The data showed that the quality of IT infrastructure and the provided support in Brussels is particularly appreciated (87%), whereas other big innovating centres came out with lower results. Amsterdam and Zurich (both ranking at 93%) do prove to be more convenient for starting a business, while Oslo (97%) and Stockholm (100%) rank first in this area.

A few challenges have yet to be overcome by the newly implemented companies, such as building a clientele, recruiting qualified personnel and accessing to capital. Only then can the Belgian capital be recognised as a entrepreneurship-starting centre on an international scale.

Far from them the idea to relocate their activities to an other country, as stated by 9 out of 10 (87%) of new entrepreneurs. This percentage far exceeds the European average of 59%.

This study was carried out by ‘European Start-up Survey and conducted by the consultancy agency PwC.

The post New entrepreneurs find Brussels more attractive than London, Paris or Berlin appeared first on Brussels Express.

In the beginning it comes from prospective customers, then from venture capitalists, then from private equity people, then investment bankers, and so on. You really have to learn how to deal with it.

Entrepreneurship is about big non-consensual or unexpected ideas and opportunities. If not, big companies or tons of other entrepreneurs would have had a go at it already. It is the lack of agreement around a specific opportunity that gives space for creation and, potentially, the opportunity to build something big and unique. Very smart and experienced people will say no to huge opportunities (by the way, it has happened to all the unicorns and successful startups of today).

From this perspective, rejection is a good thing. Everyone saying yes to you and your ideas, besides being meaningless, would not necessarily be good. You must learn to distil the “no” you are hearing. History shows that great, groundbreaking, ideas seem laughable at first sight.

What is the kind of “no” you should be wishing for?

Pay attention to the quality of the “no” you get. This is what really distinguishes bad ideas from potentially great ideas. Look for, at least, a tiny bit of friction, either between people (if pitching to a group) or as a person explains the reasoning behind a “no”.

It is also important to truly understand what is leading people to saying “no”. Sometimes, it comes from externalities which are completely unrelated to your idea or project. For example, when pitching to venture capitalists you might encounter profiles that are simply not willing to acquire the context necessary to understand what you’re working on, or maybe it is something they consider extremely boring and, as such, just don’t want to get involved in.

Focus on understanding the “no” and learning when there are learning opportunities or brushing it off, when it is simply an externality. In the latter, simply brush it off and move on.

What happens after an entrepreneur pitches to VCs?

Recently, I heard an interview of a partner of a big multinational venture capital firm. He shared a bit about the backstage of pitching to venture capitalists; what happens immediately after an entrepreneur leaves the room. I consider it to be great food for thought for entrepreneurs getting used to hearing “no”.

“If I’m presenting an idea to my partners and they all go, “That’s great! We should do that.” I’m like, “Careful. Here’s a bunch of hyper-smart people and no one’s saying, ‘Oh, watch out for this, or watch out for that.’” It’s too easy. The idea is so obviously good, I can already hear the stampede of competitors trampling over our hopeful little startup.”
(Adapted from Reid Hoffman’s podcast series ‘Masters of Scale’)

It goes to show that even venture capitalists (people whose professional purpose is to identify successful startups) are looking for a polarised reaction among their peers. What they want is some people fully aligned with the startup. And others questioning if any of it makes sense.

In a nutshell, if you are feeling the friction in the “no’s” you’re getting, you are most likely on to something.

Dealing with rejection

Despite everything I just said, rejection is extremely hard to deal with. And even when we understand the rationale behind it, it still generates emotional stress.

Some entrepreneurs develop a thick skin, others face it as just part of the routine. I believe that the best approach, at least for me, is to change mindset. Look at the “no” as a gift. A gift of feedback that you can build upon. Don’t take it personally. And remember, if you are doing things right, you know more about your customers and your business than any investor out there.

Listen, learn from the “no”, but also learn how to hold on to what you know and stand your ground if needed. You will, most likely, be respected for it.

The post What’s the kind of “No” that entrepreneurs should be looking look for? appeared first on Brussels Express.

The business environment we currently live in is extremely fast-paced and innovation is key for business survival and creation. Typically, entrepreneurs are deploying (or trying to) most innovations. However, corporates are increasingly getting some skin in the game.

However, most of the time innovation fails. It’s just part of the game. According to Robert Cooper (father of the stage gate model), for every seven innovation projects only one succeeds. In his research, Andrew Kusiak actually refers to a 90% chance of failure. No matter what the true value is, the conclusion is that innovation is hard to master. Looking at the most innovative companies out there, a trend arises. All of them have had many more failures than successes.

Thomas Edison’s quote is a perfect example of the value of failure. Failing as a learning experience can add tremendous value in the long run and even though it is generally accepted, encouraging failure is easier said than done. It is impossible to know in advance what will and will not work. Companies need to expose themselves to new ideas and solutions. The most innovative companies have a culture where they learn from failure, not only celebrate it. However, making the same mistake over and over again has no value.

It is impossible to pinpoint a single root cause for innovation failure. Often, there is a compound effect of several factors. Innovation is uncertain and risky. Identifying the most common factors and developing innovation practices sheds light on how corporations can gradually build innovation capabilities and legacy. Not necessarily to prevent failure, but to create value with failure and learn.

Have an innovation strategy

Industries are changing quickly and even established market leaders are being disrupted by digitalisation. Companies must devise an innovation strategy. An incomplete, poorly defined or misaligned strategy is often the reason why innovation fails to prevail. It is essential that the innovation strategy goes hand in hand with the overall corporate strategy and, hopefully, creates and leverages synergies.

A well defined and aligned innovation strategy allows for companies to further develop balanced innovation portfolios. Often, innovation initiatives are scattered. Individuals within the organisation become enthusiastic about the hype around innovation, entrepreneurship and startups and start proposing ad hoc activities. The innovation strategy will help focusing on those activities that have the most impact on the business.

A well thought out innovation strategy helps create momentum for projects and prioritising them, as well as designing a clear and concrete assignment for each. Additionally, only by having innovation well embedded into the corporate strategy can it justify significant resource allocation to its deployment. Only if failing is accepted to be part of the innovation strategy, will disruptive opportunities arise.

Promote a growth and innovation culture

The institutional value of failure is closely tied to the corporate culture. Historically, organisations are terrible at supporting people who have failed. Often, the reaction towards failure is to appoint a different set of individuals to the next innovation assignment. Or worse, killing innovation initiatives altogether.

Learning opportunities can only arise if failures are treated with respect and a neutral and non-judgmental environment is nurtured. Evaluating why initiatives fail and disseminating this information allows for the knowledge to become institutional. In this context, the individuals responsible for failure are respected, since they are now wiser and better prepared to explore future opportunities.

A culture supporting growth and innovation helps prepare the workforce to go outside the box and motivates managers to explore the fast-changing business environment. In a nutshell, a culture focusing on innovation empowers people (from different hierarchical levels) to source for opportunities and work together towards significant innovation.

Ensure adequate leadership throughout the company

Leadership is about inspiring people. Good leaders are capable of leveraging problems as opportunities. Having the leaders committed to innovation promotes learning from failure, rather than punishing individuals who have failed, and can create the urgency for innovation.

Having employees, leaders and top managers participating in the innovation team can add significant value. Effective innovation deployment requires creativity, knowledge and experience. The top management can help the team to be concrete, from the start, to focus on the target market and define criteria for the new concepts.

Simply put, innovation leadership inspires employees to create and implement new products, services and technologies. Innovation generated by leadership is applicable for several purposes and can be translated across sectors. Some great examples are 3M, Google or Zappos.

Get the right people to deploy innovation

Innovation is mostly about execution. If not, it is only a creativity exercise, with little practical relevance. Making a corporation innovative requires a team of people who can influence and tap into various areas of the company. All departments will be impacted and having members of these departments in the innovation team provides an excellent advantage. A team approach can get you better innovation results and internal supporters.

In order to foster collaboration, it is important to identify people across the organisation that share some traits; such as being able to think outside the box and challenge the status quo. It is also key to involve individuals for whom innovation is personally relevant. Diversity (gender, age, professional competences, etc.) also plays an important role in fostering innovation.

Create partnerships between internal and external innovation sources

Co-creating value with both internal and external stakeholders solves customer needs and problems faster. Bringing together different teams and clients can create real results with business impact.

Discussing challenges with people from different teams, backgrounds and industries gives a fresh perspective. This can be particularly valuable when the internal innovation team is not able to build the product as desired. Often, breakthroughs are a result of co-creating and merging together ideas and concepts. Sometimes, it is also useful to put development on hold and let different people take the initiative. History has shown that ideas that did not work at a particular time were later deployed with a different set of people.

A great example the digital camera. Kodak invented it in 1975. The timing was not right. There was no infrastructure to support digital cameras nor were there personal computers. The photos from these new cameras could not be stored anywhere. It was a huge fail. Fast forward a few years, and in 1990 the first Dycam Model 1 is the first digital camera going on sale to the market. As I said, history is full of great ideas that were simply at the wrong time.

Building a strong network of innovation partners is an effective strategy in co-creating solutions and exploring new opportunities. Sometimes, relying on external service providers, who are often, specialised in a specific tools or process can be of value.

Assimilate innovation into the core business

Innovation is sometimes perceived as an independent function of the business. Even though this is often the easiest way to start innovation endeavours, it can also hinder any business impact.

To strengthen the buy-in by top management, incorporating innovation projects into the core business can bring further commitment to the innovation strategy. This relates closely to the innovation portfolio referred above.

Innovation cannot focus solely on long-term or short-term outcomes. A balanced portfolio brings together short-, mid- and long-term initiatives, tackling problems and opportunities at different levels of proximity to the companies business (i.e. core, adjacent, disruptive).

In essence venturing on innovation strategy is an endeavour demanding a real strategic commitment, time, appropriate conditions, a dedicated and capable team possible as well as a dynamic and flexible learning environment.

Embrace failure. Failure is an important part of the innovation process, so let it happen. But be smart about it. Learn from failure as much and as quick as possible. I have shared some key areas to help you reduce the failure rate of innovation. But at the end of the day it comes down to how nimble you are as an organization and if you are capable of adapting constantly to the learning failure can bring. Remember, be brave. It will pay off.

The post Can you reduce innovation failure? appeared first on Brussels Express.

The purpose of this event is to encourage youth entrepreneurship and promote exchanges between student-entrepreneurs and experts.

You are invited to this evening during which several student-entrepreneurs will present their « success story ».

Program of the evening

5:30 pm: Reception
18h05-18h20: Speech by Minister Denis Ducarme
18h20-19h05: Presentations of four student entrepreneurs (Average Rob, Take and seed, Wolk, Sunslice)
19h05-19h55: Networking session
19h55-20h05: Speech of the Minister Maggie de Block
20h05-20h45: Presentations of four student entrepreneurs (Knock Knock Prod, Crownboards, CovEvent, Koalect)
20: 45-21: 20: Networking session
21: 20-23: 00: DJ

Please confirm your presence by email: lisa.saoul@ducarme.fgov.be

The post Students & entrepreneurs evening at the EGG in Brussels appeared first on Brussels Express.

Being an entrepreneur is about having a learning mindset. At the end of the day you want to solve a problem for people who are willing to pay for it and to find a repeatable and scalable business model. Make the right decisions and you will be able to build a profitable company later.

Validate First, Build it Later.

If you are going to start building your dream, you must be aware that it will be extremely challenging. You will need more drive, motivation and resilience than you ever thought you had. Start by doing an introspection exercise.

Some people are not entrepreneurs

And that is fine. If you are not an entrepreneur, you can still do amazing stuff. Innovation within a corporate, intrapreneurship, (new) business development, the list goes on and on…

You must be prepared to face adversity. Typically people either feel intimidated or are resilient and keep on going. Look back at your life and identify moments of adversity, how did you react? If resilience is a characteristic of your personality, you probably view adversity as a temporary setback.

How do you deal with pressure? As an entrepreneur you will be subject to a lot of stress. You will be the focal point for many people that are relevant to your business; be ready for it.

You’ll have to deal with a level of accountability you may not be used to. There is no boss to rely upon or to get advice from. You should develop a network of like-minded individuals and resort to advisors and coaches. But at the end of the day, you are accountable for all decisions shall anything go wrong.

You may also feel quite lonely. You are the one in charge and you must always seem to be in control and be a leader. The long working hours, high level of accountability and lack of free time demand that you are able to handle some degree of loneliness. Anything that is worth fighting for comes at the cost of something else. It is quite common for entrepreneurs to struggle with the loss of friendships and relationships, coping with the effects. It is really important that you learn how to identify the effects of loneliness to take some personal time when needed and that you stick to your business decisions even when misunderstood or criticised by others.

Be sure you have a safety net

You must have a plan on how to survive if you are not making money for some time. In Brussels there are lot of subsidies, grants, etc, available for you to apply for. However, you are still over-dependent on third parties. Remember, “hope for the best but prepare for the worst”. Prepare your personal finances. I would generally recommend having enough for 24 months without a steady income. Don’t forget that this also includes the money needed to start the business.

It is really important you realise that the performance of your venture will strongly determine the amount of money you make and the kind of future you can build for yourself and your family. Having said this, it actually depends on what type of entrepreneur you are/want to be, and on the business you dream of building.

Nevertheless, if you are striving for a less risky venture, it’s always good to have a safety net. Simply put, find the right balance for yourself, your lifestyle, your family and your dream venture.

Having a safety net can also help you avoid seeking external investment too soon. This protects you from not being selective about who you want investing in your business, choosing the wrong angel route, not getting familiar with timing and objectives of investors, not having your data ready, signaling that you only care about the money, and so on.

Define your goals

It doesn’t really matter whether these are personal growth, income, self-improvement, lifestyle, ego gratification or company growth. Just make sure that they are SMART and balanced: long and short term. Keeping track of your progress will help you stay motivated when times get rough. It is also a great way to have an overview of where you started, where you are and where you are headed.

You need all the support you can get

Finally, get support from your friends and, specially, family. This will definitely help in staying motivated and having self-confidence. It is also very important that they understand this journey you are about to embark on. Take your time explaining to your loved ones what you are going to do and why. When times get tough, they will be there for you and know what to say.

The post Are you an entrepreneur? Learn what to keep in mind appeared first on Brussels Express.

Entrepreneurs can change the way we live and work, and have the potential of improving our standards of living and creating social change. Research also suggests that entrepreneurship is the most effective way of integrating minorities and those who feel alienated, promoting a well-composed plural society.

Weak Entrepreneurial Culture in Belgium

Unfortunately, Belgium ranks among the poorest performers in the EU on entrepreneurship.

Notwithstanding having a vibrant startup environment and benefiting from good market conditions, Belgium ranks average in regulatory framework, access to finance (in particular traditional banking financing) and entrepreneurial capabilities. 

However, Belgium presents a heavy administrative burden and ranked lowest among the EU15 between 2009 and 2015 in terms of entrepreneurship culture. In fact, Belgian entrepreneurs appear to be much more driven by necessity than any other European counterpart (contrasting with opportunity driven).

Scientific evidence suggests that the very weak entrepreneurship culture in Belgium is the main obstacle for business and job creation. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, high potential entrepreneurs create, on average, 3 to 15 times more jobs than other entrepreneurs. In fact, it is estimated that these entrepreneurs create as much as 38% of all jobs in an economy. 

The correlation between entrepreneurship and economic development suggests that governments must be able to identify, nurture, cultivate and motivate high potential entrepreneurs. Although several policy measures have been adopted in recent years to foster entrepreneurship and lighten the administrative burden faced by Belgian entrepreneurs, finding ways of promoting an entrepreneurial culture in Belgium is a priority.

8 Amazing Traits of High Potential Entrepreneurs

Many sociology and anthropology experts argue that culture is learned, social, shared and transmitted. Therefore, creating a more entrepreneurial culture is an education and literacy challenge.

What could we learn from the amazing mind of high potential entrepreneurs?

• Curiosity is Power

Entrepreneurs and smart people can be close-minded at times. Succeeding as a startup has nothing to do with being smart, but a lot to do with being insatiably curious and embracing a learning mindset. Listening to people, continuously learning and fine-tuning primary features instead of mindlessly building new ones. Great entrepreneurs focus on learning by checking the real world, by getting out of the building and accepting that everything they read in books, might be wrong.

• Sharing is Learning

Successful entrepreneurs are not afraid of sharing their ideas. They talk about them all the time. Not getting feedback that their idea is not good or the best one in solving a specific problem scares them more than having someone stealing it. Feedback is essential to learn and learning is one of the main objectives for entrepreneurs (see above).

• Funding ≠ Success

The success of a new venture has nothing to do with getting money from investors. Roughly 76% of startups acquired in 2012 did not get any funding (also called bootstrapping). Successful entrepreneurs are very aware of this.

• Hire Smart

Early hires are key. As an innovation consultant working with startups, I have witnessed this personally over and over again. Entrepreneurs trust their gut and if they feel something is wrong, they will not hire the candidate. Google still uses this approach.

• Growth! Growth! Growth!

If something has nothing to do with growth, the best is to ignore it. This way, what entrepreneurs need to do becomes crystal clear.

• It’s a Marathon

There is no such thing as an overnight success. Only in rare cases do new ventures deliver value in the first year of existence. Entrepreneurs know that, after validating the problem and solution, they must persevere and not pivot too early. Having a well-defined purpose helps.

Purpose: Success driver for entrepreneurs or just a fad?

Success is based on luck, timing, the idea, the team, the network, etc. It takes time to get all of these aligned.

• Communicate

Communicating and managing expectations, specially when talking about co-founders, is a big challenge. Entrepreneurs argue with their co-founders. At the end of the day, everyone is striving for the same thing: success. Not holding grudges and being able to communicate clearly is key. 

• Wear Failure with Pride

Failing is part of being an entrepreneur. Failing is a learning opportunity and is common among first-time entrepreneurs. Most successful entrepreneurs failed many times and are not ashamed of it.

Europe, and Belgium in particular, need more entrepreneurs. We must all get involved in fostering an entrepreneurial culture and promoting the right mindset among our younger generations. Every single person, parent, teacher, business professional and policymaker has a role to play. 

Now that you know the traits of high potential entrepreneurs, what will you do about it?

The post Inside the mind of entrepreneurs: 8 amazing traits appeared first on Brussels Express.

This article served to launch a new campaign to fight against certain clichés that can sometimes affect people from minority backgrounds. In Belgium, some leading media companies are accused of illustrating points on poor education and poverty by associating it with a photo of Black people and Arabs – connoting damaging stereotypes with those associated. In response, this campaign uses an elegant, constructive, humour filled and educational response to dispel this faux pas.

Creating 18 profiles of people with foreign backgrounds, we see a different and balanced reality.

Photos © Vaya Sigmas / Success Diverstory asbl

These profiles of successful entrepreneurs and self starters serves this campaign in its highlighting of role models for young people. But its aims are not only to inspire the young but to give a tangible space for them to come and meet these chosen role models and share their career paths at high schools and universities. To put in place the creation of educational sheets and forum to gather different peoples to work together in diversifying the networks and topics, and broadcast the overall theme of a sense of belonging beyond their race or community.

Google, BXL, and JCDecaux currently back the campaign, but this project requires both human and financial investment, so the initiative is extending the opportunity for others to get involved and help finance the work they are doing and bring the focus to the wider public and policymakers.

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Presented by Valérie de Gheldere of BNP Paribas Fortis, she guided the audience through the reality of the changing nature of the world, the challenges, and potential it creates.

« Who is leading the way for investment in renewable energy? » de Gheldere says, « China« .

Having lived in China, de Gheldere saw first hand the damage of companies divorced from societal needs. Being a socially responsible investment specialist, she examined the steps China and other countries are taking in investing in new markets; making her a great source to help understand the growing trends.

But it’s not just developing countries, water infrastructure posed opportunities, even in Europe, showing that this idea of sustainable investment not only pertained to emerging markets like China, Russia and Brazil, but also in the west, too.

Other elements of the event showed how western companies are also beginning to shift their portfolios to companies that meet ESG requirements. Dealing within countries that are not as stringent on health and safety or pollution, and choosing companies that reflect upon their worker’s rights, the impact of their business and the transparency in which they allow investors to see their dealings.

« We are facing a lot of issues, but we also have a lot of great opportunities. So we want to highlight this link for investors. » de Gheldere said « we are convinced that companies which don’t take ESG criteria into account have a higher risk in some ways, by being exposed to reputational risks, to scandals and they will be performing less efficiently in the changing world. So we are convinced for an investor that it is something that should be taken into account to improve the return of your portfolio »

These shrewd investments make not only for a more positive outlook for the investing company internationally but guide them into the path of new opportunities, helping contribute towards causes that aim to make the world better for all involved.

« Evidence suggests that renewable investment is a growing trend, one that will last for a very long time. We see governments investing in it, we see lots of successful companies joining in, so we think we should bring investors to look in that direction. you really have to be able to detect what will be the trend of tomorrow in this fast-moving world« 

The post Why is it important to invest sustainably with good returns? appeared first on Brussels Express.

It is going to be a fascinating time.  We have seen huge change in financial institutions in the past few years. This transformation is definitely set to continue this year and beyond.  One of the most noticeable trends is that the sector is becoming ever more focused on making the customer experience as easy and seamless as possible.  This is where a lot of resources are being directed.  The sector will have to go even further in innovating around this and how they deploy their staff.  In a sense the world is broadening for the financial sector.  They will have to develop new and perhaps unusual partnerships outside the sector to forge ahead on the technology that this customer service will require.  We will see more and more cases where offerings from multiple vendors will need to be integrated in one platform, which will be a challenge for some institutions to cope with internally.

What should we know about this interface between finance and technology.

This is a dynamic field.  Fintech is luring customers away from their traditional institutions.  We are going to see a speedy uptake of application programming interfaces (APIs).  In simple terms, this is technology that connects apps, including on your mobile, to the IT of the bank’s back office.  This is not new, but we are going to see institutions and consumers embrace this much more rapidly in the near future.  Banks are going to need to pair up with fintech companies to deliver this.  

We will also see institutions choosing cloud-based storage over private-data centres.  Mobile banking will also be on the rise and will really be the norm, as it becomes ever more convenient for customers and more safe and secure.  Identifying customers through biometrics such their faces, voices and fingerprints will become more prevalent.   

Should we be as excited by artificial intelligence (AI) as the media tells us to be?

AI as a technology will have a big impact in the next years.  Already it is helping banks further automate their processes and I think customers will feel the benefit from that in terms of efficiency.   We are seeing more and more that banks can automate decisions based data gathered and machine-learning.  Chatbots are another area where we can expect rapid progress, where a computer programme can essentially chat to a customer to resolves tasks and queries.  I think we’ll even see the wealth management, data analysis and fraud departments of institutions embracing this technology more.

What can we expect for blockchain technology in banking? 

We have already seen quite a bit of progress in terms of blockchain being adopted in the financial sector. I’ll be very interested to see how many of the applications in development become actual working products in the months ahead.  Good contenders for success in this field are probably blockchain solutions for payment and so we will have to see how that impacts the old school wire transfers and SWIFT.  

And cryptocurrencies?

There were so many different views about crypto currency last year within in our sector.  We saw bitcoin soar.  Some senior figures remain averse to the trend but we are seeing others setting up cryptocurrency trading desks.  As that starts to happen, this obviously boosts the legitimacy of cryptocurrency and my feeling is that more banks might start to come around to the idea.   

The post New generation technologies to revolutionise the financial sector  appeared first on Brussels Express.

It is hard to maintain your entrepreneurial enthusiasm.

During tough moments negative feelings are normal. Preparing in advance is a great strategy. A clear purpose empowers the entrepreneur by:

• Sustaining entrepreneurial enthusiasm;
• Helping deal with negative feelings;
• Developing a feeling of personal fulfillment;
• Guiding the entrepreneurial process;
• Inspiring others to follow;
• Funneling the founder(s) passion into a shared vision.

When founders find their purpose

To be constantly in search of something (solution to a problem, a group of people in need of a solution or a business model) is not something everyone is made for.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are always searching for something.

Knowledgeable entrepreneurs are driven by an overarching purpose to create value directly impacting the vision, mission, initial strategy and team of the venture.

Purpose is the driver of entrepreneurship.

Purpose sustains the founder(s) during rough patches, draws others towards ideas and builds shared vision. An argument sustained by Melissa Carson, Pace University.

“If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” – Steve Jobs

Finding your purpose is a time-consuming process. Finding and communicating your purpose is a trial and error exercise and you will feel vulnerable.

Entrepreneurial Enthusiasm

We all struggle when doing things we dislike. You should, at least, struggle while doing something you love!

Pursue your passion. What could be more fulfilling?

Having a clear purpose statement will guide your entrepreneurial. Successful entrepreneurs achieved “glory” because of their persistence. The best leaders and entrepreneurs follow their intrinsic motivations and find their strengths with it.

Wear failure as a badge of pride.

Purpose helps entrepreneurs deal with failure, learning from it. Failure can easily bring out negative feelings. Having a specific greater purpose will give you the energy and inspiration to continue.

Influencing Others

Purpose creates enormous benefits.

“There are two ways to influence human behaviour: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.”- Simon Sinek

Purpose makes employees dare to explore, challenge, insist, and keep pushing. Successful entrepreneurs remain engaged; and are able to surround themselves by great people and empower them.

 A Queen’s University study found that team productivity rises 15% when employee engagement is high. A well-defined purpose leads to more engaged and productive employees.

Employee engagement positively impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty. The same Queen’s University study found that customer satisfaction is 30% greater with higher employee engagement. Ventures with a higher purpose more easily gain traction.

The community in which you operate (or wish to) is, likely, in need of help. Businesses (consequently startups) represent the best way to change communities. A purpose-driven venture has a greater far-reaching impact on its communities.

After finding your Business Model

As your venture grows, instrumenting your purpose is a challenge. Purpose will drive the company’s vision and its culture. This is what provides the organization and all its components with the energy and drive to succeed.

Purpose is for the founders what vision is for companies.

Bringing it all together

Being an entrepreneur is a challenging endeavor; only a select few are made for it. Purpose is a driver for entrepreneurial success/survival playing a role on the self, others and the future organization.

Despite being often overlooked and little discussed, defining a purpose and instrumenting it is one of the first activities one should undertake in the entrepreneurial process.

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