So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

Paul Allen:

Here’s some advice from entrepreneur Joe Ollivier, who has helped start or fund 27 companies in the past three decades. He is a member of the Utah Angels and runs First Capital Development in Provo, Utah. Joe explains what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

1. It has to be a business that gives you an emotional high.
2. Avoid any business that is labor or inventory intensive.
3. Have independent market research done on the feasibility of your idea, then do test markets.
4. Don’t think someone is waiting to steal your idea, it’s paranoia.
5. Don’t get started on a real business until you have someone (wife, husband, family member) who will listen to your dreams, sympathize with your failures and applaud your successes.
6. Never involve yourself in any service or product that requires a consumer attitude change.
7. Don’t invest on home run schemes - invest in what you like and know.
8. Find a lifelong mentor as soon as possible. Have him continually play devil’s advocate.
9. Have an exit point or harvest plan to cash out of each business you start.

and twenty-one more makes thirty.

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