Leadership

What does it take to make a business successful? How can someone who has never run a business before start, build, and run a successful business? This is a really good question, especially since most businesses still fail in the first five years.

I think that there are some essentials of business success that must be considered by every entrepreneur and new business start-up before they turn on the first light, make the first business contact, or open the door for the very first time.

1.   You must develop an entrepreneurial mindset. With this mindset, you will learn to embrace the concept of delayed gratification. You will have thought through the incredibly important question, “How long can I run this business before making a profit?” You will understand that starting a business requires a higher than normal financial risk tolerance.
2.   You must understand how money works. If you don’t really understand the difference between an asset and a liability your chances for success diminish drastically. Managing money correctly in the early stages of your business sets the standard for success in the long run.
3.   You must understand the basics of marketing your business. With all the options today both online and offline, you need to know what will bring you new customers, what will keep existing customers, and what will not! Too many new businesses collapse under the weight of a trial and error marketing plan.
4.   You must understand what it means to be a leader in your chosen field. Every industry is filled with people “just like everyone else.” What you must do to be successful is to set yourself apart as someone with a unique value as a thought leader in your industry.
5.   You must continue to grow as a person. Everyone enters the world of businesses with personal strengths and weaknesses. Working to improve your talents and skill set will allow you to continue to improve the quality of your business for your current clients as well as for new clients that will be added over time.

With an understanding of these essentials of business success, you will give yourself a more than fighting chance to be one of those companies who survive where others will fail.

What other essentials do you think are important for new business start-ups to know and understand?

Have you ever been tired of just about everything in life? I mean so tired of the way things are that you thought about how wonderful it would feel to just break all the rules? Just to strike out on your own and end up where you want to be rather than were you are expected to be!

Boomers across the world seem to be collectively struggling with these very thoughts. Our sense of freedom from the ordinary that carried us through our youth has given way to our sense of responsibility to a system that more and more makes little sense.

Most of us have worked hard, been responsible, and followed the rules, only to be the first to be laid off and the last to be rehired. Our years of efforts have been overlooked and the value we bring to our society has been minimized. It seems that the greatest worry society has today is that we are getting old and who is going to pay for our old age.

So here we sit, getting older fast and being minimized by the society that we spend our lives building for ourselves and the generations to come. Did we make mistakes? Yes!! Are we to blame for some of the failures in our society? Yes!! Could we have done better? Who couldn’t using hindsight as a measuring stick?

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to break all the rules and strike out again to reinvent my life and reshape my future! Wanna come along?

If you do, I think that there are five things that you are going to have to consider:

1. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to set aside the notion that everything in life that is bad is someone else’s fault. Personal responsibility has to trump everything else in life. I can wake up on a given day and make life great or make it unlivable no matter the circumstances. The choice to react or to respond is entirely up to me! So it is with you as well.

2. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to decide what it is that your life is supposed to be and then commit yourself to that end! Do you believe that your life really has purpose? Have you ever considered what that purpose is? Are you moving in the direction of that purpose everyday? If your life purpose is not clear to you, you will never really move with confidence or inner strength. The desires of others for you will always take precedence to that nagging urge inside that tells you that something isn’t right.

3. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to seek guidance from those ahead of you on this journey. Now I don’t mean follow them like zombies or lemmings, but watch them as they journey and pattern your journey according to the principles you find in them. Ask questions, listen closely to their answers, think carefully (pray if that is what your life is about) and then move in the direction of your life purpose.

4. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to stay focused through all the storms that lie ahead. No one that chooses to break all the rules will be able to do so without creating some waves. These waves will often increase in size and magnitude until they become full-fledged storms. It is these days of what appear to be darkness and despair that the greatest victories can be found. Stay focused, keep your eye on the prize and let your dream dispel every wave!

5. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you must start! This is where the rubber really meets the road! It is not enough to be tired of what you see in front of you. It is not enough to wish you could develop the courage to strike out. It will only happen when you make the first move. You are the catalyst! You must make the first move and then commit to the next and the next and the next.

I am not going to let a broken world system determine whether I live a fulfilled life. Are you?

Essentials of Business Success

Break all the Rules!

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