Welcome To Startup Students

We can broadly allocate young entrepreneurs into two distinct categories – Artisan (Jack) and Opportunistic (Jill).

Both parties have met the characteristics of startup students as defined in my earlier posts, however both have chosen a different direction of the crossroads every young entrepreneur inevitably faces. Let’s take a look at Jack the Artisan first:

1. He has sufficient technical training
   1. He’s fairly skilled at fetching a pale of water
2. He takes a paternalistic approach
   1. Jack invites Jill along for the journey
3. Reluctance to delegate
   1. He’ll bring Jill along for the ride, but doesn’t have the foresight to enlist her service
4. Ill-defined strategy
   1. Let’s face hit, Jack broke his crown so the plan wasn’t that well though out
5. Takes a personal sales approach
6. Plans for the short term
7. Lacks a sophisticated record keeping system

I apologize for running out of Jack and Jill analogies, but you get the point. Jack is a great candidate for a “lifestyle” business – one where he’ll see limited potential and limited returns, but will do well enough to lead the lifestyle he desires.

Let’s take a look at our other budding entrepreneur, Jill the Opportunist. She’ll be taking a more focused approach with hopes of high returns and high potential in her next venture.

1. She has a broad education
2. Takes a rational approach
3. Has no problem delegating assignments
4. Possesses a well defined strategy
5. Takes a diversified approach to marketing efforts
6. Plans for the long haul
7. Utilizes sophisticated accounting measures and makes accurate projections

So there you have it, the two broad entrepreneurial types. I hope you strive for the Opportunistic approach, but please don’t think there is anything wrong with having a lifestyle business – they’re perfect for some people. In fact, in the coming months we’ll discuss some of the options available to these individuals such as franchising and home based businesses (but don’t think I wont try and convince you to take that business opportunity and apply it to a high growth model).

That’s all for now, class dismissed.