, not go in first then learn". This will reduce your risk (remember? Entrepreneurs are not gamblers, they take calculated risk).

Analyse your buyers. Who do you intend to sell to? Are your customers corporate buyers or retail buyers? Corporate buyers means your customers are businesses like yourself. B2B, business to business, dig? Retail buyers means your customers are individuals like myself. B2C, business to consumer. Corporate buyers tend to be more rational in their purchase. If you can prove to them that your product can help them save money or earn more money, they will buy from you long term. Retail buyers like myself are more prone to being irrational. Product may be fantastic but I won't buy from you - why? I don't like your face (yeong shui!!!!). It's much harder to sell to retail buyers because so many things influence their purchase decision. For corporate buyers, only the bottom line counts.

There are other matters which you may want to analyse. Above is just a short list of three. For example, you may want to analyse your own financial commitments before you plunge into starting your own business. It takes time to generate income from your business but meanwhile you still have to pay for your car, apartment, and sending your kids to school. Some people never bother to do any analysis at all - What process???? And they too can be successful. Some people do a lot of analysis and ended up as non-starters. They never get to the point of launching their business!!! Nevertheless, sitting down and doing some analysis will reduce the odds of you failing. So, before you jump, take some time to go through this process. It may help you to make a safer decision - to go into a business of your own or not. To be or not to be. Good luck to you!! (You may put your thoughts in the comment box at the bottom of this post, tq.)

http://brandmakernews.com/business-brand/entrepreneur/4115/20-reasons-why-entrepreneurship-rocks.html

Entrepreneur Myths Part 2

Are you more enlightened after reading Part 1 of this topic? Really hope it helps. Let me know if there is any topic you would want me to blog on. Will try to meet your request. Advantage of blogging here over lecture is that I have time to think. Lecture, being a verbal delivery, I have very limited time to properly encode what I want to say. Due to this, misunderstandings or misinterpretations occur, and occur very often. So, all these blogging stuff is actually meant to provide a better and improved understanding. This is not an academic writing but written in a much more candid manner to facilitate understanding. Okay, what's next about myths?

All entrepreneurs need is money. Is money a guarantee for success? Obviously not, right? Money is an important resource. It can buy you raw materials. You can employ the most qualified workers. You can pump up your promotional activities. But without leadership, you won't be able to inspire your workers. Without the right strategy, your promotional activities will not be translated into sales dollars. And if you are not selling that much, what's the use of all those raw materials that your money can buy? You need more than just money. You need to have leadership to inspire and to motivate your workers towards achieving your company's vision as well as their personal dreams. You need to strategize on how you are going to form that emotional connection with your customers. How are you going to connect with them? Money can only get you the tools, but do you know how to optimize those tools so that you will get the desirable results? Therefore, to say that all you need is money, is indeed a myth.

All entrepreneurs need is luck. Lucky Eddie!!! Haha!!! Once in a while, luck plays a part in success. But nobody is lucky all the time - if you can be lucky all the time, no need become entrepreneur, be a Genting kaki instead. LOL!!! Success in entrepreneurship requires more than just luck. You also need to have the relevant management skills, the right people surrounding you, if you are a guy - maybe a woman behind you will do the trick. Nevertheless, off and on, all of us need that lucky break. But, luck alone is not enough. All you need is luck? Well, just another myth.

Ignorance is bliss for entrepreneurs. This is tantamount to pulling a cotton wool over your eyes. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Better for you not to know the challenges and the risks of being in business. Otherwise, you will be reporting to work tomorrow with a big smile on your face!! But, if we are in business, then we can't just turn our back to all the problems and complexities. We have to meet those challenges head-on. So what do we need? We need to do careful planning. We need to know the strengths and weaknesses of our business venture. We need knowledge and information. We cannot afford to be ignorant. If we are ignorant, then we become a part of the statistics for business failure. So, is ignorance bliss? No, it isn't - it's a pathway to failure.

Entrepreneurs seek success but experience high failure rates. Is the failure rate of entrepreneurs really that high? Here, we would have to rely upon empirical data. In a research done by Kirchoff who traced 814.000 businesses started in 1977, only 18% actually failed in the sense of leaving behind outstanding liabilities. It is true that many entrepreneurs fail, but if they are willing to learn from their failures, this will lead them to future success. Failure is therefore a stepping stone to success. It is not period - meaning you don't step down and out. You get up and fight another day... and another day... until you win.

Entrepreneurs are extreme risk takers (gamblers). Maybe this stems from the perception of people with regard to individuals who move out of their secure job into the topsy-turvy world of business. "You must be crazy to leave your job". In truth, entrepreneurs are calculated risk takers. They try to minimize their risk exposure by doing painstaking planning. Well, to say that entrepreneurs are extreme risk takers may be true (for the failed ones!!!) but the truth is that successful entrepreneurs take risks because they believe that there is a pay-off at the end of it. The basis for this belief - it is the burning desire to succeed.

Common Myths About Entrepreneurs Part 1

First lecture for BBDM3093 this afternoon. Pretty hot day. MU lost. Not enough sleep. Blur blur went for lecture. But once inside lecture hall, could feel the adrenalin rushing to the brain. Gave briefing with regard to coursework for this semester. That took almost an hour, and then we had a short break. So in truth there was only less than an hour for lecture. Wouldn't be able to finish what was planned, so quickly rushed through the definitions and focused on the myths about entrepreneurs, mainly because the tutorial case study next week is about these myths. In the text is listed ten common myths so I'm going to follow that. Anyhow, there might be others not listed here which you may have sourced elsewhere. It's perfectly okay - you can include others too as long as you can argue your point well.

Entrepreneurs are born, not made. It's all in your DNA - either you are born to be an entrepreneur or you are not. So you have to check your family tree see how many of your forefathers are entrepreneurs!!! If none, ha, you are not going to make it as an entrepreneur. This must be the biggest myth of them all - similar to the one about "leaders are born, not made" - but this must be worse. Nowadays, there are many training centers providing courses on entrepreneurship. The course that you are following now is coaching you to become an entrepreneur, not just an entrepreneur for that matter, but a pretty good and competent one too!!! Everyone can be trained to do an environmental analysis, to make decisions based on critical path, to do some calculations on risks, and so on and so forth. On top of that, we have all the hardware and software that you need to assist you. Most of us are trained to become an entrepreneur, either formally in institutions of learning or informally through our life and work experiences.

Entrepreneurs are doers, not thinkers. This is to imply that entrepreneurs are impulsive and tend to act on intuition, rather than taking stock of things and strategizing his courses of action. Put in other words - follow what the heart feels, not what the brain thinks. This is quite a debatable issue. On the surface of things, many entrepreneurs (having undergone training) would be doing a substantial amount of thinking - doing market analysis, competitors analysis, deciding on the business model to use and preparing a what do you call it - business plan? And where does the business plan end up after presenting to potential investors? It got lost somewhere. And what about the window of opportunity that act as the impetus for all the strategic thinking? Well, the window has closed. No more opportunity - you have wasted excessive time doing "thinking". On a personal note, if you really believe that there is a window of opportunity - don't "think" - JUST DO IT!!!! Time is the essence, time waits for no man. I believe that those entrepreneurs at the very top will make fast decisions. The detailed planning can wait. To me, top-drawer entrepreneurs are doers, not thinkers.

Entrepreneurs are always inventors. Why must "always"? It means 100% of the time, right? And if it is 100% of the time, how can it be right? Do you really need to invent your own stuff to be an entrepreneur? Can't you look at other people's invention and do a bit of tweeking here and there to improve on and add value to the product? Invention is just one type of innovation. We can also have duplication, right? You don't need to invent another Superman. You can duplicate a superhero in the form of Spiderman and lo and behold - you have another blockbuster series!!! Where did this idea of Spiderman come from? Oh, it's just a duplication of Superman, really, but one who is not sensitive to kryptonite. But whoever did the duplication made a ton of money!!! So, do you really need to be an inventor? No need la, copycat also can la.

Entrepreneurs are academic and social misfits. Meaning they drop out of college and are ostracized by society. You are a recluse - something like being anti-social, poor performance in school and lacking in social and communication skills. Some people may drop out of college and become an entrepreneur because they believe that there is another world outside college for them to conquer. It's not that they are morons or idiots but they are in fact pretty smart!!! And to state that entrepreneurs are social misfits is gross injustice, I would say. The nature of their endeavors would demand that they have good interpersonal skills - the ability to lead, motivate, influence, and convince. How can they be misfit? In fact, they fit in very, very well.

Entrepreneurs must fit the "profile". Meaning that there is a set of characteristics that all entrepreneurs must have. Look at Tony Fernandes. Compare him to Lim Goh Tong. Do they have the same set of characteristics? One is highly educated. The other one couldn't even speak English. One is trained, the other was opportunistic. But, they do have some common characteristics - that tenacity to overcome challenges and the unwavering will to succeed. There is no fixed profile for entrepreneurs - they can be as different as heaven from hell, but can be equally successful. Each has his own unique way of reaching out to the market, each has his own style of leadership, each with his own brand of personality - but, all are equally effective.

Part 2 will be in my next posting. I hope this blog helps you in understanding some important areas under this course. Let me know if you wish me to continue in this manner by putting in a few words of encouragement in the comment box below. Teachers need motivation from students too. :)) Thank you for reading.

Half-time MU-Spurs

Oh well, here it goes again!!! Usual fare MU's giving to its supporters. Going down to a goal by Adebayor in the 34th minute. He is a real menance to MU. 3 goals in his last 3 appearances in Old Trafford. Now, it's four. Come on, MU, I don't have too strong a heart.

Attacking, and attacking but missing the clinical finishing touch of RVP. Maybe Rooney will weave his magic wand. Oh no, he just got himself a yellow card in the 41st minute. He's getting mad!!! And when he's mad, he does crazy things. There's going to be a red card in this game. Hopefully, Rooney's not the recipient. Looking at things, there just might be a penalty coming in this game. Calm down, Rooney!!!!

Valencia is very actively involved in this game. Lost count already how many times he flies down that right wing. Oh no, Smalling just gave away a corner. Clumsy - easy chestdown and he nearly handballed it.

Spurs has been quite brilliant. Quick on the counter and defense to frustrate United.

Half-time. What can you expect from Moyes? Hairdresser treatment for his team? Keep cool, United supporters!!!! MU will come back in the 2nd half. Remember? We came back from 3 goals down against Spurs to win 5-3?? Now, it's just one goal - have faith!!!

Man United News #6 Review BIG FOUR

This is the 1st game of the second half of the BPL season. 38 matches to be played. 19 played. 19 more coming starting from tonight.

Arsenal is top at the moment with 42 points. Have been performing above themselves. Never expected them to be here. Kudos to Wenger. He is quite lonely now that SAF is no longer around. I remember those times when I was looking forward to every Arsenal vs MU match and the two protagonists - Vieira and Keanes. Missing all these firebrand characters!! And the flying pizzas too, right in the face of SAF!! Those were the days!! Anyway, Arsenal plays Cardiff tonight. I think the Gunners will shoot the pants off Vincent Tan tonight!!

Manchester City's just a point behind Arsenal. They are most people's choice to end up top of the heap. I have to disagree - Pellegrini in his maiden season will go bonkers with the crammed nature of British football. He's already complaining of players' fatigue in their match on Boxing Day. They are playing away against Swansea later. Expect a shock result here as MC are poor travellers!!!

Chelsea is my realistic choice as champions this season. They won't be playing exciting football, but they do have the one guy who counts -  Jose Mourinho the Special One. He will be doing what SAF did to MU last season. Through sheer willpower, Mourinho will pull his team across the finishing line. His brand of football - score 1 goal and then park a bus in front of goal. Won't be exciting but it's a winning formula. They are playing at Southampton and what score are you predicting? Of course 1-0 to Chelsea. :))

And of course, we have my beloved MU playing Spurs in the Theater of Dreams at 1.30 early early tomorrow morning!!! OMG!!! I have a lecture tomorrow at noon - WFDL - watch first die later. Currently MU is 8 points behind Arsenal. It's okay, we've done it before on Newcastle most notably, and we can do it again!!! Yeah, I'm a diehard optimist. I got this feeling - it's going to be a weird season with lots of twists and turns. What's your prediction for this match? 3-1 MU? Hey guys, put all your predictions in the comment box below. And haters of MU - you can have your say too!!!!