Lesson # 1 – Learn By Doing:
Arthur Ashe, a renowned Grand-Slam tennis champion, wisely stated that “success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” I wholeheartedly agree with him. To me, the best way to become a successful entrepreneur is to get “hands-on experience” in all facets of your company. This includes the incorporation of your company, along with the successful management of teams and resources. The more you do, the better you’ll be as an entrepreneur because you’ll have a general idea of what’s required to get any job done. As a business owner, you must always do your best to maximize your learning and experiences. Never be afraid to learn, or try, something new nor should you be timid to ask for help when needed. This is the only way you’ll grow personally and professionally.
Lesson # 2 – Seek Out New Opportunities:
Next, people must recognize that numerous opportunities exist all around us. The problem is that many novice entrepreneurs are either not actively seeking out these opportunities or they’re dismissing them altogether. Remember, we never know where an opportunity may take us. Therefore, it would behoove you to constantly seek out new opportunities while being open to suggestions, criticism, etc. Make sure that you conduct adequate research first to confirm that it’s an opportunity instead of a liability.
Lesson # 3 – Know When To Quit:
Overall, not every opportunity that you seek will be successful. In fact, some of the opportunities that you pursue will ultimately end up failing, thus becoming a costly liability. With this in mind, you have to know when to quit and move on, especially since failures are inevitable. Failing to do so may result in additional expenses incurred because of the bad investment(s). The important thing to note is that people learn far more when failing than succeeding and it’s really the valuable lessons learned from the failures that count. These hard-learned lessons will eventually help you become a better entrepreneur in the future.
Lesson # 4 – Trust & Have Faith In Yourself:
So how do you filter through the opportunities versus the liabilities? Regardless of what others say, you must always have faith in yourself. This includes trusting your gut instinct and using your intuition to navigate your way as an entrepreneur. Remember, there’s something to be said for your initial reaction to certain individuals and situations. If you learn to trust and have faith in yourself, you’ll find that you’re typically right!
Lesson # 5 – How Can I Be Of Service?
One of the best methods for finding great opportunities is to locate an underserved market. Once determined, you could work to build a business around that particular market by developing goods capable of filling those needs. Rather than wasting resources to create products or services that may not be in demand, entrepreneurs could minimize the risks involved by providing valuable goods to a less-served market. Trust me, this is a much better approach. Not only will you use company resources more efficiently but also face limited competition because demand is higher than supply – an ideal situation for most entrepreneurs.
Lesson # 6 – Love What You Do:
This goes without saying but you should always strive to create a business around what you love doing. Whether it be cooking, arts and crafts, music, or even teaching, you must be passionate about your business. The main reason for this is because you’ll ALWAYS run into obstacles as an entrepreneur and if people don’t love what they do, they’ll most likely give up when major challenges arise. Therefore, it’s crucial that you identify what you’re passionate about and work on ways to capitalize on your true talents. If you’re lucky, your passion and talents will be aligned with an underserved market, thus increasing your chances to win in business.
Lesson # 7 – Life’s One Long Elevator Pitch:
Most entrepreneurs only have one chance to make a good first impression, hence why it’s vital that you master the art of the elevator pitch. By doing so, you’ll learn effective sales strategies for not only captivating your target audience but also promoting and selling your business to investor(s), if needed. In the end, every company must sell something to remain in business. So put in the necessary time and effort to learn effective sales strategies for yourself and your business.
Lesson # 8 – Be Focused & Stay On Course:
I can’t stress enough the importance of focus and consistency. As an entrepreneur, it’s quite easy to steer off-course and deviate from your original mission and vision. To be successful, people must ensure that their end goal remains in sight at all times. That every decision and action is based on thorough research and if done correctly, completing these tasks should take you one step closer to reaching your goals and objectives. Of course, being focused and staying on course does not necessarily mean that you, or your business, can’t evolve. In today’s dynamic business environment, companies must evolve and adapt to remain competitive. Just make sure that you keep your mission and vision in sight at all times and if needed, make the necessary adjustments to your business strategies.
Lesson # 9 – Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Successful entrepreneurs comprehend the significance of customer relationship management (CRM). In essence, CRM enables companies to not only manage business relationships but also the data and information associated with them. You could use CRM to store customer data; potential client contact information; accounts; leads; other sales opportunities. The goal is to use CRM to improve customer relations and customer satisfaction. By storing all this vital information in a central location, entrepreneurs could always go back to review the data to innovate on new methodologies to be of service. Remember, your customers are your lifeblood so do your best to improve CRM.
Lesson # 10 – Always Keep Your Eye On The Bottom-Line:
As a business owner, you must always keep your eye on the bottom-line. Rather than going into debt because of over-zealous spending, entrepreneurs must determine the most efficient and effective use of company resources for achieving organizational goals and objectives. This is crucial, especially when starting a new business where one would could easily lose track of their finances because of miscellaneous start-up expenses that may not be necessary.
In the end, every entrepreneur should have a general understanding of finances, sales, customer relations, and even marketing to be successful. To learn more, you could review my previous posts on all these topics. Best of luck to you on your entrepreneurial journey!