Being an entrepreneur is no joke… especially if you’re going to be successful at it. Yes, you may be able to glide through a make a little bit of money, but if you want to make it big, it takes discipline.
Your thoughts and actions are going to need to guide you in the direction you want to go, this is why it’s so important to hang around the right people and keep a positive attitude. Commit to yourself right not to be a successful entrepreneur, and then back it up with action.
To help you out, I’ve shared some of my personal entrepreneur experiences with you below. Enjoy them… some of the lessons were hard to digest, so I hope you don’t have to go through some of the pain points that I had to.
Why when you feel like giving up, that you actually need to do the exact opposite… when you feel like giving up, don’t. It’s actually right at the “giving up” point that most people seal their fate in entrepreneurship. The people that give up, are done… the people that actually somehow find a way to muster through the ‘giving up’ point, are destined for success.
I’ve personally been on both sides of this, and in fact, sometimes I battle with ‘giving up’ on a daily basis… but the one fact that holds true for me, is that I never give up… this is why I’m successful today. You can learn to do the same as well.
Entrepreneurship, and climbing the corporate business ladder is not easy, but it’s one of the most rewarding, both mentally and monetarily, that you’ll ever receive. The one key is that, no matter what, you can’t let yourself give up… you have to throw the “giving up” option out, and forget it even exists.
Once you break through your own giving up points a few times, you’ll start to see the light at the end of the tunnel faster. The key is to stay focused, and actually put your foot on the gas when you feeling like giving up.
Focusing on doing one thing great… in your business when you’re just starting out, is a marvelous way to slowly grow and expand your business.
Jumping in and trying to solve every problem, for every client, is only going to dilute what you’re actually really good at in business.
Don’t Lose Focus… they’ll be plenty of time for you to be the master of your market, but in the beginning, never lose focus of the sweet spot that got you to where you’re today.
A Few Simple Tips… below are a two tips that will help you stay on track with maintaining focus.
– Continue to Focus on What You Do Best
– Learn to do What You Already do Great, Even Better
Below are two tips that will help you stay on track with your organic business growth.
– Enhance Your Service or Product Lineup Around What You do Great
– Build a Strong Customer Base Around What You Do Great
Below are two tips that will help you do more with your customer service.
– Continue to Improve by Listening to Customer Feedback
– Learn to Say Thank You in the Most Professional Manner
There you have it, a few short and simple tips to help grow your business. Now that you know better, go out and do better… and leave the excuses at home.
Why you need to learn how to communicate without being face-to-face with the client or prospect you’re working with… you need to learn how to communicate via email and short form text because it’s the preferred method of communication for most people and companies. It’s actually very rare that someone will pick up the phone and call, unless there’s a detailed issue that needs to be resolved.
Furthermore, as we continue to transition into our younger generations entering into the workforce, the art of communicating without being face-to-face will continue to be more, and more important.
People that understand the art of how to create and craft short and effective emails, already have, and will continue to have, distinct advantages over those that don’t.
In the world of business, it’s all about advantages, whether it be lowering costs, improving reliability, or increasing productivity… you need to possess distinct advantages to stay ahead. Learning how to communicate without being face-to-face will one-hundred percent provide you many distinct business advantages… this is why it’s so important for you to learn.
Why it’s a good idea to keep your product or service simple… when your product or service is simple, it enables clients and prospects to make immediate purchasing decisions.
The more complex your product or service is, the longer, and more expensive, the sales cycle is going to be. The extended sales cycle is one factor that’s going to kill your small business.
When your product sits in inventory, it ties up your cash and credit line, and it will literally sink your ship. You have to get your product off the shelf, and quickly. The same holds true for services as well ie: software development, except that the cost is not in having a product sit in inventory, it’s in the cost to develop your software service.
For smaller businesses, the sales cycle needs to be almost instantaneous, otherwise you’re going to eat up too much money while your stuck in the extended and in depth sales explanation cycle. Ask yourself, if you’re not there to explain what your product or service provides, will the prospect or client be able to make an immediate purchasing decision. If not, this is going to be a problem, because it’s going to take sales resources ie: money, every time a client or prospect is interested in your product or service.
Once your business starts to grow, then you can get into the more in depth, longer, and more expensive sales cycles, but in the beginning, make sure you keep your product or service simple.
Why it’s important that you get to the secondary level with your business relationships… the reason you want to get to the secondary level with your business relationships, is so that you get beyond the normal, topical, (boring) types of conversations.
Start Your Relationship… it’s ok in the start of your business relationships to have those “nice fish on the wall” types of conversations, but if you never get beyond the first level, you’re really not going to go to far with that relationship.
Be Authentic and Sincere… the idea for you in business, is to be authentic and sincere with any relationships that you have. You may hit it off with some people, while others, you just really don’t have anything in common with… it’s ok either way, just be true to yourself, genuine to your business clients, and everything will work out fine.
Have Fun… the issue that some business relationships run into, is that one of the parties in the relationship is not being authentic and sincere with what their true intentions are, and it ultimately ends up breaking up the relationship. No one wants to work with someone that’s all about them, or just all about collecting money from the other person, that’s no fun… what’s fun in business, is forming mutually beneficial relationships for both parties involved.
Peel Back the Onion… I hope you get what I’m saying here… if you want to form a strong business relationship, you’re going to need to get beyond the everyday, topical type conversations, and peel back the onion a bit. Remember, the one way that you’re going to get to the secondary level with your business relationships is by being authentic and sincere… there’s no other way about it… so get right with yourself, and go out and make it happen.
Why you need to make the most of every situation in your entrepreneurial endeavors… when you go into every situation, no matter what the situation, saying that you’re going to make the most of it, you’re guaranteed to come out on top every single time.
There’s absolutely no room for negativity in your entrepreneurial endeavors. Any negative ideas must be smashed, and replaced with positive ones.
If you were to study successful entrepreneurs (you don’t have to) because I’ve done the studying for us already, you’d notice that the little, and big things, never seem to bother successful entrepreneurs.
At the end of the day, when you go into every situation with the attitude that you’re going to make the most of it, you’re bound for success… there’s no doubt about it.
Why it’s important that you stop focusing on short term fixes for your long term business problems… in business and entrepreneurship, you need to keep your head out of the sand. It’s easy to keep sticking a band-aid on your business problems, but if you never address the core root of the business issue, you’re really going to do your business some long term harm.
The idea in you having a business, is so that you can solve problems for people and businesses, by selling your services or products to them, and generate some income in doing so. The idea is not for you to continue to create more and more problems for your business, ultimately driving it to the ground.
Looking at your long term business problems may not be pretty, in fact, it will most likely be very painful at first… but when you hit your business problems head on, you’ll always end up solving, or at least, bringing closure to them, thus allowing you to have the freedom to focus on what’s really important to you, which is to continue to grow out your business.
To sum everything up here: get your head out of the sand, (if) it is; stop sticking band-aids on long term problems; hit any business problems you have head on; find or create a solution; implement the solution; then focus on continuing to grow out your business.
What to do next… if you need additional help, our team of lead generation and sales development experts are ready to jump into action, just open up a support ticket with us, or call 1-888-370-9917 anytime, and one of our team members will gladly assist you.
This accompanying article “Use Attractive and Engaging Images to Market Your Product” will help you out as well. Also, here’s the matching SlideShare presentation if you’d like to present this information to your staff.
The above content is original and was created by Brandon Schaefer, CEO of MyVirtualSalesForce, with all rights reserved. Brandon Schaefer is an entrepreneur, public speaker, author, brand advocate, investor, market segment influencer, and brand advisor.
NOTE CREDIT: http://myvirtualsalesforce.com/thoughts-actions-successful-entrepreneur/
