The 20 characteristics of the entrepreneur

I admit that the time between this post and the last one has been longer than before. Unfortunately, sometimes life asks you to relax and calm down a little bit. It has been what has happened to me. This time, due to the lack of time to write the posts as entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship deserve I have decided to write every two weeks more or less. The most important thing is that I am here and I am back writing about what I think it is more than worthy. Hello again.

Para aquellas personas que me habéis preguntado en más de una ocasión que es eso de la P.E., aprovecho este “primer” post de vuelta de las vacaciones para refrescar estas siglas.

For those who have asked me more than once what E.P. (in Spanish) means, I’ll take this “first” post back from holidays to refresh this acronym.

In order to answer propely, I’ve been gathering the adjectives and ideas that I’ve been using in the different posts and which, from my point of view, define the E (entrepreneurial) P (person), this is, the entrepreneur. It is very important to highlight that every single entrepreneur does no have all those qualities, values or characteristics in general at the same time and/or at a high level. After all, we can’t forget that we aren’t talking about a superman or superwoman, but about people, with capital letters in my opinion: PEOPLE. (more…)

Oscar, Lean and Canvas

Last 7th of March some of the mentors and mentees of the MET Community met up with other E.P. who came to the workshop about Lean Canvas given by  Rocío Rivera, coach, mentor, entrepreneur and expert on strategy, innovation and group and team management. We met there to, for once and for all, apply a tool which we had heard from many times. Rocío didn’t disappoint us at all. In fact, as we expected, the 2 hours passed quickly, but it was worth it.

The session with Rocío made it clear for us that the Lean Canvas allows us to tidy up, organize, plan and share, but also to think in alternatives, open more to other possibilities and be more motivated and with more illusion to move forward with our projects. Do you dare to prepare your Lean Canvas?

 You just have to follow a few steps to see if your project is on the way of becoming a reality or not. You can do it individually or in a group (I recommend you do the second option). You just have to follow the following order and start filling in your canvas. Do you dare?

  1. Costumers segments. Specify who is your target consumer and, above all, who are your early adopters.
  2. Problem. Identify at least 3 problems from your clients that your product or service may solve. At the same time, specify what alternatives your clients have in that moment to solve those problems.
  3. Unique value proposition. Summarize in a clear, simple sentence (KISS) what you are offering to solve the problems you have identified.
  4. Channels. Specify the access routes (channels) you want to use to bring your product or service to your customers.
  5. Reveue streams. Specify how are you going to do it to earn money.
  6. Cost structure. Analyze the costs that your project entails.
  7. Key metrics. Identify the key activities that serve as reference to confirm or not that your project is going well. Your project must be sustainable all the time.
  8. Unfair advantage. Specify in a sentence what makes you special and why should the client choose you and not others.

Don’t forget that it’s possible that your original idea changes as you answer all the different questions that the canvas suggests. That’s not bad and I’m sure that there are moments when you take a step back to change something.

Here you have some examples that I hope they are useful for you.

Enjoy the week and don’t waste many post-its, or do.

Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.

Tone up your finances with Fintonic

Do you know how much money you have now? What are you wasting it on? What are your banks charging you? Or just, how can you manage it better? Probably, if you had Fintonic you could answer these questions with just pressing a button.

If you’re interested, I’ll tell you that Pablo Luis Uriarte, former managing director and vice president of BBVA, Carina Szplika, former managing director of ING España, and Javier Marín, former managing director of Banco Santander, are just a few people who have decided to invest in Fintonic. Why would that be?

If you want to know what is Fintonic, I encourage you to keep reading. You’ll discover the app for which the big powers of the financial world, banking and the investment are betting. Are you in? (more…)