How to Transform a Millennial Employee into a Leader

How to Transform a Millennial Employee into a Leader Many employers often see employees of the millennial generation (those born post-1985) as unreliable, egocentric and in perpetual need of instant gratification. This is not necessarily the case, according to David D. Bernstein, author of the book Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation is Shaping our World. In his book, Bernstein says millennials are forging a revolution in the workplace, which will cause drastic changes to how businesses are run in the future. “Millennials are more global, more tolerant, more diverse, more educated, more connected, and bigger than any generation before them,” said Bernstein. “They embrace change. They are the only generation to come of age with one foot in the old world of pre-internet, pre-Facebook, pre-computer, doing their first research projects in libraries, and another foot in the digital era.” What is Leadership to a millennial? The millennial’s view of leadership is quite different from that of the older generations. Younger workers are part of a generation that’s moving away from traditional, structured leadership. They prefer a flatter business organisation where collaboration is key, rather than hierarchical management. This means that, over the next decade and more, the future of leadership within businesses will likely have to change in order to attract top millennial talent. Those employers looking to groom an up-start millennial for a leadership position, there are some very important qualities to consider before you take your eager apprentice under your wing: Commitment to the job We were all young once and it is not hard to recall the times early in our career when work came a distant second to the hedonistic qualities of the weekend or after-work drinks. While it is important to have a healthy work/life balance, future leaders will likely be those who you can see putting in the hard yards in their twenties. These candidates will generally seem eager to take on extra work and won’t mind working late to complete tasks. They also prefer to face challenges head on rather than run away from them. Controlling impulsive actions One of the main gripes employers have about the millennial generation is their short attention span and constant need for gratification, rewards and bonuses. They are not totally to blame for this attitude. Part of it is down to the world they have grown up in. Nowadays, all the answers to any question is in the palm of our hand, retail therapy is just a click away, and the ever pursuit of Facebook ‘likes’ is an addictive self-esteem boost for a needy generation. Such distractions cause young workers to have less emotional control and patience than older staff. When considering job candidates, look for those that have shown an ability to control impulsive actions and can hold their focus to the tasks at hand. Communication Communication is a quality that is important to every generation. You should never consider someone for a ‘leadership’ role if they cannot communicate effectively. As mentioned before, the perceived problem with millennials is their restlessness and impatience. This can sometimes be construed as selfish or arrogant behaviour, which can rub more seasoned employees the wrong way. Future leaders should have an ability to communicate well with all ages and across multiple platforms. They will even know how to inspire others with their passion and approachable manner. Leveraging and implementing new technology for the business As the Internet of Things and Digital Disruption weave themselves into every facet of business, it is the millennials who the older generations will turn too to spearhead the change. After all, millennials have the advantage of growing up in the new digital age and as such are ideally equipped to implement the latest technology for business. A millennial leader is a great candidate for businesses looking to embrace the digital revolution. They can leverage the benefits of technology to streamline and improve processes in the business. In turn, they can also improve the innovation and profitability of your business in the future. Author: Andrew Morris is the Director of Queensland and Western Australia at Robert Half, and is based in the firm’s Brisbane office. Andrew relocated from Hong Kong in July 2011, where he was Robert Half’s Director of Greater China.  

Personal Branding Interview Karen Post - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Karen Post - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke with Karen Post, who is a fellow branding expert, author, social media entrepreneur, speaker and businesswoman.   Karen talks about how shes established her personal brand, while building the brands of other companies and gives some insight into how shes created a community around her brand, while explaining the importance of brand symbols and what we can learn from leading brands like Coca Cola. What does branding mean to you and how has it helped shape your life as well as your clients? Branding to me is the sum of what any entity, a company, service or person does. It’s what the market thinks, feels and expects. Branding has shaped my life in a profound way. My personal/professional brand The Branding Diva ® has brought tremendous opportunities into my world, being a published author, a highly compensated speaker, a business expert who have been featured on hundreds of International media venues and the ability to raise money and grow my social media start up, Oddpodz. For my clients, whether it be from a speech I delivered that inspired some on-brand action, or empowering organizations to think in a more distinct way, by embracing branding principles and practices, I have contributed to many successes because of stronger brands. What role does a profile picture play in branding a person? Can you explain the strategy youve used (email/website, etc)? A profile picture is a surrogate brand symbol when you can’t have a live connection. One’s photo or image should communicate who they are. Mine that I post in SM profiles is cropped to symbolize my creative spirit, my big smile further projects my high energy and direct style. On my website, I’ve chosen fun, again energy-driven shot of me on a bike, moving, going places and not your typical speaker head shot. All strategic. When I send email out, I use a graphic icon, my logo which is a stylized treatment of a photo, kind of Any Warhol-ish. I’m consistent with my colors, use my real signature and include a phrase that again supports my style, a bit in your face and bold. How does one build a community behind their brand? For over 25 years I’ve been a branding professional, focused on helping people, entrepreneurs and businesses grow and prosper. In 2000, when I started speaking on an international stage, writing for Fast Company and selling my authored works, my fan club started to blossom. In 2006, I founded Oddpodz.com a social community for creative-minded business people and professionals. The site is a compliment to my work and preaching. It was designed to be a place where my supporters and new folks could feed off each other, share ideas and experiences around marketing, branding, creative thinking and other biz stuff. We are still a work in progress, but today have over 10,000 people in our community. Our goal is to be an alternative to the mega social platforms by keeping our content and community focused on growing businesses and careers. While my brand has certainly helped Oddpodz take off, some day soon, it will have it’s own place in social media brand world. What can we learn from big brand name companies like Coca Cola? Funny that you mention Coca Cola. One of my key angel investors in Oddpodz is the part of Coca Cola family. I admire the Coke brand a lot. From the beginning they have protected their brand assets, graphic marks, slogans, packaging etc. They have also leveraged all touch points in their brand communications, been consistent with messaging and voice and continue to evolve as the world does. How have you built your personal brand to what it is today? In 2000, when decided to become a professional speaker and author, I wrote a biz plan for me, just like I suggest companies do. Almost ten years later, I update my plan quarterly and work it with strategic, thoughtful decisions. I’ve also invested about 6-10% of my income in developing me and my brand. I’ve hired coaches, professional photographers, engaged web designers, attended expensive conferences and read great business books (like Me 2.0). You can’t ever let up on the peddle, great brands evolve, grow and sometimes stumble, but should always keep them fresh and moving forward. Karen Post has been developing solutions and implementing methods that make things happen for more than 24 years. She is the author of Brain Tattoos: Creating Unique Brands That Stick in Your Customers Minds.   She started her first business at the age of 22, and built two successful companies: an award-winning ad agency and a legal communication firm specializing in high-stakes litigation. In 1999, she also raised millions for a start-up she’d like to forget. However, she believes that what does not kill you adds to your value and, in 2006, got bit by the start-up bug again and founded Oddpodz, a community and idea engine for creative professionals and businesses.   Her branding work has benefited Fortune 500 organizations and emerging small businesses in both consumer and business-to-business sectors.

World Wide Rave with Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

World Wide Rave with Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Great video from David Meerman Scott author of the new book entitled World Wide Rave. While you watch the video think of the implications for your personal brand or your business and what you can be doing to get ahead and reach your goals! What is clear is that those who do something different and create compelling content that is easily to distribute, find opportunities where others find closed doors. It doesnt matter what your goals are through creating your personal brand and doing some social networking you can achieve your goals much quicker than would have previously been possible. Do you think you can create a world wide rave? What are your thoughts on the video clip? Author: Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.

Why Inbound Marketing is Essential for Recruiters

Why Inbound Marketing is Essential for Recruiters Recruitment marketing has come a long way since job boards had they heyday. From social to mobile to content and now inbound marketing. But what  exactly is inbound marketing and why is it important to staffing and recruitment agencies? To get some answers I had a chat  with our friend David Smooke who is an expert in this field and a featured author of this site. You can  listen to the audio podcast below and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast. Questions by me, answers by David. What is inbound marketing and why is it so important? Well, inbound marketing is a great way to get people to your own message. At the simplest level, its driving traffic to your values. I really look at it with the rise of the internet as the best way to market because as you put out your message, your ideas, your content, your status updates, you end up attracting people that align with how you already see the world. So instead of paying for direct mail and ads and trying to convince people its who you are, you just keep telling people who and what you are and who you help and have content that supports that. You end up forming an audience of really potential buyers. Its exciting for me in the marketing space because really right now its valued more so than the size your wallet is, the quality of your message because we have so many channels and mediums available to us online that we didnt have 5 years ago, 10 years ago. Even the last year or two you still have new platforms emerging. Medium, LinkedIn Publisher, theres always a new blog coming along, theres always a new place to write. Its been exciting for my career. I just write something and Im able to talk to people like you and read things youre writing and comment on your articles. Its an exciting time to be in inbound marketing. How can you get started with inbound marketing? Well, I havent written a book yet so I guess the answer is not a clean yes, but with that said, there are clear places to start. A lot of it starts with looking at who you are and then what words. Do you want it to be your words, how to be a new source for that solution, how to reduce barriers to produce content, how to find your advocates. How does that fit in to your overall message and judging how successful you are in driving that type of traffic and conversions? I will say one thing. I didnt really know too much about the founding of HubSpot until recently and I had a good talk with one of their early employees. It was cool to hear that they actually started as 20 little JavaScript apps, a great blog and a long email list that that blog created. From this, they were able to get to the next stage as a company and then they acquired another company that became the group of its core product. So when you look at these, what Id take away from the story is that if you have these little effective tactics and you get to the next step, your whole strategy will form into place. You dont have to be as structured as saying, Here is my 10-page strategy guide and were going to do this step this week and that step next week. Its like if you can keep producing content and growing your audience and moving in the right direction, that strategy can form as it goes. Not that you want to entirely go that way because you want to look ahead and see where you want to be but you also want to reduce barriers to keep taking each small step and building a great audience of target buyers. What mistakes should companies try to  avoid? I think the first one is making the threshold too high to share your words and your message. I run into a lot of companies and theyll have one blog post a month. They have all these ideas of things they want to write and theyll start getting the ideas out there but they dont feel like its good enough. Whenever you compare product to marketing, theres a Reid Hoffman quote that goes something along the lines of, “If you know your product is ready to ship, you waited too long.” Theres a lot of value in this instant. People that make really good things, they keep a high barrier to entry where theyre like, I want it to be up to my 99% standard, and its just like with content and growing an audience, theres a human element to it. You want it to be good but it doesnt have to be absolutely perfect. Yourself, a lot of times, youll be your own worst critic with your content and your messaging. I see other startups, whenever I talk to them, they feel like theyre in what theyll call stealth mode but theyll be talking to people about what theyre doing in person and then willing to say it in person but not online where it could attract a re-engageable audience. I just encourage brands to start sharing more sooner of their story. The next thing I would point to is just not knowing who you are and having it as a universal thing about your company. So whenever you talk to, especially at an early stage company where theres only a couple of people in the room, you should know who you are in three words, you should know who you are in one sentence and then you should know who you are in a paragraph. This boiling at who you are down to those small forms, it forces very tough discussions but very important ones. If youre confident and consistent with who you are, youll end up attracting an audience that already demands what youre offering, but if you keep changing who you are, its harder to build an audience. Youll end up building an audience that doesnt fit with what you want to offer. I would say the last point is just not being open enough to collaborative marketing and guest blogging opportunities because I know you have a million things to do and you think, I just have to make my own blog better or my own site better and things will work out for themselves. But the internet is a very big place where traffics driven. It comes from somewhere. Its not like they go to a computer and then the first thing they do is log in to your site. So I would say be very open to collaborative marketing with other peoples email lists, other peoples blog audience and just try to do as much cross pollination of audience as you can. What technology do you need for inbound marketing automation? It does depend with what stage you are at as a company. HubSpots a great tool but its very expensive. If youre in that price range of ready to spend $2,500 a month on a solution, I think theyre great. At more simple levels, it starts with your own site and social networks. I know these are mundane for good reason technologies but you need to have a good content management system in place. You need to be able to publish as quickly as possible. Whenever you have these barriers where the writer isnt able to submit drafts, you have your CEO producing content and hes sending you an email with a draft, and then as you go to finalise it, people arent within the same system, just a little thing like that can end up causing you to waste a lot of time. With the social networks, I guess were not really getting on big tools here but it is important. With Facebook, you can schedule posts within Facebook. With Twitter, having a good solution to schedule content such as Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, those are all great. Theyre worth the small investment to have. Ive also been doing some work with a company called Knotify and theyve been doing really good things about uniting in-app activity and email. So theyre a good solution there if youre trying to further engage your existing customers. Technology in what people choose to use, even when Ive been working with new hires, its like I dont really want to force you on to an existing system. I care about you having the right intent. I care about you saying, These are my buying personas. These are the five buying personas and this is how Im going to go across each social network and start talking and engaging with those people. So first, I want to have that discussion and feel good about the direction youre headed and then what tools you actually use to get there, Im a little less concerned with. How do you calculate ROI from inbound marketing? Yeah, its a little tougher because a lot of value of inbound marketing is long-term residual traffic. So you do want to set a proper approach in terms of timeline and expectations with people, but at the simplest level to get you going, Ive been trying to grow this term of re-engageable audience. The re-engageable audience is your social media followers in your email list. I think its a very direct way of saying, This is my group of people that I can send a message to in the future. That would be an important metric in addition to traffic and conversions. Traffic is pretty simple. Its people on your website. Google has been pushing the visitor stat more which I like. So its how many unique people in your website. With conversions, youre looking across different types of conversions. It really depends on your business but essentially, the threshold is that when theyre paying you or not paying you. So once you get to the point of traffic you drove, it actually starts paying money for your good or service. So I would start with those three and then you can really break down a lot more stats from each one of those. With traffic, someone visiting the pricing page is a much more important person across most businesses than someone reading a blog post about how to do something. But some blog post about how to do something could be very high conversions for you. Whenever youre looking at traffic, you want to look at what pages have the most likelihood that theyll turn into a conversion. And then its like, Okay, if this page is 1% and this next page is 20%, if I can move them from that page thats 1% to 20%, my odds have gone up a lot. There are a lot of good ways to break it down. Along these lines, if you really want to get into inbound marketing and something Ive been pushing myself more is just becoming a real expert in Google Analytics. We were talking about tools earlier but in terms of free tools out there that theres a difference between a novice and an expert and its very high, Google Analytics is in that discussion and its really going to show you how your traffics moving. If youre good at setting up events and traffic flows, you can really effectively report on your work and have a lot more learnings about what you want your site to do. What companies or brands that are doing inbound marketing right? Sure.  One company I was thinking of, theyre a really good example of how to integrate humour into their inbound marketing and thats Eat24. They have a product where its very beneficial for them to integrate humor. Depending on the seriousness of your product, you want to make a decision on your tone and your voice. But with Eat24, their app is to order food online through your phone. They have a level of like the more you just have this positive association with them, the more Eat24 is able to just make you smile, the more orders that will happen through the app. A few examples theyve done, they did a great breakup letter with Facebook where they were saying, Facebook advertising isnt working for us, and they did all these really funny food comparisons like if youre to break up with your pizza. It was just a hilarious post that got picked up by all the mainstream publications because what they did was they tapped into a bigger issue and that is “Does Facebook advertising work?” They went on the forefront of saying, “Its not working for us,” and essentially, being a negative case study, its a little bit of a risky move because youre calling out a company bigger than you and saying you dont work very well which is kind of a funny thing to do but its just a very, very funny read. They also did some other funny ones calling out headhunters saying, Stop sending messages to my people. Theyre a really good one to look at. Each one of the posts, they give an insight into the personality of the company which always has all these added benefits. Whenever you give the personality of a company, you have the CEO saying, Headhunter, stop going after my people, or they have their marketing people talking about how they drove app downloads by advertising on adult sites, which is also a funny read. I guess some people are visiting adult sites; they also want to order food so they found a funny overlap. But whenever you get this personality into your content messaging, you also create this demand to work for your company and people want to be around you. I would think, in the consumer space, theyre a great one to look at. On their app, they have really good microcopy â€" the words within the actual product itself. After you make an order, it says something along the lines o f, Sit back and relax. Your thumb just made food happen. Weve talk about them before but its hard to not come back to HubSpot because theyre not only selling me inbound software, theyve done inbound marketing software. Theyve done a great job of saying, Hey, we want our brand to be like a publication. I met with them about a year ago and it was cool to see the structure of their team. So to learn about how to scale at inbound marketing department, they basically break up into three sprint teams and one team does short form content like their blog. Another team does long form content like their eBooks and white papers and then they have a third team. Each one of these teams is of seven people where they actually are entirely focused on distributing content, and optimising the distribution cost and organic methods of the content distribution. Just from a perspective of how those guys break up their marketing department, theres a lot to be learned there. Their software is very expensive. Their email list is somewhere in the range of a hundred times the size if their paying customers. Youd have to check. Ive kind heard some offhand on that, but its a very valuable lesson because even the masters of the game, so to speak, they know they have to get so many email addresses to get one paying customer and theyll nurture you for years. Theyre fine sending you content and making you a better marketer for three years and then on your third year, when you get the promotion and the new job, you think of them. Theyre great in that way that theyre less like, Hey, we can really take a step back and if we make you into a smarter and a better marketer, our brands going to win. You have people like me talking about them on a podcast like this. Theyve done a great job. I saw, recently, their sales are continuing to rise as a public company which is good to see that the value continues to be added. Theyve coined the term, so to speak, and its great to look at how theyre doing it. Right before we bought them in the past, I remember they have my customer profile. It was literally two years. I never take those forums too seriously and they were making fun of all the little one liners I would put in like Vegas marketing challenge. And it was cool because they looked at my customer profile within their own HubSpot account. It was just like, Here are the 15 touch points weve had with David before he even got a demo. Its cool to see that customer profile of yourself and of other people. Connect with David on Twitter @DavidSmooke and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast. Image: Shutterstock.

Avoiding the Gap Between Writing About Past Jobs on Resume and Past Employment

Avoiding the Gap Between Writing About Past Jobs on Resume and Past EmploymentIn order to better understand the difference between writing about past jobs on resume and one can merely rely on past job history. When you are going to use a resume, you have to remember that these jobs can include previous positions with multinational corporations, medical centers, restaurants, public service, and private industries.When you are applying for a position, you can write on a resume about previous employment in the past. You are also allowed to use this information when you go to interview or apply for another job. You will find that the fact that you did not apply for other jobs will not matter.If you are going to use past employment as a factor in determining whether or not you will be hired, the advantage is that you will have more experience than most other applicants. It is always best to have more than the minimum number of years of experience. For this reason, you may want to look at what specific companies are looking for.The disadvantage is that there is not always a benefit to writing about past employment. This is because a resume or cover letter will show your resume to the companies. However, it does not mean that you will always get the job.Instead, if you can show the companies why you are a good candidate for the job, it is usually better to use a resume and cover letter rather than use a resume or cover letter. A resume and cover letter that is directly tied to previous employment can have a negative impact on the way you are perceived. The truth is that employers are usually very busy and cannot read a resume or cover letter.Writing about past employment on resume can also be viewed as misleading. Most people will ask you about previous employment when you get your first interview. You will find that this will cause some employers to view you negatively.When writing about past employment on resume, you should include employment in the past. If you did not disclose previous employment, it is best to describe it in the first paragraph of your resume. This will also help employers know how well you are going to fit in with the other employees.A resume and cover letter should always be written in an honest manner and should not include any past employment. With that said, if you can talk about your prior employment then you may want to include this on your resume.

How2Become Successful at the IPG Awards 2017

How2Become Successful at the IPG Awards 2017 How2Become Are Double Winners at the IPG Awards 2017How2Become were double winners at the 2017 Independent Publisher’s Guild Awards, taking home the Nielsen Digital Marketing Award while Joshua Brown was named the Ruth Killick Publicity Young Independent Publisher of the Year.What are the IPG Awards?The IPG (Independent Publisher’s Guild) represents over 600 independent publishers, providing huge support for each member in this exciting, but challenging industry. The IPG Awards is held every year to acknowledge publishers in 13 different categories who have excelled within their field in the publishing industry.What were How2Become Shortlisted for?How2Become were honoured to attend the Gala Dinner on Thursday 9 February 2017, staged at the Crowne Plaza Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire after being shortlisted for two awards:Nielsen Digital Marketing Award â€" This award rewards publishers’ efforts to promote, publicise and their digital content via imaginative marketing techniques a nd clever use of technology. It is an award How2Become proudly won in 2016.Ruth Killick Publicity Young Independent Publisher of the Year â€" “The Award aims to recognise outstanding achievement by the rising stars of our industry, and accomplishments from all publishing functions and at all levels will be considered.” â€" IPGAnd the Winner is…How2Become is proud to announce that we won both the awards we were shortlisted for! We are incredibly proud to have won these awards as we strive to become the UK’s top careers and educational destination website.The judges left some fantastic comments for us on the two awards:Nielsen Digital Marketing AwardHow2Become secures this Award for a second successive year, having impressed again in 2016 with campaigns including YouTube videos and a new ‘customer funnelling’ strategy. It led to a steep rise in sales, more than half of which were made direct to consumers from its website. “A lot of big corporates could learn from how it segments audiences and uses non-traditional channels,” judges said. “For a company of its size the marketing is a massive achievement.”Ruth Killick Publicity Young Independent Publisher of the YearJoshua Brown gives How2Become a second win at the 2017 Awards, joining its Nielsen Digital Marketing Award. He drove a record year of turnover for his company, and having risen from temporary admin assistant to operations director in less than three years, he now has a vast remit including sales, marketing, title management and recruitmentâ€"and he’s still only 25. “Joshua achieved so much in 2016 and did remarkable things in some non-traditional publishing environments. He’s a real rising star,” said the judges.Here are a few of our celebration photos:Nielsen Digital Marketing Award 2017Jacob Senior, Joshua-Brown Henry Hunter Holding How2Become’s Two IPG 2017 AwardsHenry Hunter Celebrating How2Become’s Digital Marketing AwardJosh Brown Katie Noakes Celebrating How2Beco mes Success at the IPG AwardsFor more information on our awards, please check out the IPG website and also our Awards Page. This entry was posted in Awards. Bookmark the permalink. Joshua Brown Introduction to the Police Officer Verbal Reasoning TestKS3 Revision â€" A Parent’s Guide to Key Stage Three

Ready for entrepreneurship A reality check - Hire Imaging

Ready for entrepreneurship A reality check - Hire Imaging In my last post, I posed five realities of entrepreneurial responsibility. Here are some questions that might help you flesh out whether you’re ready to be an entrepreneur. Do you have entrepreneurial heart and courage? Perhaps you’ve been thinking about going into business for yourself. Perhaps a consulting practice, buying an existing business or franchise, or even starting a business from the ground up. Maybe you have a fabulous new product, technology or idea to market. Or think business partnership with a friend or colleague might be in the cards. Or maybe it’s just perpetual thoughts you have around entrepreneurial ideas or venturesâ€"self-employment in some form. The following informal assessment might help you gauge whether it’s a fit. Having service, product and/or industry expertise is one thing. From where I sit (an entrepreneur for 25+ years), I know that you also have to grow your business, promote your value, do the math of client books and business finances, solve ongoing problems and make tough decisions.   If you engage other talent, you must also be able to hire and train, manage, lead, delegate and maybe terminate. Ask yourself if you’re willing to commit to the demands of self-employmentâ€"on your time, vigor, expertise and strength. Just put a Y for yes or N for no behind each question. Have you clearly described your expertise and business concept? Have you pinpointed a particular market for your services and/or products? Do you have a gut-belief that your proposed business venture would be successful? Do you know not only who your competition is, but what they do, charge, market to, offer that’s unique, etc.? Do you have a formal written business plan? Have you shared your business concept with others and solicited their feedback? Do you have a marketing and advertising plan in place? Have you asked for advice from an accountant or financial counsel? Have you sought the advice of legal counsel? Do you have budget, revenue and income projections in order? Do you have the financial resources to support yourself during the early phases of your business? This is not a test; I’m not going to tell you that you need to have circled 5 or more yeses to be ready. Actually, ideally these should all be yeses before you put out a shingle. These are tangibles. How about the softer stuff? The “do-you-have-what-it-takes” stuff? Is your family supportive? Can you think, solve problems and make decisions independently? Can you roll with the constant change and realignment that any new business enterprise commands? Are you willing to learn from your mistakes? Are you willing to learn from other people and resources? Do you have gritâ€"the type of hardiness that lets you bounce back when you fall down? Can you handle disappointment and move on? Are you willing to work harder than you just may ever have in your life? Are you determined? Focused? Diligent? Self-disciplined? Well organized? Flexible? Can you live comfortably in a high-risk employment setting? Can you handle lots of stress? Does a lot of your self-image come from your work? Do you really crave success and self-satisfaction? Are you ready now? If your responses tilted in the yes category, you may be primed for entrepreneurship. Take the time you need to dot your Is and cross your Ts. And I hope you love the ride! Photo: velkrO