When defining success as an entrepreneur, it’s a fact that there are no shortcuts to how it can be achieved. It differs from the phase you are in and the goals you’ve set to achieve. Some will say the number of employees in a company is the real measure of success while others will say it’s the impact you achieve. It’s clear the definition of success varies and is determined by various factors.
Here’s how entrepreneurs and business owners increase the likelihood of success.
#1- Become attuned to opportunities
Learn to become attuned to opportunities. Opportunities are often hidden from plain sight. But you can train yourself to be better at spotting them. Operating with time and bandwidth margin is key. A lot of entrepreneurs are too busy firefighting to take advantage of opportunities. Be mindful of this and create time via effective delegation and process and system creation and automation. Constantly look to push probability edges in your favor when possible.
Thanks to Mark Farrell, ProActuary!
#2- Having a clear vision
Have a clear and communicable vision that everyone can say in their own words and truly support. This should be your north star for alignment across your team, lighting the way with clear objectives while driving excitement for what your organization is bringing to life. Success is more likely to come when everyone is following the same vision and mission, and all understand the best path to get there. Maintain a curious disposition to help guide you throughout your career.
Thanks to Marilyn Zubak, Snif!
#3- Planning
When it comes to succeeding, there are two approaches. You can either throw as many tries at something as possible or plan as much as possible and execute accordingly. Each industry is different, and these two approaches have various pros and cons. For home improvement, you might guess correctly that the first option doesn’t work very well. In order for my projects to be successful, my team needs to plan thoroughly and have a system for doing so at the outset.
Thanks to Rick Berres, Honey-Doers!
#4- The right team
The people around you – your team is the most important thing if you want to ensure success. Once you have the right team and they all know what their role and responsibilities are within the company and they fulfill them, success is ensured. Just as a guideline, create a timeline for when each step should be completed so that everyone knows when they need to be working on each task within their given timeframe. Finally, keep track of everything.
Thanks to Mark Ronald, YesAssistant!
#5- Use your personal brand & network
Success comes from having a strong network of people who are loyal to your personal brand and product. There are several things you can do to create this network. Start by knowing how you are helping others. Figuring out that one piece of information will point you in the direction of your ideal audience. Offer professional advice, tips tricks, and hacks. This altruism will create a system of genuine loyalty with your ideal customer. You must have this relationship before you start “selling” to them.
Thanks to Claire Bahn, Claire Bahn Group & Online Profile Pros!
#6- Collaboration
Collaboration is absolutely vital when it comes to achieving those goals you've set. The more you involve your teams in ideation and strategy design, the more they'll feel invested in the outcomes. This can be a particularly effective way to ensure that your more specialist or creative staff are well-focused and engaged. Balancing keeping these players orientated towards clear targets while also creating space for innovation is a recipe for success.
Thanks to Nabila Salem, Revolent!
#7- Take care of your health
We all want success. At the end of the day, all we want is to have achieved our goals and feel like we have been successful in our endeavor. Self-care is an essential element on the journey to success. Being healthy not only helps you become physically alert but also helps you be emotionally and intellectually prepared to face the pressures of everyday life. Despite your busy days at work, exercise, eat healthy meals, devote time to your hobbies, and get enough rest to make the experience enjoyable and sickness-free.
Thanks to Dr. Michael May, Wimpole Clinic!
#8- Surround yourself with un-like minds
Though sharing cultural values with the people you work with is important, you should actively look to hire and work with people that hold different work experience, skills, and opinions than you. We shouldn’t seek out people in our own image but those whose skills complement ours. You approach a challenge from one angle, so you need to surround yourself with people who think outside your box and naturally approach it from another.
Thanks to Jack Underwood, Circuit!
#9- Be adaptive to change
To become successful, one must be open to learning new things. It’s important to keep up with new modes of technology, adapt, and integrate those with the products or services you offer. Entrepreneurs will likely succeed if they never stop learning and improving. More importantly, being consistent with what you do is an essential factor in achieving your business goals. Not only does it increase the likelihood of your success, but will also empower your brand and business reputation.
Thanks to Christopher Liew, Wealthawesome!
#10- Staying ahead of trends
One of the most vital components in increasing the likelihood of success for businesses is staying at the forefront of future trends. By building my career from the bottom up and serving as CEO of Media Culture, I've witnessed just how important it is for company heads to lead with a forward-thinking vision. By continuously expanding their knowledge in all facets of their industries-they can anticipate upcoming market trends and predict how those trends may affect their business.
Thanks to Christena Garduno, Media Culture!
#11- Thinking out of the box
My mantra for a higher success rate is thinking out of the box. In every situation or work problem, I push myself and my employees to think of solutions no one else could look into. Our company’s motto is to stand uniquely in the market space, hence, think differently. The challenge to attain new every day drives me to the ladder of success. Every day I try to rekindle my think tank and look for strategies to complete the job or task.
Thanks to Michael Woods, Uniwide Formation!
#12- Positive visualization and thoughts
Here's a fact going, if you visualize yourself accomplishing your dream, you can accomplish it. It is true because when you are visualizing yourself, you are focusing on the positive aspects of fulfilling your dream and keeping those positive aspects as your motivation, you can move forward towards your dream. Moreover, positive thoughts increase your chances of success. If you have unhappy and negative thoughts, you will feel unhappy most of the time.
Thanks to Dr. Kyle Burton, Herbal Ice!
#13- Change your limiting beliefs
Now even if you are clear and specific on your goals, you might find yourself sabotaging or procrastinating. This might be because of your inner conflicts and these conflicts often happen in the form of your fears and doubts. You might not believe in yourself that you can do it or you deserve the desired outcomes. So you must bring in your self-confidence to let go of these fears and conflicts. You must work and uncover these conflicts if you want to get successful in life.
Thanks to Christopher Sioco, Tax Robot!
#14- Get up early
Our parents always used to say this if you are not waking up early in life, you are throwing away the opportunity to get successful. In business, it is true. Early birds hold the golden card of success. If you wake up early, you can finish your important task and can focus on the other aspects of a business. The studies have also found that morning people anticipate problems and try to minimize them. When we are waking up early, we are putting our brains to their full potential.
Thanks to Christian Velitchkov, Twiz LLC!
#15- Being true to yourself
Being true to yourself these days is the best advice you can receive for success—in the sense that you are aware of your abilities, your motivation, and your resolve to move forward despite several setbacks. Business owners frequently suffer severe setbacks that cause their organizations to disintegrate; when this happens, instead of immediately devoting your time and energy to repairing the damage, wait a bit to assess the situation and check on your team and yourself.
Thanks to Chris Walker, Superstar SEO!
#16- Learn to be flexible
Learn to be flexible and adjust your targets for success. Entrepreneurs need to learn how to learn quickly as the markets shift. Whether your services are exactly what consumers are looking for or if you need to find your audience, be flexible and learn how you can adjust your goals and intentions to match the needs of the marketplace. Keep the basic principles of your intended business without being too rigid to change. A business can either choose to be conservative and invest less or take a riskier approach.
Thanks to Michael Ayjian, 7 Wonders Cinema!
#17- Taking action one step at a time
Success to me is not getting rich or famous. I measure success by helping my clients as a lawyer and making a difference in their lives. And that is not achieved overnight; taking one step at a time and being one step closer to achieving your goal is how I increase the likelihood of success. Making progress than the day before and continuing to believe in yourself is how you succeed. So keep grinding and don't give up, and in no time, you'll see yourself succeeding.
Thanks to Tiffany Homan, Texas Divorce Laws!
#18- Invest sufficient time
Before you quit your day job and go all in, invest sufficient time in research and product development. If you're going to sell a product or a service, you need to be one of the world's top experts on the topic first if you're going to earn a foothold in the marketplace. The great thing about this research step is that it can be done while working a full-time job. I spent almost two years researching a business idea while working at a bank.
Thanks to Theresia Le Battistini, Fashion League!
#19- Be specific
It is important to be specific about what you want to achieve. If you are looking for a new job, you should not just say that you want to find a new job. You should specify what kind of job you are looking for and in which industry. This is the same with your personal life as well. It is important to be specific about what it is that will make your life more successful. So it is important that you set some goals rather than just thinking about them. Put yourself in action to achieve your goals.
Thanks to Dr. Ankit Patel, 24/7 Dental!
#20- Be original
Be original in what you decide to create and do, and you will increase your chance of success. In our world today, it is more important than ever to find out what makes you unique and to focus on and nurture that part of you. There are billions of people worldwide, but no one is quite like you. Find out what makes you shine and go for it. If you are highly creative, build up the skills you need to excel in the creative world. We can't be great at everything, so put your focus where your natural inclinations are.
Thanks to Sumeer Kaur, Lashkaraa!
#21- Stay committed
Things you should keep in mind are that you need to stay committed to your decision, be aware of your desired outcome, have an optimistic mindset, get around the right people, increase your connections, grind as much as you can and have faith in your work. Many young minds today have great ideas for start-ups and getting into the business might help them to grow too. Business is a field full of challenges and you must take on as many as you can.
Thanks to Phillip Imler, National Parks!
#22- Executing market research
Businesses’ chances of success increase exponentially after executing and implementing market research. As great as a product idea may be, consumers still need to be primed to buy if a business will turn any profit. To understand consumers’ motivations, companies must survey and collect data from potential target audiences to see what drives them to buy. Without understanding what audiences to target, businesses won’t develop the branding, or products that will successfully convert and retain users.
Thanks to Zach Goldstein, Public Rec!
#23- Use social listening
One of the most essential factors to determine success is your target audience. To help you understand how your consumers feel about your product/service as well as what they have to say about your competitors is by using social listening. This can help you improve your product/service, identify what is missing, what consumers prefer about competitors, and how to best improve your product/service to help you reach your goals, and improve the likelihood of success.
Thanks to Zachary Weiner, Finance Hire!
#24- Consistency
Consistency in brand messages and values is key to the likelihood of business success. You need to have a solid and stable brand that your target audience can identify with! If you keep changing your company message or ideology, then your consumers aren’t going to trust that you will be reliable enough to regularly deliver the type of content they are looking for. To ensure that your business will be successful, be as reliable and consistent with your brand vision as possible.
Thanks to Jenna Moran, Whimsy, and Spice!
#25- Satisfaction of your customers
The likelihood of our success always goes through the satisfaction your customers receive from you over the years. I have always received a positive side towards this direction, where the study of the customers hugely influenced our success. Customers are and shall be the reason for the successful journey of any business and so, the priority of focus should always revolve around the customers. That way, one could easily get an analysis of how they are going and the further improvements that are to be made.
Thanks to Justin Marshall, Desky!
#26- Holding myself accountable
Hold myself accountable and set up three top-priority goals to complete each day. As a business owner, whether you are working remotely, in the office, or out in the field, there are numerous distractions and obligations competing for your attention. I have found that prioritizing the top three needle-moving tasks each day helps to keep things going in the right direction, even if the rest of the day feels like it didn't go as planned.
Thanks to Melanie Hartmann, Creo Home Buyers!
#27- Managing your time efficiently
Managing your time efficiently, and establishing a good work ethic are both key to success. Without an efficient routine in which you get things done, you easily fall behind and stagnate. The better you manage your time, the faster you are able to reach goals, improve, and succeed. It’s all about putting in the work, and having some self-discipline and determination! Get up early and do things that enhance your confidence to help you feel better about yourself.
Thanks to Jacquelyn Kennedy, PetDT!
#28- Having a vision
Without knowing where they want to go, the chance of entrepreneurs getting there is almost zilch. No one ‘accidentally' finds success: they have an idea of what that success looks like. This can take the form of the end destination (i.e. to exit once the business has outlets in 50 countries, for example) or a list of long-term goals. Either way, the vision should excite. If the business owner isn't passionate about the vision for the business, they have almost no chance of inspiring stakeholders.
Thanks to Elisa Tidswell, Elisa Tidswell Coaching!
#29- Develop a mindset
The best way to increase the likelihood of success is to develop a mindset based on growth. This helps you accept mistakes as learning opportunities and obstacles as an opportunity to improve and evolve. It allows you to remain positive, even when things aren’t perfect because perfection doesn’t allow for growth and growth is the aim. Always more, always better. It’s the mindset that I have adopted, and so far it’s helping me reach my goals, step by step!
Thanks to Kirsten McKinley, Weddings & Brides!
#30- Aptitude for solving issues
No matter how well-prepared you are, you will have to overcome challenges and failures throughout your life. You must be able to overcome these unexpected obstacles rather than lamenting them or giving up. Sometimes you don't have the luxury of brainstorming; you must think quickly. I believe that being adaptable and thinking outside the box are key components of successfully solving difficulties. It inspires you to test your boundaries and look into new possibilities.
Thanks to Rahul Vij, WebSpero Solutions!