Entrepreneurs are the go-getters that set up successful businesses under any circumstances. The troublemakers who refuse to accept the status quo. The success-driven minds who are tenacious about solving business problems. The ones happy to undertake risk for the sake of innovation and success. These are reasons why many people start learning how to become a successful entrepreneur every day.
To be a successful entrepreneur you have to be ready to work on marketing, sales, management, and many more altogether; this requires someone with incredible determination in order to accomplish great feats. In fact, successful entrepreneurs are the backbone of American culture. And, in our increasingly connected global marketplace, they are also the driving force in the world’s economy.
If you are ready to make your mark on the world and want to know how to become a successful entrepreneur, then this article is for you.
More Helpful Reading: What Are The Types Of Digital Marketing?
Best Tips For How to Be an Entrepreneur or Self-Starter
The following 51 entrepreneurial tips were curated by myself and the business experts here at Fannit.com — the leading internet marketing company in the Northwest.
These tips are based on my own 25-year long entrepreneurship journey, the startup experiences of my fellow co-founders, and the cups of coffee we’ve shared with thousands of businessmen from around the world.
Continue reading to learn how to be a successful entrepreneur in the 2020s.
1. Are You Dedicated, Stubborn, and Tenacious?
Yes, yes, and yes? Great! Learning how to become a successful entrepreneur requires grit and the ability to overcome difficulties, naysayers, and failures without losing motivation.
Successful entrepreneurs thrive on freedom, self-determination, and achieving the impossible.
While you can learn the skills needed to become a successful entrepreneur, you won’t get far without the right personality characteristics, and chief among these is steadfast determination.
2. Does Learning About Business Get You Excited?
Another foundational characteristic of successful entrepreneurs is that they enjoy talking about and expanding their business and marketing skills.
While freelancers have the ability to minimize the influence of business practices in their workweek (e.g. regulations, paperwork, HR, & PR), entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with the nuts and bolts of how the business works.
This brings us to a semi-controversial (but necessary) topic that you need to know about if you want to become a successful entrepreneur.
The topic is: are freelancers and entrepreneurs the same?
While these two kinds of business owners have a lot in common, the truth is that “freelancer” and “entrepreneur” are not synonyms.
A freelancer can become an entrepreneur, and while the opposite is also technically true, the evolution rarely follows that pattern.
This is because freelancers are their business. When a freelancer stops working, the money stops coming in, which tends to become a problem except for in a few rare cases.
On the other hand, entrepreneurs are business starters. The primary goal of an entrepreneur is to create a company that will continue running even when they turn their back.
Consequently, entrepreneurship involves a lot more planning and people management than freelancing.
If you want to be an entrepreneur but don’t know a lot about business, don’t worry!
Like I said above, the skills required to become an entrepreneur can be learned. All you need right now is the passion to get started.
3. Are You Okay With Discomfort?
Learning how to become a successful entrepreneur can be uncomfortable.
Income can be unpredictable, customers may get angry, and clients might occasionally refuse to pay their invoices.
Sometimes, you and your business partners or team members will disagree about what is best for the business. Worst of all, your business idea may fail.
Developing a business model and doing the due diligence to become an entrepreneur is hard work, so if you want to know how to be a good businessman, one character trait to cultivate is resilience.
Entrepreneurs are relentless, so stick to your guns.
Chase down your dream. If one business idea flops, make a note of the lessons you’ve learned and go again.
Being an entrepreneur means being okay with discomfort because your dreams are worth it.
4. Can You Handle Failure?
Speaking of discomfort — no matter what, at some point in your entrepreneurship career, you will fail.
And, even though many entrepreneurs avoid preparing for failure because it sets a bad precedent, having a contingency plan can help you transform a bad event into a win.
Despite what Hollywood and motivational gurus would have you believe, failure is part of the package of developing your skills as a businessman and becoming a successful entrepreneur.
So, if you want to become an entrepreneur, you need to have thick skin and make sure that failing the first few times will not be enough stop you from pursuing your passion.
Of course, failure looks different for everyone and ranges in severity.
You might be late on a deliverable that you promised you’d complete on time. Or you might accidentally underpay your taxes and receive a sudden penalty.
The point is, failure is part of being a successful business owner.
When you fail, get up, dust yourself off, identify what caused the problem, and try to avoid the same mistake next time.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/blog/explainer-video/
5. What’s Your Million Dollar Idea?
In addition to developing the right character traits, one of the keys to being a successful entrepreneur is creating a solution that the market wants.
You can have all the determination and passion in the world, but if your startup idea sucks, then your company will flop.
If you’re still working on a product concept, here are some quick entrepreneur tips to help you come up with a million-dollar business idea:
- Consider the things in life that frustrate you. Ask your friends and family what kinds of products or situations frustrate them. Where there is frustration, there is a need, and successful entrepreneurs win because they identify these needs and create solutions for them if you feel passion for the topic.
- Find faulty products. If there is a product or/and service on the market that you think you can do better, then DO IT BETTER! And sell it for less than your competition.
- Look for holes in the market. Are there products that partially solve a problem, but don’t completely satisfy customers’ needs? You’ve found a hole in the market! Create a product or service that fills these holes.
6. Have You Created a Business Plan?
One of the tried and true rules of starting a business is to create a strategy for our company.
A business strategy or plan is a formal document that outlines your company’s mission, presents your market research, and lists the steps you’ll take to become a successful business owner.
A quality business strategy should also include:
- Your start-up’s budget needs
- Marketing strategy
- KPIs and milestones
- Financial projections
- Buyer personas
- Competitor analysis
7. Identify Your Customers
Now we’re getting into some serious entrepreneurial tips. No more questions. These are orders.
You must identify your customers before starting your business.
In contrast to oft-quoted sentiments like, “If you build it, they will come” the reality is that you should never put a product to market without knowing exactly who your customers will be.
Creating buyer personas for your different customers will help you identify the people who will hopefully convert into customers once your product or service launches.
8. Research Your Competition
In addition to finding your customers, a successful businessman researches the competition.
What are they doing that you can do better?
What flaws in their marketing strategy can you manipulate to your advantage?
How loyal are their customers?
If you provide a superior product, would their customers switch to you?
Record the results of your customer and competitor research in your small business plan.
Your goal here is to demonstrate to potential investors (and yourself) that your business idea is viable and stands a chance against the competition.
9. Set Attainable Goals
Visualizing your goals keeps you from losing yourself in busywork where you do a lot of “action” but don’t actually get any real work done.
If you’re going to be a successful business owner, you need attainable goals so that you can measure your progress and ensure that every action you do is moving the needle closer to success.
A couple of goal-setting tips for starting a business:
- Set both short and long term goals.
- Write a list of actionable steps beneath each goal. Writing down “create the world’s best selling slipper” doesn’t do any good unless you list the steps needed to get there.
- Celebrate completing your goals!
10. Create a Financial Plan
How much money do you need to start your business?
Starting a new company can cost as little as $70 for a business license, or as much as millions of dollars if you’re launching a company that requires tech, equipment, or vehicles.
Your business needs a budget and financial plan.
So determine much money you need to start your business and how much you expect to spend in your first year of business.
The budget lists where incoming money will go and the financial plan lists all necessary start-up costs and budget forecasting.
Once completed, add your budget and financial plan to your business plan.
11. Find (at least) One Quality Business Partner
As a company founded by three business partners, we at Fannit believe in the power of quality partnerships.
And we’re not alone. Make a list of your favorite startups and note how many were founded by a single founder — you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single one!
Quality partnerships boost your business in many ways. Three of my favorites include:
- Co-founders bring additional talent to the company. You have skills and weaknesses, so try to find a partner who is strong in areas you struggle in.
- Partners help you secure investments. Venture capitalists aren’t crazy about the idea of pouring cash into a one-member enterprise.
- Partnerships grow your network. Bringing an experienced entrepreneur into the business immediately gives you access to their network of connections and social resources. This is especially important if this is your first attempt at launching a business.
In short, collaborating with other entrepreneurs helps increase the odds of your company’s success.
12. What Are Your Weaknesses?
As you’re learning how to be an entrepreneur, it’s necessary to be brutally honest with yourself about your weaknesses.
Identifying your weaknesses will enable you to select the right partners (as mentioned above) and help you put measures in place to mitigate your shortcomings.
Weaknesses can be character issues and business struggles.
For example, a tendency to procrastinate on paying bills is a personality weakness that can be mitigated by setting payments to auto.
And a lack of SEO knowledge is a business weakness that can be solved by partnering with a qualified internet marketing firm.
13. Make Friends That Are Smarter Than You
One easy way to remove weaknesses and improve your professional skills is to improve your circle of friends.
Seek out people who are more advanced, motivated, and successful than you currently are. Take them out for coffee, ask them for advice and entrepreneurial tips.
Successful business owners like to give back to consumers who are just starting out.
So if they sense that you’re genuine about improving yourself and learning from them, then they’ll probably take you up on that coffee offer and be happy to share their tips for starting a business with you.
14. Challenge Yourself to Do Hard Things
Being self-employed isn’t always flashy and it’s almost never shiny convertibles, beach-side resorts, and private planes.
Entrepreneurs succeed because they’re willing to burn the midnight oil and push themselves to do hard things that, frankly, they’d rather not.
What are the hard things in your life? Do you hate filing paperwork? Making phone calls? Business meetings? Finding out how to set up a good user experience? Or sales?
Identify those aspects of being a businessman that you dislike and challenge yourself to sit up straight, put your game face on, and learn how to do them confidently.
Now, if you’ve faced your fear and decided the company would be better off if someone else managed that aspect of the business, then look for a business partner who excels in that area, or consider hiring an employee or freelancer.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/blog/what-is-a-marketing-funnel/
15. Learn How to Hire Quality Team Members
One of the primary things successful businesses have in common is that they know how to hire excellent employees.
This is a skill that is especially crucial as you’re starting out as an entrepreneur.
You don’t have the budget flexibility to hire bad talent, so learning how to recruit quality employees is a skill that will greatly benefit your business.
As you’re finding your HR wings, two ways to reduce the risk of hiring a bad employee include:
- Work with a temp agency to hire someone. This will give you a short-term employee who you can let go or retain depending on performance.
- Hire a freelancer. If you’d like to get a taste of someone’s work ethic and talent before offering employment, consider hiring a freelancer who is open to joining you full-time if you’re happy with their freelance work.
16. Get Funding For Your Business Plan
Does your business plan require investment in order to get your company off the ground?
While most entrepreneurs choose to bootstrap it at first and use their own savings to fund the business, you don’t want to jeopardize your retirement over a business venture.
Before dipping into the 401k, here are several other funding options:
- Use a crowdfunding platform like GoFundMe or Kickstarter
- Apply for venture capital investment
- Submit your business plan to angel investors
- Request a small business loan or grant
Whatever method of financing you choose, DO NOT fund your new company using your credit card.
Credit cards charge astronomical interest rates, so swiping plastic for your business plan is a guaranteed way to shoot your entrepreneurship aspirations in the foot.
17. Learn How to Manage Employees and Teams
As an entrepreneur, it’s inevitable that you will eventually begin managing customers, team members, and other stakeholders.
As your business grows, you’ll have to delegate work, hire employees, freelancers, consultants, attorneys, and accountants.
So if you want to know how to be a businessman, start learning how to excel at managing people so that when the time comes you can successfully manage your growing team.
More Helpful Reading:
18. Trust Yourself
Being an entrepreneur requires lots of research and careful planning, but at some point, someone is going to need to call the shots and make decisions.
If your start-up idea has survived business planning, financial forecasts, and market research, then trust yourself to launch your new venture.
Decision-making anxiety is normal if you’re still figuring out some things, but as your work experience grows and you get to see the results of your decisions, you’ll learn to trust yourself more.
That is, unless your decisions consistently err, in which case, see my point about partnering with a more experienced business partner.
19. Embrace Asking for Help
Part of trusting yourself is knowing when to ask for help.
If you set a precedent of asking for help when you need it (instead of making decisions blind), then both you and those working with you will come to trust you more as a leader.
Humility is crucial for those wondering how to be a successful businessman. So learn how to ask for help when you need it.
This is also why it is so important to make friends who are smarter than you and to choose business partners and co-founders who are strong in areas where you are weak.
Doing these things ensures that you have people on hand who you can go to for advice and help.
20. Be Willing to Take Risks
Part of being a successful owner is knowing when to take risks.
Of course, if you’ve made it this far, you know I’m not advocating blind risks where you follow your heart without considering the data.
Instead, you need to be willing to take educated risks where you’ve weighed the pros and cons, considered the return on investment, and haven’t sold the farm to bet on a single horse.
Once you’ve done the legwork on research and analysis, then it’s time for you to make a decision (tip #18) and accept the risk of your business venture.
This can be frightening, especially if this is your first start-up. But trust yourself — you’ve done the research and put wings on your idea, now it’s time to fly.
21. Decide On Your Business Structure
Another important part of business planning is deciding which business structure to use. The most common structures for startups are:
- Sole Proprietorship. This structure can only be used if you are the only person who owns and operates your business. As a sole proprietor, there is no distinction between business assets and personal assets. This means your own assets (car, house, etc.) can be seized if someone were to sue your business. If you have a business partner, need to hire employees, or want protection for your personal assets, then a sole proprietorship is not for you.
- Limited Liability Company. An LLC provides you with liability protection, separating your personal assets from business assets. LLCs also allow you to form a corporation with multiple business partners.
- Corporation (C Corp). This structure provides you with the highest level of personal liability protection and allows you to expand your business with shareholders who buy stock in your venture. A downside to C Corps is that your income will be double taxed.
There are many other business structures, including S Corps, Partnerships, and General Partnerships.
Each one comes with its own pros and cons. To figure out which structure is ideal for your venture, I highly recommend speaking with a business attorney.
22. Are You Comfortable Being Different?
Despite the critical role entrepreneurs play in the global economy, many people don’t understand why someone would choose the discomfort of self-employment over the stability of the standard 9 to 5.
Maintaining long-term success as an entrepreneur means being okay with going against the crowd.
So if you’re comfortable with being the black sheep, then you are one step closer to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Continue challenging the status quo and continue pursuing something greater for yourself!
23. Study the Market History of Your Industry
Before jumping into an industry, it’s wise to read up on where that industry has been. To guide you, here are some questions that are helpful to answer:
- What is the history of my product or service?
- How has my product or service evolved over the past 50 years?
- How have the tastes of buyers in my industry changed over the past 50 years?
Knowing where your industry has been over the past few decades will help you predict where it’s going and enable you to set up your company for long-term success.
24. Learn From the Mistakes & Successes of Others in Your Niche
Another key aspect of studying the history of your industry is learning how your competitors have fared.
Are there businesses that used to be leading in your niche but have since dropped out or gone bottom-up? Read about the mistakes that led to their failure and think about how you will avoid what they did wrong.
Who are the rock stars in your industry? Read about their history. How did they get to where they are today? How can you replicate their success and do even better?
Case studies are great tools to use when studying the success and failures of your competitors.
- More helpful reading: Marketing Case Studies
25. Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin
Despite how pumped up you feel right now, you will not be able to carry your startup to success without help.
Running a successful business means filing taxes, working with vendors, sending out sales emails, mitigating problems in your supply chain, resolving customer complaints, planning future projects, creating marketing campaigns — you get the picture.
While it may be tempting to think that you can strong-arm your business to the top as a solo entrepreneur, trust me, this won’t work.
As you’re learning how to become successful as an owner, don’t spread yourself too thin. Delegate work to your partners, employees, and freelancers.
Unlocking the secret to how to be a good entrepreneur requires recognizing yourself as a business leader. Delegating work to other employees ensures you have time and space to lead well.
26. Do You Have a Realistic Understanding of How Much Work Your Start-Up Will Require?
Before kicking off your new enterprise, make sure you understand how much time you’ll need to invest into your business in order to successfully get it off the ground.
You don’t want to go into this thinking it’s a side-project when your enterprise will actually require full-time labor.
Speak with others in related industries to get an idea of how much time it takes to get a business like yours off the ground. Do you have the time necessary to launch?
27. Inspire Yourself
We’re almost halfway through this list of 51 entrepreneurial tips and have covered a lot of practical, actionable advice.
Let’s take a quick break for some inspiration! Because if there’s anything an entrepreneur needs, it’s motivation.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed by your new venture, take a moment to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. What is driving you to achieve your goals? Who are you doing this for?
28. Be Honest
Integrity is what separates the mediocre from the truly great. If you want to know how to be a successful businessman, this tip will take you a long way.
Be honest with yourself about what you can and can’t do. Bring in help when it’s something you can’t do.
Be honest with your partners, employees, and freelancers. If you want to attract high-quality talent, then you need to be a high-quality person. By being straightforward and honest with your team, you’ll earn their loyalty.
Be honest with your customers and target market as a whole. Don’t oversell, over-promise, or fall into the trap of false advertising. By being honest with clients, you’ll earn their trust and build a foundation of repeat customers.
29. Be Proactive About Mitigating Risks
In order to protect your business and set yourself up for long-term success, you need to be proactive about mitigating risks and do something about potential areas of uncertainty.
For example, is there an employee that poses a risk to the firm?
This could look like a team member who is constantly late and submits subpar work, or an employee who is the only person in the firm that poses certain key knowledge.
Both of these are risks you need to mitigate.
Lazy employees jeopardize sales and need to be better trained or let go. Lynch-pin experts that hold key knowledge need to transfer their knowledge to other employees so that your company doesn’t suffer should they suddenly leave.
30. Put the Hustle On Hold for Self-Care
One major risk all entrepreneurs face is burnout, but not many manage to do something about it and find balance.
Self-employment is challenging, especially at the beginning when you may not be seeing a return on your investment yet.
But in contrast to what self-help gurus will tell you, it isn’t necessary to grind 24/7 in order to be a successful entrepreneur.
On the contrary, working 20 hours a day 7 days a week is more likely to lead to a mental breakdown and a negative mindset than to riches.
So don’t be ashamed to take care of yourself.
Remember to give yourself a day off and reserve several hours every day to spend with your family. This is especially important if you have a partner or children.
31. Remember to Exercise
Part of self-care is exercise.
Studies consistently show that when you regularly work out, your brain feels better and your motivation and happiness improve.
Motivation is the fuel in the entrepreneur’s gas tank, so take some every day to stretch your body and do something that raises your heart rate. Heck, just walking around the block a couple of times a day will deliver dividends.
Maintaining your physical well-being is an investment into the future of your business.
32. Surround Yourself With People Who Care About You
Another bit of self-care entrepreneurship advice is to cultivate a support network around you of people who genuinely care about you and your well-being.
If everyone around you doesn’t fall into the category of “people that care about you and vice versa” you should definitely work on spending more time with loved ones.
This is separate from my earlier entrepreneur tips about making friends with smart people and choosing business partners, but these are in no way mutually exclusive.
Instead, this entrepreneur tip is specifically about friends and family — people who aren’t part of your business but who love you and are always down to give you encouragement and support when the going gets tough.
33. Don’t Mistake Being Busy for Being Successful
A mistake many fresh entrepreneurs make is thinking that being busy with the business is the same as growing, but these two activities are not even in the same category.
It can be tempting to spend all day fine-tuning the font styles on your site or organizing the inbox. But while work like this may make you busy, it doesn’t mean you’re actually working.
Instead of getting distracted by details that don’t turn a profit, focus on the actionable tasks in your business plan that need to get done in order to grow your business.
Developing the ability to recognize “busy work” and delegate it elsewhere is a key step in your journey of learning how to become a successful businessman.
34. Learn How to Promote Yourself
Not everyone is a born salesperson and if you’re not used to it, it can be really uncomfortable and embarrassing to self-promote.
But becoming a successful entrepreneur requires you to be loud and proud about your venture.
You need to be able to woo investors and customers using newsletters and any other form of communication that works for your audience.
So if this is a weakness of yours, then take the time to practice promoting yourself. Watch some training videos, lose the fear, and learn how to talk up your venture without coming across as timid or obnoxious.
35. Don’t Ignore Important Details
Maintaining profit and loss sheets, sending invoices, tracking deductions, and all those boring aspects are crucial to your long-term success.
In fact, you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to set your paperwork in order. When it comes to important details like this, the rules of entrepreneurship require you to be ahead of the curve.
36. Prioritize Innovation
Innovation is looking at your competition and asking, “How can I deliver a product that is better or cheaper than what’s out there?”
Also, Innovation continues once you launch your solution. Constantly be looking for ways to improve your product so that it maintains a competitive edge over competitors.
37. Remember to Network!
Entrepreneurship is kind of like Hollywood — it’s not just what you know, it’s who you know.
Connections are important and studies consistently show that people trust referrals more than any other kind of marketing tactic. So remember to network.
Attend networking events like conferences in your industry and your local rotary club.
Networking ensures you always know who to call when you need help. It also leads to sales, as folks in your network will also be calling you.
38. Value Your Greatest Resource: Time
As an entrepreneur, your time is extremely valuable. So ensure you don’t waste it on unnecessary tasks or work that you can outsource to freelancers or delegate to employees.
Keep your schedule clear for tasks that only you can do and give yourself the time needed to do them well!
39. Maintain a Calendar
To help build good habits around valuing your time, remember to put everything on your calendar.
From meetings to dental visits and even grocery runs, putting everything on your calendar helps mitigate risks like double-booking and ensures you don’t spread yourself too thin.
There’s nothing worse than knowing there’s something important to do, but not being able to remember what it is.
40. Be Intentional About Company Culture
Professional culture is becoming increasingly important to a business’ success. In the age of Google and Microsoft campuses, almost all audiences are starting to expect a company to have a defined culture.
Gone are the days of showing up to work simply to put in hours and cash a check. The employees of the 2020s want to know that they’re part of something bigger and that the firm they work for is also on a mission.
So be intentional about creating your company culture. Take time to articulate your ideals and values as a company. Write these down, tell new hires about them, print them out and paste them on the wall.
By taking the time to create a culture that values people and community, as well as profits, you set your business up for long-term success in the court of public opinion.
41. Listen to Complaints
Part of being a successful entrepreneur is knowing how to receive criticism from both your customers and employees.
Instead of ignoring complaints, take action based on feedback and see these moments as opportunities to innovate and be better than your competitors.
Listening to complaints also demonstrates that you truly care about your customers and employees and will motivate both to spread awareness about your company.
42. Cultivate a Tenacious Desire to Succeed
As I’ve already said many times by now, running a startup requires a lot of drive.
So in addition to the motivation tips already mentioned, another key to being a successful entrepreneur is cultivating a tenacious desire to succeed.
Read books by successful entrepreneurs. Listen to business podcasts. Watch lectures. Attend seminars. Take the time to mold yourself into a person that strives for excellence and raising the standard of quality in your industry.
43. Prioritize Education Over Entertainment at All Costs
Part of creating a desire to succeed involves investing in education rather than entertainment. For example, if you’re a person who loves to game, make sure you’re not allowing Cyberpunk 2077 to absorb all of your non-working hours.
Instead of seeing your time off as leisure time, set time aside for educational content.
Hot tip — this doesn’t need to be education within your industry. See non-working hours as an opportunity to learn new skills and develop your hobbies.
Regardless of what you’re learning, turning to education instead of entertainment will help develop your abilities as an entrepreneur.
44. Learn How to Stand Up For Yourself
Confrontation is difficult. While it is crucial to take action on criticism (see tip #41), it’s also important to recognize when providers and other players are simply trying to take advantage of you.
Learning to stand up for yourself will prevent malicious employees and customers from taking advantage of you and will also help you negotiate better when it comes to landing sales.
If this is a skill you’re still developing, I recommend reading Getting to Yes, by Roger Fisher, and Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss.
45. Consistently Exceed Expectations
When your solution hits the market, do your best to blow your clients’ minds.
To do this, pursue quality in every aspect of your business — from customer service to product packaging and everything in between.
If you want to stand out from the competition, then you need your customers to walk away from every transaction thinking, “Wow! [Your Name] makes it a pleasure to spend money!”
46. Don’t Overpromise
Part of exceeding expectations is making sure you never overpromise. What I mean is never deliver less than what you said you would.
If you sell products, this means ensuring that your marketing is honest — don’t claim that your product does X, when really, it does Y.
If you sell services, don’t take advantage of clients by promising to deliver a quality that is beyond your capabilities. While you may make the sale, you will lose the customer (and likely gain a negative online review) once they see your completed work and know you took advantage of them.
47. Be Patient With Your Progress
This is one of my top entrepreneurial tips. Be patient and understand that creating a business empire doesn’t happen overnight.
Being a self-employed businessman means setting achievable benchmarks for yourself and celebrating baby steps when they happen.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Put in consistent, quality effort and you will get there.
48. Make it Easy for Users to Give Feedback
Once your product hits the market, make it easy for users to provide reviews and feedback on what you’re selling.
Don’t be afraid. Feedback is usually constructive and positive.
By giving your customers the opportunity to tell you what they think, you’ll have your biggest fans point out ways to innovate and improve in your next edition or release.
49. Learn How to Ask for Referrals
Asking for testimonials and referrals can be uncomfortable and embarrassing at first. But this is a necessary part of building a great business.
As mentioned earlier, people trust referrals more than any other form of marketing. So be bold. Identify your biggest fans (people who LOVE your goods) and ask them to refer you to others.
A great tactic for securing referrals is to offer a thank you gift to clients who pass on the message. For example, “Tell your friends about us and get 25% off your next purchase when one of them signs up for our service!”
50. Don’t Forget to Dream Big
Successful entrepreneurs know how to make thinking outside the box a lifestyle.
As you’re launching your company, write down other great ideas and create a set of objectives for your current startup.
For example, you may only be servicing a single city right now, but have you thought about expanding your venture to the whole state? What about going national? Or even global?!
By remembering to dream big, you’ll ensure that your company never hurts for inspiration or a high target to aim for.
51. Help Others
Finally, successful owners take time to help others.
Just as you reached out for help as a new entrepreneur, now it’s time to return the favor and help those who are coming up the ladder behind you.
Successful entrepreneurs also take time to help their community. Share your success and invest in the town or city that helped you achieve your professional goals.
Whether it’s donating to local organizations and charities or freely sharing your business insight with young minds in your community, helping others is the best way to demonstrate thankfulness for what you’ve accomplished.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You’ve made it through all 51 tips for entrepreneurs!
Now that you’ve answered the question, “What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?” it’s time for you to put what you’ve learned into practice.
Make your business plan, learn how to delegate, take care of your health, and never stop dreaming big.
