A new look at Entrepreneurs from old eyes

"Today’s smart entrepreneurs start global" -The Economist

Yes even the conservative Economist is recognising the much lies in the hands of Entrepreneurs, and even goes so far as to mention some social entrepreneurs while they are at it. According to the article Entrepreneurialism has Become Cool, the outlook has changed. "Today entrepreneurship is very much part of economics. Economists have realised that, in a knowledge-based economy, entrepreneurs play a central role in creating new companies, commercialising new ideas and, just as importantly, engaging in sustained experiments in what works and what does not. William Baumol has put entrepreneurs at the centre of his theory of growth. Paul Romer, of Stanford University, argues that “economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable…[It] springs from better recipes, not just more cooking.” Edmund Phelps, a Nobel prize-winner, argues that attitudes to entrepreneurship have a big impact on economic growth."

Sweden's Dagens Industri, states that creative start ups are on the rise and the economy falls. "What is now perceived as a crisis, perhaps many people in three or four years will think back on that it was the best thing that happened to them," says Ashkan Pouya, MBA and entrepreneur.

Combining this energy to support the entrepreneurial spirit, the hopes are high on a new global economy rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

The Beauty of Faces

The significance of attaching a face to a name cannot be forgotten. We get so involved in our interactions on-line we create relationships that are different from those that are "real." We participate in networks that connect us to people and organisations with shared professions, interests or ideals. We connect with those that have shared backgrounds, experiences, education, or needs. More often now we are so busy that we struggle to find time to keep up, so we focus on our core group. Yet, we must remember the richness in the diversity of our interactions beyond the core and their ability to provide a platform for learning and growing. I am honored to have such a rich diversity in my extended network that continues to fuel my curiosity and growth. Each link began with a face that starts the relationship.

While on my recent trip to New York for meetings of Business and Professional Women International, a face to face network that I am active in (which I will write about next), I connected with several old friends that are friends of mine on a particular on-line network as well. In fact, these were friends that two of the three I had not seen in over 20 years, but had recently reconnected on-line. We had a delightful time catching up on our lives in the "gap period" for ourselves and other shared friends, laughing about our shared memories and talking about our dreams for the future. At the end of our meeting, we realised that they all knew each other, also from many years past through different connections, and two of them were already connected on-line only. Although they all live in the same city, they had never connected. (So of course, being the network obsessed person I was, I had to do so).

In my presentations on best practice for using social media, I often speak of the importance of enhancing an initial face to face contact with on-line interaction to maintain connections. It was reassuring and fun to be reminded of the ability of social media to complement "real" relationships. But this little "experiment" in practice was quite validating for me.

Tools to translate impact

BuzzMetrics from Nielson has the right methodology for analysis of social impact on brands. But of course, for the entrepreneur these tools may be too costly to invest in when thinking about sustainability in the build up phase.

The basic concepts can be done using a combination of free tools (of course this is more work, but since when is starting your own business easier than doing a job for someone else). Setting up Alerts for your company name, your brand and your product name, and even for you, is a good start. There are several places you can do this, but a good start is Nielsen's free tool Blogpulse and Google (you will need a Google account to set this up). This will at least send you summaries of the sites and links to buzz. You should get familiar with using "feeds" from other site and blogs so you can tag ones that are of interest. Check out some of the free white papers and data on nielsen-online as well to establish a good base and learn from existing market research.

For those of you less techy-types, here is an explanation about feeds and how to use them. I am certainly starting to appreciate Commoncraft's ability to break things down into "plain English."

Benefits of OnLine Collaboration

I found myself trying to explain the benefits and process of on-line collaboration versus email to a team of non-tech oriented individuals yesterday. My dear technically challenged friends, I love you so I did a little checking. Here is a great little video that explains it "in plain English."

Enjoy. Let's hope our next on-line brainstorming session can be more productive, as you all know how it works now ;) . Thanks to CPSquare for pointing it out and to CommonCraft show for producing it.