Small business startup advice – SmallBusinessVoodoo.com

Business Stripped Bare – Richard Branson

How did Virgin Mobile become the fastest business in United States history to reach a $1 billion turnover? (Yes, Faster even than Microsoft or Google)

How did a man who set out to sell records in the 70’s become one of the world’s most influential social entrepreneurs with friends to count on such as Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama to name just a few?  Business Stripped Bare provides the answers.

Before you even make it to the opening credits you get a flavour of what being a truly global entrepreneur looks like. On the inside cover in rough handwriting (presumably Branson’s) are notes detailing some of the things he managed to achieve last year: Ordered 6 new 747 400’s; Opened a game reserve in Africa; Bought 5 miles of Majorcan coastline for new hotel; Secured site for largest cinema in the world in Tokyo;Opened first megastore in Beirut; Richard Branson is without question a truly global entrepreneur. Read more »

As an intrapreneur, it’s easy to get stuck between the dual roles of corporate visionary and day to day manager. You’re told to “work smarter not harder” and to “work on the business, not in the business”. But how?

The business needs you down there at the coal face right now. There’s not enough staff, you haven’t got time to train anyone else right now and, hell, you can do the job quicker anyway.

The problem with this mindset for the intrapreneur is that it’s not scaleable. You are not creating a framework for your business to grow.

Work smarter not harder. You are simply rushing from one crisis to another like an entertainer spinning plates hazardously on the end of bamboo poles.

With each stage of growth the crises are getting harder for you to manage. You are losing site of the horizon. The plates are about to come crashing down. You need help. Read more »

Overplanning can be as damaging as no planning.  The small business planning process must balance between planning and doing.

Hans von Bülow the virtuouso concert pianist was due to visit the Konzerthaus in Vienna to play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. His beloved Steinway piano was enroute. But there was some concern that it wouldn’t fit through the stage door.

To damage the Steinway trying to get it through would be a disaster. So the bright young floor manager suggested that they build a full size replica piano in the workshop and use it to test whether the Steinway would fit through the stage doors.

A week later, after some expense and effort, the replica piano was ready for testing. Stage hands were assembled, management looked on anxiously, though none as anxiously as the bright young floor manager. Problem was they couldn’t move the replica piano because it wouldn’t fit through the workshop doors…..

Read more »

Your small business needs effective leadership.  Possibly your most important asset besides your product is your intrapreneur.

You have decided that you are entrepreneur not intrapreneur.  Your business needs an intrapreneur – the entrepreneur inside the business. But how can you identify such a key component of your team? You can’t afford to get this one wrong.

To help, I have highlighted 30 ways to spot an intrapreneur, those key traits which mark him out as the special one, the one that your business can’t do without.

An Intrapreneur ……… Read more »

What’s the difference between an Entrepreneur and an Intrapreneur? and why should I care?

“An Entrepreneur is someone who has the skills, passion and financial backing to create wealth from new business opportunities and is willing to take full responsibility for its success or failure.”

“An Intrapreneur is someone who Read more »