04 Jan 2012: The Year for the Entrepreneur

I’ve had a great time over the last few weeks putting together my outline for what I’d like to make out of 2012 for myself and my business. Putting goals onto paper seems to solidify them as being more easily accomplished. So far, so good…four days into the year. One of the many things that I’d like to do better for myself and my clients is to learn/share more interesting and inspirational information.

I’d’ like to learn more about what makes small businesses work. Why does one lumber company do better than the other in town? What makes one law firm more attractive to potential clients? Why would you buy inspirational Book A rather than similarly titled Book B? These all seem pretty simple, but after diving into Freakonomics heavily once again as well as being in the middle of a large project regarding trends with the USDA, I’m much more interested in the larger trends as to what makes one company more attractive than another. Sure, a friendly smile, knowledgeable staff and a quality product are incredibly important. But does a handwritten letter to a client mean more than an email blast wishing folks Happy Holidays? (I’m hoping for the former, since such a large handful of my clients received one from me.)

At any rate, amid my rambling regarding my effort to streamline the data that I’ve been collecting through my first year and a half in business, I stumbled across an article that should be inspirational to those who already have their own business as well as those who are considering it. As the economy is still at a crawl, now is a great time for new or small businesses to be incredibly competitive with their large competitors. It’s much faster to create a website, plenty of tools exist to help monitor online reputations and so many platforms exist to help publish social media updates that it’s mind-numbing.

Read this article from Time for renewed inspiration regarding your business or the business that you’ve been dreaming of beginning. I do believe that 2012 will be the year for the entrepreneur, and that’s why it’s important for all of us to get ourselves organized; who knows what new competition will be staking out your clients.

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/01/03/2012-the-year-of-the-entrepreneur/

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/