Choosing a business opportunity

Having just finished my graduate degree in Business, this one is particularly close to my heart.  I am now in a position I've never had before - people are coming to me with their ideas and asking me to be a part of them.    It's exciting - because I get jazzed by other people's passions - and scary - because I'd be responsible for the fulfillment or derailment of another person's dreams.  If I want to be involved, I need to pick something and go with it.  So how do you choose one opportunity over another?

Questions to ask yourself

What you really need to succeed is the right attitude.  To do that, you need to find a path that matches you as a person.  Some introspection is required (in my case about 5 years), but these questions are well worth it.  

• Where do I want to be in 5 years?  10?  20?  
• What kind of work setting do I like?  Structured?  Unbound?  Secure?  Shifting?
• What is most important to me in life?  
• Is there anything I won't do?  Too dangerous?  Too disgusting?  Against my personal code?  
• What am I good at?  
• What do my family and friends think about my choices so far?  

Those questions above are certainly not comprehensive about planning your direction in life, but they are a great start.  Now that you have that all sorted out, you can start planning your future. 

What opportunities are available to me?  

This is really a function of your network of friends and family.  It is difficult to find a new job or other opportunity without the aid of your network.  In fact, many schools, including mine, tout the quality and reach of their network as part of the admissions process.  It is much easier to talk to people you already know than find work in a completely new geography.  

Which involve people I can work with?  

The people are super important.  Without a great team, an enterprise can't succeed.  Unfortunately, they can also kill the enterprise, if they are in the wrong positions.  Be sure (or at least pretty sure) that your partners are competent or able to learn, and good people.  You're going to be working with them for quite a long time, if things go well.  

Where can I make money?  

For me, this is one of the least important.  Yes, there are certain things you can do that won't make money.  But those are few and far between.  I know lots of people do things that I would have guessed wouldn't make poodle spit, but they have turned it into a career.  Don't be afraid to follow your dreams, because building custom cat towers can certainly be a full time job, if you do it right.  

Just do it!

Thank you, Corporate America, for reducing that awesome phrase to a tag line for shoes.  :(  But after you are pretty sure you have the right path, go for it!  Take the time to develop your contacts, try your hand at something new, and get involved.  It is crazy how easy it is to start something, if you know where you want to go in the future.  Or even if you don't know where to go, you can start something and see what it feels like.  

Best of luck in the future!  :)

Setting Boundaries in Business

I've been involved in several projects, and the one thing that keeps coming up is the scope.  It is supposed to draw the line about where the project can and can't go.  Boundaries help determine where people should spend their time.  And its great for focused creativity.

Benefits

Drive Decisions

Similar to a vision statement, the scope of a project allows people to make tactical decisions about how to proceed on a project without direct supervision.  When people are unclear about the next move, referencing the scope helps.  Boundaries keep people from wandering from the vision.  It keeps them from regularly chasing new distractions and forces them to focus on the task at hand.

Focused Creativity

Creativity, too, can benefit from some limitations.  Often I've been told that you shouldn't take any idea out of the running during the brainstorming phase, and I agree with that.  But you need to start with some boundaries on the brainstorming phase itself, or the mind wont' have any place to begin.  For example, if I said "Let's discuss how to make money," your mind may go blank.  It would be more helpful to say "How do we use our people's skills in a different way to make money?"  Now you have something to analyze (the people), making for a more fertile discussion.

Comfort

We should never forget the psychological benefits of boundaries - that they make people comfortable.  You may view this as either positive or negative, but people feel safe when they know the boundaries of their life.  that is why changing jobs, corporate restructuring, and new product launches can be very stressful.  

Downsides

The greatest downside to using boundaries is in overuse.  People will resist innovative ideas specifically because they are outside their current boundary.  They allow great ideas to pass, often to their chagrin, because they can't aren't open to the possibility.  Or they may see its potential, but use their job scope to prevent it from moving forward.

-sjk