Weekly Entrepreneurial Tips- (Week 1)

Every week i will be providing entrepreneurs with 6 free tips on how get in the mind set, plan, launch, succeed and sustain their success while starting a new business.  Stay Tuned...

Succeeding as an entrepreneur takes hard work and persistence because, unfortunately, fairies who magically bequeaths success on startup businesses and their owners do not exist.

Most successful entrepreneurs follow analogous patterns and share similar basic characteristics. While hundreds of online articles and published books claim to grant you the secrets of success in the business world, today I will boil it all down to the nicks and nacks of the major points that made me the successful entrepreneur I am today, having launched two successful startup at the age of 27.

Passion, perseverance and a positive attitude tend to set successful entrepreneurs apart. Cultivating these attributes requires an innate skill set and some tips to get started.

You can place a check beside each characteristic that you feel that you possess. This way, you can see how you stack up. Even if you don't have all of these characteristics, don't fret. Most can be learned with practice and by developing a winning attitude, especially if you set goals and apply yourself, through strategic planning, to reach those goals in incremental and measurable stages. Professional education in soft skills that place emphasis on personal behavior and managing relationships between people as well as interpersonal, human, people or behavioral skills are always handy when it comes to launching your own business. Unless you can afford to hire a Coach, Corporate Trainer or a consultant, acquiring those skills must be your primary goal.

So here are the main items to take into consideration if you’re trying to develop a business platform. These elements constitute will support a smart strategy for any new enterprise:

 2. Fall in love

What you get out of your business in the form of personal satisfaction, financial gain, stability and enjoyment will be the sum of what you put into your business. Passion is key to keeping a business strategy moving. Half-heartedness in an entrepreneurial endeavor will chip away at your drive to succeed. So if you don't enjoy what you're doing, in all likelihood it's safe to assume that will be reflected in the success of your business--or subsequent lack of success. Perseverance is also the one thing that’s guaranteed to move anything over time, whether it’s a person, a job or an entire company.

 2. Get serious… seriously!!!

Far too many new business owners fail to take their own businesses seriously enough, getting easily sidetracked and not staying motivated and keeping at it day and night, making your business the thing you think about over breakfast, lunch, dinner, during the shower and in your dreams. It might sound idiotic but seriously!!! That is what needs to be done. If you meet someone at friend’s engagement party, you have to think how he or she can be an asset to your business. If you walk into a shop to buy something you have got to think of how you can turn your seller into a client. Your business should literally become your bread and butter.

 3. Risk Management

Risk management is an essential factor in any startup, and balance is vital. You can absorb losses more easily if you take smaller risks in the beginning. Those will provide essential and productive lessons. That however does not mean you should not take risks, becoming an entrepreneur in itself is a huge risk as you need to remember that unless you have a night job stacking up the rack at Spinney’s or wrapping chicken wraps at Malak el Tawook, you literally have no income and no paycheck at the end of the month. However, if you are lucky enough to be the son of a rich family and still have the entrepreneurial spirit, then please skip this article, don’t waste your time and go hire an A+++ consultancy firm instead.

 4. Plans A-Z

The act of business planning is so important because it requires you to analyze each business situation, research and compile data, and make conclusions based mainly on the facts as revealed through the research. You can use the plan that you create both as map to take you from point A to Z and as a yardstick to measure the success of each individual plan or segment within the plan. As an Executive & Leadership Coach I have managed to help myself and other startup in making this the prayer before supper. Do not go in without a plan. The executive dashboard is a very important way to set your vision, mission and values and do not get anxious about the fancy words. It does not matter if you’re planning to lunch a business that will be listed in the stock market in 6 months or a kebab shop, sit down and talk to a business coach or yourself. Nobody knows what you want more than you. A business coach helps you tap into what you want so much faster.

 5.Watch and Learn

Successful entrepreneurs often worked for others in their field of choice before striking out on their own. Spending a few years in the industry under an excellent mentor will provide a good launching pad. Learn from your predecessors’ mistakes and brainstorm about how to improve upon their model. Find someone willing to teach, and think about starting your business elsewhere when you leave.

 6. Sell Like Hell

I refer to it the ABC (Always Be Closing), and closing your sale I mean. For me I’ve seen every person I have met in the past 7 years as a dollar sign. Now that might sound a bit extreme, but it is the truth. Every person is a potential client, ally or competitor and that is the essence of every business, to identify people around you. Now if you have picked the right industry, every person you encounter is a potential client. I have personally done most of my business deals by meeting people in a restaurant, in a bar, on the beach or in Disney Land. It is true, you have to always be selling as you do not have the luxuries of an employee of leaving his or her work at the office for holidays and weekends… you are always working. And I LOVE IT!!!

These are our six recommendations for this week … Tune in next week and every week for more tips on how to become a successful entrepreneur… and keeping it that way.