Many people who kindly write to me on this blog ask some of the following 3 questions that almost always lead to the same answer:
How do I start a successful business?
What can I do to avoid failure?
How do you know which business is the most profitable?
And although in real life, there is no magic formula that guarantees success and that you will earn a lot of money, if there are some keys and fundamental elements that you must consider so that the experience of undertaking is very rewarding.
Then I share at least …
5 keys to starting a successful business
1. Understand that starting a business is a process
The first thing you should be very clear about is that starting a business is a process with different stages.
This process is born with a dream, this dream is transformed into a business idea, this in turn must be molded, validated and then work very hard to execute it and thus build the business so that it yields the desired fruits. : growth and profits.
Many people in their quest for financial freedom or to leave their jobs as soon as possible, pretend (wrongly) to speed up the process and do everything “faster” with the consequent inconveniences that this could mean.
Doing things quickly is not bad, but doing things without planning and messily is.
So the first piece of advice to start a successful business is: don’t rush and don’t start your company under pressure. Plan your business project carefully, get advice and try to follow your plan with discipline.
Only then will you get off to a good start and obtain gradual results.
2. Overcome the fear of undertaking
Fear or uncertainty about the future can be very strong and is usually the main reason why many entrepreneurs leave even before they have tried.
Thoughts like these can paralyze more than one:
What if it doesn’t work?
What if I lose my money?
What if things don’t go well?
What if someone has already done it before?
What if I’m not good at business?
and that is why these kinds of thoughts can only be overcome with optimism and action!
You can see our article on how to overcome the fear of undertaking to delve deeper into the subject, but if there is something you must be very sure of, it is that, even if you fail, it is not the end of the world.
In fact, many of today’s great entrepreneurs had tremendous failures in their early days, however, failure should be seen as one more lesson in the process of starting a successful business.
And if you plan correctly, the chances of failure are even lower.
Oh and by the way, losing some money isn’t the end of the world, it’s just part of the learning. Mentalize it that way because sooner or later it can also happen.
3. Invest enough time in planning your business
The more time you spend researching, seeking advice, and planning your business, the better take off and your chances of success even higher.
According to many experts, spending enough time to do a market study, analyze your competition, plan your business and make a budget, will help you enormously to avoid the common mistakes that many entrepreneurs make.
Regardless of the size of your business, research will help you answer important questions to shape your ideas and ensure your business is on track.
For example, it is important that you ask yourself these questions and answer them yourself in pencil and paper:
What need am I going to meet with the services or products that my company will offer?
How much demand is there for these in the region where I want to venture?
What would my business make different or favorable over the existing competition?
What could I do to be the leader, commercially speaking, in my area?
How much investment will I need to set up this business proposal?
How much will my monthly sales mint be?
4. Examine your motivations for starting a business
Although it sounds trivial, scrutinizing your deepest reasons why you want to start your company will help you better focus towards success.
Why do you want to do this?
Defining it is important because many people try to start businesses for the wrong reasons:
- Due to pressure from parents or relatives
- Because they hate their bosses
- Because they want to quit their job
- Because they have capital and want to invest it in something (not a bad reason but not to be taken lightly)
- Because they want to have a lot of free time
- Because his close friends have businesses of their own
The reasons why you want to undertake can be many, but the important thing is that your motives lead you precisely to become a leader, an entrepreneur who can lead his company with pride and tenacity with clarity in its objectives.
If these reasons are not clear and well founded, it is very likely that this will not happen because you will not have the enthusiasm, energy and vision to achieve it.
So examine yourself and determine first if what you want is what really makes you feel fulfilled.
5. You must always maintain a learner attitude
Undertaking and learning are not synonymous but they are very similar.
The entrepreneur is always learning. Especially in these times to be successful as an entrepreneur requires being constantly updating and acquiring new knowledge to be able to compete aggressively.
I can assure you that your competitors will be day by day investigating and implementing improvements to their production, administrative, financial and sales processes in order to obtain advantages and an ever greater share of the market.
Standing idly by thinking that your studies from five years ago or the diploma hanging on the wall are the guarantee for your success is an illusion that leads many in the opposite direction.
If you are going to start a business and you want to do it successfully, you must be willing to constantly read and document yourself and be the best in everything you do.
6. Take action!
Finally, everything that we can expose in this blog would be useless if it did not have an end aimed at taking action.
Much like the movies, if there is no action, they get boring. That’s how business is.
So after you’ve planned enough, researched enough, budgeted enough, and evaluated countless ideas, then take action and commit to your business and yourself to get ahead without sparing any effort and sacrifice.
Personally I would love to hear about your story and if you could share it in a comment it would be great.
