The Five fundamental principles to become a successful entrepreneur
It has always been the notion that someone is successful in business and become a successful entrepreneur if he earn a lot of money. But what we really fail to understand is that the converse is the factual truth. Money follows a successful business. At the end of the day we all need money to live our lives right? Here are the five important thumb of rule to be considered if you are considering yourself to become a successful entrepreneur.
1. Determine WHAT YOU want for life?
Understanding your needs is the single most important thing for success in any kind of business. It can be anything from being simple and ridiculous to being deterministic and precise. If you can understand your needs then you can easily determine if your current business is taking you on the road to achieve that.
2. Determine WHY YOU are in business
It’s just not important to understand what we want out of life, it’s equally important to determine why you want it. Anyone can own a business but not anyone can become a successful entrepreneur, do we? Only those succeed who know what they want and are determined enough to pursue what they want and whenever they want it. Hence the WHY is always important to give strengths to your WHATS!
3. Choose your customer wisely
The fundamental principle for the success of any business is to obtain a certain niche in your business. Identify a select group of people and target them as your customers. Find out the prospects of this niche in the market and discover its challenges. Determine what you can do to serve them as a group and as individuals. Targeting a specific industry or trade union is a start. But do not expect immediate results. Offer them your service, make them your fan and then soon they will be your customers.
4. Socialize
Associate yourself with like minded people. This will emphasize your dreams and goals in life and soon you will be on the path to become a successful entrepreneur. As you start socializing and move with people matching your wavelength, you will see that people who do not align with you start moving out and you would start focusing on your goals. But this is the truth of life.
5. Demonstrate Authority
For being a successful entrepreneur public presence is as much important as advertising your ideas. If people do not know who you are they would not be able to relate to your business too. Starting a blog and joining in social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn will help you in interfacing with people and establishing yourself as an authoritative figure. Deliver valuable information people seek about you and your company and establish a rapport with your prospective customers. Market YOU and not just your company. Share your views in communities and in the meetings of the local networking groups. Understand that people are in need of Industry authorities and not mere business owners and capitalize on the boon that is the Internet.
Let’s just backtrack here a bit and think about the days of your last job. Were you comfortable doing what you were doing? Did you enjoy the work? Ultimately the reason behind why you stuck with that job would have been the paycheck that you got at the end of the month. Well, now the game gets a lot bigger.
So far your job was something you HAD to do. Now your business is something you WANT to do. There are certain challenges in coming out of a job and running a business that are more psychological in nature. Focus on what you want in life and I am sure all these principles we have discussed here will help you materialize just that.
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Key Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
Successful Entrepreneurs are a special breed of people who stand out from the rest. New enterprises come up everywhere all round the year. Before long the vast majority of them disappear from the scene. Yet in this scenario we are able to view a few successful enterprises that stand tall and acknowledging the fact that their success is in no uncertain terms due to the smart entrepreneurs at the helm of these businesses. These outstanding men possess some very special or key characteristics which is seldom noticed among the vast majority of business entrepreneurs. What are the Key Characteristics of these successful entrepreneurs that propel their businesses to the top?
1. These entrepreneurs have a strong belief in themselves. They are always optimistic, have a positive outlook and are very much aware of their talents and abilities. They are great achievers and are always confident that success can be achieved.
2. They are great dreamers and have the habit of thinking big. They want to explore new horizons. New business opportunities, new ideas and money making opportunities often grab their attention.
3. These entrepreneurs are prepared to take calculated risks. They know very well that unless you venture out nothing tangible can be achieved. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
4. They always work according to a plan. They have a short term plan and a long term plan. Their goals are clearly laid out.
5. Successful entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, dedicated and passionate about their business. Everything they undertake, big or small oozes with self-confidence.
6. They are very knowledgeable about their business and actively participate in all business related workshops and seminars. Thus they are up to date with the latest developments.
7. Building an excellent public image is one of their key characteristics. They strive very hard to build an excellent public image for their business and for themselves. They perceive this as very critical in a competitive market.
8. Successful entrepreneurs are great donors to charitable causes and institutions. Their customers and the general public greatly appreciate their generosity which has a positive effect on their business.
9. A growing business faces many challenges in the market place. Changes are inevitable if you want to be successful and these entrepreneurs are ever ready to meet these challenges and make the necessary changes.
10. They are always customer oriented. Their attitude that the customer is always right helps them build good customer relationships and thus beat the competition.
11. Time Management plays a major role in the lives of these smart entrepreneurs. They do not procrastinate. They think fast and make quick, wise decisions that helps them progress much faster than their competitors.
12. These entrepreneurs are highly motivated people. Failure is never an option for them. Their remain completely focused on their business and their main ambition is to be a successful business entrepreneur.
These key characteristics are essential for entrepreneurs who want to succeed and it can be observed that a vast majority of successful entrepreneurs do possess most of these characteristics.
Tags: Characteristics, Entrepreneurs, Successful
How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur
The push toward the achievement of the millennium development goals in this 21st century puts a lot of emphasis on the need to re-think the strategies that the government has to put ion place so as to ensure that the populous is empowered. The empowerment of the citizens of Nigeria will go a greater length in eradicating poverty that has stricken the country as well as eradicating or reducing the level of unemployment in the country. This will increase the county’s GDP and contribute a great deal in the development of the country. This can be greatly achieved through the encouragement of the populous to take up entrepreneurship as a means of earning a livelihood.
In the United States of America which is the largest economy in the world, entrepreneurship is responsible for the creation of over 60% of the jobs in the market. The US government recognizes the entrepreneurial ventures as a critical success factor in the country in the strength and the recovery of the economy that leads to a sustainable future. The government also believes that the small business ventures improve the country’s competitiveness on a global scale. This lead the US government to develop incentives such as tax cuts, subsidies and ease of acquiring financial resources aimed at this sector in order to improve its services.
In comparison to other countries that have developed in the past years such as china, the rapid development of this country has been largely spiraled due to the removal of bureaucracy, financial limits and ownership limits on entrepreneurial ventures initiated by the Chinese. These small and medium enterprises in the various sectors such as IT, financial sector and the retail sector are also responsible for the rapid growth of some countries such as Brazil and India.
The efficient management of entrepreneurial ventures has a lot of benefits to the economy. This management may be guided by the skills, resources, vision and resources available to the entrepreneur. The benefits associated with entrepreneurship are job opportunities creation, diversification of the economy, equitable distribution of the resources and income, rural development, mobilization of domestic savings for investment, adoption of new technology, development of new skills and the development of the economy towards sustainable development.
Nigeria is a country that is endowed with a diverse number of natural resources such as minerals and a highly skilled work force. Despite this, the country is faced with a number of challenges. The unemployment rate is pegged at 6% and still growing day after day and many of the skilled workforces are underemployed. Currently in Nigeria, the oil industry is the major economic driver; the oil industry generates over 80% of the foreign exchange earnings and contributes about a half of the country’s GDP. The workforce of Nigeria is also growing at a rate of 2.5% and is estimated to be at 47 million and growing. The overdependence of the economy on oil leaves the country vulnerable in the long run due to price fluctuations in the international market. Such economic realties necessitate the need to diversify the economy from the oil sector, commercial sectors and the industrial sectors into others. This will create more employment opportunities that will absorb more of the workforce leading to a decrease in the unemployment levels in the country.
There are various reasons that have been put forward by countless experienced business coaches and specialists as to why individuals venture into the world of entrepreneurship in the Nigeria. The majority of the entrepreneurs desire to succeed and get out of poverty or unemployment. They end up taking up entrepreneurial activities with a lot of zeal in order to achieve financial success and power. The key consideration that will lead to the success of the business is giving 100% undivided attention to the business. Majority of the successful entrepreneurs have succeeded through this. The over dependence on the oil sector and the conflict that is experienced in the Nigerian oil delta puts doubt on the sustainability of the industry in the economic and political stability of the country.
Regardless of many grievances about the tribulations faced by entrepreneurs in Nigeria in establishing and running of business enterprises, some entrepreneurships convert into dreadful reputes. Consequently, it is very imperative to find out information regarding the causes of failure among entrepreneurs. They include:
A number of entrepreneurs consume the business investment capital instead of the profits; this makes the business have less capital base which affects the venture and may end up in closure. This is attributed to the fact that the entrepreneurs are so quick in changing their lifestyle status as soon as the business starts making some profit.
The need to enrich them faster is the primary reason as to why many Nigerian entrepreneurs seek to venture into entrepreneurship. This makes them unnecessary risks that may lead into failure since it distorts the reality of the business.
Many Nigerian entrepreneurial ventures are also affected by the personal failures of the entrepreneurs. This is experienced mainly in the management of the workforce. Other factors such as the mismanagement of funds, poor business management skills have been identified to be the main reasons why most businesses fail in Nigeria. This was found to cause about 30-35% of many business failures.
The disparity between the access to funds and the knowledge of running is one of the reasons that lead to failure. This is due to the fact that many owners who have the capital to initiate the businesses do not have the necessary expertise to run the business efficiently and most of the time the business ends up in failure due to interruptions from the owner who insists of becoming the manager. The government of Nigeria should take this into consideration and tackle these issues for the success of the entrepreneurs in the country.
Many of the Nigerian entrepreneurs want to prove that they are successful in entrepreneurship and outshine others. This aspiration to impress others is potentially suicidal to the entrepreneur as well as the business venture. Entrepreneurship is mainly a self-gratification project and the entrepreneur should be pleased with their achievement and neglect the applause other accord the enterprise.
Nigerian businessmen want the business enterprises to be significant lasting through various seasons and hope that the demand for their products is constant. This may cause them to over commit in multiple events in order to maintain this. This can be detrimental to the venture. An entrepreneur should identify one opportunity that will offer the required returns and devote to that opportunity.
Tags: Become, Entrepreneur, Successful
