In other words, the successful entrepreneurs built on what they already possessed or had acquired through life experience, work experience, and combined it with a willingness to take a calculated risk.

Here are some bullet points from the report:

Nearly all of the company founders surveyed – 98 percent – ranked prior work experience as an important success factor, and 58 percent ranked it as extremely important. Learning from both successes (88 percent) and failures (78 percent) also played a key role in respondents’ current successes. In fact, 40 percent cited lessons learned from failures as extremely important – the second-highest “extremely important” rating.

The company’s management team contributed to success for 82 percent of those surveyed, with 35 percent ranking this factor as extremely important. For 73 percent of the entrepreneurs surveyed, luck was an important factor in success; 22 percent ranked good fortune as extremely important.

The survey also found that:

1. Professional networks were important to the success of their current businesses for 73 percent of the entrepreneurs. In comparison, 62 percent felt the same way about personal networks. University or alumni networks, on the other hand, were important to only 19 percent of the respondents. Among Ivy-League graduates, 29 percent placed importance on alumni networks.
2. Only 11 percent of the first-time entrepreneurs received venture capital, and 9 percent received private/angel financing. Of the overall sample, 68 percent considered availability of financing/capital as important. Of the entrepreneurs who had raised venture capital for their most recent businesses, 96 percent considered financing important.
3. Eighty-six percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as important, as compared with 70 percent of the overall sample. Only 20 percent of entrepreneurs and 18 percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as extremely important.
4. Most company founders (86 percent) ranked state or regional assistance as slightly or not at all important.
5. In identifying barriers to entrepreneurial success, the most commonly named factor – by 98 percent of respondents – was lack of willingness or ability to take risks. Other barriers cited by respondents were the time and effort required (93 percent), difficulty raising capital (91 percent), business management skills (89 percent), knowledge about how to start a business (84 percent), industry and market knowledge (83 percent), and family/financial pressures to keep a traditional, steady job (73 percent).

If that’s a thought you like, you may want to read more about Used DVDs a growing business. There appears to be a constantly growing supply of used DVD’s flooding the market and seeking out entrepreneurs who can make money selling them before they become so plentiful they become unprofitable to market.

Ok, in the first post I got you the basics – the publisher’s description and the Table of Contents.

Let me begin by discussing Jack Ma’s foreward.  I won’t steal his thunder, but I will mention one of his examples and what he aims to do through Alibaba.com – to help the Chinese marketplace and, in turn, help American entrepreneurs in the process.

One example he gave was a type of Chinese wine that retailed for $120 but which sold at the wholesale level for a very small percentage of the price. He attributed the massive (and questionable?) price increase to an antiquated distribution system, that, of course, had to add new layers of profit just to survive.

Ma sees his work at Alibaba.com as one of disintermediation. That’s a $3 word for cutting out “middle men”. Using the internet, his idea is for Alibaba.com to become the one “middle man” necessary to connect producers in China with distributors elsewhere in the world, but primarily in the English speaking market who want to distribute the products, add value to them, or use them as marketing tools for their “bread and butter” products and services.

His vision is to see the readers and US users of Alibaba.com use their site to open their own business and find the products they can sell profitably, and in one sense at least, put globalization to work FOR THEM.

Read excepts here for The Official Alibaba.com Success Guide: Insider Tips and Strategies for Sourcing Products from the Worlds Largest B2B Marketplace.

What this does of course is diversify the customer base of Chinese firms… that way if one HUGE customer changes providers, they still have the opportunity to keep production going if they have been able to connect with small businesses who may be less likely to switch as long as they can continue to serve their customers effectively.

So it could be a good deal for all concerned.

I’ll talk more about other interesting things I’ve found in the book.  I don’t have much time to read, but this is one book I wanted to read.

Read excepts here for The Official Alibaba.com Success Guide: Insider Tips and Strategies for Sourcing Products from the Worlds Largest B2B Marketplace.

How many of us can truly say we found our life’s calling? Sewing found Johnny Wimberly as a teenager, long before he found this work as a small business owner, running Jed’s Custom Services in Sheridan, reports9News.com.

In 1992, Wimberly was convicted of aggravated armed robbery and spent six years in prison.

“I went to prison basically with no skills,” Wimberly said.

Then he discovered sewing in an inmate training program which led to several jobs in prison and work after his release.

“I didn’t go try to get a job that had anything to do with banking or money, because most people, their first thought of talking to a felon is that they can’t be trusted,” Wimberly said.

Since 1992, he has much more: a loving wife who eventually helped him start his own business, and a daughter who helps run it.

Even during a credit squeeze when getting a loan is unheard of, Wimberly is no longer alone in this new struggle.

“Everything I have is in this company. I can’t imagine doing something without it. So what do you do? You quit and take a loss? Or do you just keep going and depend on your customers to come and bring you work?”

Photo by 9News.com.

Send them some business

HT: Dane’s Blog

His business is called, appropriately, IWearYourShirt.com. And that $85,000 per year has a nice ring to it. Think you could do something like this?

When you look at his pricing (no more than $365 per day) it’s not so bad for the potential exposure if he does a good job. One big newspaper ad could cost that much.

He promotes his “T-Shirt” using Social Media Tools like online video. My first thought was he must spend all his time walking around New York City!

You can see him at “Work” here:

In my experience, learning as much as possible how other people do things lets you find the “model” that most directly fits your own needs and personality.

Finding models, examples, case studies about ideas and procedures that worked are worth seeking out. In articles like this one you may have those vague ideas in your mind “gel” and give you the plan you’ve been looking for all your life.

Still waiting to find your “place” in the world? Get some inspiration at How 20 Business Ideas Were Hatched

You know you want to start a business—but you’re not sure exactly what that business should be. Fear not. While some lucky entrepreneurs do get a flash of inspiration that sets them on the path to success, others need to hunt for the right idea. In fact, talk to serial entrepreneurs about how they come up with new business concepts, and you’ll find they often have a well-structured methodology for coming up with great ideas. In this slide show, 20 entrepreneurs tell BusinessWeek how they struck gold, whether it was a bolt from the blue or the result of a disciplined search process. (Notes: A handful of the featured entrepreneurs are running early-stage ventures that are not yet generating significant revenue; comments are edited.)

You can see what that’s about here…

Best of all, it’s just $9.95!

Today, Jerry called me an told me that new locations are immediately being sought in Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.

If you have any interest in adding an income stream to your business, please visit FingerPrintUSA.com

Do you have them?

1. You enjoy being the visionary leader.
2. Risk energizes you.
3. Actively seek others input.
4. Motivated yet patient.
5. Jack of all trades.

I think it’s interesting to note that you can have these 5 qualities, but not for all and every business enterprise…

In other words, you may well be an entrepreneur at heart – but just not have all 5 qualities for any business opportunity or entrepreneurial project you’ve come across yet. Just because running a subway franchise triggers all 5 qualities in my friend, it doesn’t mean that’s the project that gets my entrepreneurial juices flowing… or yours.

But there may be an entrepreneurial activity that does “ring all 5 bells” for you. That may be the thing to give your life, time and effort. Consider the false starts leading up to that as “testing”.

These entrepreneurs at D.Light have produced a solar lantern that sells for about $10, the Kiran.

Their theory is that if they can develop a needed product at a low enough cost (while still making a profit themselves), they can revolutionize the developing world and make lots of money themselves.  To quote the article “If you can serve developing markets with ultra-cheap, mass-produced goods, you’ll have access to massive profits while igniting economic development.”

Depending on whether you’re using the light at “high” or “low” intensity, one charge creates 4-8 hours of light. The light can be charged by leaving the lantern in the sun all day so that it’s ready for work at night.

For areas where electrical infrastructure is sparse, this device could expand the work day significantly or do things like allowing entrepreneurs in undeveloped countries to work during their peak efficiency hours while using otherwise “lost time” (dark hours) for reading or other activities to boost their business.

Hopefully it will provide it’s creators with significant profits while spawning economic development across the globe.