Way to Grow

Are You a "Born Entrepreneur"?

In interviews for my book, I have asked entrepreneurs about entrepreneurial role models in their lives, assuming that people who have watched someone start a business are more likely to start their own. I still believe that is a potent factor in a person becoming an entrepreneur, but now there is scientific evidence (not proof yet, but evidence) that there may be a genetic factor to entrepreneurship.

New York Times Small Business posted an article today about researchers at Kings College, London, and the University of Cyprus, who have been conducting behavioral genetics (twin) and molecular genetics (association) studies of entrepreneurship. Their conclusions are that there are heritable factors that contribute to entrepreneurship:

• The tendency to identify new business opportunities
• Willingness to be self-employed
• Personality traits that are compatible with entrepreneurship

Put together the inherited tendency and the role model, do you suppose the likelihood rises? I don't think anybody has looked into that. Anecdotally, though, I know a lot of entrepreneurs had an entrepreneurial parent or family member. My own father owned several businesses, and my sons are also entrepreneurs.

Just because nobody in your family ever started a business doesn't mean you can't. But you may have to work even harder at it.

Can Social Media Help You Grow Your Business?

Everyone has heard about social media, but the statistics say more adults are not using social networks than are. (Pew Internet says 35% of adult internet users have profiles on an online social network site. A Nielsen report say that 60% of people who opened Twitter accounts stopped using them.) But the pressure seems to be on for entrepreneurs to get involved and use social media to market their businesses. Which raises the question: Does it make sense to invest time in an approach that reaches, at most, 35% of adults?

Lets back up here. You need to know a bit about social media and a lot about who your target customers are. A better question to ask is: Would positive word-of-mouth about my business help me grow? Most of you would say Yes. So what you need to know about social media is that it is 21st century word-of-mouth, and it is becoming an important way people learn about new products and services. A recent USA Today article quotes Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics: "Increasingly, consumers don't search for products and services. Rather, services come to their attention via social media."

OK, key word there is "increasingly". Is that enough? And that's where you need to know a lot about your target customers. Are you selling to businesses or to consumers? What age group are your target customers? (And if it is mixed, do you know what percentage of them are 18 to 24 and what percentage are over 65?) Because Pew says that "75% of adults 18-24 [are] using these networks, compared to just 7% of adults 65 and older.

If you are in the technology business, chances are that a higher percentage of your prospects use social networks than the population-wide statistics. If you distribute agricultural supplies, maybe not so much. It's time to find out what proportion of your target audience uses social networks, and if they do use them, which ones they use. How do you find out? Ask them! Send out a survey. Go to networking events and ask people you meet. Chat with customers who come in your door. Whatever works. Even if your results are anecdotal, you'll begin to get a feel for how soon you'll need to use social media to help grow your business.

Maybe now isn't the right time for you to market your business through social networks, but it's a smart time to learn more about them. Join one and see what goes on. And when the time is right for you to apply it to marketing your business, you'll have already climbed the learning curve.