Some ways to become a more successful entrepreneur

There are many things to be successful in life.  In this instance, the word success refers to entrepreneurship.  If you are like most people, you have dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur and launching your own business.  After all, you have the freedom of working for yourself, and you have all of the privileges which come with that – you don’t have to worry about getting fired, for one.  But however tempting entrepreneurship is, it is not easy. I say this because 80% of businesses fail within the first five years of their initial launch. To make sure you’re not one of them, this article will discuss 10 ways to become a more successful entrepreneur.

1. Having grit is essential
2. Always challenge yourself
3. Have passion
4. Always be a risk taker
5. Trust yourself
6. Do not be afraid
7. Visualize your goals
8. Bring on great partners
9. Always take action
10. Spend time on your business

Way # 1:  Having grit is essential

Grit is business jargon for perseverance.  You have perseverance when you don’t give up easily on accomplishing your goals, objectives, and dreams.  This is especially during those really rough times as an entrepreneur when everyone else tells you to sell your business and do something else.  Because successfully launching and running a business is easy to learn buy incredibly hard to do, you need to have grit (perseverance) if you want to make it as an entrepreneur.

Way # 2:  Always challenge yourself

While this may seem obvious at first, after all isn’t life and entrepreneurship full of challenges, you’d be surprised as to how many people fail to do this as entrepreneurs.  If you don’t push yourself as an entrepreneur, you’ll never be prepared to tackle that unseen and unforeseen issue or problem which is just around the corner.  Remember that successful entrepreneurs aren’t just satisfied with the status quo, they want to get their feet wet by trying new things which are exciting and difficult to ensure that their businesses will succeed!

Way # 3:  Have passion

You have to absolutely love what you do as an entrepreneur or else neither you nor your business will be successful.  It’s as simple as that!  Since starting a business takes blood, sweat, and tears, you’ll be putting long hours working in your business.  You will probably be missing your daughter’s raas garba session, or your son’s cricket games on a regular basis. Additionally, you will probably not be seeing your family much either.  If you love what you do, running your own business and doing all of the necessary tedious and hard work to make your business a success will not seem like work at all. You will have an easier time working long hours, and you will get more work done faster and the right way as a result.

Way # 4:  Always be a risk taker

Business is always about risks.  You’re not going to be successful as an entrepreneur if you don’t want to take risks.  In fact, you need to look for a job in a company and forget about starting and running your own business if taking risks makes you feel queasy in the stomach.  Keeping this in mind, you need to take concerted risks. When you take a concerted risk, you analyze the risk and do a cost benefit analysis in which you assess and analyze the benefits successfully achieving the risk would bring in relation to the costs associated with taking that risk.  Remember to only take on those risks whose benefits far outweigh and exceed their costs. Not doing so could mean the failure of your business.

Way # 5:  Trust yourself

When you trust yourself, you believe in yourself and your business idea.  You believe in your heart that your business and your business idea will succeed.  If you are a firm believer in both from your heart, your business and your business idea will probably succeed.  In order to believe in yourself, you need to trust your intuition from your heart and you need to use your learned wisdom when you make decisions.

Remember that you will have an easier time finding good employees when you trust and believe in yourself.  This is because you will be confident in yourself, your business decisions, and your business actions.  And good employees want to work for confident and motivated bosses.  You may need a mentor at times to help you out in making tough business decisions, and when you trust yourself, you will have an easier time asking for help when you need it!

Way # 6:  Do not be afraid

In general, if you are afraid you don’t take the actions needed to solve your problems.  This can mean the failure of your business as an entrepreneur.  If you are afraid to take risks in terms of running your business, you will miss out on those great opportunities which will make your business a success in both the short and long-term.  You will also not be able to listen to your intuition regarding the actions you need to take for your business to be successful in both the short and long-term.  

You should regularly engage in confidence building exercises to reduce your overall fear.  One way of doing this is to regularly think about those actions you took and decisions you made that made your business successful for that particular day.  In short, if you are afraid to take risks, then entrepreneurship is not for you. Go work for someone else where you can perform defined tasks, pick up a regular paycheck, and spend time with your family if you are risk averse.

Way # 7:  Visualize your goals

When you visualize your goals you write down the specific things you want your business to accomplish in a certain time period.  A good example of goal visualization is, “I want to capture 5% of the iPhone market within 10 years.” This is a good goal because it establishes real objectives which can actually be accomplished in a realistic time frame.  Goal visualization does not mean envisioning grand ideas that your business will probably never achieve. That’s dreaming, and entrepreneurship and grand dreams which are obscure and hard to achieve do not mix.

Way # 8:  Bring on great partners

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “It doesn’t matter that he is a dumb president, he has great and smart people working for  him.” This phrase was used to describe the actions and intelligence of former American president George W. Bush Jr, but it also applies well to entrepreneurship.  When this phrase is applied to entrepreneurship, it involves you picking experienced people who are enthusiastic, motivated, talented, and intelligent to work with you on your team.  Your team and business are bound to be successful if you do this!

Way # 9:  Always take action

Have you ever heard the phrase, “she is a talker, but she doesn’t act.”  This general phrase can easily be applied to entrepreneurship. If you are a talker but you don’t want to take actions or do serious and real work in terms of making your business a success, then entrepreneurship is really not for you.  In fact, you will fail as an entrepreneur if you are ‘all talk and no action.’  This is because actions are the only things that speak and get things done.

Way # 10:  Spend time on your business

While this may seem obvious at first, you’d be surprised as to how many an entrepreneur fails because he or she was not willing to spend long hours working on his or her business to ensure its success.  There is no such thing as a business which ‘is an overnight success.’  Things tend not to magically happen in life, and especially not in entrepreneurship.  You are going to have to work hard at your business and make sacrifices in your personal and social life in order to succeed.  This may mean never seeing your wife or girlfriend. It also may mean missing out on your kids’ important events and spending very little time with them.