9. Entrepreneurial Mindset with Collective Thinking
Be true to the best version of yourself.
This is your great ideal.
If you’ve done your best,
there’s nothing more you can do.- H. W. DRESSER
Everyone wants to achieve the highest possible level
of financial success throughout their career.
According to Thomas Stanley,
author of The Millionaire Next Door,
up to 80% of self-made millionaires are business owners.
They make a fortune in a lifetime
by starting and building their own business,
by producing
and selling something to someone.
Most of the time they think
and act like businesses.
According to the March 2015 issue of Forbes magazine,
there are 1,826 billionaires in the world,
66% of which are self-made.
They started off as entrepreneurs with nothing
and built their fortunes from scratch by creating
and selling products and services that people wanted
and were willing to pay for.
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Think of the customer
Tom Peters writes in In Search of Excellence
that the most important quality of successful businesses
is an “obsession with customer service.”
Entrepreneurial thinking means always focusing on the customer,
never stopping thinking about the customer.
Not long ago,
I spent a day with the president of a $2 billion company
he started from the dinner table.
When I asked him where he considered himself in his job,
he replied,
“Sales manager.”
“When we started, this was where I was,
and still is,” he said.
I think about sales all the time.”
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Collective thinking
Collective thinking is different from entrepreneurial thinking.
The people in the company,
whether employees,
managers,
directors or technicians,
are not very interested in customers
or see customers as people
who are always complaining,
asking for something new or different.
Customers are often seen as flies
that need to be swatted
and brushed away.
Team-minded people are busy doing their jobs,
pleasing their superiors,
following the rules,
and doing the bare minimum necessary to avoid getting fired.
Collective employees often use the pronouns
“them,
theirs,
and company”
to describe the company and the people in charge.
They feel that whatever happens in the company
does not affect themselves very much.
They say,
“Work is work”.
Like a person of this type once said to me,
“When I go to work,
I think about my job,
but when I get home,
I don’t think about work or the company anymore.”
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Lack of commitment
Many researchers conclude that more than 60% of employees in large
and small companies are “free time”.
They do not feel a deep attachment
or loyalty to the company.
They just do one sequence of work,
contemplating another.
They regularly browse classifieds,
post resumes and certifications on Craigslist,
LinkedIn,
and other websites,
and are constantly looking for something else to do.
The collective type gets to work as late as possible,
takes advantage of every minute of breaks and lunch breaks,
and spends up to 50% of their time chatting with co-workers,
checking e-mail,
and doing other things,
of no or little value to their company.
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Commitment is key
Entrepreneurs are different.
They tie themselves to the company’s success.
They see themselves as independent workers
and act as if they are the owners of the company.
They use words like “we, mine, and our”
when talking about their company
and their products and services.
Above all, they assume the greatest responsibility for the results.
Entrepreneurs are always willing to take on more responsibilities.
They are constantly thinking about contributing more.
They are constantly improving their skills,
learning new things,
and finding ways to be more useful to their company.
Above all,
people with an entrepreneurial mindset often find ways
to increase sales
and profits for their companies.
Entrepreneurial mindset is a customer-focused,
customer-centric mindset.
Entrepreneurs are always thinking about the customer.
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Sales is the main goal
As we said in the previous chapter,
the top reason for business success is high sales.
The leading reason of business failure is low sales.
Everything else is just commentary.
The key to success in business is SMS,
which stands for “Sell More Stuff”.
This is what the entrepreneurial mindset focuses on most of the time.
How can we sell more products?
Successful entrepreneurs have certain qualities,
traits,
and disciplines that help them achieve far more than the average person.
There are many ways
for you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset
and contribute more to your organization’s revenue and profits.
Remember the three key things:
clarity,
focus,
and attention.
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Ask basic questions
There are simple business questions that you always
It’s important to ask and answer questions,
especially when you’re dealing with rapidly changing knowledge,
technology,
and competition.
First, how do you actually do business?
Define your business in terms of how you serve your customers,
and what improvements
or transformations your products will bring
to their lives and work.
Collectivists see their businesses
as organizations that produce
and sell products and services.
People with an entrepreneurial mindset
see their business mission as improving
and enriching the lives of their customers.
Try to describe your business with the positive change
or improvements your products/services make in the lives of your customers,
without mentioning your company,
products or services.
This can be a real challenge if you do it for the first time.
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Think like a customer
The collective worker type says, “I sell cars.”
The businessman said,
“I help people drive wherever they want in comfort and safety.”
You will know
when describing the product/service about
the work it does for your customer,
the problem it solves,
the benefits the customer enjoys,
because you will get a “How that you can do that?”
or “I want that!”
or “It was just for me!”
Who is your ideal customer
who is best suited for what you sell?
This is a demographic
and psychographic description of the type of person who appreciates
and values the features,
benefits,
and outcomes of the product/service you provide.
What does your ideal customer consider valuable?
Can you offer something so important
to him/her that price is no longer an issue?
The main reason businesses fail is that customers have little
or no need for their products.
People do not appreciate them
and are not interested in buying them.
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Your field of interest
What do you do best?
In what areas do you excel
or excel in relation to what customers want,
need,
and are willing to pay for?
All companies,
products
and services must have a comparative advantage,
a competitive advantage over competitors,
an advantage that makes them the best
and more ideal choice,
the “only” choice the best” in their market.
What is your competitive advantage?
What could it be?
Jack Welch said,
“If you don’t have a competitive advantage,
don’t compete.”
He was famous for making the principle
that General Electric would be number one
or two in every market it entered,
or the company would leave that market
and focus its efforts elsewhere.
In at least one area,
customers in the market must recognize
that this company is the “best”
for customers in that area.
For a company to be successful,
it must dominate the market.
In what areas do you (can) dominate the market?
What will you have to do more or less?
What will you have to start or stop doing?
Peter Drucker,
a mentor to Jack Welch, says,
“If you don’t have a clear competitive advantage,
develop one.”
At the core of the entrepreneurial mindset is the focus on developing
and maintaining a meaningful competitive advantage in competitive markets.
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Your business model
Today, businesses are more and more focused on the business model,
the complex strategy your company uses to produce,
sell,
and deliver products/services to as many customers
as possible in a profitable
and Cost savings.
What is your business model?
According to Fortune’s Geoffrey Colvin,
many,
if not most,
companies are operating under old business models
that are either somewhat outdated
or completely out of date.
How do you know if the business model you are following
is the right one for your business?
The simplest measure is that sales
and profits are growing steadily and predictably.
If your sales are erratic or erratic,
stagnating,
or worse,
dropping,
your business model may no longer work.
If this is the case,
and you do not change the business model,
failure is inevitable.
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Think of your business
The entrepreneurial mindset requires you to constantly review
and evaluate the essential elements of your business model.
1. What value does your product bring?
What does your product do for the customer?
What problem does it solve?
What benefits does it bring?
What trouble does it take away?
What goals does it help your customers achieve?
And most importantly,
how important are your core interests to your customers?
Your ability to ask and answer these questions correctly will greatly
determine the future of your business.
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2. Who are your customers?
Who are the customers who benefit the most from your product/service?
What are their stats?
What is your age,
income,
education level,
gender,
occupation,
and family background?
How is their consumer sentiment?
Wishing,
dreaming,
striving
What do their fears,
ambitions and aspirations have to do with what you sell?
In particular,
how is the ethnographic study of them?
How do they use your product/service?
What role does it play in their lives and work?
Compared to other items,
how important is it to them?
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3. What are the most effective ways you can market
(attract new customers),
sell (turn them into buyers)
and distribute
(get your product into the hands of customers)?
How can you attract more customers to buy?
How can you sell faster
and more efficiently to potential customers?
How can you deliver your product faster
and more efficiently? (Think Amazon.com!).
The principle is that no matter what you’re doing,
you’re going to have to work harder year
after year to stay in your market.
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4. How do you provide such good customer service
that your customers are willing to buy again
and again and tell others to buy from you?
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5. What is the cost structure of your business,
and how can you change it to achieve greater profits?
How can you outsource,
downsize,
or eliminate any activities that can deliver consistent quality
at lower operating costs?
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Keep asking
Entrepreneurs in all businesses are always thinking of these key factors.
They are always willing to consider the possibility
that they may have made a mistake
or that there are better ways to get results in some area.
Entrepreneurs are constantly applying fundamental thinking in every field.
They asked,
“Is there something we’re doing that,
if we knew it would be,
we wouldn’t be involved?”
Entrepreneurs care about what is right,
not who is right.
They don’t bring ego into the debate.
Entrepreneurs readily admit,
“Maybe I was wrong.”
Entrepreneurs openly admit,
“I made a mistake,”
and they focus on fixing it as quickly as possible,
not trying to cheat,
intimidate,
disrupt,
or hope the mistake will go away.
With new information,
entrepreneurs are more willing to say,
“I think again.”
They quickly embrace new ideas
and methods to achieve better results,
no matter where they come from.
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Focus on customers
Entrepreneurial thinking requires you
to always think about the customer.
You are constantly looking for new,
different,
better,
faster and cheaper ways to serve your customers
and give them more of what they want and need.
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It can even make you rich.
The ability to think like an entrepreneur,
not an employee,
will unleash the full potential of your career more than any other factor.
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Practical exercises
1. Clearly define your ideal customer.
How can you serve that person better than your competitors?
2. Identify the value you provide,
one or two advantages of your product/service
that make them stand out
from your competitors’ products/services.
3. Take a close look at your business model
to make sure the way you are generating sales
and profits is the best and most efficient way.
