Archive for November, 2009
The Difference Between A Business Owner And Us Crazy Entrepreneurs
I am often told by a business owner that they are an entrepreneur, but most of the time I disagree with their position. Most business owners, especially those that are struggling financially right now are truly business owners and not entrepreneurs.
So what’s the difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur?
Here’s a quick example of a business owner…Bob owns a jewelry store on a busy intersection or at the mall in your local community. Bob sells lots of jewelry inside of his store but he doesn’t really expand his business offerings. Bob might add a second store but essentially Bob still is a business owner with two locations.
Here’s a quick example of an entrepreneur that owns the same jewelry store…Bob has the same location or two locations. Bob also starts doing private shows at a local upscale restaurant to find prospects for his line of custom jewelry that sells for double or triple the price of his “stock” jewelry. Bob then creates a list of customers that attended his private events at the local restaurant and invites them to a “Diamond Exploration Trip”. Bob arranges a trip to Antwerp, Belgium where he and the local travel agent craft an experience trip where Bob gets a percentage of the money spent on the trip. Bob has now created another new revenue stream. But Bob’s a crazy entrepreneur and part of the trip requires each attendee to find their own diamond that Bob then mounts for them in a necklace, earrings or bracelet. Bob also creates an online website where his customers can become members to receive additional discounts and coupons. Bob charges a small fee to become a member but gives back double this fee back as in-store coupons. Bob also teams up with local charities to do monthly fundraisers at his store. Where members of the charity spend cash and Bob returns a percentage of that money to each charity.
See the entrepreneur continues to add new revenue streams and other businesses to their existing business. Most people are really business owners that have just created a job for themselves. Many entrepreneurs find it difficult not to find opportunities or new ways to create revenues for their companies. It’s the reason why many of my friends and I that are entrepreneurs have been able to rise above the current economic crisis and have record years.
I’m thankful that I’ve become an entrepreneur and not a business owner.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Related posts
Mom I Finally Went To Class
Last Monday one of my friends and business partners that teaches entrepreneurship at UW Whitewater invited me to speak and share my success strategies with his students. It was my FIRST time inside the four walls of a college classroom. I was a horrible class room student in high school, and had very little ambition to study for four more years. I did attend a local tech school for a semester…but I don’t think it would really qualify as a semester.
Al (my professor friend) wanted me to share my entrepreneurship story with his class and then some of my systems for getting things done with his class. Even though I was a horrible student in the class room I consider my self an avid learner. I just took a speed reading course to help me increase the amount of information I am able to sift through to find useful information to help me grow my own businesses and also my clients businesses.
I shared with the class my entire story starting by picking up trash in the parking lot of our family bowling center for quarters to play video games, my DJ business that was started with a set of home speakers and a bunch of borrowed CD’s, my rise from bartender to partner in a 60 lane bowling center and now my explosive growth in my online marketing businesses. All done with no formal education, but probably a HELL of alot more real life experiences, a real passion for business, my personal search for information that helps me grow each of my businesses and a system for managing myself to get things done.
In every new venture I am constantly making mistakes by moving forward FAST. Never getting disturbed or sidetracked with small fires. In fact I look to start fires to move my businesses forward. So many business owners are waiting to get everything perfect…I’ve got news for them…It should never be perfect. It’s a constant battle to make improvements, challenge your self to get your product to the next level. However most business owners are paralyzed trying to make small decisions because they might offend someone, they might upset their staff, etc. My philosophy is to disturb some everyday including my employees. Challenging them to say yes we’ll figure out how to do it instead of coming up with excuses as to why we can’t do it. I encourage my team to push the envelope and challenge me too.
The class had a whole bunch of questions. I’ll share just a few with you.
#1 – What are your 3 favorite books.
- The New Psycho-Cyberntics (Dr. Maxwell Maltz / Dan Kennedy)
- NO BS Time Management (Dan Kennedy)
- Think & Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
I have quite a few more but these have probably been the most influential and life changing.
#2 – How do you get so much done and do you ever have fun?
This was a bit of a loaded question as they probed me looking for the excuse for success. Geez look he’s working all the time and never has any fun. Actually I do work ALOT. But I work pretty smart. My entire day is scripted. I take no incoming telephone calls from prospects. All calls are scheduled. Client phone calls are taken at specific times of the day, and most by appointment. I also do alot of group selling instead of 1 on 1.
I do manage to have some fun over the last year: A trip to Disney World for my daughter’s birthday, two trips to Miami Beach, a number of Milwaukee Brewer games, Las Vegas, Tucson, and a few others. So yes I work ALOT, but still have FUN too!
Here are a few comments from the students:
Darin’s Story of Hard Work and Dedication
Meeting with Darin was a pleasure as he had a great story about hard work and success. I loved learning little tid bits that could be utilized with any aspiring business man or woman. Hearing about this different projects and the various events he has attended was a great way to actually see his skills and success first hand. I would recommend allowing him to visit your school to talk to aspiring entrepreneurs about the many opportunities for victory in business.
Alicia Lowe, Whitewater, WI
Darin Spindler is very insightful, knows what he is talking about. Real life stories made me motivated to go get work done so I can become successful. He shows that it isn’t the amount of time but the quality of time you put into the business.Garrett Lutzow, New Berlin, Wisconsin
Darin’s presentation was very insightful. It made me realize that true success is the result of hard work and ambition. His presentation was also motivating for me. Nothing is impossible if enough effort and time is put into it. It would be great if he could come back again and share more of his ideas and stories of being an entrepreneur.
Alex Moores, Whitewater, WI
Darin brought tons of real-world marketing concepts to the classroom that you just can’t learn in books. It was great to learn some of what it really takes to be an effective marketer. Darin even gave us some helpful tips on how to work more efficiently.
Related posts
-
-
You are currently browsing the archives for November, 2009
Follow Me
Follow me in these Social Networks