Lesson Five -
Entrepreneurship Training Opportunities

Lesson Goals

·        Become a Lone Eagle Entrepreneur

·        Find The Best Entrepreneurship Resources

Lone Eagles, Freedom, and Independence

Imagine being able to live anywhere, either working for yourself running your own business, or working for someone else, but still able to live anywhere and set your own work schedule. More and more people are doing this. You can too! In this lesson we'll take a first look at where you might go to learn how. Later lessons will explore additional directions for you to explore the ideal of total economic independence. Can you imagine the freedom of becoming a true "Lone Eagle?"   Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have never been more attainable with the opportunities the Internet puts at your fingertips.

Some "Lone Eagles" are webmasters, creating web pages for local businesses. Others are photographers, writers, or graphic artists. Some Lone Eagles work for companies that allow remote telework such as insurance underwriters, medical transcriptionists, and freelance journalists. New jobs are being created all the time. One out of ten jobs in the U.S. are done via telework. There has never been a better entrepreneurial support system than the Internet!

"If you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life."

Lone Eagles Build Their Collaborative Skills

Becoming a successful independent entrepreneur, particularly in a rural location, typically requires careful attention to developing contacts and sustaining relationships of all kinds. If you're a quilter, you might associate regularly with other quilters, locally and globally, sharing marketing strategies and even co-marketing as a virtual community or industry cluster.  If a quilter receives an order for more quilts than one person can provide, then this cluster community becomes a manufacturing network with short-term partnerships which benefit everyone.

Online collaborative tools make it very easy to support others with convenience and efficiency. Supporting others in a service economy is fundamental to successful Ecommerce, as is providing online training. Developing skills for creating and sustaining effective online relationships is vital at all levels.

Stalking The Best-of-the-Best Opportunities and Training

It is easy to feel that all the good ideas have been taken and that living in a rural location puts you out of the loop regarding entrepreneurial opportunities. This is actually far from the truth. Through the Internet you literally have the world at your fingertips. If you so choose, you can easily peek in on an unlimited number of innovations and resources.

Knowing where to go to find cutting edge Internet entrepreneurial resources isn't as hard as you might first guess. Many exciting entrepreneurial training resources already exist, and because the Internet is so new, there are still an unlimited number of genuine opportunities waiting for you. What is working in one rural community just might work in your community. Keep an eagle eye out for these specific copycat opportunities. Cultivate an outgoing positive attitude and be continually exploring. Often, you won't know what you're looking for until you find it.

Consider your new part-time job to be spending a set amount of time every day or every week to specifically explore entrepreneurial training resources and find stories about successful Internet entrepreneurs.  Don't let frustration from information overload inhibit your outreach and exploration activities - take lots of breaks.

Self-directed Internet learning is an essential skill for employability. Many of those employed in computer and Internet-related jobs have no formal training. They just developed their ability to use computers and the Internet for just-in-time learning as needs arose. When asked if they thought they could learn something new, they responded "Yes, of course!" and were hired. The world is rapidly changing. Many good jobs require employees to be able to learn what's needed, when it's needed, and who won't know until the time arrives what exactly needs to be learned.

Hands-on Activities

Review the following

The Future of Community Development - Make the Living You Want Living Wherever You Want http://lone-eagles.com/comdev.htm 
Published September 2001 in "Future Courses - A Compendium of Thought about Education, Technology, and The Future" by Jason Ohler. Published by Technos Press http://www.technos.net/

Kauffman Foundation's E-Ventures
http://www.eventuring.org

Business@ Home (Making a life while making a living)
http://www.gohome.com/
Click on "Marketing" in the box on the left marked "Sections" and look over that one page.

To Complete This Lesson  

1.      Send an email to your instructor stating what strategies you're planning to adopt.

2.      Send an email to the listserv (send to isu-ecommerce@mm.isu.edu ) with the web address for at least one interesting entrepreneurship article or resource.

Optional Skill-Builders

A Basic Guide to Entrepreneurship Readiness
http://www.makingajob.com/
Assess your readiness to become an entrepreneur; from the Kauffman Foundation

More at http://lone-eagles.com/entrelinks.htm and http://lone-eagles.com/entrelinks2.htm

The Business@ Home directory of home-based business associations  http://www.gohome.com/Departments/Resources/index.html
A directory of associations by state and internationally. Find your state.

CEO Express; Business Resources
http://www.ceoexpress.com/default.asp
Look for marketing resources.
This is a portal for keeping current designed by a busy executive, for busy executives.

Kauffman Foundation
http://www.emkf.org/
The Kauffman Foundation has a billion dollar endowment for adult and youth entrepreneurship and offers free training and vast resources. Look for their training resources under the Education Tab.

Lone Eagles Learn to Teach From Any Beach
http://lone-eagles.com/articles/eagle.htm
Published in Technology Horizons Journal, Nov. '99 Related to the entrepreneurial potential of being able to teach anyone, anywhere, anything, anytime.

Community Internet Empowerment Resources for Rural Communities
http://lone-eagles.com/ruralempowerment.htm
Review the extensive articles and resources.

 

Lone Eagle Consulting
http://lone-eagles.com/
Read the mission statement.