10 Things All Entrepreneurs Should Know

These are 10 tips from various resources and successful entrepreneurs that the Influencing Action Movement believes will help you on your journey to success. We strongly encourage you to adopt these tips as a blueprint for your business!

10 Things All Entrepreneurs Should Know

#1 Love what you do: The road to success is a hard one, but it’s a lot easier if you’re passionate about your business’s purpose. If you don’t love what you do, it’s hard to be successful. You need to maintain your optimism. Once it’s gone, you’re done. (Lisa King, Brownie Points)

#2 Brand your business: Define what your business represents and stick to it, make it evident in every aspect of what you do. Be consistent. What message are you trying to send? Is it clear to your audience?

#3 Rely on people smarter than you: You can’t know and do everything. Surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Hire people who have the knowledge or skills you lack and spend your energy creating and managing your vision.

#4 Take Risks: Life is too short to spend your time avoiding failure. In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail – and you must have the courage to go for it anyway. Remember that success often comes to those who get in front of the inevitable. (Mike Bloomberg)

#5 Separate your work and personal life: Set your working hours and stick to a strict timetable. When you’re not available to clients, have a message letting them know when they can expect a reply from you. Let them know how to reach you in an emergency.

#6 Have a plan and write it down: Write a business plan so you’re clear about what you’re doing, and update it often (at least once a year). Focus on expanding and set outcomes that are bold, passionate, measurable, written and positive.

#7 Have an internet presence. Use email. Use Social Media. Build a website (if you aren’t familiar with websites, try HTML for Dummies), send out email newsletters, buy online banner advertisements and register your site with all the major search engines.

#8 Do not rely on one stream of income: Relying solely on income from your startup can cause your company to die before it even gets off the ground. When you first launch, you are making almost no money and the little amount of revenue you are generating should be invested back into the startup, not put in your pocket.

#9 Focus on Quality and Execution: Worry less about growth and more about quality and execution. When you take care of your customers and exceed their expectations, growth and opportunity follow. (Founders of McWhinney, Multi-Millionaires)

#10 Practice Kaizen (Japanese for “small improvement” and “better”): Everyday focusing on getting a little bit better with the belief that over time outcomes become significant.