The Ultimate Guide to Entrepreneurship

企业家精神是开始或改善企业的过程，其最终目标是获利。

It often involves great risk and uncertainty, but it's also an opportunity to overcome those challenges and manage multiple aspects of a business operation. From marketing to accounting to logistics and beyond, entrepreneurs oversee the many facets of running a business.

创业并不容易。我们都熟悉90% of startups fail. Despite this, entrepreneurship remains an extremely enticing career path. Like many high-risk activities, it often draws people who see the risks as an exciting challenge rather than a disclaimer.

And while the risk might be great, so are the rewards — entrepreneurship is easily one of the most creative and rewarding forms of business. Some of the most well-known people across the world are and were著名的企业家, including Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, and Steve Jobs.

If you aspire to be like these successful people, entrepreneurship might be the path for you. That's why we wrote this guide — to get you started on your journey.

1. What Is Entrepreneur-ship?

2. Entrepreneur-ship Benefits

3. Entrepreneur-ship Statistics

4. How to Start a Business

5. Keys to Entrepreneur-ship

6. Entrepreneur-ship Inspiration

Entrepreneurship

企业家精神是开展新业务的过程。企业家确定市场差距，并开发产品或服务以满足需求。

您可能还听说过社会企业家精神。什么是社会企业家精神，为什么它是独一无二的？

社会企业家精神

Social entrepreneurship follows the same process as entrepreneurship but — instead of creating just any type of unique offering for consumers — it focus on the creation of a solution to a community issue or problem.

Social entrepreneurs work to develop, fund, and implement solutions to a wide range of community issues related to social, cultural, and environmental challenges. They work to foster positive change in society through their initiatives and innovations.

Small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures are more similar than they are different, however. Both serve their communities (whether local or digital), deliver value for their audiences, and create new jobs.

企业家精神有时会感觉像是一个乏味而吓人的过程。但是，这些创业的回报值得您辛勤工作和时间。

Entrepreneurship Statistics

企业家精神一直在steady inclinefor the past 19 years. After falling during the U.S. recession between 2008 and 2011, entrepreneurship as a career path has rebounded and (despite the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic) is now back to pre-recession growth rates.

这还有其他有趣的企业家统计:

• U.S. small businesses employ60.6 million people.

• 近90％的早期企业家计划为他人创造就业机会。

• 78% of small business owners说他们的业务是有利可图的。
• 小型企业主所需的平均启动资本数量是$10,000.

• In the U.S.,1230万业务are owned by women,5.2 millionare owned by people of color, and2。52 millionare majority-owned by veterans.

• 92% of entrepreneurs不后悔开展业务。

Now, it's time to considerhow you're going to start your business.

1.确定业务的法律结构。

从法律角度来看，您的业务将是什么？随着您的成长，这可能会改变，州法律也有所不同。让我们看一下开展业务时，您可能会选择实施四种主要类型的法律结构:

• 独资经营：In a sole proprietorship,you就法律和税收而言，业务是业务吗？您个人应对债务和损失负责。当筹集资金的时间到来时，您会要求支持者投资一个人而不是企业。
• LLC：With an limited liability company, you are not personally responsible for any financial or legal faults of the business. Although an LLC is more costly and complex to set up in comparison to some other legal structures, it comes with several tax advantages and protects owner(s).
• bob综合博彩下载合伙：A partnership is a single business where at least two people share ownership. Each owner contributes to all aspects of the business as well as shares in its profits and losses.
• Corporation:一个公司是一个法律实体独立于它owners and has most of the rights and responsibilities an individual possesses (to enter into contracts, loan and borrow money, sue and be sued, hire employees, own assets, and pay taxes).

2.选择并注册您的业务名称。

选择并注册您的业务名称。尽管此过程可能始于有趣的集思广益，但实际上，这是一个文书工作的法律流程，对您的业务有影响。

If you're starting an LLC, your name will be registered automatically when you register your business with the state. Otherwise, you'll need to go through a separate注册过程。从a开始trademark search然后看看你是否domain name可用。（提示：你可以商标您的名字和徽标售价约300美元。）

3。Secure licenses, permits, and more.

Make sure you have all of the right permits and licenses to ensure your business is legal. If you sell "tangible property" (i.e., physical items), you're going to need a seller's permit. This allows you to collect sales tax from customers. Some states require it for certain service-oriented businesses as well.

TheIRScan point you to the right office in your state, andSBA.govhas tools to help you find out what kind of license you'll need to operate your business.

4. Build your mission and vision statements.

您的业​​务做什么？你代表什么？您解决了什么问题？您打算如何使世界变得更好？这些是您的问题使命和愿景陈述should answer.

这是您的关键组成部分marketing strategy. Brands with a strong identity and mission statement have an easier time producing authentic and有意义的内容that effectively communicates their core values.

任务陈述与愿景陈述

一项任务声明说明了您的组织的目的以及您的业务如何为客户服务。它通常包括对您的组织，其功能和目标的一般描述。您的任务声明应该澄清您的业务背后的“什么”，“谁”和“为什么”。

愿景声明描述了您的公司渴望实现其使命的位置。bob全站app它描述了贵公司希望社区或世界的产品或服务的结果。bob全站app

了解如何使用免费模板为您的业务定义启发性的愿景和任务声明。

Your business should have strong and clear vision and mission statements. When youwrite vision and mission statements, define and explain the reasons why your business exists. Your statements should provide insight into who you are as a business and brand for both internal and external audiences including employees, partners, board members, audience members, customers, and shareholders.

（如果选择，则可以将您的愿景和任务陈述结合到一个综合陈述中，以供您的业务和品牌共享和支持。）

5. Write your marketing plan.

Once you have your license and your name, it's time to start building an online presence and telling your story — a.k.a.,制定营销计划.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• 谁想要我要卖的东西？
• Which people have a need for what I'm selling?
• Which people would become promoters of the product I'm selling?

To simplify this process, consider yourbuyer personas（深入，半虚构的配置文件，旨在帮助您更好地了解目标客户的需求）。

Dig 进入who your buyer personas are and what 消息传递他们可能会引起他们的共鸣。考虑他们的背景，兴趣，目标和挑战以及年龄，他们的工作，使用的社交平台等等。

Before you embark on entrepreneurship, determine your goals. As you'll see below, the most successful entrepreneurs get into business-building for the right reasons. Without a genuine goal, it's unlikely you'll have the determination and motivation to push through the difficult times.

Whether your goal is to create career freedom, make a difference in your community, or simply have fun (or all the above), take some time to determine it before you start building.

如何成为一名成功的企业家

企业家精神是要拓展自己的踪迹，并做以前从未做过的事情，因此没有一定大小的成功秘诀。

话虽如此，大多数关键特征和最佳实践成功的企业家分享。

1.出于正确的理由开展业务。

Start your life as an entrepreneur by identifying a need or a problem and looking for a way to solve it.

Focus on the process, not the potential outcome. Future success and richesalonewon't help you through the difficult times and late nights that pave the road of entrepreneurship.

2.利用先验知识和经验。

先前的经验（无论是从您的日常工作还是过去的创业公司）通常对您作为企业家的成功至关重要。实际上，98% of founders surveyedsaid their prior work experience was "extremely important" to their success. Many, many startup ideas come from experience gained in previous employment.

That being said, if you're currently in a full-time role or less-than-desirable job, don't wish away your current experiences in favor of entrepreneurship. Learn from where you are today to inspire where you want to be tomorrow.

3.记住，这全都与执行有关。

Guy Kawasakisaid it well:"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard."

By executing and being first to the market, you can seize the "first-mover advantage。

经典的例子是Amazon. By the time their success prompted competitors to start their own online bookstores, Amazon had already taken a big enough market share to make competition nearly impossible. Their execution (not their bright idea) is what changed the way the world shops.

执行是一种习惯；这是您可以将其硬化进入业务的DNA。将其作为发展行动和执行文化的优先事项。

4.拥抱不确定性和风险。

开始自己的事是进入未知的旅程。要成功，您需要接受不确定性。

Risk is not only an essential element of entrepreneurship, but it also tends to be directly related to success: The bigger the risks, the bigger the potential payoff.

5. Don't fear failure; learn from it.

Studies have shown that one of the clearest indicators of future success for an entrepreneur is whether they've experienced failure in the past. This may sound counterintuitive, but not when you think of failure as a teaching tool.

实际上，many of today's tech startups live by the mantra: "Fail forward," and several businesses that are now household names — like Airbnb and Uber — took multiple launches to succeed.

从长远来看，最好专注于开发minimum viable product，基于反馈来启动和优化，而不是试图以未经测试的“完美”产品的概念在第一次正确的情况下进行正确的选择。

您承担的风险取决于您，您的业务和特定情况。例如，购买域名不需要与构建原型相同的承诺水平。最重要的是，您会从挫折中成长，并保持尝试新事物的意愿。

说到企业家精神的风险和失败，让我们看一些常见的错误和企业家的风险。

需求风险

Are consumers interested in your product or service offering? Demand risk is the prospective customers' willingness to purchase or adopt the offering.

Technology Risk

An entrepreneur assumes technology risk when engineering or scientific research and development are necessary to create the product. For example, if you plan to create a ground-breaking cure for a disease, you'd assume the risk if the scientific development wasn't successful.

执行风险

To be a successful entrepreneur, you also need to be a strong leader. Execution risk is used to describe the entrepreneur's ability to build a strong team of employees and partners to carry out plans.

Financial Risk

每个企业家都承担财务风险，并且通常会使用个人资金来发展其业务。他们必须假设他们能够从其他资金来源（例如投资者，风险投资家，众筹）中获得外部资本。

How to Get Funding for a Business

Anyone who's built a business or multiple businesses will say there's no scarcity of money available for entrepreneurial ventures. If you have valuable ideas, strong execution, and clearly communicate your vision, you'll have no trouble raising funds.

专注于确定哪种资金策略最适合您的需求，并考虑如何为潜在的支持者提供价值。

Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is self-funding and has many advantages. It doesn't incur interest and allows you to maintain control over your business and its equity (to name a few).I bootstrapped my college business并能够将许多资金重新投资到我的营销中。

By self-funding, you don't take any outside funds to grow your business. Bootstrapped businesses keep costs low and scale at a sustainable pace. We all know the stories of multi-billion dollar companies like Apple that started in a garage or a basement. According toSBE Council, 51.6% of new businesses do likewise.

互联网是您的朋友：域名便宜。社交媒体提供免费营销。在线零售业的间接位置的一小部分。在游戏早期产生现金时，请查看您的业务模式。考虑以一种经常出现的方式产生收入的方式（即一次性销售额的订阅）。

小型企业贷款和风险资本

传统的小型企业贷款和风险资本资金提供了巨额资金……但往往附有大弦。

小型企业贷款提供有利于传统商业模式的融资来源。如果您走这条路线，期望提出一项细致且清晰的商业计划，并说明它的每一分钱。

Venture capital is on the opposite end of the spectrum. VC backers look to put serious cash behind ideas that promise quick and massive growth. Very few have what they're looking for. The ones that do can expect to trade some of their control of the business and a share of its profits in exchange for VC backing.

It's essential to find a backer who shares your vision and offers more than just money. With that said, there are some less obvious benefits of equity financing. The process of honing your pitch will reveal areas for improvement in your business model that you might not have been otherwise discovered.

Funding is also validating. It means someone is willing to put a dollar amount on how much they believe in what you're doing. And an influx of cash when you're starting out makes all the difference when you need to quickly solidify your first-mover advantage.

沉默的伴侣

Another option is to work with a silent partner. Similar to a VC backer, this is someone who puts significant funds into your project and expects significant returns. But unlike a VC, a silent partner doesn't want any part 在your business decisions. Because silent partners don't have a say in your business, they're considered investors by the SEC.

Crowdfunding

众筹网站，Kickstarter和indiegogo, are a new source of funding that 有许多企业家的好处。众筹提供金钱而无需享有公平或自主权。这些平台使您可以直接与粉丝和潜在用户联系。这促进了未来的增长并同时筹集资金。

Source

Crowdfunding sites also serve as marketing platforms. Your content, branding, and mission statement will attract people to your campaign and hopefully motivate them to back it.

Since you're not giving crowdfunding backers an equity stake or seats on the board, you have to give them something. Campaigns on these platforms tend to offer backers prizes in exchange for their contribution: this can be early access to your product, tickets to a live event, etc. Here you have another learning opportunity. Designing a crowdfunding campaign forces you to consider the value you're offering your customer.

他们说，最好的营销技术是设计出色的产品。如果您的产品真正具有价值，您的支持者将通过为您付款来通知您。

朋友和家人

Mom and dad might not have as much money as a venture capital firm or a big bank, but they tend to have much better terms.Family and friends can be a great source of seed money, particularly when you're young and inexperienced. They're more likely to invest in your potential and your work ethic than a backer who might want to see proof of concept you've yet to produce.

Special Programs

There are entire industries out there — from co-working spaces to CRM software to government grants — dedicated to helping entrepreneurs succeed.

The recent boom in entrepreneurship has sparked competition between governments at local, state, and national levels to attract and foster business development.Business incubators提供必要的基础设施和mi的工具ght otherwise be out of reach for small businesses.

Seedaccelerators是竞争激烈的计划，使初创企业正对种子资金进行正面竞争。优胜者经常获得指导和教育资源以及融资。bob体育苹果系统下载安装（这是一个种子加速器的排名）

And here at HubSpot, we have a few special programs of our own:

• HubSpot for Startupsoffers software, education, 和支持新的和不断增长的企业。
• HubSpot Academyprovides free education in sales, design, marketing, and more.

Entrepreneurship Books

寻找书籍来激发和指导您的企业家努力吗？这是一些最受欢迎的读物：

1。"Tools of Titans"蒂姆·费里斯（Tim Ferris）

从# 1商务播客在iTunes上:学习tools, tactics, and morning routines of 200 of the world's top performers in areas ranging from tech to powerlifting to special operations and the music industry.

2。"Influence"by Robert Cialdini

Based on 35 years of research, "Influence" breaks down the psychology of persuasion into six key principles. This is a must-read for anyone interested in hearing the word "yes" more often.

3。“精益创业”by Eric Ries

A blueprint for the modern startup and a survival manual for a business environment where failure is the rule and not the exception. Learn how to innovate rapidly, put ideas to the test, and operate in the "extreme uncertainty" that is the startup ecosystem.

4."Idea to Execution"by Ari Meisel and Nick Sonnenberg

“如何优化，自动化，外包您的业务中的所有内容……。”作者使用了本书中概述的过程，从鸡尾酒餐巾到24小时发射的想法。

5."Pivot"by Jenny Blake

"Pivoting" is the act of taking your existing strengths in a new direction. It's about maximizing the opportunity presented by the question, "What's next?" Blake explores the value of pivoting in business and in one's own career.

6.“持久建造：有远见的公司的成功习惯”吉姆·柯林斯（Jim Collins）

Case studies of business that have stood the test of time. "Built to Last" breaks down the structural secrets to organizational longevity. This is inspiration for anyone hoping to leave a legacy in business.

7."Smarter, Faster, Cheaper"by David Siteman Garland

数字时代的企业家营销指南。Garland提供了实用的建议，以充分利用在线营销工具和平台。

Over to You

Entrepreneurship is a learning process and a journey of discovery. You don't need to know everything to take the first small step, and when starting your own business, the best way to learn is by doing.

You have the tools and information you need to start — all that's left to do is to get to work.

Originally published Feb 17, 2021 5:00:00 PM, updated December 15 2021