Building a Better Online Business

Minimising the risk of failure is paramount for all new startup entrepreneurs and there these simple steps are a good place to start from Minimising the risk of failure is paramount for all new startup entrepreneurs and there these simple steps are a good place to start from True

Top Tips for Success For Business Owners & Entrepreneurs

In a recent forum discussion about what it took to become successful in business, the following question was posed – “As a young business owner, taking the step out to start the business has been one of the most risky decisions I've ever made. Still within the first year of startup, I'm hoping to reach out to the community here of other business owners and entrepreneurs to ask why your business has been successful?”

Without listing all the suggestions, one very clever list that was offered was as follows and we are sharing it here again as we thought it was so well put together.

• Read, read and then read some more.
• Do what needs to be done, before it needs to be done
• Actions and implementation speak louder than words
• The most valuable customer you and your business have is the customer that just bought from you
• Learn to read your prospects mind and walk in their shoes Focus on 'Who' your prospects are, what they worry about, what they dream about and how your product or service helps or solves the core problem they have.
• Invest in yourself and skills
• Go with your gut instinct. Your first response or reaction is usually the right one
• Be the 'marketer' of your thing, not the 'doer' of your thing - Dan Kennedy
• People do business with people. Use the CVP Credibility, visibility and profitability model
• Mentors YES!
• Stick to your guns and help educate and advise people.
• Before any purchase ask yourself "Is It a Need or a Want?"
• Respect your time - don't start your day answering to everyone else's demands. Check emails twice a day and that's it.
• Set or allocate your daily tasks in 55 minute blocks and write them down the night before so you have goals for the next day. It's a great feeling crossing them off as you complete them.
• Be yourself - When you try to be all things to all people, you are nothing to no one. Stay focused.
• Have systems in place for follow-ups, enquiries, lead generation, and costing’s and other processes. Automate where possible but when you’re starting with limited resources manually has to do.
• Network and build real relationships of value professionally and personally
• Have a point of difference - Why should I choose you over your competitors?
• Things in life and business go wrong. Always focus on the good, not the bad.
• You're not here for a long time but a good time. Make being in business fun for you and your customer’s fun
• Focus your efforts on tasks that deliver the highest possible value and on things outside of work that produce the most possible rejuvenation – Eben Pagan
• Innovate be flexible and adapt and try and anticipate change
• Track and measure every piece of marketing and everything you do. The numbers don't lie.
• Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect- Mark Twain
• Run your own race
• Screw it, just do it - Sir Richard Branson
• Start small and think REALLY REALLY BIG and don't just do it, LIVE IT!
• Become financially intelligent

From a personal perspective, I would agree with the above list also stress that you should SYSTEMISE your business from day one. Everything you do must be following laid down processes with systems to back it up. This way and only with this in place can your business grow.

The other aspect is to understand that those systems and processes must be adaptable. Your business will grow, it will itself change and your market will dictate adjustments to your plans. If you can't readily adapt your business model and systems to these factors you will struggle.

Good luck and congratulations on taking the journey you yourself are on.

Acknowledgement to Eddie (Jaffaman) Bryant of Eddie’s Copywriting & Marketing Centre