Effective Entrepreneurs: 5 Traits They Have in Common

Being an entrepreneur is not as simple as having a great idea, getting investors, and opening the doors to your new business.  It requires a lot of hard work and planning to open a business and you simply might not have what it takes to get it done.  However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do an honest assessment of your personality traits to see if you might harbor the winning combination needed to become an effective entrepreneur.  Here are just a few of the traits that must be present if you want to succeed in the professional enterprises you decide to tackle.

1. Inspiration.  In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have the next great idea on the backburner at all times.  You not only have to embrace innovation, you also need to be flexible enough to flow with the changing tides of consumer taste.  It can be tempting to stick with the one good idea that takes off, but keep in mind that economics are cyclical.  Since consumer goods tend to go in and out of fashion, an effective entrepreneur always has a lot of irons in the fire.
2. Resolve.  There are going to be a lot of times when you fall on your face as an entrepreneur, and everyone from Bill Gates (Windows Vista) to Donald Trump (Time has a Top 10 list!) has had these types of professional failures.  But what all effective entrepreneurs have in common is that they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and try again.  They may fail nine times out of ten, but when they make it, they make it big.
3. Business sense.  You don’t have to obtain a business degree to have common sense when it comes to business (although pretty much everyone can benefit from taking courses in economics and business planning).  But if you can’t see why it’s a bad idea to open a high-end retail store that specializes in luxury goods during a recession, then you probably shouldn’t set your sights on becoming an entrepreneur.  You have to be realistic, level-headed, and most of all, aware of the market.  Without a solid understanding of why some businesses fail and others succeed, you can’t hope to compete as an entrepreneur.
4. Charisma.  A good entrepreneur is something of a large-scale panhandler.  At some point, you may have enough capital on hand to funnel into new startups.  But when you’re just starting out, you’re going to need help from investors to get your business ventures off the ground.  This could mean borrowing from banks or other lenders, taking on partners, or gunning for venture capital firms.  But in order to convince these people to cough up the dough you’re going to have to know your stuff and present it in a way that gives them confidence in your ability to succeed and make them a profit.
5. Organization.  You don’t necessarily have to fill your office with color-coded bins and put tamper proof labels on privileged files in order to be an effective entrepreneur, but you do need to create a solid business plan and have all of your ducks in a row when you pitch investors.  And when you’re in business, you either need to keep meticulous care with records or hire someone that you trust to do it for you.  Once you open the doors to your business, effective organization is a must if you want to keep them open.

Carol Montrose writes for SeaReach, a manufacturer of labels, tags, and security documents.

As someone who has been to my fair share of conferences over the past few years, I have a growing collection of swag t-shirts. Most of them are for one tech start-up or another. I work remotely (aka from home) most days, so my work attire generally does involve yoga pants and t-shirts. But, even considering that, I do think I’d like to find an alternate use for several of the shirts that either don’t fit great, represent a company/brand I don’t use or is a duplicate.

During my weekend couchbum adventures I stumbledupon a very fun upcycle for t-shirts, which then turned into an hour of searching pinterest, using stumbleupon and any other number of geekery research tactics I found SOOO many fun things to do with t-shirts. So, I thought I’d share my favorites.

1. Recycle an Old T-Shirt into a Pocket Apron

In the event I ever find myself in the kitchen, this might come in handy. Or perhaps I could just make one for the bf who does most of the cooking.

DIY Instructions: Ruffle and Stuff; via: lifehacker

2. T-Shirt Memory Scarf

This is my favorite of all the options for two reasons… a) I heart scarves and b) I have a variety of shirts I’d like to create into one something I’d still use.

DIY Instructions: Craftzine; via: pinterest

3. Recycled T-Shirt Bag

This would be a great use for one or a few of your favorites. I love that the handles are also made from recycled tshirts.

DIY Instructions: chichidee handmade

4. Appliqued T-Shirt Skirt

I love this idea for t-shirts that you still love but may not fit correctly!

DIY Instructions: Domestic in the City

5. Upcycled T-Shirt Pillow

I think this would be fun if you have a game room or an eclectic decoration style. I am too OCD about color schemes and matching to be able to handle tshirt pillows in my one bedroom apartment but I’m not opposed to the idea later in life. In fact, when I have a house where my office doesn’t share space with the living room I might like Gowalla & Foursquare pillows on a funky couch!

DIY Instructions: Maiden Jane; via: crafting a green world

6. T-Shirts as Wall Art

I love this idea. Yes I make no sense, pillows scare me as decoration but I’d hang t-shirts on the wall. Go figure. I think this would be fun in my teenage brother’s room as well – I bet he has football, baseball t-shirts from many years back.

DIY Instructions: FavCrafts; via: crafting a green world

7. T-Shirt as Laptop Cover

The geek girl in me LOVES this one! The biggest problem is, if I <3 the shirt enough for it to be chosen as the laptop cover then changes are I won’t be quite ready to cut it up. Such a dilemma.

DIY Instructions: Makezine

8. Reuseable Grocery Bag from Old T-shirts

Usually the reusable grocery bags that I think are cute cost twice as much as the boring ones. And for some reason it bothers me that not all my bags match each other. This may very well be my answer. Fabulous way to have your reusable shopping bags have your own personal touch. Loves.

DIY Instructions: Martha Stewart or Honestly WTF

9. T-Shirt Necktie

This would be an awesome gift for the geeky guy in your life. The hardest part would be deciding what tshirt to use. I have a feeling you might want to go thrift store shopping for this one!

DIY Instructions: Generation T

10. Stitch This: T-Shirt Quilt

All I have to say about this is… if I were to do this I’d certainly use any number of places that will do this for you. BUT if you’re crafty enough to sew a quilt it’s an option. Also, might I add I live in Texas we are currently in record breaking streak of 100+ degree days so the idea of a quilt terrifies me.

DIY Instructions: Domestic in the City or Craft Stylish; Pay someone to do this for you: T-Shirt Quilts.

10+. Pinterest Board: T-Shirts Upcycled

Since StumbleUpon and Pinterest were the initial cause of this t-shirt upcycle adventure I decided to make a board on Pinterest where I can continue to add ideas I find for upcycling, recycling or other general crafting ideas for my growing t-shirt collection. Maybe that’ll give me motivation to actually do one of these! So far on here I have holiday wreath, a book, yoga pants, and a fun traveling shoe bag.

This might be a fun board to turn into a community board, if you are on Pinterest and want to be added as a contributor of this board let me know and I can add you (I’ll need the email address you use for Pinterest).

Have any of you done anything fun with your t-shirts?

Writing the words “planning for 2011″ almost sent me in a tailspin… seriously, two thousand eleven, really?!

Whether you want to admit it or not, 2011 is almost upon us. This means that the creative minds around the world are creating calendars of all shapes and sizes. I had the pleasure (sarcasm) of converting a calendar from a previous year at my first design job. In case you can’t picture it, that involved me moving formatted numbers 1 position left and researching obscure holidays to confirm where they needed to sit on the calendar. Ever since that fun adventure I’ve had a HUGE appreciation for the effort that goes into calendars, so….

Here are some awesome printable calendars for 2011

The World’s Smallest Printable Calendar
As far as I know this is the printable calendar smallest in the world! 4.4 x 7.6 centimeters: a whole year behind a single business card!(via Lifehacker)

Candy Bar Theory of Calendar Design
The Compact Calendar, by comparison, is great for representing a schedule compactly while maintaining the important context of weekends and holidays. In general, we’re trying to fit our tasks into continuous days of work that cross month boundaries; by running all the days together, we can maintain that sense of continuity and still not lose track of what month it is. (via Lifehacker)

Make Your Own Owl Calendar
The owl craze is still going strong. For those who can’t get enough of them, I present to you the Owl Lover 2011 printable calendar. Customize your calendar online by choosing from 30 different owl illustrations. (via How About Orange)

2011 Pop-up Calendar

Calendar Hexahedral

2011 Dodecahedron Cube Calendar

You might wonder why I’m posting this in November instead of waiting til later in December. Well, I’ll let ya in on a little secret, I have an awesome blog series planned for EVERYDAY of December. A long list of awesome writers have agreed to contribute. As the posts have come in (for me to get scheduled) I have become more and more excited! Stay tuned til November 30th to get the rundown on the upcoming series. I will tell ya if you aren’t already subscribed you may want to do that now. your options are RSS or email.

It’s been a while since I passed out the love to the great interwebz (thank you lolcats). If you follow me on twitter you already know that even on days that I don’t write full blog posts on genpink I’m usually posting fun finds on twitter or my tumblr page.

These are the great things that I’m enjoying lately:

• BB Free Font: Conglomerfont
• Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: October 2008
• Funny T-Shirts
• Walmart: Free Samples & Trials

Have any link love to add? Shameless self promotion can be excused if it’s really worth sharing. :D

One of my favorite ways to unwind at night is perusing del.icio.us popular. A few days ago I found this fun site called Wordle that generates really fun random generated images. I knew I wanted to tell fellow GenPinkers about the funness that is Wordle but I wanted a fun list to create my demo with. Alas, tonight I found 32 Ways to Make Someone Happy! I think I want to make a list of something and print it. I think this would be a fun cheap wall decoration.

I know this sounds a bit silly, but I really love the Facebook Flair app. Mine is filled with fun quotes and pictures. So here’s the knowledge that my facebook flair has to offer to you:

• no regrets, just lessons learned
• seriously?!
• Have a Nice Day
• if you believe in it, then stand for it
• Good friends don’t let you do stupid things … alone
• Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. – Picasso
• Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain
• An Apple a day keeps windows away
• What makes you different makes you beautiful
• To draw you must close your eyes and sing. – Picasso
• Everything will be okay in the end. If It’s not okay, it’s not the end.
• Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted. – John Lennon
• I believe in music like some people belive in fairy tales
• Artists are sexy
• Hug Harder. Laugh Louder. Smile Bigger. Love Longer.
• Life isn’t about finding youself. Life is about creating yourself.
• Believe
• We’re adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?
• laughter (n): when a smile has an orgasm

This is what my flair can tell you about me:

• I’m adorkable
• I’m a brown eyed girl
• I love sushi
• My alarm clock and I are NOT friends.
• I shower naked.
• I’m blogging this.

Disclaimer: There are no Sex & the City spoilers in this post if you happen to be one of those who haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s safe to keep reading :D

Last weekend I went with my girls (love them!) to see Sex & the City the movie. At the end of the movie we were all commenting on how much we loved the LOVE picture on the wall of Carrie’s refashioned apartment. It so happens that the 4 of us that saw the movie together are all artists/designers of some nature so we thought if we could just get a better look at that design we might be able to make something similar for ourselves.

It took me some digging around but I did get a hold of it!

The piece is actually a needlepoint wallhanging made of wool and silk (translation — not in Elysa’s budget) designed by Paul Smith called Love Too. I found The Rug Company who carries this beauty through Casa Sugar’s post Get the Look: Carrie’s Redecorated Digs.

I’m most likely moving in August so I do have it on my list to create something similar for my new digs.

I’ve closed comments on this post. The person who claims to have a connection to someone who can print this has not responded in over a year.

Haaaapppppppyyyyy blogiversary to me [insert awful singing voices here]. April 20th was my 1 year blogiversary!

What I learned through my first year of blogging …

• It’s quite complicated to write an introduction to something that you’ve never done but I think this first year has turned out pretty close to what I planned – What is GenPink?
• For me comments make me feel like I’m in a popularity contest at school. I love it when I have a lot of comments on my posts. My first high commented post was Top 5 ways to entertain yourself when you are bored [at work]
• The more I blogged the more blogs I began reading and the more things I wanted to share with my readers. That’s how I first started deciding to do occasional roundup of fun things I liked around the web.
• Since the internet is such a vast sea of information it’s very cool when you are connected or compared to some of the big names. My first experience with this was being apart of The W List: Outstanding Women Bloggers and then came The Twenty Something Bloggers (20SB) network.
• After being linked with other bloggers I decided I wanted to have bloggers join my blog. I started having various guest bloggers in September and have continued this through the Twenty Something Advice series and then in March with The ABCs of Gen Y
• I learned that I loved it when other people blog about me. It’s fun to have 5 minutes of internet fame.
• I also learned that mini-blogging and twittering can be a fun edition to blogging.
• Something interesting I discovered is sometimes it’s the short posts that ask a great question spark more conversation that the more in-depth posts.
• With blogging as in life it’s fun to receive awards.

and last but not least … the blogging world has taught me that people love give-aways so

How do you enter? That’s fairly simple, just go leave a comment on any of my posts from the last year. I will keep track of all of the commenters from now until May 1 and I will announce the winner Friday, May 2. Linking to this post from your blog will get you another entry into the pot and linking to any of my previous posts/series will also get you a chance. So you have a possibility of being entered 3 times.

My life has been a complete and utter roller coaster the last week (maybe two) so I decided my advice for this Thursday is to myself … have some fun! Life is not as serious as you make it! There you go that’s my advice. And in keeping with my advice I decided I’d share with my lovely freaders my love of t-shirts. I don’t love just any ‘ol tshirt though. I have a love and appreciation (oh course) for designery graphicy t-shirts.

So I was very excited when I heard about a fun resource for t-shirt artistry. I’m sure everyone knows of Threadless. If you don’t you’re missing out. And today I’d like to introduce you to … dun duh duh Pop Culture Tees.

Featuring new designs from the hottest retailers and indie artists, tips ‘n tricks, and interviews from industry experts, Pop Culture Tees delves into the world of creative t-shirt design.

I have a hard time deciding but I think I’ll say this has been my favorite so far.

or perhaps this one

or maybe this (if it came in another color – perhaps pink!)

The moral of the story is go check them out!

PS – Olivia you’d like this one.

I have a question that I’m hoping someone might know the answer to. What is the copyright rules on reproducing quotes? For example. I found the above quote on someone’s facebook and I decided I liked it. I copied and pasted the quote into my beloved Adobe Illustrator and then made myself a pretty little graphic to put up on my blog. So here’s the question … would I be allowed to sell said little graphic (printed out in a frame perhaps)? Can you just reproduce any quote you feel like as long as you give credit? I see cute little framy things like this all the time at Target. I feel like I need a class on the legalities of graphic design. Perhaps some of you legalites can answer this question for me.