5 Key Elements of Entrepreneurial Success

Do you have what it takes to build your own thriving business? Google the question and you’ll come across numerous blogs, articles, personality tests, videos, and other resources to help you figure out whether you’ll fit into the world of entrepreneurs. All information from online resources, mentors, family and friends are guidelines to start your quest, and not standards to restrict you of what you can and can’t do. There are indeed many factors to consider before you quit your 9-5 job or dive straight to registering a company. This short article will not cover them all, but it summarizes key ingredients for entrepreneurial success that thriving business owners today have tried and proven to be true.

Let your passion drive and your intellect guide

What makes you tick? What motivates you to get up in the morning and face the day with enthusiasm and hope? What activities do you enjoy the most? What thoughts or issues are you most concerned about? Your answers to these questions shape your passion(s). Some of you may have more than one and some may have none (yet). The key thing is to figure out what brings out the best in you, and develop a business idea around that passion of yours. Align your ideas with your expertise, skills, knowledge, experiences and other interests. Inevitably, majority of people, including your loved ones, will tell you that starting up your own business is a risky move, an unstable career path, a stupid decision, or simply a waste of time. They could be right, but using your intellect as you prepare yourself and your sound business plan could also prove them wrong. How fulfilling it would be knowing that each day, you’re living your life one step closer towards achieving your goals and aspirations.

Find a need and fill it

Almost all success stories of small and medium enterprises begun with the founder’s urge to identify any need and find solutions to fill that need, no matter what it takes. In the Philippines, you can find a potential market in every corner. For social businesses alone, there’s a significant need for proper waste disposal, more livelihood projects, access to quality education, clean environment, healthcare services and many more! To name few potential businesses, one can always start a handcraft souvenir shop for tourists, a learning center for street children, or even your own private clinical practice if you are a nurse or someone in a medical field. Though there’s not that much need for social businesses in developed countries like here in Western Europe, you can always find a problem to solve. Simply look around you, watch people, and listen to them. What unmet needs can you find that you can possibly help with? As soon as you start generating business ideas from these problems, have a clear long-term vision and go for it! Knowing exactly what you want to achieve makes it easier for you to decide on goals to prioritize, opportunities to seize, and activities to focus onto for the business to keep growing and the community to keep changing positively!

Fear not, failure is an ally

Having a sound business plan does not guarantee success. Trial and error is fundamental when it comes to solving problems. Needless to say, every successful business venture ends up failing more than once. And when failure comes, think of it as an ally and never give up too early! Persistence is a key to success. If you face rejections from clients (or even from friends or family members), don’t get disappointed. Understand the causes and come up with new product features or better solutions, when needed. Have a more positive outlook for the various challenges, risks, and failures before you. Failures exist to redirect you to the right business strategy, the right product specifications, the right market, and even the right goals.

Be innovative and keep learning

The fact that you are operating in an environment where there’s constant transformation of people, technology, and values, among others, is a legitimate reason to stay abreast of current events, customer preferences, and other new and emerging trends relevant to your business. With these considerations plus globalization and speedy flow of information, maximizing your creativity is vital. Keep reinventing yourself by embracing learning as an everyday goal, both for personal growth and business development. Conduct a regular check on the needs and preferences of your target market. Needless to say, being innovative doesn’t have to be all about inventing something new or changing the status quo. It could also mean making small modifications from the original but creating a huge difference in terms of use and problem solving. Learning on a daily basis is as essential as teaching or passing your knowledge or skills to someone else. As your business grows, you need to delegate tasks. Empowering your team with the right training for skill and knowledge development is substantial in keeping your business on the go.

Invest right when the time is ripe

Consider yourself very lucky when you survive your first two years of operation with profits. Usually, it takes 3-5 years or even more for a startup company to become really profitable and visible in the market. When you’re in that stage of productivity and high turnover, remember to invest right and not fall into the common mistake of spending your profits to suffice your own desire of having a new car, a new house, luxurious vacations and the like. Instead, hire the right people for your company and empower them with new sets of skills that can help you and your business move forward. You can invest in improving your products and/or services, in expanding your business to where there are still unmet needs, and in creating added value to your offerings. Bottom line: there’s always a need that needs to be filled. Finding solutions to new problems will always remain the right option for investment.

(NOTE: This article is originally published at www.e3dis.com.)

#newsletter #entrepreneurship