This is blog is committed to help
people with general business tips. In this article, we have gathered some
information that we think we'll be useful to any one who is aspiring to start a
small business, or is already in a business and want to see it grow.
HOW TO
SUCCEED AS A SMALL BUSINESS
1. Be a Salesperson
Never underestimate how important it is to be
able to sell. It's at the top of the list on purpose. Even if you never have to
sell to clients (unlikely), you will have to sell your ideas to investors, sell
your company vision to prospective employees, and sell consumers or customers
on your brand. Selling is absolutely critical to your success, so if you have
an aversion to it, you'd better get over that fast.
2. Delay Gratification
No business is successful on day one. Almost no
businesses are successful after year one. If you think entrepreneurship is the
ticket to instant riches, you need a reality check. Not only will you have to
work hard for a long-term goal, you will probably have to work hard in the face
of what seems like certain failure at times.
3. Discipline
Discipline isn't just about working hard, but you
do have to do that. Discipline is also about managing your entrepreneurial tendencies.
Many natural born entrepreneurs are blessed with a mind that is an
idea-generating machine. The good news is that some of those ideas are gold
mines. The bad news is that if you continually pursue new ideas, old ideas
never get developed to fruition.
4. Take Risks
Just leaving the rat race is a huge risk in an of
itself. No wonder so few people do it. And if you have a spouse or significant
other, realize that they are risking with you whether they like it or not.
Everyone has a need for some level of certainty, so if you can't find it in
your business, plan on finding it elsewhere, maybe for several years at a time.
5. Build Rapport
Note that this is not called “Making Friends”
important, yes, but not the same thing. Building rapport means building
respect, a reputation, and hopefully key alliances along the way. Donald Trump,
Bill Gate or Richard Branson doesn't seem to be the kind of guy you'd call your
BFF. "Best Friend Forever" But they do have the ability to get people
to listen and trust them. You will need to build relationships as an
entrepreneur, no business is an island.
Be a Leader
While you may be a natural born follower, as a
business owner, you will have to be able to lead. That means trusting an inner
compass to guide you when there are no outside indications as to what step to
take next. It means having people rely on you. And it even means forgoing the
road less traveled for bushwhacking your own path.
7. Be Uncomfortable
Nobody thinks that running a business is easy.
But generally people underestimate just how hard it can be. There can be times
as a business owner that for months on end you will be in a state of stress,
worry, anxiety, and discomfort. Being an entrepreneur means being able to live
and function in this state for extended periods of time, and being able to find
a way to shut it off so that it doesn't consume your personal life as well as
your career.
8. Inspire
To be an entrepreneur you need to be inspired.
You will likely have to inspire others such as employees and your first
customers—who will have to believe in you with no track record. But most of all
you will continue to have to inspire yourself, because sometimes your vision is
the only thing that can lead you out of one phase of your business and into the
next.
9. Focus
Related to discipline is focus—the ability to
tune out “noise” that can distract you from your goal. That noise could be
people who doubt you, busywork, doing too much “social” networking, or perhaps
worst of all, the noise inside of your own head of self-doubt, fear, or
unrealistic expectations of yourself. Personally.
10. Understand Numbers
I am extremely number-challenged. I'm the biggest
of big-picture thinkers. So there are times when I am working on a project that
I think is going terribly—only to finally force myself to build a spreadsheet
or break out the analytics and find that I'm actually doing better than I had
thought. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true, when I think that I'm
kicking ass only to find that the actual return on investment of time, dollars,
etc. isn't where I thought it would be. Truth be told, this is one of the
number one reasons people go out of business—they don't pay enough attention to
the cold, hard numbers.
11. Analysis
Related to being able to understand the numbers
is the ability to look at the numbers in a variety of ways. Sometimes what
looks like a dip in traffic/sales/whatever might also be a road map to a
previously undiscovered opportunity. There are benefits to being a
stats-a-holic, which can often times be a key source of consumer insights that
larger companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for.
12. Ask for Help
If you have a natural knack for asking for help,
good grief, I hope you aren't reading this, because you should already be
working for yourself!
13. Know Thyself
Every entrepreneur has strengths and weaknesses.
A good entrepreneur plays to his or her strengths. A great entrepreneur plays
to their strengths and builds a business that can compensate for their
weaknesses. That means knowing what you aren't good at, admitting it, and
structuring your work flow so that you don't get in your own way.
14. Balance Ego with Humility
You have to have high self-confidence to make it
in business. I'd go so far to say that a little bit of a big ego can actually
be an asset—it helps to get people talking about you and can help to increase
your visibility. But there is a very fine line between a healthy ego and being
an egotistical maniac. But bring too much humility to the game, and it comes
off as self-doubt. Walking the line between the two will never please everyone,
either – sorry, it just comes with the territory.
15. Persistence
Most of all, to get out of the rat race, you need
persistence. You need to fall on your face and get back up. You need to make
big mistakes and learn from them. Sometimes you even need to fail, it may be
the only way to succeed. To quote “Your recovery strategy is what's important;
avoiding mistakes is not.”
I hope the little information you have just read
above will broaden your horizon so that you'll begin to see things in a
different dimension. Reading this piece of information is not enough, but
application of it is what will guarantee the result you so much desire.
I wish you an outstanding success in all your
chosen endeavors. I promise to bring your more information at due time.
To your success.
Sean Faith....
