Is Growth Right For You?: Crash Course Entrepreneurship #17

CrashCourse
11 Dec 201911:04
EducationalLearning
32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRThe video discusses entrepreneurial growth, comparing startups aiming to disrupt industries versus small businesses with tried-and-true models. Motivations for growth include increased profits, better employee conditions, leadership opportunities, reaching more customers, and leading the competition. Before pursuing rapid growth, entrepreneurs should set goals, evaluate customer demand, industry changes, and personal limitations. Failure is also discussed as an inevitable part of entrepreneurship to prepare for emotionally. Overall, the video offers advice on strategic business growth while maintaining work-life balance.

Takeaways
  • πŸ˜€ Growth means making a company more successful by increasing revenue, minimizing expenses, or adding knowledge and people.
  • πŸ‘₯ There's a difference between a startup trying to disrupt an industry and a small business using an existing model.
  • πŸ’‘ Reflect on your values and goals when deciding whether to aim for high growth or controlled expansion.
  • πŸ’° Growing a business can increase profits to pay ourselves, shareholders, employees, charities, etc.
  • πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘©β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘¦ Growth allows us to hire more people and improve salaries and benefits for employees.
  • πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό Growth provides new leadership opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs.
  • 😍 Meeting customer needs through growth shows we value existing and potential new customers.
  • πŸ₯Š Growth allows us to better compete by delivering more value and disrupting competitors.
  • ❓ Take stock and look for signs your business is ready for growth based on demand and capacity.
  • ☠️ Failure is part of entrepreneurship, but we can reduce fear by increasing awareness, taking action, and seeking support.
Q & A
  • What are some differences between a startup and a small business?

    -A startup tries to invent a better way of doing things to quickly disrupt an industry once launched, while a small business uses an existing business model and doesn't aim to revolutionize an industry.

  • What are some examples of high-growth companies?

    -Many high-growth companies come from the tech industry since they have low startup costs. Healthcare apps are also a good example since they address clear needs and gaps.

  • What are some motivations for growing a business?

    -Motivations can include making more money, providing better salaries and benefits to employees, creating leadership opportunities, serving more customers, and distinguishing yourself from the competition.

  • What are signs that a business is ready for growth?

    -Signs can include having too much work to handle, customers asking for more products or services, or having consistent profits and a steady customer base.

  • How can an entrepreneur decide if and how to grow their business?

    -They should reflect on their goals and motivations, assess their surroundings for signs of readiness, and determine if growth aligns with their vision of success.

  • What is an example of a business pivot?

    -Cam pivoted his translation service business from serving local customers to launching a digital newsletter translating Chinese media for English speakers.

  • What are some examples of business failure?

    -Ultimate failure is going out of business. Other failures include mismanaging money, not monitoring the competition, overextending resources, or losing customer interest.

  • What is entrepreneur burnout?

    -Burnout is extreme work-related stress that leaves entrepreneurs exhausted, feeling ineffective, and detached from themselves.

  • How can entrepreneurs manage the fear of failure?

    -By increasing self-awareness, looking for weaknesses to improve, educating themselves to reduce unknowns, and seeking mentorship and community support.

  • What questions can entrepreneurs ask themselves when facing failure?

    -Do I have any growth ideas left? Can I drive that growth profitably? Do I want to work on this resulting business? Do I want to work with these co-founders on this resulting business?

Outlines
00:00
😊 Defining Success and Growth for Your Business

The first paragraph discusses how we each define success differently - whether by money, impact, or personal growth. It emphasizes deciding what success means to you and writing it down to guide your business growth decisions.

05:02
πŸ˜ƒ Comparing Startups and Small Businesses

The second paragraph explains key differences between startups trying to disrupt industries and small businesses using existing models. Both are led by entrepreneurs and are important economically.

10:03
πŸ€” Reflecting on Motivations and Readiness for Growth

The third paragraph advises thinking carefully about motivations for growing your business, from money to employees to leadership opportunities. It also suggests looking for signs your business is ready for growth based on demand and industry changes.

Mindmap
Keywords
πŸ’‘Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship refers to the process of designing, launching, and running a new business. It is a central theme throughout the video series. Examples of entrepreneurship concepts discussed include startup vs small business models, motivation for starting a business, managing business growth, and dealing with failure.
πŸ’‘Business model
A business model refers to the plan for how a company will generate revenue and make a profit. Key types mentioned are startups focused on disruptive innovation vs small businesses offering existing products/services. The video emphasizes choosing a business model aligned with your goals and values.
πŸ’‘Growth
Business growth means expanding the company to increase profits, revenue streams, team capabilities etc. Key concepts are high-growth vs controlled, steady growth models. Motivations for growth relate to money, employees, leadership opportunities, customers & competition. Knowing when to grow requires reading customer demand signals.
πŸ’‘Failure
Failure means a business shutting down or setbacks like losing customers. Fear of failure can also cause entrepreneur burnout. The video advises monitoring emotions, seeking support, learning continuously to reduce unknowns, and having self-awareness to avoid failure.
πŸ’‘Goals
Goals refer to an entrepreneur's definition of personal success. This shapes business model selection and growth strategy. The video stresses goal setting, visualization and referring back to written goals for motivation.
πŸ’‘Values
Values are an entrepreneur's core beliefs and priorities, like helping people. Values influence business model choice and approach. The video advises matching business plans to personal values for fulfillment.
πŸ’‘Motivation
Motivation drives starting and growing a business. Key motivations discussed are money, employees, leadership opportunities, customers and competition. Assessing motivations helps shape business expansion plans.
πŸ’‘Success
Success is achieving entrepreneurial goals like profitability, personal growth and positive impact. Since success definitions vary, entrepreneurs must self-define then strategize accordingly.
πŸ’‘Strategy
Strategy means plans and models for structuring business operations and growth to achieve success. This requires aligning strategies with motivations, capabilities and customer demand signals.
πŸ’‘Pivot
Pivoting means shifting business operations in a new direction, like targeting new customers or offerings. This is advised when current strategies aren't achieving entrepreneur goals but capabilities could address untapped needs.
Highlights

Growth can mean making a company more successful in some way: finding a new revenue stream, revamping the cost structure to minimize expenses and increase profit, or adding new people and knowledge to the team.

Startups are trying to invent a better way of doing things that quickly disrupts the status quo once launched.

Both startups and small businesses are created by entrepreneurs, and both are important to the world.

High-growth companies, while somewhat rare, can be a big deal for economies and jobs.

Growth can mean giving existing customers more bang for their buck, or expanding in order to solve pains or bring gains to entirely new customer segments.

If we’re booked until November of 2030, it’s a sign that people like what we’re doing and we could use some help.

Once we have regular, consistent profits and steady customer flow, it could be time to take on more.

It can be tricky to put all these pieces together and decide how to grow or change to meet your personal goals.

No matter the business, we should all do some serious soul-searching and goal-setting before charging down a path.

Failure can be many things. The ultimate failure is being forced to shut down our business, but we could have small failures along the way.

Entrepreneurs can also fail by pushing ourselves so hard we just can’t anymore. We’re burned out, which is basically work-related stress on steroids.

Instead of spiraling from a fear of failure, we can practice emotional self monitoring and control.

And actively looking for weaknesses and problems and taking action can be a powerful way to reduce the fear.

As Arianna Huffington says, failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.

The bottom line is: if you can dream it...then write down a value proposition, talk to customers, get feedback, check out the competition, do all the legal stuff, and take care of yourself along the way.

Transcripts
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