One of the best principles of our modern society is that anyone, no matter the ethnicity, color or religion, can open their own business and progress to financial freedom one step at a time. It takes effort. It takes insight. It takes grit and determination. However, all possibilities are afforded to the person who is able to overcome these challenges and progress in a manner which best helps them express their creative and business insight.
It’s likely that if you’re reading this job, you have some entrepreneurial instincts yourself. At the very least, you most likely have some entrepreneurial ambition resting in the back of your mind, just waiting to be fed the necessary focus to help you take that plunge and develop the business you have always dreamed of doing.
However, in order to succeed in this, you’ll need a little working wisdom in your toolkit. Make sure you are able to provide it by following this upcoming advice:
Education
First of all, starting a new business blindly, while romantic and obviously a step in the right direction, will unfortunately leave you woefully unprepared for the reality of the business world. No matter how justified your intent, or how much good you want to do in the world or at least for your customers, the world of business is often cutthroat, and requires a firm educational background to deal with. This isn’t to say that some of the best business leaders have degrees. Many of them don’t, and many of them don’t even have high school diplomas. Education doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.
However too many people are quick to disregard education as ‘confining,’ and they’ll usually quote Albert Einstein and how he dropped out of school when they do this. However, if you’re wise and rational, you’ll understand the utility of education at every level. It’s important to never forget the positive effects of it. It can not only help you open up to new ideas but channel you in directions and specialisms you are most interested in.
It can help you feel up to date in your surroundings, and provide you methods of keeping on top of the business zeitgeist. It may even help connect you to local people who you can partner with, or at least do some form of positive business proceeding with. An online business bachelors degree can provide you all of the tools to get started, and all from the comfort of your own home, as you research the market and refine your initial product or servicing idea. Developing the ‘smarts’ to make it in this instance can greatly increase your confidence as you leap onto the market, and this can have so many benefits it’s hard to count. You will have to learn the same lessons one way or another, so learning them in a way which you can be qualified for and exposed to the most important information is something to be prized and prioritized.
Candor
Many people jump into the world of business with all the positive intent in the world, hoping to become the ‘best business leader’ they can possibly be. We have all worked for bosses whom we have negative opinions of, and we’d like ourselves to be better when we are the ones to hold that title. For this reason, taking this preemptive time to work on your professional candor can do you a world of good. Not only can it help you put your best foot forward when it comes to establishing partnerships, developing business to business connections, and interviewing staff, but it can also help you look wonderful in front of investors.
In Dale Carnegie’s famous self-help book ‘How To Win Friends & Influence People,’ you can be sure that he details an affable, professional candor as one of the most important assets you can have when progressing success in all of its forms. It may help you look more attractive to shareholders. It can even help you become the face of your firm, something which many entrepreneurs wish they had the social confidence to do. Developing your candor may emanate from taking social etiquette classes, taking public speaking classes, or simply putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and getting used to the discourse of modern, breakneck speed business communication.
Relying on some of your past experiences will help you with this also. Simply being kind to your staff, helping them out and being understanding of their grievances, as well as being a firm and directive leader will help them feel both valued and respected. Try to avoid being the ‘buddy boss.’ You are on a different tier of authority compared to them, and that will always separate you from them in some way socially. This is not something to be feared. It does not prevent you from developing deep and meaningful relationships with your staff.
But it does prevent you from being completely candid with them and vice versa, as you must also provide the role of guardian to a certain degree, at least in the professional space. Give them every reason to respect you. If celebrating a night out with them, be sure to temper your drinking. Try not to get angry at them for no reason. Staff members always want to work for a boss they consider stable and able, so don’t give them any reason to question this, and you’ll both be on the right side of the business/personal relationship.
Maintenance
In the early days of working for your new firm, you will be tempted to place down more hours than you can possibly work and feel rejuvenated in your daily schedule. The world of the small business is one of survival and hopefully success, so watching motivational videos on YouTube and watching case studies may have motivated you to placing hundreds of hours a week into your firm. It’s important to be careful around this.
You can get burned out VERY quickly in this culture, so be sure to give yourself the maintenance time and reflective time required to keep on top of your optimized functioning. Sleep, eat and shower well, and try to give yourself plenty of time to recuperate and rejuvenate during your daily life. Your business performance and effectiveness will thank you because of this. Pre-plan your weekly schedule to allow this time for yourself.
Following this advice will give you the best entrance into the new business market. Good luck!
