I have met up with many entrepreneurs in various industries and I realized that successful entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, diverse cultural, spiritual beliefs and different educational backgrounds. Despite the diversity, there are commonalities and I would like to share.
1) YOU NEED P.H.D.!!
I believe that everyone can be successful in business if you set your heart, mind and soul to becoming an accomplished entrepreneur. It takes P.H.D to succeed in business. No, I do not mean the academic PHD “doctorate”. I'm talking about Passion, Hunger and Drive! So, ask yourself this question, do you have the passion to lead an exciting and rewarding life, do you have the hunger for success and do you have the drive and determination to conquer obstacles that may come your way. Every time I look for business partners for the various businesses I am in, I look at the P.H.D level they have.
2) GAIN MASTERY IN BUSINESS
To me, business is like a sport. You can choose to pick up any sport and with practice and guidance from coaches, you can become an expert at what you do. Once you pick business as your sport, ask yourself if you are willing to achieve mastery in business. For sports professionals to win the Olympic or S.E.A games, they have to be willing to learn from their coach and put what they learn into practice. They have to practise, make corrections, practise again and make corrections until they achieve mastery. You can get an MBA in Entrepreneurship and yet not know how to run a business. The key is to learn from existing entrepreneurs and be willing to be an apprentice to perfect the game of business.
3) RESULTS-FOCUSED
In business, you and your team get paid through profits (not sales) that your business generate. It is important to be results-focused and to keep an eye on the performance of the business. Be prepared to let good performers lead the business and also be prepared to fire poor performers. You cannot let emotions run your business. If a team member is negative, possess poor attitude or consistently could not produce results, you will be killing your business if you are not willing let the person go. This is something that I found that many entrepreneurs lack as they have a soft spot and ultimately sink the business together with the ’sinkers’.
4) POSSESS GOOD PEOPLE SKILLS
You should also possess good people skills. There is a saying that your network is your Net Worth. How much is your Net Worth? It is likely to be the average of the six closest people whom you network with. Be willing to meet up with diverse group of people in business as you can learn from every interaction opportunities. I found friends, investors, business partners, alliances, customers and suppliers through networking. Business is all about getting things done through people. So, you can ask yourself, are you good at getting things done through people? Please do not go to someone and say ‘I want to tap your brains’, ‘I need your help’. But always ask about how you can create win win relationships or support them. Example, ‘I would like to see how we can work together’, ‘I would like to see how I can support you in your business.’
5) STEP UP AND BE A LEADER
Are you generally a leader or a follower? If you are more of a follower by nature, how do you rip the rewards that only leaders have access to? Everyone of us are a leader in our own ways, we lead our own lives for one! So, make a choice and say ‘I am a leader’. Leaders have the great advantage of leveraging resources. Leaders are generally willing to influence, persuade, motivate, inspire, train, develop people. This, in turn, allow the leader to leverage on other peoples’ skills, knowledge, experience, time and expertise to achieve extraordinary results. Of course sometimes it is ok to be a follower. I believe that to lead, first I must be willing to follow others who are more successful and I must be willing to be of service to others.
6) BECOME A GREAT SALES AND MARKETING EXPERT
The reason why most business fail is because they do not have enough revenue, cashflow and profits!! If you start to learn more about sales and marketing, you can effectively multiply your revenue, your profits and create healthy cash flow for your business. How would you grade yourself in this category? I can share honestly that my expertise is in this area. Without ability to sell and market the services or products, my business would be stagnant. The good thing is that these are skills that you can learn and improve on. To me, sales and marketing is one of the highest form of leverage. You can even generate infinite returns of investment with these skills!! Yes, we have done it. We have created many projects and businesses with no money down and generate profits by apply sales and marketing skills. Once you gain expertise in this area, you are ready to write your own paycheck. You can create whatever you desire.
7) CREATE SYSTEMS
For business to run smoothly, systems has to be created and maintained to ensure that whoever is tasked to take charge of a particular function knows what to do. Even though I have seven businesses, I have plenty of time to network and expand businesses to other markets because of systems. There are businesses where I only meet the team once a week, once a month as there is a systems for them to follow or abide. Run your business, don’t let the business run you. Be working ‘on’ the business and not ‘in’ the business. That should be the ultimate aim of entrepreneurs. It is easier for you to sell part or whole of business if you have created systems.
All the best in your endeavors and know that Entrepreneurship is a Sport that you can choose to be an expert in.
The co-founder of 7 businesses, Wendy Kwek is a nationally-known expert in entrepreneurship. She is the Master Trainer of the Entrepreneur Action Program, a highly-rated program that trains ordinary people to become successful entrepreneurs.
For more information or to contact Wendy please visit one of her sites below.
www.wendykwek.com
www.exec-directions.com
