If you are planning to make entrepreneurship your future, then you probably think that you’re a fairly adaptable, fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy (or girl). That’s a good start, however, to achieve real success as an entrepreneur, you’re going to have to learn to change direction practically mid-sentence.

Here are the reasons why, as well as a few tips on how to make it a little easier.

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The situation: You’ve lost your job. And the market to get another one as you well know is dismal. With this as a backdrop, you may be thinking that now is the time to invest in yourself. Perhaps by going to business school and getting an MBA? Or perhaps it is time to start that business you’ve had in the back of your mind for some time?

There are plenty of people advising that now is the perfect time to start a business. But if debating between business school or starting your own business, how should one think about this decision?

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Mix and mingle, be inspired and learn from more than 1,500 rsvp’d entrepreneurs and 100 rsvp’d investors from across the nation at New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) being held November 8th – 12th, 2010 at Scholastic Auditorium in SoHo.

Confirmed investors represent the following industries:

• Biotech
• Business Products & Services
• Consumer Products & Services
• Distribution
• Financial Services
• Green
• Healthcare
• IT

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Over the years, I’ve been privileged to be surrounded by many accomplished entrepreneurs. All of them have different stories about why they chose their path of entrepreneurship, and how their business grew, but all of them have one thing in common – instead of giving up when things went wrong, they learned to roll with the punches, and adapt to the given situation.

You see, the truth is, becoming an entrepreneur, or a small business owner, is a scary proposition. Whether you have capital lined up or you’re bootstrapping, and whether you’ve taken the plunge voluntarily or been forced to try your hand at entrepreneurship because you were laid off, there is always an element of fear involved.

Successful entrepreneurs leverage fear to their advantage. They feed off the excitement and exhilaration like an adrenaline junkie would when sky diving, leveraging the emotional high to keep them going, even when the chips are down.

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In the previous post we looked at what seeds funds are and why they are important.

In a recent blog post, Paul Kredowsky voiced his disapproval of the seed funding phenomenon. However, his post is less about the entrepreneur, than the seed funding companies themselves.
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The debate about whether the seed funding phenomenon is a bubble waiting to burst, or whether it’s a viable means of funding pre-revenue/start-up businesses still continues. This is my take on the landscape.

There was a time when if you wanted to fund your company you had four options, approach:

1. A bank
2. An angel investor
3. A venture capitalist

4. OR …… have an asinine risk tolerance and fund the project yourself with your own money.

At a certain threshold of funding, there was a catch twenty-two because banks are notoriously risk averse, and don’t normally fund businesses that have yet to prove themselves. Meanwhile, traditional VC firms couldn’t justify investing less than $3M-$5M in a Series A round, mainly because ROI based on growth trajectory (when investing in small amounts) wasn’t worth their while, especially when holding $700M+ under management.

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There is a trait among entrepreneurs that people both love and hate at the same time – their optimism.

Let’s face it, taking the leap from security into the unknown must be backed by a healthy dose of optimism. If that wasn’t the case, most people wouldn’t do it, would they? No one would start a business if they weren’t completely convinced deep down in their gut that they were sure to succeed.

However, if you want to build a strategic plan, access funding through angel investment or venture capital, and deal with those first few tough years, you need to temper your enthusiasm with a healthy dose of reality.

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Thanks to the web there are a myriad of options available to small business entrepreneurs to connect, network and market their business.

Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and personal networking sites such as Facebook are helping small business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals connect and network with colleagues, customers and friends. However, as a small business entrepreneur one of the most effective means of marketing has always been in person connecting and networking.

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