Being an entrepreneur is challenging.

That’s an understatement. Ask anyone who successfully runs their own operation and they will probably tell you that it’s the most demanding, and the most rewarding undertaking of their life.

While many entrepreneurs recognize characteristics such as knowledge, passion, and perseverance as being prerequisites for success, many don’t take the time do define what success is, and how they will measure it. This results in unrealistic expectations, or worse, measuring their success against the successes of others.

Every year it’s estimated that over 60% of new businesses fail. With a staggering and eye-opening statistic such as this, one should seriously ponder the question, to be, or not to be an entrepreneur, when considering entrepreneurship as an employment option.

Often overlooked at the outset of entrepreneurial endeavors are the requirements for success, which can be viewed as “phases” of development.

While they may vary in accordance to endeavor or industry, the first, and perhaps most critical phase, is market research – which has one purpose: to help you thoroughly understand the market that you are attempting to achieve profits in.

Too often, would-be entrepreneurs make an emotional decision to take a product or service to the marketplace without evaluating its viability. It’s always a mistake. Once met with the daunting task of marketing and differentiation, they buckle under pressure, and eventually fold.

In order to find your place, and your success in any marketplace, you need to not only understand the history, conditions, trends, and status of your market, but your competitors. In doing so, you find your target audience (those who will most likely value and purchase your services or products), and your niche (a particular product or service that you’re distinctly able to provide).

It’s not uncommon for novice business owners and upstart entrepreneurs to be delusional about the novelty of their products or services. This type of delusion breeds false confidence which can hinder your progress, and is detrimental to the life your new business.

You may not know of competing entrepreneurs and businesses offering similar services and products, but your target audience does. So does the bank from which you may attempt to secure a loan. It’s almost a guarantee that you will not be given a loan if you say that you have “no competition.”

Even though market research, and the information uncovered while conducting it may be vital, so is the need for start-up capital. Businesses need money to go like cars need gas. Undercapitalization is cited as one of the top reasons for business failure by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA).

Once you’ve cleared the research and start-up capital hurdles, the management hurdle looms just as large. Properly managing the day-to-day operations of your business is just as consuming, and should be done by someone who has skill and experience in doing so.

Your market research enabled you to discover that there was a market for your products and services, your marketing plan will help you to get people to discover your products and services, and purchase them.

Many people (and business owners) allocate the lion’s share of their operational budget to marketing efforts. It makes sense: you get back what you put out, right? Not necessarily.

Marketing always comes down to perceived value and desired benefits.

The real value of what you have to offer – product or service – should not be incongruent between how good it really is, and how good you made it seem with your marketing efforts. If so, your success will be short-lived. Eventually, such practices will come back to haunt you because word of mouth is very powerful, and is still one of the most effective marketing strategies.

If you successfully clear the research, management, and marketing hurdles, you need to be very mindful of business laws and taxes. I always recommend consulting with to a established business and tax attorneys about this aspect of your business. It’s worth it and it pays for itself in the long run.

Finally, there are the other miscellaneous items that while small, loom very large in the grand scheme of your success and happiness as an entrepreneur. No sick, vacation, or holiday pay; no 401K; unstable monthly income; longer work hours (maybe 12 hours per day). And this is before considering common issues with vendors, clients, and employees. Let alone factoring in the impact on your personal relationships due to time constraints caused by the growing attention demands of your new business.

In the end, it really does come down to passion.

If you are passionate about whatever product or service you have to offer, and passionate about your belief that it solves problems, fulfills needs, or caters to desires, you can overcome many hurdles with limited resources.

If you’re like me, you will love to eat out. Coming home from work and having to cook my own tea can be a real drag – so eating out is always really tempting.

But the problem is, I like eating out at least twice a week – and that can really add up. Just last month I spent so much on eating out, that I didn’t actually have enough money left to buy food in from the local store.

So, I did a bit of research and found a few ways I could eat out for less, and I’m going to share them here.

Look for special ‘weeknight’ offers

Some of your local restaurants may offer special ‘weeknight’ promotions – for example 2-4-1, or two meals for a set price.

These can sometimes be hard to find, but it is worth searching for them. Remember, restaurants want your business, so there will always be an offer on somewhere.

When you find a restaurant that has an offer on a particular weeknight, you may decide to go there each week – providing the food/service is satisfactory.

Save coupons/discount vouchers

One of the best ways to save money on your meal is to use coupons or discount vouchers. Some restaurants will hand these out to you once you have eaten your meal, meaning you get to use them next time. However, other restaurants may either publish their coupons online, or put them in the local newspapers – so keep your eyes peeled.

You might find that some places actually put discount vouchers on the back of receipts.

Eat at a cheaper restaurant

This is an obvious way to eat out for less, but it works. If you find that you are spending too much on your restaurant bills, then look for a cheaper restaurant – there will always be one (providing you haven’t already found the very cheapest!).

Some cheaper restaurants are actually better than the more expensive ones. This may be because expensive ones are known to set their standards very high (hence the high prices), but some of them cannot reach the standards needed to justify paying a high price for a meal – whereas cheaper restaurants may try harder to compete with the more expensive ones by offering more choice on their menu, or giving you larger portions, or better service, for example.

Split the cost of the bill

Finally, when you receive your bill, why not split it with the person you’re eating with? This is only really possible if you are eating out with a friend/partner – rather than eating out with your kids.

Social media implies that you facilitate a two-way discussion, rather than a one-way bombardment of marketing messages. In short, this means that you stay engaged and in a discussion with visitors.

Social Media sites come and go like the wind. It seems like every 5 seconds some entrepreneur is just around the corner with another Digg or del.icio.us knockoff.

Hoping that whatever maneuver they can bring to the table will make them this week’s hot topic or at least clever enough to catch the eye of whomever might have some money and want to absorb some wicked bit of code or an entire social media community.

Social media (or new media) involves a LOT of things, a lot of tech, and could need a lot of resources (not necessarily money). When you say you do social media, and you want to launch a network of some sort, does that mean the entire process is done in-house?

Social media marketing can bring traffic and links to any website. Too often, marketers overlook the value of social media and tend to stick with traditional methods, while the younger generation of webpreneurs has employed social sites as an every-day strategy.

Social media is gowing at a such a rate that domains, websites and blogsites will increase in value due to the increased demand for webspace. The social aspect is driving the net into new territory and expands exponentially because of its viral nature.

Social media – as understood in a Web 2.0 context and has enabled us to play more effectively than was practical previously, on a global field.

Social Media has released us, freed us: and we won’t go back. Social media has been a great resource for both ideas and traffic for my blog. If you work and get noticed in social media and it gets passed around that’s a great way to promote your work.

Social media seek’s (in theory and in word, at least) a different kind of influence: peer review and approval. The medium and the form of discourse that it supports are wide open.

Social Media is a Branding Exercise – while social media sites can send you a lot of traffic very very quickly they can also be excellent places to do branding. Every time a reader or potential reader comes across you on a social media site the more you reinforce your brand.

Social media marketing is actually becoming necessary but it has to be done right. It is about the weight of numbers and it will bring some honesty, ethics and accountability back to doing business.

Social Media is conversational media in all its interactive forms including text, video and spoken words – whether face to face, over the Internet, over the airwaves or via mobile technologies such as iPods and cell phones.

A Social Media Club is intended to be a place where amateurs and professionals can come together to learn from one another, to understand each other and to work together on the things that make meaning in their lives – their personal passions, their professional endeavours and their noble pursuits.

Social Media, doesn’t even really exist as a subset of media. Everything is social now, we just expect it. Social media companies will race to provide metrics that show impressive results, but that’s not necessarily a good thing, especially given the ways measurement may shape investment and in turn shape the evolution of social mediums.

Social media campaign’s go far beyond the traditional agency model of media planning and buying. So do advertisers they actually get into the game and get their campaign’s out there.

Social media is changing the way online businesses advertise because control of the message is shifting to the consumer.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a new term that was recently coined by Rohit Bhargava and has since been taking on life of its own. SMO tactics can drive huge amounts of people to a website and can also determine whether a startup, website or idea will make it or not.

Social media will be the optimal place to market especially with a recession. Social networks are a rich source of HIGHLY niche audiences and therefore are highly target-able.