How can YOU Become a Successful Entrepreneur?

— August 3, 2017

It is easy to start a business, but it is difficult to continue that business successfully for a long period of time. Therefore, it is important to review how one can become a successful entrepreneur rather than an entrepreneur barely getting by.

After all, as Steve Tobak says, you cannot command a premium unless you have a premium brand, and you cannot have a premium brand unless you deliver the goods – a better product and service than the competition in ways that matter to whoever writes you checks.

In this blog, you will first find five ways to be a successful entrepreneur, which is followed by five qualities of a successful entrepreneur. As perseverance is listed as an important quality, this will be examined more closely. Finally, you will find five skills that every successful entrepreneur has. These ways, qualities, and skills should describe how you can succeed as an entrepreneur. Good luck with your entrepreneurial journey!

Five ways to be a successful entrepreneur

Ashley Stahl lists five ways to become a true CEO and to embody the best version of yourself in service to your business and clients:

1. Delegate

In the early days, nearly every entrepreneur takes on 100% of the work. However, to truly grow the business, you are going to need help. It does not necessarily mean you need to hire full-time employees, but recognizing that certain duties should be outsourced to contractors is key to freeing yourself up for the critical tasks that must be handled by you.

2. Always have a pipeline of replacements

Once you have committed to outsourcing some of the work, focus on building your “team bench.” Indeed, you always want your best players out on the field, but good labor will come and go, and finding and hiring good employees is a major challenge to success. Here are some tips:

• Just remember that your favorite employee or contractor is not “one of a kind” or irreplaceable.
• Always shop around for prices if you are hiring freelancers, and look at their testimonials. If you are hiring employees, use references.
• If you notice yourself heavily relying on one person, slowly introduce a part-time employee (or freelancer) as a back-up to take on any projects that do not fit on your favorite employee’s plate.
• Make sure you have your favorite employee create an operations manual. This is a simple way to mitigate chaos in the event of an unforeseen transition.

3. Ignorance is not bliss

You need to delegate tasks, but it is also your duty to understand the ins and outs of every aspect of your business.

4. Always know your vision

As you change and adapt to new challenges and realities, your vision will change too. But no one is in charge of knowing where you are going in business like you are. Know that vision and write it down. Every choice you make should be aligned.

5. Strive for mastery

Many people do not take much pride in what they do. Ask yourself: “Who is an example of someone who strives for mastery?” Then study what they do, how they work, what their mission is, and how they approach the challenge of meeting their objectives. Figure out how can you strive for that kind of mastery.

Qualities of a successful entrepreneur

Cliff Walker believes that the true challenge for the successful entrepreneur is not in getting started; rather, it is staying in business for the long haul. According to him, qualities that most successful entrepreneurs have include the following:

1. You are passionate, and you truly care about your plans to become an entrepreneur

If you do not have a passion and deep drive to succeed, it is best that you not even get started. The road to success is going to be rocky and will be met with both successes and failures, and that is a part of the exciting process of becoming an entrepreneur. You must be willing to embrace your product or service and your life as an entrepreneur.

2. You are willing to fail and use your failures as a way to achieve success

On your path to becoming a successful entrepreneur, you are going to face failures; those failures can be turned into future success. You have to try; if you never try, you never fail. Failures are opportunities to learn and move forward quickly. If you are afraid to fail, you will always have the brakes on, and you will not move forward. Failure also gives you the proper perspective on what it is going to take to actually be successful.

3. You have a natural, constant flow of new and big ideas

You may have a highly successful first idea or concept, but the truly successful entrepreneurs in life are always asking what is next. Being a successful entrepreneur involves living your life on the edge of wonder and excitement for the next great opportunity, and being willing to think big.

4. You have the ability to communicate a compelling and inspired vision to others

As an entrepreneur, your business cannot thrive in a vacuum. You must be willing to get out of your head and into the public and talk to everyone you know about your inspired vision. This makes the vision sharable by everyone, and others will jump on board with you because you have inspired them.

5. You are persistent and you persevere

Most successful entrepreneurs have usually encountered life-changing obstacles before they achieved success. If you give up too soon or if you do not push hard enough, you will never achieve your desires. The art of persistence will be discussed more in depth below, so you know how to master it.

Art of persistence

Deep Patel is right when he says that anything worth attaining will require hard work over a period of time. In order to tackle the challenges ahead, you need to become a master of persistence. Here are five basic rules to help you understand and master this art of persistence.

1. If you do not persist in your vision, someone else will

If you are not willing to see your dream through, someone else probably is. Someone else will succeed where you gave up. Most success stories are hard won. Those who make it are the ones who are willing to embrace the challenge.

2. Use naysayers to your advantage

Visionaries are ahead of their time because they push boundaries and innovate change. To become successful, they must hold true to their dream and keep pursuing it even in the face of adversity.

Still, persisting in your dream does not mean you should ignore the naysayers. There is actually value in looking at things from a new perspective. Surround yourself with people who may not always get your vision, and who will ask thoughtful questions that help you analyze and define your goals and strategies.

Find people who will be objective enough to give you a balanced perspective and help you hone your vision. Even the best ideas may require some reshaping and tweaking in order to be ultimately successful.

You need to be flexible enough to incorporate change as needed, but confident enough in your dream to keep going after it.

3. Be in it for the long haul

If you slack off for periods of time or seem non-committal to your own business, you are essentially showing the world that you are giving up. If you lose your motivation, what incentive do those around you have for buying into your success?

Consistency is how you establish your reputation and show people what you are about. It is how you get your message out there, and how people come to believe in you and your vision. Consistency instills accountability and demonstrates that you are able to deliver the goods on your promises.

4. Embrace your creativity

A business that emphasizes creative input also fosters innovation and has better chances for disruption and long-term success. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must embrace your imagination.

Creative thinking means opening lines of dialogue, embracing different viewpoints, and examining different ideas. It also means going beyond a repetitive approach and continually considering how to adjust or diversify.

5. Nurture those “no” relationships

We have all run into hardcore salespeople who simply will not take no for an answer. They are short-sighted, failing to recognize that there are times when they may need to accept a short-term no in order to nurture a long-term yes.

It is important not to take no personally. After all, there are different reasons why our ideas may be rejected. According to research, about 80 percent of prospects decline a proposal four times before saying yes. Sometimes, people just need time to process and think about it.

Build trust through consistency by spending more time asking questions and listening to the responses and less time trying to impress. Work on being a better communicator. Really listen to others’ input, hear their concerns, and give thoughtful feedback. Be both persuasive and consistent, and you will earn people’s trust as well as their sales.

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Five skills required to succeed as an entrepreneur

According to 635 by GT Bank, refining certain skills can make you a better entrepreneur. The following five skills are the ones that you absolutely need to make your business successful:

1. Good communication

You can have the most innovative idea on the planet, but if you cannot communicate your ideas effectively, they are unlikely to set sail. Communication is necessary at every stage of your entrepreneurial journey for your business idea to grow.

2. Ability to make sales

Once you have good communication skills, it becomes easier to make sales. Sales are about explaining the logic and benefits of a decision. You show investors how a project or business will yield a return or you help employees understand the benefits of a new procedure. Gaining sales skills will help you win contracts, bring in investors, and attract and retain loyal clients and staff.

3. Good planning

Successful entrepreneurs always make a plan, even before taking a risk. They make a plan and stick to it, weighing every risk, benefit, and cost of an option. Making a misstep can make or break your business, especially when it is still in the early stages of growth, so it is important to factor things like time, budget, and payment methods.

4. Good customer focus

Having good customer focus means that you see every customer as a chance to do better and grow, and not an annoyance or a difficulty, even when they have a complaint.

5. High curiosity

Curiosity will make you ask people questions, review what your competitors are doing, and enable you to utilize new technologies that will improve your input and output.

Successful social entrepreneur

Are you a social entrepreneur thinking about establishing a social business? My blog ‘How to Grow as a Social Entrepreneur’ lists the six characteristics a successful social entrepreneur has as well as six ways to grow as a social entrepreneur. If you are launching a new social business or have just done so, this blog may help you achieve your business goals.

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