Entrepreneurs who achieve success are those who can build a business that can stand the tests of time. For many startups and existing businesses their immediate operational needs can overshadow any long lasting practices for the future. I want to give you 10 tips that I have discovered from my own success and failures.
1: To Achieve Success you Must Have Passion for Your Business
Being passionate about your business doesn’t mean it has to be your favorite activity or what you enjoy most. However, if you don’t have a passion for what you do sooner or later you will get tired of running your business. Paring the need that your business is fulfilling combined with your excitement, knowledge, and interests can lead to substantial success.
2: Trust Your Team
No Entrepreneur knows everything. Surround yourself with employees who better you and your business. Don’t micromanage, encourage your employees to feel as though they have a stake in the success and failures of your business. Good communication and management are invaluable.
3: Recognize Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Delegation is a trait that doesn’t come easy to me or most entrepreneurs. Learning to understand that you can’t wear every hat allows you to focus all of your energy on certain areas that can better grow your business. Develop a strong understanding of what your strength and weakness are and delegate your weaknesses to your employees who are stronger in those areas.
4: Have Short Term and Long Term Goals
Going with your gut can lead to the right decisions but they have their time and place. Most people believe all entrepreneurs are giant risk takers who walk around blindfolded on a tightrope. However, to have long lasting success you need to take controlled risks. Plan in advance what your goals are to grow and sustain your business.
5: Lead by Example
As much as it can be a pain sometimes, you’re the culture of your business. You need to establish the mindset that you don’t work for the business, the business works for you. Lead by example and don’t hold yourself to a double standard. If an employee or process isn’t working you need to be the one making the change.
6: Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help
You are not alone just because you’re an entrepreneur. Find mentors, find like-minded friends, do research, learn everything you can from others and don’t be afraid to ask them questions. You will be able to save yourself a tremendous amount of time by learning from the trail and errors of others.
7: Run a Lean Business and Monitor Your Costs
It’s almost impossible to have long lasting success without monitoring your revenue and expenses closely. You need to create and follow a business budget. Having sufficient capital allows you to be prepared for opportunities and survive market volatility.
8: Research Your Competitors
No matter what type of business you are in, you will have competitors. You need to figure out how or what will differentiate you from the competition. You must conduct research on your competitors continuously. If you find that their aren’t very many competitors don’t get too excited, it may mean that their really isn’t a market for the product or service you want to sell.
9: Don’t Procrastinate
If you’re just starting a business you can fall into the trap of waiting until everything is perfect. No business is ever perfectly ready to launch. Sometimes you need to just start and learn as you go. For existing businesses procrastination can lead to missed market opportunities or failure to hire the right employees.
10: Don’t Fixate on Mistakes or Let Fear of Mistakes Guide Your Decisions
In the beginning I let myself be controlled by my fear of making a mistake. As a result, I soon found that it was difficult for me to make decisions at all. Successful entrepreneurs learn from their mistakes and move on, they don’t dwell on them. Blaming the economy, bad luck or blaming others can cause you to not see the path forward. Don’t hit a roadblock and become stuck. Learn from what happened and find a different path around.
Being an Entrepreneur is all about seeing what others don’t see. There is no straightforward path to being successful. You must learn to adapt and overcome obstacles in your way.
The market is always changing and in order to build a long lasting business you have to be able to change with it. Knowing what you’re best at, and creating a team around you that has strength in the areas you’re weak, is how you create a successful business.
