Owning your own business gives you a sense of freedom and empowerment. You can build things and watch them grow.
Entrepreneurs make decisions for themselves, realize their creative visions and develop lasting relationships with other entrepreneurs, customers and vendors.
It’s a great way to live. That’s why I’ve started so many businesses – I can’t get enough.
So I’ve put together these tips to help you become more successful.
- get gritty
Grit is persistence. Grit is the go-get – ‘ em attitude we expect from entrepreneurs. Grit is the ability to keep working when everyone is telling you to give up.
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be gritty.
Honestly, without hard work and perseverance, you’re not going anywhere in the entrepreneurial world.
- challenge yourself
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to challenge yourself. No one else is going to push you, so it’s up to you to do it.
Challenges keep entrepreneurs nimble and on their toes. If you’re constantly on the lookout for the next challenge, you’ll always be prepared for whatever comes your way.
Consider this example:
You go to the gym to build your upper body strength. You start doing bicep curls with a 10-pound weight. It feels pretty heavy at first. But as you build your strength, it gets easier.
Would you stop there? No!
Then it’s time to do biceps curls with a 20-pound weight. Once you’ve done biceps curls at a weight of 20 pounds, it feels easy to return to a weight of 10 pounds.
As you challenge yourself with new and difficult tasks, your other tasks will seem even easier. Just like that 10-pound weight feels easy after you’ve lifted a 20-pound weight.
As an entrepreneur, you must always be on the lookout for the next big challenge.
- be passionate
If you don’t love what you do, don’t do it. I truly believe it’s that simple.
As an entrepreneur, you have to put in long hours and make sacrifices for your business.
If you have a passion for what you do, it will no longer feel like a sacrifice to put in the long hours.
If you don’t have a passion for what you do, you won’t have the motivation to keep going when you’re stressed and tired.
Have you ever noticed those entrepreneurs who never seem to get tired? Those entrepreneurs who get that gleam in their eye when they talk about what they do?
Yes, that’s passion.
Forty-four percent of entrepreneurs started their business because they saw an opportunity to create something great. You are passionate about your business. Are you?
Be passionate about what you do, and being an entrepreneur just gets a little easier.
- take risks
People are generally risk-averse, but part of being an entrepreneur is recognizing the risks you should take.
Successful entrepreneurs take risks. It’s part of the job.
Successful entrepreneurs also know what risks to take and what risks not to take.Learn to identify the risks that will benefit your business and take them.
There is a dangerous side to taking risks, but the opportunities they present often far outweigh the potential dangers.
Learn how to identify which risks are worth taking and you will learn to be a successful entrepreneur.
- trust yourself
If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?
Being a successful entrepreneur means that you have learned to listen to your intuition and rely on your wisdom when making decisions.
Your ability to trust and believe in yourself will show your confidence. People are more likely to follow and trust confident leaders.
Confidence in your own abilities will also take some of the pain of uncertainty out of entrepreneurship.
If you feel insecure, think about how much experience and knowledge you have. Most entrepreneurs start their business after years of experience working for someone else.
There’s nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it or turning to a mentor, but you also need to learn to trust yourself and your own judgment without getting input from others.
Learn to trust yourself and you are already starting down the path of entrepreneurial success.
- reduce fear
Fear stops action. Entrepreneurs need to be able to pivot and act quickly when they see an opportunity or recognize a mistake.
If fear is riding on your shoulder, you will not be a successful entrepreneur.
As an entrepreneur, if you let fear be your guide, you won’t be able to listen to your intuition, you’ll be afraid to take the necessary risks, and your judgment will be clouded by emotion.
Find ways to reduce and manage your fear and you will be a much more successful entrepreneur.
Remember, fear has to do with your perspective.
Research has shown that the more crime TV you see, the more likely you are to fear crime. Reduce your fear by changing your perspective.
My favorite tip for managing fear as an entrepreneur is confidence building exercises.
For me, I like to take a few moments at night to think about the decisions I made that day that had a successful outcome.
If you reflect each day on the decisions you made that benefited you, others or your business, you can quickly build your confidence and reduce anxiety.
- visualize goals
This tip is less abstract than you might think,so bear with me.
When I advise entrepreneurs to visualize their goals, I don’t intend for them to close their eyes and see the goal in front of them.
I want you to visualize your goal by defining it so clearly that it is real and tangible.
For example, which of these is a more feasible:
I want to become a successful entrepreneur.
I’m going to become a successful entrepreneur by starting a business that solves a problem for this specific niche of my audience.
The second one, right?
If you can clearly articulate and visualize your goal, it becomes more achievable.
There are many ways to visualize your goal if you’re not sure how to start. You can write it down or draw it out.
You can tell someone, such as a friend or business partner, or take photos that represent your goal. Go with your strengths.
If you ask a successful entrepreneur what their goal is, they can tell you in detail what they are working on.
- Hire great partners.
I admit that this one might be a bit obvious.
Successful entrepreneurs are not successful in a vacuum. We all have a great team and support network behind us.
And when I recommend hiring great partners, I don’t just mean someone who can do the job you’re hiring them to do.
I want you to hire partners who have great character and who like and respect you.
And just as a bonus, you are more likely to be successful with a partner than you are on your own.
You and your partners will work long hours together making stressful decisions. If your partner has a character you don’t respect, your team won’t last.
Fill your team with people who have great character and you will be well on your way to success.
When choosing your partners and team members, always remember that you can impart skills, but not character.
- Act
Talk only delays action.
Successful entrepreneurs take action.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in planning, considering potential mistakes, discussing funding, and talking in meetings with board members. If you just talk, you won’t do anything.
At some point, you need to stop the talking and make something happen.
- spend time
Think there’s such a thing as overnight success? I recommend you take a closer look.
When tested, the people and companies that became overnight sensations and successes worked really hard and longed for their accomplishments.
If you think you found an overnight success, re-examine and examine closely the hours, days and years that went into their success.
Look at their lives, the things they learned and how many times they failed.
Successful entrepreneurs take the time it takes to succeed. And many of you have failures along the way.
If you think it’s taking too long to find success, give yourself a break.
Keep plugging away, put in the hours, and soon you’ll be a successful entrepreneur.
Imagine looking back on all the hard work and knowing it paid off. Keep this image in your mind to motivate you forward through the long, sloppy hours.
- plan your finances
Startups and entrepreneurs need money. It’s just part of the lifestyle.
Many entrepreneurs spend too much time looking for money and not enough taking action, but that doesn’t mean you can jump into the abyss without a plan.
For most entrepreneurs, they use their own savings to start their business. That’s risky. Have a plan and you minimize your risk.
Plan your finances in the beginning and try to stick to it, but know that the plan will need to be adjusted along the way.
- who is your customer?
One of the most common reasons entrepreneurial businesses fail is because there is no customer.
If you start a business or make a product but don’t know who will buy it, that person may not exist.
Before you create a financial plan, raise capital, or even choose a name, make sure there is a customer who will buy your product or use your services.
Without a customer, you don’t have a business.
Successful entrepreneurs know who their customers are.
- listen to complaints
This is one of the tips that I think is most important for entrepreneurs.
By listening to your customers’ complaints, you identify the weaknesses of your business.
Similar to the last tip, you cannot have a successful business without customers. However, there is another possible scenario.
