Edward de Bono says that progress must escape the concept established in order to find a new one. This must happen repeatedly. Logically, he concludes, this is the reason why progress is so slow.

Seldom so few words have so much content. No need to give as many laps to things. Today I also reread repeatedly this phrase and found the following reflections:

* If what I am doing will not let me progress, to get where I want, I have to stop and get to start anew. This has earned me yesterday to take two important professional and personal decisions.

* If your company does not run for the desired location, consider what is preventing further development and change of concept. Tour management, Perhaps the problem is you. Be honest.

* It is no use complaining or worrying about things that are difficult or direct solution have been completed for the other party. It is best to start a new phase. Only then starts the progress of your new life. Difficult, uncertain, but new. This applies to businesses and individuals.

* If your department is little participation, difficulties, bad scene, make a line and starts from a new perspective. The working model change, a complete change leads to a new direction, sometimes unknown, but what is clear is that now does not work.

* If you are tired of sales are down, stop complaining and completely change your strategy and actions to develop. Only then, you can at least find a blue ocean, a new profitable niche.

* Want to get better results without a proper motivation and even surprise you. Establishes a new way of working, where the person is the center and the company just a physical space or not, in which the protagonist is the person.

* Stop doing what others do. Change the concept. If you follow others, you have to compete therefore making little progress. If you do your own philosophy, you will be different. Just do not appeal to everyone, but those that do, will be very faithful.

* If you want to reinvent the company, starts at the beginning. Give it a turning point. In spaces, relationships, philosophy, the results in the distribution of benefits, responsibilities, in human hierarchies, processes and understand the way you work.

These, among others, are the ingredients. It only remains to innovate the final recipe. Think briefly in the things that are not well made, they do not work or who are detained without progress in the market. In addition, seal leave them aside. Begins a new stage and progress will come.

This concept is demonstrated effective in the Business Time Model. The continued receipt of a delay or stagnation in real time the company makes these decisions are so complex to make, are made of a strong or consistent manner. For who wants to really, is “delayed time” over its competitors?

Because, these days many workers laid off and laid off by the company, in order magnitude cost reduction is used to pay the salaries of the workers.

This has become one of the triggers the explosion of unemployment, i.e. unemployment increased in a relatively short time. So that those who survive and creative thinking, they would choose self-employed.

I always recommend to my friends to run their own business, but that does not mean I labeled that this option would be better than working. All have advantages and disadvantages, and consequences of each.

Entrepreneurs are a breakthrough to overcome the limitations of employment and reduce dependence on government. We have to create their own jobs for ourselves, and if possible, can provide opportunities for others to share work.

For those who choose to survive and make the self-employed as an option, here are some tips that can hold:

1. Calculate and take risks

Let us understand that the entrepreneur needs to start working hard. Although there is no guarantee that your business will bring success, an entrepreneur must be prepared to sacrifice time and energy for running the job.

2. Working smart

Entrepreneurs do not always make us successful. There are times when we have to feel defeated and be patient. However, if we have several ways to do something more effective, then there is no harm in us running these ideas.

3. Think fast

In conducting self-employed, we cannot postpone major decisions. We need to think more quickly than those who are still on the staff. Because if we delay a major decision, there will be others who think same and run it.

4. Doing something creative

entrepreneurs should be thinking about business ideas that can only be used to develop the business. He should be thinking about other ways to improve the quality of business he was doing.

5. Handle stress

This is the fact that every new business we can create stress, especially those responsible for the success of entrepreneurial businesses that we do. There are many ways to handle stressful situations. One of them by always thinks positively.

6. Managing or directing someone else

An entrepreneur must have the ability to relate well with people. Without a good relationship, he will not succeed in business.

Therefore, for those who have the ability and willingness, let alone that it was idle, while trying to find another opportunity, why not start a self-employed?

Some of the early definitions of the word describe entrepreneur as a person who creates a product on his own account. Naturally, this definition doesn’t hold truth for the modern day entrepreneur. Merely creating a product is not what makes an entrepreneur. Searching through online resources, word entrepreneur can often be found as a synonymous with founder or an individual who is starting a small business. But then the question arises if one actually stops being an entrepreneur when one’s business is no longer in its start up phase. The way I see it, an entrepreneur would be a person who recognizes and seizes the opportunity of opening a small business entity that he or she will manage and organize assuming all the risk and responsibility, and at the same time bringing something innovative and valuable to the market. Entrepreneurs are capable of finding the way to get their hands on resources needed to realize their business ideas. Many successful entrepreneurs built their enterprises from nothing taking what is often called an educated risk. Without the proper knowledge of the market, many entrepreneurs fail in their endeavors relying only on the skills they have in their particular industry. Risk taking cannot be separated from entrepreneurship as it is one of its main characteristics.

Entrepreneurs want to be masters of their own faith, personally and professionally. Even if they do not achieve their goals, they enjoy the journey, and after one failure, they often jump strait back into fire. Being an entrepreneur is mainly looked as equal to being a small business owner, but in reality, entrepreneurial spirit is a foundation to all size of enterprises. Being an essential fuel that drives the economy, entrepreneurs have a valuable place in today’s society. The best way for an entrepreneur to succeed in the market is to chose a niche which is new and not already noticed by existing businesses. All entrepreneurs have few key characteristics in common, they are creative and have visionary spirit, they are able to make decisions no matter what the situation, and most of all they have no issue with taking risks often seen as too grand by other people. A true entrepreneur is born to make something new and valuable, and has a capability to persist through all the hardships that go along with the creation of new enterprise.

First impressions, however, are not the only things you need to be good at in order to get a prospective investor’s attention.   There are many different tricks of the trade, when it comes to contacting and meeting an investor, who you hope will invest in your company.

Contacting an Investor

When you make the initial contact with a prospective investor, you don’t want to bombard them with your business plan, unless the investor specifically asks for it right away.   A good business plan has so much information in it that there will not be enough time for your investor to look it all over with the first initial conversation on the phone.   The one thing you should think about, however, is a high concept pitch.  What is a high concept pitch?   A high concept pitch is a simple three to four word pitch that compares your company or business idea to another company that is well known and very successful.   A high concept pitch can be very useful, because it can be used in a three-prong attack.  First, the high concept pitch is used to get your investor interested.   If you compare your business to a larger business with a similar service or product as yours, and is very well known to the general public.  This high concept pitch can first get your prospective investor’s attention and get him curious to find out more about your company.   Furthermore, this very same high concept pitch can also be used in your marketing efforts.  You can use it in advertisements on TV, radio, print, or the internet.   This high concept pitch must compare you to something known and has to be catchy.

The other thing that most entrepreneurs do to get their investor’s interest is sending them a teaser email.  What exactly is a teaser email?   A teaser email basically takes the high concept pitch one step further.   The teaser email is simply a small email that has a small outline of some of the positive things about your business idea and is intended to entice the investor to look at your company even more.

Meeting the Investor

Once an investor has become interested in you and wants to meet with you, you must be very careful that your first impression is as good as your high concept pitch was.   When you meet your investor in person, you will want to have a quick pitch or what entrepreneurs refer to as an “elevator pitch.”  This pitch should not be any longer than two or three minutes, about the length of time you and your investor are in the elevator, hence the term “elevator pitch.”

Other things you need to do to keep your investor interested is to present a good, strong, and sound business plan.  This, however, is not all.  The business plan comes in later.  You will need to have a good business plan anyway, but that is usually scrutinized by your investor and his other partners at the firms.  Prior to that you should prepare a slide show that can be created on either Microsoft Powerpoint or Apple Keynote.

The cardinal rule of handling problems between employees is doing ignore the issue. Any conflict that lasts more than a day or two must be dealt with head-on. Allowing inter-employee conflicts to fester results in reduced productivity, lower morale, and can strongly influence the level of respect the workers have for you, the owner.

Employer as Mediator

The role of a mediator is to hear both sides of a conflict and recommend the best resolution based on logical, non-emotional consideration. Your best bet is to listen to each side separately. Allow each involved employee to vent without judgment. Try to listen for any underlying issues — does the worker feel disrespected? Underappreciated? Is there some other issue between these two workers? Understanding any ongoing, unrelated issues will help you find a more lasting solution to help the employees return to productivity.

Ask each involved party how they think the problem should be resolved, including what they could do differently the next time to avoid conflict. Encourage ideas that reflect cooperation. Once you arrive at a solution, again speak with each employee. Be very clear about what you expect of them, and consider ways to hold them accountable for following your directions.

If either party behaved in a particularly unacceptable manner, be sure to address that immediately. While it is important to be fair, it is even more important to maintain control over your business. You set policies for a reason, and the emotional outbursts of conflict are not justification to violate those policies. Follow the established code of conduct, then deal with the underlying issues that are forcing you to play the role of mediator.

An Ounce of Prevention for Employee Conflicts

Dealing with internal conflict is never easy, but there are a few things you can do before problems start to reduce their frequency and intensity. As you are building your business, you are also building the overall company culture. Be cognizant of how you deal with conflict, because your leadership will guide the behavior of your staff — for better or worse. Encourage a culture of cooperation, integrity, and open communication. By making these traits standard from the beginning, you will be able to eliminate many employee issues before they start. Standard management principles advise that you get what you give, as well as what you expect, reward, and put up with from your staff.

As your venture grows, your key personnel will need strong conflict resolution skills to manage lower-level employees. Build these skills into your training program, and look for these skills before you hire through the use of targeted interview questions. When conflicts arise and are resolved, share the outcomes with your management team — actual lessons-learned tend to have a stronger impact than simplistic how-to manuals.

The role of employer can be a difficult one for entrepreneurs to embrace. Just remember that your employees cannot be just like you — if they were, they’d be running their own business instead of yours. Be as empathetic as possible without becoming everyone’s personal counselor. Develop a strong foundation of the culture you want your company to have, then reward those that strengthen the culture and handle those that don’t.