Owning and operating your own business can be a liberating and
exciting opportunity. Creating your own success and mapping out your
future on your own terms is empowering. At the same time leaving the
comfort of employment including regular working hours, benefits, and a
consistent salary can often be discomforting, if not downright scary.
For most entrepreneurs the desire to be independent and create your own
life outweighs all apprehensions, but still comes with associated risks.
While
there may not be a bullet-proof success formula that works consistently
for every business, there are common characteristics that unite all
successful entrepreneurs. Continue reading to determine how many of
these skills and characteristics you have mastered as well as where you
may want to focus on improving.
1. Positive outlook on life and success.
Successful entrepreneurs tend to be optimistic, upbeat, and look to the
future as an opportunity still awaiting. Big dreams are a common theme
with successful small business owners and often what propels the
individual and the business to its ultimate success. In conjunction with
the big dream comes the necessity to break it down into smaller visions
that can be clearly articulated, monitored, and measured. Many if not
all successful entrepreneurs have great imaginations and spend time
mentally visualizing success. This includes thinking about specific
deals, transactions, and events that will ultimately lead to personal
and business success. Clarity of purpose and staying focused on the task
at hand are critical to achieving business success. The more realistic
the visualizations and dreams the more likely you will be to achieve.
Success is ultimately birthed in the imagination and mind and translated
through daily actions inspired during those visualizations.
It is
widely known you must "see it before you can achieve it." Though
business success ultimately lies in the physical ability to provide a
product or service at a profit, the product, service, and ultimately the
unique approach to these transactions are all byproducts of mental
visualization. If you are an author, visualize your next book signing
after your release has gone #1 and you've made it to the best-selling
list. If you run an auto repair shop, visualize successful interactions
with clients in which you deliver exceptional service and value during
each transaction. Ultimately you must take whatever niche, product,
market, service, and segment you are involved in and visualize how you
will succeed at delivering value to the clients you serve while
ultimately earning a profit. The most successful entrepreneurs out there
visualize the success of the product or service in their mind prior to
it being affirmed in the physical marketplace.
2. Passion = Profit.
Personal passion is a prerequisite for any successful business. If you
enter a business deal strictly looking to make money or achieve success
and aren't passionate about the business, the people, or the end result,
you are severely limiting the potential outcome. Passion ignites
enthusiasm in those that surround you; team members, clients, vendors,
etc. Profits find passion in business regardless of the market segment.
Passionate about auto recycling? As strange as it may seem other people
are too. Embrace your passion and look for ways to share your excitement
and knowledge about a specific product or service with others who share
a similar interest. Embrace your love for the product or service you
deliver and follow the path that ignites passion in your daily life.
Passion provides the necessary motivation that ultimately leads business
owners down a path towards fulfillment of goals and dreams.
3. Compensate for weakness and focus on your strengths.
Most of us have been taught through the traditional school of thought -
which unfortunately restricts our ability to succeed. Traditional
thinking teaches us to be humble about our strengths and consistently
strive to improve our weaknesses. Successful entrepreneurs often turn
this mantra upside down. Instead of spending countless hours and energy
attempting to develop skills you may never master - focus on what you do
best and compensate for the rest. We are all gifted with unique
individual talents that are expressed naturally in our day-to-day
interactions. You may be good at writing, analysis, speaking, insight,
relationships, painting, interacting with kids, animals, etc. We all
have inherent traits that come naturally and don't require long hours of
hard work to achieve. That doesn't mean we don't improve with practice,
but let's face it, some of us are specifically better at things that
others aren't. Focus on those things that you do best and compensate for
the things you don't. Find team members that are strong where you are
weak and vice versa and you will build a synergistic team that supports
each other exponentially.
4. Failure is not an option. Successful
entrepreneurs understand that failure is not an option and continually
look for ways to succeed. Don't allow failure to be considered at any
level in the organization. Focus on success at all times and never let
the possibility of failure take root in your mind or business culture.
There will always be setbacks and learning lessons throughout any
business venture and life, but find the opportunity for growth and
success in every dilemma and challenge faced. All negative circumstances
can be turned in to a positive and ultimately failure does not ever
have to be selected as an option. Any circumstance can be re-framed with
a positive twist no matter how bleak the situation may appear.
5. Prepare and execute the plan. Dreaming
often comes naturally to entrepreneurs. Detailed planning and execution
may not. In order to ensure success at moving from where you are to
where you want to be, a detailed plan must be drafted and executed.
Utilize the Merlin Method ("begin with the end in mind") and work
backwards from there. For example, if you would like to become the next
Donald Trump, start with Donald Trump as the end result. Move back from
there and make a list of the traits required to become Donald Trump.
What relationships, transactions, business deals, and skills are
required to succeed? Which of these do you possess? What items to you
need to work on? Assess where you are at, who you are, and ultimately
who you need to become to get to where you want to go. Formulate a plan
that enables you to move down the path acquiring the skills and building
the relationships necessary to ultimately arrive at the end result you
are striving for.
6. Be dedicated! Successful entrepreneurs
know that a business is similar to a baby in that it will require
nurturing, attention, and caring, throughout its entire life. Different
stages will require different levels of input and interaction. Make sure
you are serious about and able to afford the time required to ensure
successful implementation of your business plan. Long hours and hard
work are often part of any phase of the business. If you are truly
passionate about what you do none of this will really be negative.
Remember to schedule time with family and friends, and most importantly
for yourself. Though many hours may be spent caring for and nurturing
your business, you ultimately are not good to anyone if you burn out
before the business succeeds. Be conscious of how you are feeling and
the work load you are undertaking. Being dedicated does not mean you are
completely consumed by the business. When at work focus and commit to
completing the necessary tasks at hand. When scheduled away from work -
leave the business alone. Be dedicated to your business, your family and
friends, and living a balanced life and you will be more likely to
succeed in all areas simultaneously.
7. Build relationships and network.
Ultimately it isn't what you know - but who you know. We have all
encountered this motto multiple times during our business careers, and
it still rings with truth in every situation. Surround yourself with a
competent team, board of directors, advisers, vendors and partners and
continually look to network. Ultimately the people you meet during your
daily interactions will be the ones that will buy from you, support you
in delivering your product or service, or in supporting you personally
in your quest for success. Opportunities will present themselves through
the people you meet on a daily basis.
In business, you are judged
by the company you keep - from your management team, board of
directors, and strategic partners. Businesses always need assistance,
more so small businesses. Maybe the lady you met in a trade association
meeting can help you secure funding, or the gentleman you bumped in to
at a conference can provide you with management advise. It is important
to form alliances with people who can help you, and whom you can help in
return. To succeed in business, you need to possess good networking
skills and always be alert to opportunities to expand your contacts.
8. Desire to learn.
You do not need to be an MBA degree holder or PhD graduate to succeed
in your own business. Actually formal education is often inversely
proportional to the amount of success achieved in small business.
Curiosity and a desire to learn how to solve real world issues is what
propels many business owners to success. Talk to those around you and
find out what would best help the greatest number of people in your
market and you will have found a winning proposition. It often isn't
about how smart you are in a certain area but more specifically how well
you are able to clue in to what other people are telling you and how
you can help them solve problems.
9. Keep the faith. The
road to success will often contain detours and potential pitfalls. Keep
faith in your original dream and vision and ultimately good things will
arrive. Realize that one of the biggest factors in determining your
future success will be in how you deal with temporary set backs. Stay
focused on the ultimate end result and have faith in your ability to
succeed. Setbacks are strictly learning lessons that ultimately teach
you how to be better at what you are attempting to do. Each setback
enables you to pick back up and potentially increase momentum in your
business by utilizing the learning lessons from the experience.
10. Practice discipline.
Thomas Huxley once said, "Do what you should do, when you should do it,
whether you like it or not." Do what others are unwilling to do and
ultimately you will have opportunities that others won't. Realize that
you are on a mission that requires faith, commitment, and discipline.
Find those traits and behaviors that support success and practice the
discipline required to hone those skills day-to-day.