The Entrepreneur’s Pledge: Win a Flip Mino Video Recorder

This from the Kauffman Foundation

The Entrepreneur’s Pledge

• I am an Entrepreneur.
• I am following a dream, pursuing an opportunity, taking charge of my own destiny.
• I am bringing something of value to society, making a job for myself and for others, and creating wealth that benefits my family, my community, my country, my world.
• I am one of a movement of millions of entrepreneurs and innovators who made America great, and who will continue to keep our economy going…and growing.
• I am what I am because many people have helped me along on this journey.

Therefore:

• I will tell my story, sharing my successes and failures, so that others taking the entrepreneurial path can learn.
• I will strive to mentor an aspiring entrepreneur.
• I will make my voice heard by those who make policy decisions that affect me and my business.
• I will appreciate and celebrate my accomplishments, and the accomplishments of all my fellow entrepreneurs.
• I will give back to the society that helped me to be successful.
• I will Build a Stronger America.

What would a UK version look like?

Prize of a Flip Mino Video Recorder for the Best (in my opinion) UK Entrepreneur’s Pledge posted in comments.  Closing date: May 31st 2010 at midnight.  Any one can enter but I will only ship the prize to a UK address.

21st Century Enterprise Rap

Don’t let anyone tell you who you really are….

The Entrepreneur’s Workshop – A Seminar for Entrepreneurs and Their Advisers

Workshops are fascinating and dangerous places. In the right hands they can produce things of great beauty and real lasting value.  In the wrong hands they can do great damage and wreck lives.

The Entrepreneur’s Workshop is no different.

True enough; the tools have no sharp edges, burning furnaces or high-speed drills.  They are a set of ideas, principles, practices and habits that, applied with care and passion, can produce a wonderful lifestyle.  Learn to use these tools properly and they will serve you well.  Misuse them and the consequences are likely to include debt, damaged relationships and misery.

This 2 hour session introduces 10 of the most powerful tools that the entrepreneur can use to build a business with real lasting value:

1. The Truth Detector – How to decide what might work for you
2. ‘Want to’ or ‘Have to…’?
3. The Double Edged Sword
4. Getting Organised – doing what has to be done, and doing it well
5. Entrepreneur or Artisan?
6. Have, Do, Become…
7. Build a Team OR Do it All – the choice is yours
8. Writing the ‘investment ready’ Business Plan
9. Situational Enterprise – technique and motivation
10. Towards the Total Quality Enterprise – a tool to decide ‘What’s next?’

The Entrepreneur’s Workshop is fast paced, honest and highly practical.  Participants will understand each of the tools and be able to use them to build a better business – or to put their entrepreneurial dreams on hold – at least for now.

Who Would Benefit from a Visit to the Entrepreneur’s Workshop?

I have run The Entrepreneur’s Workshop is fast paced, honest and highly practical introduction to 10 of the most powerful tools for entrepreneurs. in many different settings, from a University post-graduate course on Creative Enterprise to pre-start entrepreneurs on a Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) programme. The workshop is relevant and accessible to a wide range of entrepreneurs from pre-start through to experienced business owners.  It has also been well received by a wide range of advisor’s and coaches.

Costs:

If you would like me to run the workshop for a group of entrepreneurs and you provide the venue, refreshments and manage the administration then the cost of the workshop is £750 plus travel and subsistence and VAT.

For more information contact Mike on 07788 747954 or just leave a comment and I will get back to you.

You can see some recommendations of my work here

How to Make a Living Working From Home, Grimsby, May 21st

“How to Make a Living Working From Home”

Free Efactor Event

Friday 21^st May

12pm – 2.15pm

At Efactor –  Wellington Street

84 Wellington Street (white chapel building next to Boyes car park)

Guest Speaker is Emma Jones (Founder of UK’s largest home business website http://www.enterprisenation.com)

• Market stalls of Efactor’s current home worker clients
• Free Buffet Lunch
• Free Transport Available (arranged when you book)
• Free Raffle
• Book your place ! Telephone Stephanie on 01472 254920 or email Stephanie.barker@e-factor.co.uk

Hello Everyone

Efactor is holding an exciting  event that may be of interest to you and your clients!.  The event is aimed at inspiring people who wish just to explore the idea of setting up a business from home or who may even have an idea or a talent to start a new home business!

We would love to offer the opportunity for you and your clients to …

• Listen to expert tips from our lovely, truly inspirational guest speaker Emma Jones - (founder of www.enterprisenation.com the UKs largest home business website)
• Find out about cheap ways to start up a business from home
• Talk to some of Efactor’s customers who will be exhibiting their goods and services from their home-based businesses
• Free (local) Tranport / pick up points available when you book by calling Efactor 01472 254920
• All this at our Efactor Wellington St office on Friday 21^st May 12pm to 2.30pm!

Tips  on starting a business from home from fabulous guest speaker, inspirational  Emma Jones, Founder www.enterprisenation.com – the UKs largest Home Business website.

Buffet Lunch – Market stalls of Efactor current home workers.

If you would like to talk to an Efactor enterprise coach about this event  on behalf of your clients  please call our office on 01472 254 920 or 0800 952 0181 and we would love to come and talk to you about it and other training and events Efactor is planning this year!

Leaflet attached - earn a living from home leaflet.

So You Wannabe…An Entrepreneur?

Timothy Spall last night told a story recounted to him by that great British legend of the stage and small screen Richard Briers.

Briers’ daughter had said something like, ‘Dad, I have made up my mind.  I want to be an actress.’

Briers replied ‘Want?  Want?  Want is not enough!  To succeed you must HAVE to become an actress.  If you have to become an actress then I will roll up my sleeves and help. If you just want to be an actress then forget it.’

The story made me smile as I use almost the identical line when I am working with people who tell me they want to start a business, or they want to become an entrepreneur.  I often ask ‘Is this something that you HAVE to do?  Are there no other alternatives that you could pursue?  Is there NOTHING more important than this in your foreseeable future?

In fact I will often go further, telling them all I can about the life of the entrepreneur.  How it can take you away from family and friends, lead you into debt, consume your life and damage your health.  Of course we explore the upsides as well but those downsides are the things that will derail the process if not considered, if the desire is not sufficient.

And then I will move the focus away from ‘becoming an entrepreneur’ which is such a vague concept as to be practically meaningless and will focus on what it will be like when they have their business up and running.  What it is like to be sole trading as a furniture upholsterer, or a plasterer.  What the transition will be like going from being a professor in the Biochemistry Department to being a part owner of a biosciences company working with venture capitalists to commercialise their intellectual property.  Because being an entrepreneur is all about managing transitions.  Starting with one lifestyle and ending up with another which is very different – and hopefully better.

Enterprise really IS about the emergence of identity.  About shaping lives.

Diving into #Enterprise Academia with Twitter

A pal of mine recently asked for some recommendations for academics worth following for a would be lecturer in start-up and enterprise.

I put out a quick shout on twitter and here is what I got back  within minutes:

• Kauffman Foundation (always worth a follow – even though they are US-based) http://www.kauffman.org/
• Centre for Small & Medium sized business at Warwick business school – http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/csme/ (Storey, Mole etc)
• Andrew Atherton at Lincoln  http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/vc/coreexec/andrew_atherton.htm
• ‘Best papers’ that have been presented at ISBE in recent years – http://www.isbe.org.uk/BestPapers
• And of course Alan Gibb http://www.allangibb.com/

I also find lots of interesting stuff by following the #enterprise tag on twitter (yes, I do see it as a serious if serendipitous research tool!)

Please let me know if you find any of this useful, or any other good stuff that the twitterverse has missed!

New Workshop – Improving as an Enterprise Coach

Early Bird Tickets are now available at just £199 (plus booking fee) to join me for a one day workshop in Leeds called Improving as an Enterprise Coach.  The workshop will be held on June 9th and will run from 09.00 to 17.00.

You can book your place here – http://enterprisecoach.eventbrite.com/

What Will We Do?

This one day workshop introduces a model of enterprise coaching that takes you from making initial contact with individuals and groups on the enterprise agenda through to enabling them to make real progress and managing a professional and ethical exit strategy.

The workshop will provide practical help with:

• Making Initial Contact
• Gaining Entry – Getting an Invitation to Help
• Contracting – Setting ground rules for the helping relationship
• Collecting Data on the Enterprising Goal
• Generating Options and Making Decisions
• Making and Implementing Plans
• Managing Your Exit – Promoting Independence

It will help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your work as an enterprise coach.

It will also provide you with a framework for managing your own professional development as an Enterprise Coach.

Who Should Attend?

The event will help anyone who has to help others with their enterprise journey.  You may be a business adviser, an enterprise coach or act as a business mentor in further or higher education.

The workshop is relevant to any level of experience – as long as you are working to help others on their enterprise journey.

Some Testimonials

“Mike Chitty is one of the UK’s leading practitioners in design, development and provision of enterprise and entrepreneur coaching and support. Over the last ten years, from before he was a groundbreaking CEO of BLU, my organisations have been the beneficiary of Mike’s work. I still regularly read and learn about his contributions and programmes which are proven, practical and above all highly rated by the clients in making the UK a better place to start and run your own enterprise. We have a long way to go in the UK before we can proud of our enterprise and entrepreneurship offer but Mike’s work will get us there faster. Everyone I have recommended him to in the past has been very pleased that I did so.” - Tony Robinson, Founder & Executive Director (CEO), SFEDI Limited

“The enterprise coaching training was excellent. The subject matter covered theory and included practical application, it was thought provoking. It challenged my perception of my coaching style which I had become comfortable with, and tested my limits in terms of acceptance.  It provided a number of tools which I was then able to use in a positive way with my clients. I would recommend the course for continuing professional development. Mike is a great communicator and has a wealth of knowledge of enterprise coaching which he imparts in an innovative and thought provoking way.” - Barbara Morton – Enterprise Gateway Director  - SEEDA

“Mike is an expert in community development & a coach/trainer/ consultant of the highest quality. He challenges individual and organisational perceptions on regeneration issues and is among those leading the way. Looking forward to working with him again immensely.” - Simon Paine – Enterprise Gateway Director – SEEDA

Jumping on the Enterprise Coaching Bandwagon

Interesting to see how much effort is starting to go into selling qualifications and training to the enterprise coaching market.

SFEDI Enterprise are launching their Endorsed Award in Enterprise Coaching and ILM are pitching their coaching qualifications (other suppliers are available).

I am  not sure that now is the right time to be pursuing qualifications.  Of course it makes sense for the employers to have qualified staff, and it makes sense for coaches to have qualifications, but does it really serve the customer?  Will it support the reflective practice and development which our nascent profession demands?

Do we not risk converging too quickly on tried and tested methodologies?  On embedding lowest common denominator practices?  Do we not put the focus too early on ‘proving our competence’ rather than reflecting on and developing our practice?

Let’s avoid the bittersweet seduction of qualifications and instead pursue the development and recognition of methodologies that work in our communities, with our customers in our contexts.  Let’s avoid the one size fits all mentality and lets encourage innovation and creativity in pursuit of our full potential.

Craft, Motivation and Wasted Talent

Richard Sennett’s ‘The Craftsman‘ is well worth the considerable effort it has taken me to read it.  Although very well written many of the ideas it tackles are not easy!

He makes the point that we have used tests of intelligence and education to smear citizens along a bell-shaped curve of distribution that is in fact very flat and very wide.  As a result we have come to believe that ‘ability’ is not anywhere near uniformly spread through society.  And this belief has been used to justify the increased public investment in the education of the most able and the relative paucity of opportunity offered to those who, in the tests, appear to be ‘less able than average’.

Sennett then argues that this is a social construction with little basis in facts, outside of educational IQ tests such as the Stanford Binet.  These tests rely on questions to which there is an answer – either right or wrong.  They cannot deal with questions where the answer is a matter of opinion or insight.  Where the answer is contestable.  This especially, argues Sennett, serves to discriminate against those whose talents might lie in developing real craft skills.  Sennet is at great pains to point out that these are not just about traditional crafts but anything where learning happens over a long period of application through experience, reflection and adjustment.   This includes many roles that are incredibly relevant in modern society.  People who are capable of this craft type learning may do poorly on the Stanford Binet and its equivalents (SATS) and from that point on they are socialised as ‘low ability’.  Or those that thrive on the assessment regime they are socialised as ‘Gifted and Talented’.  It is hard to know which is more damaging!

This socialisation has little to do with true potential or inherent capability and more to do with what we choose as a society to recognise, label and invest in.

Sennett’s argument (again assuming that yours truly has understood it) is that capability is MUCH more evenly distributed – we just might need to search for it with a much more open and creative mind.  Many more of us are capable of doing ‘good work’.  This insight would have enormous implications for how we organise education.  Sennett says;

“Motivation is a more important issue than talent in consummating craftsmanship”

Socialisation serves to disconnect many of us from our talents as they are neither recognised not valued.  The capabilities remain, but our motivation is eroded.  Re-establishing motivation then becomes more important than extant talent.  Indeed the key motivation required to renew the search for potential and to enter into a period of ‘craft type’ learning action, reflection and adjustment, often over a period of years until the capability becomes a craft.

Another leading academic Nobel prize wining Amartya Sen also talks about capability, its recognition and development as a central tool in poverty reduction.  He also recognises the structural processes that serve to justify the enormous gaps between the haves and the have nots on a global scale.

Perhaps one of the vital roles of the enterprise coach is to help people to challenge the way that society has shaped them and to renew the search for ‘capability’ – the potential of those who use our services that has often been suppressed by societies warped, distorted and narrow perceptions of ability.

This is the Craft of the Enterprise Coach.  And it may have nothing to do with starting a business.

Enterprise for All – Wednesday 31st March 2010 Free Conference

Unleashing Enterprise is creating a partnership for all enterprise educators to pioneer a culture of enterprise across the East Midlands. The partnership is managed by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and developed in close partnership with educators, employers, enterprise agencies, policy makers and funding organisations. The programme is helping to facilitate a more cohesive and planned approach to the development and delivery of the enterprise offer in the East Midlands. It is also helping to promote opportunities for all people, but mainly young people, to take up the enterprise skills offer in their schools, communities or places of work.

The annual Unleashing Enterprise conference takes place on the 31^st March at the East Midlands Conference Centre. Entitled “Enterprise for All?”, the conference comes at an exciting time for those working in the field of enterprise capabilities with the enterprise skills agenda shortly to be included within the Regional Skills Strategy. With entrepreneurs heralded in popular media as much as in business journals these days, it is easy to assume that enterprise activity is readily understood and accessible to all. But is it? Or should it be?

2010 is a good time to take stock of activity that is being developed along the “golden thread of enterprise” and Enterprise for All will do just that.

Keynote speakers lined up for the conference confirmed thus far include:

• Mike Chitty, Author of the BLOG, “Enterprise & Entrepreneurship in the Community”
• Andrew Morgan, Skills and Communities Director at emda
• Toby Reid, Nottingham based entrepreneur and ex-graduate of NTU’s the Hive and founder of business reality website http://www.inafishbowl.com/

There will also be an enterprise market place showcasing the best of enterprise in the East Midlands. Attendance at the conference is free for delegates and agencies that want to participate in the market place.

If you wish to register for this event please complete the online booking form

Chance for those outside the East Midlands to see what’s going on.