How to become a successful entrepreneur? Tips and secrets.

Right! yes… good question, how can this be done…? for me this question has become a daily routine  … like an obsession.

Most of us know what we need to do in our business, the level of performance we expect, or aim to earn more with fewer resources.

I am sure that many of you have important skills in trade, sales or marketing, are successful in winning the customer and selling your product or service in order to add value to their life or meet their needs.

Find solutions to needs that even the client did not know they had, and in ways that they did not even think about.

You know what I mean, most of you. The element of surprise in your sale, which differentiates you from your competitors.

But others are on this path, constantly learning and making a true effort to get there.

Here we are talking about skills that, as an entrepreneur, it is vital to have if you want to have success in business.

A good entrepreneur is a set of attitudes, skills and rules. Like a cake recipe, you want to make a super good cake (better than the first, half baked) you have all the ingredients and you want to get to work.

With a little luck, maybe your cake will come out properly. Or you decide to look for the right recipe with precise quantities, how to add the ingredients and at what temperature to set the oven.

The hardest thing is to start, to ask yourself the basic basic questions: where should  I start to become more efficient ?, to increase my profit ?, to grow and retain customers ?, to move to a better recipe ?, to know the market trend and the shift of the market ?

Sometimes you need to read a book to discover problems, other times you need a mentor, a consultant (and here we can help you), or to change your way of thinking.

I think it is time to leave the hard work behind you, the sacrifice of personal and family life, always beeing at the limit with money, without money, with unpaid bills and debts. Life can be unfair sometimes ! but at the same time, it tells you to change something ! THE Way of working.

Sign up for a short diagnostic session of your business and you will obtain an objective point of view, free from biases, on the blockages in your business, incomplete phases of your business or how you can have the necessary tools and processes to understand / evaluate the figures.

And to continue the list of good things :

Here are some habits that will help you get better.

First of all, listen, be involved in every discussion you have with your partners, active listening helps you understand what your discussion partner wants, what his/her feelings are, what their needs are, before having any kind of reaction.

You cannot treat a sick patient, if you do not listen to their problems and carefully analyze his/her words. It is good to always confirm the understanding of the message, to explicitly request feedback from the speaker before expressing your position on the topic you are discussing. All successful business people are good listeners – only if you really listen to your interlocutor you can respond properly.

Choose clear goals.

Your dream, like mine, is to become a millionaire in euros, in 10 years. 😉

Or as most successful business people say, you can become the leader that your whole team will follow as a guru in the field. But a realistic person knows the limits of their business and sets realistic goals, which can be achieved quickly, with the resources on hand and the helpf of partners, or their own team.

It is therefore very important to plan a gradual development of the business, to make a plan to reinvest the profit obtained and to adjust along the way the objectives that you set out to achieve.

It is more appropriate to set intermediary goals on the roadmap of your business development and to take it step by step, making reconfigurations of the “route” when the economic situation requires it.

A long-term vision is easier to approach if you divide it into stages to go through gradually.

I’m constantly learning … and I know what I’m talking about, I went through two experiences of changing jobs, taking every department from scratch, without having too much knowledge, resources or guidance. I had only a lot of determination, being connected to the current status of the job, capturing the news in the field, through a continuous drive to learn even more.

 A good start would be to subscribe to newsletters on e-commerce news sites, read regularly the specialized sections of business newspapers and, in addition to technical articles related to things like SEO, analytics, cross-selling or others like these, read books written by successful business people.

You can vary these readings, adding some fiction or any kind of magazine, even in a field with no connection to your products or business. After all, good ideas can come from anywhere, but retain only the ones that suit you, that apply to you. Think carefully about what kind of business you have, what particularities it has, what it offers and the clients it targets, and then apply what you’ve learned. So everything must pass through the filter of your mind and the reality of your business.

It seems that you have to do network marketing, everything is done for people and through people, surround yourself with people who think like you, who act in accordance with what they have planned, with those who are more qualified than you and understand better your activity. Who knows, maybe you will find the business partners you dream of!

It is also important to keep your family and friends around, don’t distance yourself from them, dedicating time exclusively to the development of your business. After all, they are most able to inspire you and give you the impetus you need to move on.

Learn to fail

The entrepreneur’s worst enemy is pride.  Successful entrepreneurs have previously faced monumental failures. If you don’t accept failure in the first place, you shouldn’t start the project. Failures have built successful entrepreneurs, giving them knowledge and skills otherwise impossible. We call it experience. Just like that.

Think about it, who would you call if you went through a terrible relationship break up? The friend you’ve been in a relationship with for 14 years or the one who’s been abandoned six times? There! Life is a source of knowledge and wisdom, both in business and in personal life.

Some entrepreneurs say with great confidence: “It is impossible not to work, my project will be great!” When I hear that, it’s often a very bad sign, because the entrepreneur has not accepted the possibility of failure. In this case, it would be best for this entrepreneur to write down anything that might go wrong with their project and explain how he/she would feel in the face of a failure. Admitting the possibility of failure and experiencing failure are essential steps for success. In the end, knowing how to get up is all that matters!

Trust your employees

A business idea is worth nothing. A business, on the other hand, definitely deserves something! what’s the difference between the two? While an idea germinates in a person’s mind, a business is the result of several people collaborating.

For your business project to come to life and be successful, you’ll have to bring people together and stimulate their collaboration. Whether or not you pay each of these employees doesn’t change anything. You have to let them integrate their own knowledge and opinions into your project.

As a promoter, you won’t get anywhere without the expertise and experience of others. Your business is a complex system; it needs you to integrate as much knowledge as possible to take off.

If you hold on to your own ideas and refuse the free expression of your collaborators, then you will deprive your business of the key resources for its development. You need to build trust in your employees and open yourself up to everything they can bring to your business.

Constantly refine your offer

All right, you got your first contract. Congratulations! Although this may cause you to think you have an offer in your hand with which the customer is satisfied, but this may not necessarily be the case! It is possible that your offer makes one customer happy, or even a few customers, but is it optimal? Most likely not! Successful entrepreneurs are constantly redefining what they offer, whether it’s a product or a service.

In e-commerce, A/B testing is the constant refinement of the offer, content or publications according to the preferences of the public. This principle of e-commerce must be applied to your business, regardless of its nature! Your offer should never become static, it should remain dynamic and responsive to market and industry trends.

Successful entrepreneurs are in tune with their clients. They are able to adapt the smallest details of their offer and communication methods to get an optimal response from their customers.

Talk to your competitor

Although it may seem counterintuitive to flirt with the enemy, it is essential!

You have to understand that competitors are not your enemies. Rather, they should be your best friends. They work in your industry and want the same thing as you: to please the same customer you do. Your competitors, like you, have developed a knowledge and philosophy of the industry. This knowledge is one of the most important resources in starting a business. So why don’t you discuss the subject freely?

Maintaining healthy business relationships with competitors not only takes the pulse of the industry, but can also lead to partnerships. This is called cooperation. Whether through a joint venture, a marketing alliance or an investment in research and development, cooperation benefits both parties. So don’t deprive your business of everything that competes with them.

Rely on documents, in other words document your business. Most businesses start from a dream, and grow slowly, with a small, autonomous team, with a mixture of equal ratios and diluted hierarchy, without documenting processes or working procedures. Everyone does as they think best, based on experience, or at best acquire new skills through professional training.

Using this trajectory to run a business, everything will be capped and the bottlenecks will be felt at the level of cash and team performance.

People need to know who’s in charge, who’s solving important issues, who’s taking responsibility, and everyone needs to know what to do. So an organization chart and job descriptions should be added to processes and procedures.

No matter how small the business, a manual of operation and organization can be very useful. Especially when the secretary is on leave and you have to replace her, or just a key employee resigns and someone has to take his/her place.

Although it seems difficult at first glance, establishing a process and procedures is not so difficult if you have the necessary knowledge. Otherwise, the experience of external consultants can be a breath of fresh air.

It’s simple, economical, no unpleasant surprises. And, hey, you’re going to have an objective point of view, far from the familiarity of the team. You’ll have a clear and specific opinion. A consultant will give you new approaches, but above all, you will get rid of a lot of headaches. (No, it is not always possible to solve everything alone …)

Write me about the problem you have and I’ll come back with some advice.