You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.
― Les Brown, The Power of Purpose

November is National Entrepreneurship Month, time to celebrate startup community and entrepreneurial experience.

Entrepreneurship matters. From economic development and transformation to sustainable community and life, it contributes to employment and business growth,  improves quality of life and work-life balance, inspires innovation and technology, supports diversity and communities in everyday life.

With Thanksgiving celebration and Giving Tuesday event, November is also the month about showing gratitude and appreciation to people and business around us, giving back to community and support good causes in many different ways.

Hard work, leadership, inspirational life and big dreams…entrepreneurship means different things to different people. To innovators and creators, it could be more about bring disruptive ideas to life and changing the world; to entrepreneurs and founders, it’s more about making impact on community and achieving their dreams. No matter you’re new startup, small business or a serial entrepreneur, the key is to take action, get started and keep doing…

Be a doer

So you want to be an entrepreneur? You have a good idea in mind, a target market to work and a great product to launch, here are a few tips about the experience of starting a company and running your own business:

1. Start smart, start well…It’s less important that you do something perfectly and more important that you do it with energy and motivation.

2. No pain no gain. Nobody is born gifted, every talent needs hard work and constant practice to chase his dream. Entrepreneurs are made, not born too. It requires sacrifice, hard work and a willingness to accept constant change in the business world.

3. Do the research and know the risks. Expect that failure will come, and minimize it where possible. Be flexible and resourceful to face the challenges along the way…

4. Identify your purpose and network with others. Resources and relationships are very important to entrepreneurship, keep in mind to form your alliance with business owners who can help grow your business.

5. Work with collaborators and get the word out about your business. Instead of doing everything on your own from marketing to finance, you can save time and energy with specialized services. Especially about marketing service and digital media projects, many entrepreneurs collaborate with marketing consultant for branding, social media marketing, event planning and public relations.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
– African Proverb

Being an entrepreneur is not a job, it’s a lifestyle. No doubt at all, there’s more to entrepreneurship than just a business idea. Anyone can acquire the knowledge and experience to transform a business idea into reality, but it takes business skills, entrepreneurial mindset, patience and perseverance to live an entrepreneurial life. Starting a business is hard, but the hard is what makes it great. Do what you love, and love what you do…so would you be up to take action and start your own business with a purpose?

Be a giver

It’s end of the year again, there are lots of ways that small businesses, corporations and brands can get involved in year-end giving. With Thanksgiving tradition and GivingTuesday event, end of year giving is a great opportunity to do more for the causes you support and get community engagement.

Doing business with purpose is not only market-driven to make money, and also impact-driven to help people and support the community. As a service-based creative business, we support good causes from fundraising event to public presentation. We give our time, technology and expertise to raise money and awareness for charities, connect with the organizations to collaborate nonprofit projects, and help them engage people effectively via social media platforms.

Being thankful is a mindset, having an attitude of gratitude is a virtue in business and life.

What goes around comes around, helping others actually helps yourself. From individuals to startups, when we become more grateful and give our time, talent and donation to help others, they benefit from our generosity and in turn more people benefit the same as well. For startup community, giving back means to pay it forward and build an entrepreneurial ecosystem. From green business to social enterprise, check out how little things can make a big difference:

1. 1. Start small. Get involved in the community and support charities and non profits by making a donation, volunteering time, spreading the word for good causes and helping the community engagement.
   2. Think big. As technology has an impact on all aspect of life and people, good tech can solve the problems and save the world. Go paperless with digital, go green with solar energy, and go global with social media…think about our environment and world, we support tech for good to use, design and build tech to address social challenges like global education, waste prevention, and healthcare with innovative solutions.
   3. Pay it forward. Business and success is not everything, think of our short and long-term goals with social responsibility, be generous with our time, talents and resources to invest in social, cultural and environmental issues, at the end we are the ones who receive the greatest benefit of a sustainable community.
   4. Build an entrepreneurial ecosystem. By giving, sharing and inspiring, together we support each other to make the change and create impact through collaboration. Creators, investors, leaders, incubators and entrepreneurs are all ecosystem builders in startup community, such as venture-friendly markets, quality business support and network, available finance to research and development, effective leadership and technology for creativity and innovation…

Be an innovator

NASA has just landed successfully a robotic geologist InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Transport) on Mars after 300-million-mile journey from Earth. By NASA, the Journey to Mars is humanity’s Next Giant Leap deeper into their solar system. 45 years ago, the Apollo missions blazed a path for human exploration to the moon and today that path extends to Mars and beyond. After landing on Mars, the robot will investigate processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system more than four billion years ago, and many more missions will follow on the Path to Mars including human landing and step foot on the Red Planet.

           

Almost on the same time, SpaceX has made a historic launch of the first and largest rideshare mission on a US rocket. It also marks a new record of its 19th launch in the year, and the 3rd launch with the same reusable rocket by the company. The spaceflight brought together payloads from 17 countries including US, UK, Canada and Australia etc. total 64 small satellites aboard its reusable Falcon 9 rocket were deployed into low-Earth orbit in this single launch. They are university spacecraft, tech demonstrations, imaging and communication spacecraft from 34 commercial and government organizations, plus the companies seeking to revolutionize the Internet of Things.

Tech for good, tech for change. From national space agency to private space services company, from space tech to reusable rocket launch and digital tech, technology drives exploration and innovation. It expands our knowledge, helps our research and development, transforms our world, tackles social challenges and change our lives for the better. Many business and social enterprises get involved in tech for good to create innovative solutions and foster positive change at work, in the community and the world.

Tech for good is a community and a movement for long term sustainability, such as digital solutions, STEM education, social design, renewable and solar energy…it adopts a responsible technology approach for business, people and planet, creates collaboration between creators, designers, founders, incubators and leaders for working together to make a change in all aspects of our life.

Tech for Good is the intentional design, development and use of digital technologies to address social challenges. It is the combination of the most powerful and flexible tool we’ve ever had and good design approaches that are user-led and test-driven.

— Dan Sutch, Researcher and CEO at the Centre for Acceleration of Social Technologies

Entrepreneurs are innovators, and builders of startup ecosystem. We share knowledge of the marketplace, provide service, advice and information to help other businesses, use technology to support the community and change our life for the better. From tech for good to digital innovation, entrepreneurship has the potential to bring new ideas and technology in life that contribute to business growth and improve well-being of global community.

Collaboration creates opportunities. In entrepreneurship system, we value business ethics, supportive environment, best practices and strategies for collaboration. Entrepreneurs, members of the public and communities are expected to collaborate and deliver research and development projects, share resources and input insights within network, create solutions and opportunities for creativity and innovation.

Based on startup mindset and entrepreneurial spirit, giving back means to pay it forward and build an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Entrepreneurship can make an impact with innovation and collaboration, be a giver and innovator to make a difference in our community. Today we give thanks to collaborators, partners and supporters, and we’re grateful to be part of global entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Happy November and end of year giving!