It turns out that entrepreneurs may not be such a rare breed as we typically think. Following a study by Lloyds Bank Insurance, it has been found that a total of 51% of employees would like to start their own business, to seize control over their work/life balance.

As reported by Champion Accountants, the top recurrent reasons people gave as to why they would like to be an entrepreneur were:

• 46% want to take on new challenges
• 41% cited financial reasons
• 83% said they would be more motivated to work if they owned the business
• 79% said they would have greater job satisfaction
• 78% said becoming an entrepreneur would be more stressful

The interesting factor in this data being the relatively low importance people placed on financial benefits, in favour of the greater sense of satisfaction they would gain from self-employment. This is, however, counterbalanced by the low percentage of people who would like a new challenge, which could be seen as the dividing line between entrepreneurs and the rest of us.

We’ve therefore gone ahead and gathered top tips from leading entrepreneurs to advise and motivate those would-be start ups.

Keep Fighting Failure

“Failure does not mean stop, it’s simply a u-turn to keep going.” – Lisa Williams – Founder & CEO, World Of EPI, 2013 EY Winning Women. Source.

Failure shouldn’t be seen as the be all and end of your aspirations; failure is a minor roadblock or indication that something isn’t quite right. Everyone who succeeds has failed 100 times before that. The difference is that they learn, develop and adapt to failure, which ultimately turns it into something hugely beneficial.

Find Your Jedi Master

“Surround yourself with great mentors. They help when you reach a plateau in your business cycle and can shave years off your business development and growth through advising from their mistakes and successes.” – Thalej Vasishta – Founder and Managing Director of Paragon Law. Source.

As we’ve covered, everyone has to overcome their own failures but there’s also no harm with finding someone with more experience than yourself and learning from theirs! Who inspires you? Who do you aspire to be? Drop them an e-mail and try to build a dialogue.

The Power of The Humble List

“I have an A4 page a day diary, which is essentially a rolling list of things I am doing in the next 24 hours.” – Patrick Dudley-Williams – Founder of Reef Knots. Source.

The pen is mightier than the kanban board. Never forget that and never underestimate how much easier you can make your day by carrying a notepad and pen around with you to jot down and prioritise everything you need to do. No one can remember everything and this is a simple method for making sure you do.

Risk Taking Is Scary…Or Is It?

“You don’t have to be fearless to make dramatic changes in your life. Transformative change isn’t propelled by raw courage. It’s “sparked” by a series of events that build exposure and experience, both of which help to create asymmetric risk. Through sparking, the upside opportunity is confirmed while downside risk is mitigated. Ultimately, the leap—when it comes—is not one of faith but of experience, even of comfort” – Tim Ferriss – Author of The 4-Hour Work Week. Source.

Risk taking is often romanticised as fearless guess work that somehow culminated in fantastic success. Not so. The best risks are well calculated culminations of the individuals total experience – not a blind shot in the dark.

Build a Great Idea, Then Build An Even Better Team

“A good idea is not enough. Business aren’t just about ideas, businesses are about execution. Don’t get too enamored with your own idea. Other people are going to have that same idea or something similar. You have to build a better team to execute it. You’re only human, nobody has all the skills required to make a business work. [Ask yourself] what people are required to make it work for this idea, for this business?” – Brian Sharples – Co-Founder of Brian Sharples.

Need I say more? If you think you’re on to something great, then gather the talent you need around you and get it built.

In 2014, I earned over $1200 for travel. 

Not very impressive until you know that I earned this passively.

How did I do it?

Through my credit card.

I know, credit cards are supposed to be money pits, right?

But if you play your cards right, you can end up with hundreds of dollars of passive income every single year.

Realistically, you could use passive income from your credit card to pay for your vacation each year.

Here’s how: Continue reading

You can’t make any money with an art degree!

Ever heard anyone say anything like that?

It might seem like it can be difficult to monetize an art degree (whether it be literary, digital media, or physical media), but it’s possible.

Even though art degrees aren’t a sure-thing financially, there are three great reasons that art degrees are worth having.

Learn Discipline in Various Environments

Art majors face a variety of instructors, each with their own demanding expectations. What makes you successful in one class might not help you at all in another.

Learning to succeed in various settings requires that the learner form their own understanding of what works and what doesn’t, along with how they can work with a variety of instructors.

When working with various managers (instructors), students have to be creative to earn good grades and progress on to the next project.

Students must also learn to create work that they can be proud of. Their work won’t look like anyone else’s, and they must feel confident enough in their own work to be proud of that.

Learn a Variety of Increasingly-Rare-But-Desirable Skills

After writing or creating a work, students must defend what it is and why it exists.

This process of selling an instructor on your work is almost identical to the process of selling a publisher or buyer on your work. So students will have an easier time doing this after they graduate.

Art majors learn how to take their creative ideas and make them work in an existing framework.

Whether it be a website, a brand of software, or a journal, paper, or blog, students learn to adapt their style and work to a larger vision – the same way that artists do in the world outside of academia.

Learn to Communicate Effectively

The greatest skill that art majors learn is how to communicate effectively.

It is becoming increasingly difficult nowadays to find people who know how to write a well-crafted email, text, letter, or white paper – even though all segments of business require these kinds of communication.

The fact that art majors (especially literary majors) master this skill gives them a huge advantage over their peers.

Typically the first connection with a new client or potential employer is through email, and a major way of keeping in contact with supervisors is through text, art majors are uniquely suited to operate in the modern world.

The ability to communicate allows art majors to interact with others without misunderstandings.

It also allows art majors to learn new topics quickly, as they understand how to read and grasp difficult concepts, simply by understanding how things are written and what a writer is attempting to convey to them.

It a world where financial troubles are ubiquitous, it is increasingly common for people to criticize art majors for their bleak financial prospects.

Keep in mind that art majors know how to produce great works with little instruction, make artistic texts or images fit in with larger frameworks, and to communicate – all skills that are increasingly rare, even though they are desirable.