Following up on the previous post, here continues the journey through the various faces of entrepreneurship throughout my “un-career”. Read on to find out what I learned!
Toasty!
After my MLM phase I decided to focus more on my own ideas and creativity, and marry those with the business (and life!) insights I had gathered during some very intense years. I wanted to put those hard earned skills to work in new, deeper settings that resonated more with my own ideas and ideals…
Sharpening the saw – walking the path
Consulting & training
I was in a phase of very intense business networking. I saw lots of opportunities to run small knowledge-based businesses alone or in small teams, and we did consulting gigs teaching juggling, business networking, selling and marketing tactics. This was the first time I owned the whole value chain: from creating a product to promoting, selling and delivering it.
Entrepreneurial aspect: This is pretty much definition of “small business”. Domain expert status. Responsibility and accountability. Logistics. Numbers (having to deal with all the stuff yourself – including the dull tasks).
Complex selling
I got an offer for a respectable job, and then another. I found myself once again in sales, but this time was different. The product was ads in print media, and the role meant I managed existing accounts as well as acquired new ones – and to keep or gain customers here I actually had to know something about what I sold. And I could create new media products by having an innovative mindset in meetings with customers.
Entrepreneurial aspects: I started to really grasp the tangible vs intangible elements of a value proposition, how we always to some extent deliver a product AND a service dimension. And presentation/promotion is a big part of the “service” part.
Running a small scalable business
I hatched an egg of an idea – one that I knew I could start small, and by its nature it could become something big. More on Bar-deli in another post – it’s a story waiting to be told.
Entrepreneurial aspect: Here’s where I found the context of an innovation ecosystem. Getting to know the network of entrepreneurs, service providers, accelerators and investors, learning concepts like The Lean Startup, really understanding what “scalable” means.
… there! The conclusion of my “Fifty Shades Of Entrepreneurial” narrative will come in the next post. Next: “Putting the pieces together – redefining, refining“
