How to succeed in business
How to succeed in business
How to succeed in business: 6 ways
How to succeed in business: 6 awesome ways. Share them with your friends!
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Every day the market of goods and services is filled up with new companies. Some of them become successful immediately; some of them don’t manage to remain afloat despite their numerous efforts.
There is also another type of companies who manage to scramble out of the slough of despair, having no initial capital.
Nevertheless, in some time they become very successful and outshine the best holding companies!
That’s why every entrepreneur hopes for the future success when he starts a new business.
However, in order to reach the peak of success and create a megabuck empire, every businessman has to know several rules which can help him to succeed in business.
How to succeed in business: a short guideline
If you decide to start your own business, first of all, you’ll have to analyze the chosen market and find out whether your company will withstand competition.
For example, there is no sense to open a two-hundredth grocery store in a town with a population of 20 thousand people. Instead, you can open a building material store due to the absence of competition.
1. If you want to succeed in business, explore your target audience!
Absolutely every entrepreneur has to keep in mind the portrait of his target consumer.
If we are talking about the ideal outcome of the situation, your consumer should long for your goods and services, while your business should bring you joy and positive emotions.
If you don’t meet your client’s need or position yourself improperly on the market of goods, you will never become successful, ever!
Keep in mind: Give an easy start to your own business!
Imagine that you have opened a premium-class restaurant for the fastidious clients.
However, you haven’t spent enough money for staff training and interior design.
As a result, VIP-clients will not attend your restaurant because of the absence of good service and nice design, while average people will consider your prices to be too high.
Even if you manage to remain afloat for 3-4 months, eventually you’ll become a bankrupt.
2. Make your product unique and your business is bound to be successful!
It’s never too late to begin thinking about the uniqueness of your goods and services.
Think about something that will distinguish your products among others.
Why do people have to attend your store, not the neighboring one?
You may use extra coupons or return money to the client if he/she is not satisfied with the purchase.
This will help you to attract more clients.
For example, when I worked at a travel agency, I didn’t offer my clients to buy cheap tours or tours with 50% off, but I promised them relaxation and total comfort.
Besides, our company offered each client a free telephone card with a certain amount of money on it.
Now think, what is more important to you: to spend your holidays with a 50% off somewhere at the world’s end, or to spend your vacation with comfort and delight?
I think the answer is obvious!
Useful tips: How to attract a client?
3. Be persistent on your way to success in business!
Many businessmen want to get as much money as possible when they start a new business project.
Then they get really disappointed when they spend one, two or even more years without making a profit.
That’s why you should always remain persistent and patient.
It’s absolutely normal if you don’t receive profit in the first few years of the functioning of your company. I’d advise you to be more patient and never give up on your way to success.
You can always come across people who will tell you: “You’ve been running your company for a year already, but it still hasn’t brought you any profit. Your efforts are in vain; you’d better quit it and do something else. Stop wasting your time!”.
If you want to learn how to become a successful person, read this article!
4. Take care about your reputation if you want to be successful!
Not a single business project with a bad reputation can become successful.
That’s why you should always be honest with your clients, avoid doing dirty business and learn how to settle conflicts with a benefit for both sides.
Otherwise, you’ll spoil your reputation and end up being on the black list of your potential clients.
5. How to become successful: be ready for experiments!
Don’t count only on your own opinion; listen to your colleagues and other specialists in your sphere of interest.
Don’t be afraid of taking risks and be ready to receive critical feedbacks.
If you ignore these recommendations and remain too stubborn, you will never succeed in business!
Of course, you may receive a 30-60-thousand profit and consider yourself to be an extremely successful businessman; however, these are only your own illusions.
People who are really mega-successful have so much money that you can’t even imagine!
Don’t be lazy, improve yourself every day!
6. Learn to make conclusions!
This rule doesn’t concern only entrepreneurs; it can be applied by all people!
It is a well-known fact that every organization suffers rises and falls on its way to success.
That’s why you should always learn a lesson out of every situation in your life.
Don’t try to do everything on your own. Learn to delegate authority to other people; don’t try to burden yourself with an extremely heavy load of numerous responsibilities.
“Don’t be afraid of taking risks! Only those who don’t risk, never win. So don’t be afraid to play!”
Start acting right now and very soon you will achieve your first success in business!
I would like to advise you to stop concentrating exclusive on money.
First of all, you have to meet your clients’ needs.
If you do that, your clients will be satisfied and they will use your service for many more years to come!
How to Succeed in Business: 10 Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs
Eugene is Lifehack’s Entrepreneurship Expert. He is the co-founder and creative lead of HighSpark, offering presentation training for companies. Read full profile
To succeed in today’s business landscape, business owners and executives need to possess a mix of skills that enable them to stay ahead and adapt to change.
What do you need to do to learn how to succeed in business? Here’re 10 important skills that entrepreneurs need to become successful.
1. Digital Savviness
As the adage goes: “If you’re not online, you don’t exist.” Today’s entrepreneurs need to take to the internet to increase their presence to remain relevant in an evolving business landscape.
Being able to quickly adapt to new technology, whether by utilizing cloud applications, organizing websites using content management systems, or collaborating remotely across the internet, is fast becoming the expected norm for executives.
How to Develop This Skill
For a start, begin by hosting your website and reserving all of your brand’s handles across social media platforms. While hiring a web developer might sound like the next step, consider first hosting your company’s site on more user and budget-friendly options like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress.
From here, you can start on some simple search engine optimization techniques that will increase your discoverability over time. Through keyword research, organic content creation, and external back-links, your site will slowly but surely garner more traffic.
2. Financial Forecasting
Let’s face it, many business owners feel that time could be better spent on developing and running the business instead of planning for it financially. However, a financial forecast serves as a roadmap for shaping any kind of business, so make this skill a priority when learning how to succeed in business.
Forecasting and planning your financial goals will give you a clearer idea of resources required. It can also provide assurance to investors as a testament to the thorough research and planning you have done.
However, inaccurate forecasts can lead to livid investors and mismanagement of expenses. When creating a detailed financial forecast, a rule of thumb is to always start with your expenses.
How to Develop This Skill
Generally, it’s easier to calculate and predict your expenses compared to your revenue, so noting down your expenses is a starting point to benchmark how much you might need to generate in sales to turn a profit. It’s a good habit to regularly update and evaluate how close your operations are to what you have forecasted.
Building a precise set of growth forecasting will take time, but, remember, you are an investor in your own business. You must have confidence in the validity of your business concept.
3. Video Production Skills
If you’re a heavy user of social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and even YouTube, you’ll know that it’s pretty hard to stop once you get started on a binge-watching session.
With video marketing becoming more ubiquitous, businesses that fail to leverage the power of video are almost certain to lose out.
How to Develop This Skill
Some ways to get started using videos for your business would be:
4. Benchmarking Personal Goals to Business Performance
As far as you get into achieving endeavors on your business bucket list, it’s important to remember that being an entrepreneur is just one facet of your identity. Don’t forget why you started in the first place, even when your focus is learning how to succeed in business.
Ambition usually stems from some lifestyle goals you’ve always wanted for yourself and the people you might be providing for today or in the future. Working 24/7 is a surefire route to burnout.
How to Develop This Skill
Money can’t be your only motivation, but look into the positives of how having more financial freedom and time can impact your life. In the short term, involving your interests in your businesses can make everyday tasks feel less like mundane errands. In the long run, your business may also bring you fruitful rewards, including personal fulfilment.
Set realistic income goals to manage expectations for your performance and your company’s revenue, especially during its earlier stages. See how projected growth can align with your personal goals and make adjustments accordingly.
5. Leveraging Healthy Competition
Some of the best athletes who have spent their careers neck-and-neck with each other have changed the standards in their respective sports. The notion of healthy competition applies to the business world more than it may seem on the surface.
Innovation has always been a key driver in free markets, which were intended to boost economies and provide customers with more choices. Just like the biggest sporting rivals that build on each others’ game, you can use your biggest competitors to hone your strategies.
How to Develop This Skill
Turn a competitive market landscape into an advantageous one by leveraging on long-established systems your business proposes an alternative to. Learn from the mistakes of predecessors once you discover their product or service loopholes.
Solidify your place with your business’ advantage — whether you’re tapping into a new geographical region or unexplored market sector, or introducing a business model that is more viable than others.
6. Honing Pitches to Investors
Stand out in a broad mix of entrepreneurs by mastering the art and science behind a solid investor pitch. Make this a focus if you want to learn how to succeed in business. Get comfortable talking about your ideas and receiving feedback or questions from peers, partners, and advisors before setting out to make a good impression on potential customers and eventually investors.
The phrase “If you can’t convince them, confuse them,” will certainly never get your business funded, especially in front of seasoned venture capitalists who have seen thousands of startup pitches. You should be able to deliver a quick elevator pitch that summarizes your unique proposition for casual meet-ups [7] because you sometimes only have a few minutes to make a good impression.
How to Develop This Skill
Develop your investor pitch deck by highlighting your business’ strongest points, which will vary for every funding round. Create your deck with the investors’ interests in mind, balancing technical jargon and buzzwords.
You can also introduce your diverse team of experts, some proven traction, or the current state of the market to demonstrate profitability and the attractiveness of the opportunity to investors.
Ensure each slide flows into the other to develop a persuasive narrative, utilizing consistent and intelligent design principles to support your content.
7. Developing a Strong Brand Identity
Evaluating your brand identity is linked to identifying your target customers, your business goals, a proposed promised land your solution achieves, and identifying values that are aligned with these components. Brand identity serves as a guide to maintaining consistency and creating an image you want your business to be associated with.
How to Develop This Skill
Efforts to strengthen your brand identity are closely tied to giving marketing strategies a direction. By knowing what makes your target customers tick, you will be able to elevate your business from simply being a service or product to a projected brand customers and partners would be happy to identify with.
8. Automating to Your Advantage
The need for efficiency is often a general problem new businesses aim to resolve. As you’re learning how to succeed in business, assure that your proposed solution is more efficient than what’s readily available in the market to inspire the need for it.
Efficiency is often achieved nowadays through digitalization and new technologies. While your product or service may not necessarily be the most innovative out there, you can apply the same automation concept across your business’ daily operations.
How to Develop This Skill
Shorten turnaround times and conversion rates by investing in small tools for automation where you deem fit. While it may come out of your pocket in the early stages, evaluate the advantages and benefits of automating certain processes. At our office, we’ve tried using collaborative apps like Workplace by Facebook, Slack, Asana and a few other popular apps to reduce human error and friction.
9. Managing Millennials
Your team plays an integral part in whether your business will accelerate at breakneck speeds or be dragged down by dead weight. Hence, it is imperative to be selective and strategic when choosing your team.
In leaner, small business teams, the addition of every new teammate can impact how your organization culture evolves.
How to Develop This Skill
Naturally, there are many misconceptions surrounding millennials, and various businesses would do well to leverage their unique skills.
A couple of ways to manage a millennial team include:
Encourage a Flat Team Structure With Open Communication
Maintain clear professional lines between supervisors and subordinates, but keep communication channels open to ensure no negativity festers.
Offer Constructive Feedback
Baby boomers are well known for their straightforward approach to delivering feedback. Millennials, on the other hand, don’t always take feedback in a form that could be construed as deep criticism.
Being constructive with feedback ensures that you don’t coddle millennial workers but also tell them the things they need to hear.
10. Maintaining a Network of Connectivity
When learning how to succeed in business, instead of proposing a model that’s disruptive to an industry, build connections with other companies that serve the same target customers, as long as they provide a different service.
By creating partnerships, both you and other businesses thrive simultaneously.
Sole market disruption isn’t always the best strategy to take. Not everybody has the opportunity, bandwidth, or financial capacity to dominate and monopolize a marketplace. See your potential for integration into other businesses and services as a good opportunity for co-collaborative marketing efforts with shared campaigns, split costs, and a strengthened customer database for everyone to tap into.
How to Develop This Skill
Regardless of the stage your business is in, never stop looking for ways to expand your network. Keep in contact with mentors you can look to for valuable industry advice that can help you avoid pitfalls and costly mistakes. Strengthen brand awareness by attending cross-industry events and casual meet-ups to open your business to reinvention and innovation.
As the African proverb goes:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Collaborating will get you where you want to go quicker and gear you up for further growth.
How to Succeed in Business Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
Use these principles in business and in life.
We live in a chaotic world, where the dichotomy between the haves and the have-nots is increasingly more apparent with each subsequent year. It’s a world where people are immersed in a survival-of-the-fittest rat race, requiring them to evade a complex maze of distractions, bad habits and time wasters to reach their goals. Many are ill-equipped mentally, emotionally and physically to get ahead in life, much less to get far ahead.
Ezra Bailey | Getty Images
Most people know that succeeding in business could afford them a life of leisure, one replete in the ability to travel to far-off destinations, engage in extravagant purchases and to do anything their hearts desire. But overcoming the instant urges and sudden basal needs that plague much of the world often proves to be too much.
What usually happens is the person who dreamed of greener pastures and riches beyond their wildest dreams, becomes so immersed in one problem after another, that it removes any joy whatsoever in building a successful business in the long term. Clearly, while many people yearn to start a business that will ultimately become a huge success, not everyone gets there.
So, what separates the so-called winners from the rest? Why will eight out of every 10 businesses fail in the first 18 months of operation? What are the other two out of 10 doing so differently than the rest? And how is that only four out of every 100 businesses are still around after 10 years? What are the factors that lead to the 96 percent failure rate in business over the long term?
In a recent conversation with Niko Contardi, co-founder of eliteLYFE, a high-end luxury villa rental company that caters to the world’s most affluent jet-setters and an exclusive villa rental partner to some of the most prestigious concierge companies on earth, such as Quintessentially, I asked him how they did it. How can a company, in today’s day and age, succeed when so many of the odds are stacked against them?
Contardi, who’s had a hand in building a near-$100 million dollar business in a few short years, tells me that it’s all about delivering real value. «Delivering real value in business is what makes the difference between the so-called winners and losers. Those who try to cut corners and take shortcuts don’t actually get ahead in the long term. They might make some short-term traction, but that’s about it.»
That value needs to exist in everything the business does. By paying attention to all the meticulous details that are necessary to ensure that you deliver an impeccable product or service every single time, you can succeed. You might lose money at the outset, but as long as you continue to deliver enormous amounts of value, that’s how true business success is achieved over time.
In fact, the world’s richest and most successful individuals have always focused on the need to deliver enormous amounts of value. They didn’t necessarily get filthy rich at the outset, but it came over time, happening slowly but surely. People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Mark Zuckerberg and many others have contributed real value to the world, making them some of the richest people in history.
Principles for achieving success in business.
Before my son was born, when he was still the size of a quarter inside my wife’s womb, I began writing these daily journal entries to him entitled, «To My Unborn Son.» We hadn’t named him back then, so the journal entries just took on that title and held that title, even after we had an idea of what we would name him when he was born.
In the journal entries, which I logged every single morning, I conveyed a lot of my thoughts and emotions. I wanted to teach him about success. Not just about how you can succeed in business, but more so, how you can succeed in life. But looking back on those entries, something became very apparent to me.
I realized that the principles for success in life are universal. They apply to personal success in relationships as much as they apply to success in business or in your finances. So when we talk about success at its very foundation, these core principles play a large role in dictating any one person’s ability to get far ahead in life.
If you abide by these principles, not only will you succeed in business, but you’ll succeed in anything that you do, no matter what that might be, great or small.
1. Gratitude
While most people who dream about success in business imagine a life devoid of problems, it’s quite the opposite. Every business has problems. The bigger the business, the bigger and more intricate those problems will be. In fact, the only time you’ll cease having problems is when you’re six feet under. Problems are a sign of life.
Instead of focusing on the problems, you have to focus on what you’re grateful for. Everything in your life was once a wish. We yearn for things, then when we attain them, we look toward the next thing. This Hedonic Treadmill is a defining factor of life and all the more reason why we need to be grateful for what we have right now, in this very moment.
By focusing on the things that we’re grateful for, no matter how small they might be, we open up the infinite wisdom, beauty and endless possibilities that exist in life. The universal ether that binds us all can help us attract the right things in life and achieve the seemingly impossible. But it all starts with an attitude of gratitude.
2. Integrity
At the heart of every successful entrepreneur is integrity. Every business needs to be run with integrity, putting the customer first. It should always be the priority of any business owner to do things the right way. Not just because of the potential for bad reviews, but because of the sheer importance of putting people first and foremost at all times.
By treating people the right way, like you would treat your family, you’ll eventually succeed in business over time. It might not happen as quickly as you’d hope for it to happen. It might actually take decades. But as long your focus is unwavering, you’ll get there if you don’t give up on your goals.
3. Value
Real inherent value has to be at the heart of everything any successful business owner does. If you don’t deliver value, you can kiss your chances of success goodbye. But most people don’t focus on delivering value. They focus on taking shortcuts and finding the easy way to do things. Success doesn’t quite work like that.
While many people are concerned with doing the least amount of work for the greatest initial return, true success in business over the long term demands quite the opposite. You have to do the most amount of work for the least initial return while focusing on delivering true value. As soon as you compromise on that value proposition, that’s when you’ll find your business in a decline or even a free fall. But if you put value above all else, not only will you succeed in business, but you’ll taste the most wild success possible at the highest level attainable. It just won’t happen quickly or easily.
4. Persistence
Giving up simply isn’t an option. Building a successful business over time takes work. It takes an endless amount of struggle, breakdowns, tears and failures. You can’t simply expect to succeed instantly. It doesn’t quite work that way. But for those who are willing to stick it out and see things through, success will most certainly be reached.
What most people don’t realize is that even the world’s most famous people failed numerous times. It didn’t come simply or easily. It took tremendous amounts of struggle and heartache. Stay persistent no matter what happens. Even if you feel like there’s no other way forward, you can’t give up.
5. Loyalty
One thing I wanted my son to understand about success was loyalty. Loyalty is important in life. You have to be loyal to people who helped you when you were just starting out. Rather than try to stab people in the back due to greed or some other desire to get quickly ahead, you have to stay loyal.
There’s simply no need to create negative energy by being disloyal. Don’t go around someone or try to pull something over someone’s head. Don’t be conniving or underhanded. Take those who were there to support you at the outset to the top with you. Ensure they’re around because they were there when no one else was.
This isn’t just about loyalty to family; this is about loyalty to customers, employees, friends, partners and everyone else who helped you along the way. Be sure to keep them around, because one day, when you least expect it, they could be there to help you achieve some of your biggest business goals.
6. Contribution
Contribution should be at the heart of any successful business. As long as we’re looking for ways to contribute something in this world and make it a little bit better than it was when we first arrived in it, we’re doing ourselves and all others a huge service. However, not enough people focus on contribution.
One of the things I wanted my son to take away from my principles of success in business or in life was the importance of contribution. We have to search for ways we can help others. There are far too many people in this world who are enduring endless hardships. We simply have to stop and think of them at times before we think of ourselves.
Search for ways that you can contribute to those causes. It doesn’t have to be money. Time is more valuable than money. Find ways you can help those who are less fortunate and give a little bit back to society. Not only will you feel great, but you’ll end up attracting good things into your life over time. It’s simply how the world works.
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How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Top tips on how to succeed in business without really trying, at any stage in your life.
Success is the dream of every business student, business owner and aspiring entrepreneur. But just how can you succeed in business without really trying? Follow our effortless tips on how to succeed in business and you’ll be well on your way to business success.
Source: Pexels
Have the Right Mindset
Success in business is all about your mindset. If you believe in yourself, you will go far. You should also believe in your work. Whether you are starting a new company, are currently in business school, or working for someone else, you need to believe in what you are doing.
Always try to remind yourself of the bigger picture. When you are in school, remember that you are studying in order to achieve something greater. If you are working for yourself or someone else, make sure you are working for a cause or a product that really speaks to you. Getting into business for a product or service you are passionate about will help you succeed because it will come naturally to you to want to promote and sell.
Have Goals
Setting goals for yourself is a surefire way to keep you motivated and on track to succeed. Make both short-term and long-term goals for yourself, and create a timeline for yourself in order to check in with yourself at certain points. At your check in you can ask yourself the following questions:
Be specific when making goals. The more specific they are, the less likely you will be to push them aside due to vagueness. Write down your goals as well in a detailed plan, including how you will achieve them. Also consider whether your goals are realistic, and how you will measure them.
Source: Pexels
Take Risks
Everyone knows that all business involves some level of risk. Taking a leap of faith can give you a big payout, and risk-taking is an inherent part of entrepreneurship. The important distinction between risks taken by those who succeed and those who fail is the idea of ‘calculated risks.’
Calculated risks are risks made after careful consideration. Successful business people will constantly re-evaluate the risks being made, and make smarter risks the following time.
In your life, you can put yourself out there with business partners, teachers and colleagues. Don’t be afraid to share a creative idea, or propose a new way of getting things done. These are easy ways to take risks that will make you stand out within your network. Try out your ideas first on people you trust, and make your pitches count!
Source: skitterphoto
Be Flexible
Trying to succeed in business without really trying means that things won’t always go as planned. There might be snags in your plans, hiccups in achieving goals on times, and unexpected issues will always come up in business. The trick to keep yourself on track for success is not to let yourself get down by all the unexpected changes. Be understanding and forgiving with yourself when things don’t go as planned. The most important part is to be flexible with your plans and know when it’s time to move or change a goal. This is different than giving up, it is adapting to new circumstances, which is a paramount part of success.
Use Your Failures
Fail fast — use this tried and true philosophy in business to get ahead without really trying. Getting an iteration out quickly and frequently in the beginning is the best way to test for failures without much effort and lost time. The idea is that if you fail fast, you will succeed faster by way of quickly determining what your next steps are. Failing is a learning experience — with each failed attempt, you learn exactly what to change for the following attempt. Figure out what went wrong with each attempt, and make a specific plan for how to succeed the next time. Finally, don’t get yourself down from your failures. Look for the silver lining in your mistakes — that you can learn, grow and succeed after each failure.
Build A Network
Having a strong network is an easy way to succeed. If you are surrounded by successful people, you will be motivated to succeed yourself. You will have people around you to bounce ideas off of and get advice from. Make sure your network is full of like-minded business people who can help you grow and push you to go far.
Wherever you go, make positive connections, whether you are at a cafe, in class, or at work. You never know who you may meet and you always want to put your best self forward. Strike up a conversation with people and try to make a good impression with those who interest you. Introduce yourself no matter what, and see if you have any common interests or industries that you work in.
Source: Pexels
Finally, your network includes people from your past. Stay in touch or reconnect with people from all walks of your life. This may include past jobs, distant family members or high school classmates. Don’t be afraid to call on someone from your past if you think they might have some valuable business insights or connections. This is part of taking a risk to expand your network and opportunities and will always pay off. Here are 12 more tips on how to network as a student.
Be Efficient and Save Time
Try outsourcing. Outsourcing tasks will save you time and money, and increase your efficiency. With outsourcing, you won’t have to necessarily hire more employees, but you can find someone with the skill set you need for a task that you may not have time for or know how to do.
Try automating. Another way to increase efficiency is to find ways to automate your work. Try using Gmail Labs to automate your emails. You can create email templates and premade responses so you don’t have to retype common email responses. You can also opt for an ‘undo send’ action that will undo a sent email if you realize quickly that you have forgotten an attachment. One of the best automation tools out there is called Zapier. With this app and others, you can create your own customized automated workflows, specific to tasks you use frequently.
Ever heard of the 4 hour work week? Business guru Tim Ferriss has perfected efficiency of work so much that he claims you only need 4 hours per week of work time! He has books and a podcast with the best strategies for increasing efficiency and saving you time in business.
Be Smart
Let’s talk degrees. Getting a degree is a great way to quickly acquire skills and knowledge to help you succeed in business. Getting an MBA, Bachelor’s Degree in Business (BBA), or Associate Business Degree will require some trying. But it’s not to be ruled out.
With so many flexible and affordable degree programs out there today, you can easily get a degree in business and set yourself apart from the rest of the workforce. Getting an online business degree will give you the skills you need to succeed in business, while you can continue to work in your desired field. To learn more about why you should get a business degree, read our complete guide for Business Administration majors.
Source: Pexels
University of the People offers three business degree programs: Master’s of Business Administration, Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Associates Degree in Business Administration. All three of these programs are tuition-free and can be earned on your own terms — flexible and online.
Success is not something that can be achieved overnight, but it does not have to be something you constantly push for. It is possible to succeed in business without really trying, just follow the steps we’ve outlined and you are sure to go far!
10 Things You Must Do to Be Successful in Business (and in Life)
Here are stories from several successful entrepreneurs who live a successful life as well.
There have been thousands of books written about what it takes to be successful in business, and a thousand more about achieving success in life as well. You can find another thousand articles on the web that discuss the topic, and a thousand more will be written tomorrow. With such a broad subject and with so many things that can play a role in making us happy, it can be difficult to boil it down to a short list of things that anyone can read and apply in their lives.
1. Be Fearless
Want to know why becoming successful in a business venture is considered such a daunting feat by society? While there are obvious hurdles to face, one of the biggest challenges is in overcoming the fear of jumping into a business in the first place. Most people dream all day about launching a successful business while watching the clock tick at their mundane day jobs. The reason they never quit the security of a paycheck is because they are too scared by the unknown that comes with starting a business. If you want to separate yourself from that crowd, you need to learn how to manage your own fears. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. When I quit my job to start my business, I was making double my salary outside my day job than I was inside working my eight hour job. I still had that huge fear of failure.
2. Understand Finance
3. Grow As A Leader
Once you harness your fears and make the leap to starting a business, you’ve already begun the journey of becoming a leader. As we’ll discuss shortly, your ultimate success will have a lot to do with how you help others find their own. Many of us hold successful entrepreneurs on a pedestal much like football fans hold a star quarterback or wide receiver in high regard. However, there’s always a team that these individuals lead that ultimately leads to their success. You must learn how to be a leader on some kind of level in order to motivate others to join you in your venture, believe in what you preach, or give you money for a product or service that you offer.
4. Use Your Leverage
One of the greatest challenges that will stand in the way of an entrepreneur from getting what they want is understanding what «to do» with the opportunities that fall in their laps along the way. This is where leverage becomes such an important concept that people going into business need to understand, and it takes a certain kind of mind to think «outside the box» in situations to find the value in a new relationship or circumstance. The same people who are too scared to quit their day jobs are also the same people who do not know how to leverage the assets and relationships in their life. A successful entrepreneur, on the other hand, is constantly finding ways to create profits and new opportunities each and every day.
The simple adage «when life hands you lemons, make lemonade» is a great example of using leverage to move your business forward. Many people will make the lemonade and drink it themselves. A true entrepreneur will make lemonade and sell it to those without lemons, and use the profits to buy more lemons or move into another business. While today a polarizing political figure, Donald Trump is a great example of an entrepreneur who time and time again used leverage to acquire crucial pieces of real estate or strike very lucrative business deals. Love him or hate him, his book The Art of The Deal is a great resource on how leverage can make someone mega successful.
5. Acquire Partners
We talked earlier about how becoming a leader is one of the most important qualities one needs to «move the chains» in the game of business. In order to achieve greatness as a leader, one must then have a team of individuals who believe in the mission in order to move forward. That’s where assembling a great team of partners plays such an important role in any profitable business. Many start out alone and the wearer of many hats, but a business can only scale so far if there is only one source of energy, of inspiration, and of the actual sweat equity it takes to keep the lights on.
As we will see in understanding the meaning of success both in business and in life, a true «business owner» is one who does not need to be a part of the day-to-day operations in order for the business to run and stay profitable. The classic book «The E-Myth» is a great story of how many try (and fail) at running a business all by themselves. Instead, you need to take those leadership skills and motivate others to take their own specific skillsets and apply them together as a team for the greater good of the company. This doesn’t just include employees, but also includes knowing who to shake hands with, how to create strategic partnerships, and how to use that leverage we previously discussed to convince others to have an interest in your venture. And once you reach a certain level of success, it will be an even greater feeling when you get to share it with all who helped make it possible.
6. Having the Right Attitude
To have a truly happy and fulfilling life, it’s important to know what’s really important and to develop values around what you can do each and every day to make that world a reality. Sure, many who start a business venture want to achieve a certain level of financial independence. But what does one do with those riches once they finally have them? Those with the attitude that having money means they can buy more «things» to surround themselves with in order to feel superior to others will never be successful in their life. The entrepreneurs who focus on how they can create wealth that can help others and solve problems have the right attitude needed to obtain true happiness and be seen in a positive light by their peers and partners, and are the true embodiment of the word «success».
7. Showing Gratitude
Those who are happy in both business and if life are those who are grateful for the world they live in. These are the people who make sure to thank the barista for their coffee in the mornings, who open the door for others, who actually listen to those who they have conversations with. Successful entrepreneurs should never forget all the people, places and things that have played a role in their lives that helped them get from their humble beginnings to where they are today. The next time you’re flying on a plane, remember the comedian Louis CK’s amazing observation that you’re «sitting in a chair in the sky», and be grateful for all the wonderful things we get to experience every day.
8. Staying Healthy
9. Keeping the Right Friends
We’ve discussed the importance of not going it alone along your path to building your business, and this same ideology applies to your personal success and happiness. What’s the point of doing anything if you don’t have special people in your life to share it with. No one wants to be the Bruce Wayne of their city, the quack who owns the huge dining room table with no one to dine with.
People are social by nature, and it’s important to have a life outside of those you work with. Your friends are people to share your experiences with, who will be there to high-five you with every victory and also pick you up after every failure. Make sure they are also the ones who have the same attitude, give back gratitude, and remain a positive force in your life. Those who feed off of negative energy are the ones you can bring the whole house crashing down around you.
10. The Importance of Family
We’ve discussed in detail why we become entrepreneurs in the first place, and the importance of deciding what goals we’re trying to achieve. Most will begin the journey with dollar signs in their eyes, or seeking some level of power. Many times these things are personal and selfish, but one who is seeking true success in their lives will be doing so not just to share with their friends, but more importantly their families.
Not everyone has the greatest of childhoods, and no one is expected to share wealth with their siblings just because of blood. Not every entrepreneur has a soulmate, not will we all have children. It is important, however, to think about success beyond just the material or power one might ultimately yield. Real success lies in having a positive influence on those who you call family and those who will eventually remember, and hopefully continue, the legacy you leave behind.