Top 5 Things to Know to be a Successful Entrepreneur
Top 5 Things to Know to be a Successful Entrepreneur
The typical entrepreneurial personality has the drive and ambition for success. Like anything in life, though, it is always harder to do something the very first time. This can discourage many new entrepreneurs from taking that initial leap and to start their own business.
I teach several entrepreneurial courses and have put together some important articles that I recommend to my students. The following list contains many of these articles and some of the most important things that entrepreneurs should do in order to be successful:
- Read Success Stories and Attend Lectures: An excellent way to be inspired and learn from other entrepreneurs is to read their success stories. Onlineuniversities.com recently came up with a list of 20 Biographies Every Serious Entrepreneur Should Read. These books include important success stories from Ben Franklin to Sam Walton. Another very important article to read is: 50 Excellent Lectures for Small Business Owners.
- Learn the Truth About Failure: Many entrepreneurs are stalled in their pursuit of success due to their fear of failure. Even some of the most famous entrepreneurs met with failure before success. To find out more about this, check out: 50 Famous People Who Failed Before Becoming Successful. Also see: Famous Business Failures: Is it as Gloomy as it Sounds? Also see: 10 Famous Product Failures and the Advertisements That Did Not Sell Them.
- Learn the Truth About Finances Required: Not all entrepreneurs come from wealthy families. It can be challenging to come up with the funds required to begin a business. Find out how some very famous entrepreneurs became successful in the article: Famous Entrepreneurs Who Hit it Big With Humble Beginnings.
- Learn How Women Have Become Successful Entrepreneurs: Some very successful entrepreneurs have been women. Check out: Most Inspiring Entrepreneurial Women.
- Learn How to Network: One of the best ways to get a product or company known is through social media. Part of an entrepreneur’s success is through finding their customers and their niche. Check out: 5 Top Networking Tips for Small Businesses.
Once an entrepreneur has developed a strong idea of the direction they want to take, they need to work on their feasibility study. Investors will want to see this to be sure that their idea is sound. Another important aspect of creating their new business is deciding on a vision and mission statement. Check out The Top 10 Mission Statements in 2011. Once an entrepreneur has received enough funds to get their new business off the ground, they may want to consider whether or not to go IPO. Many companies like Facebook have waited and not gone this traditional route. Find out Why Companies Are Not Going IPO due to fear of the past dot com crash.
Famous Entrepreneurs Who Hit it Big With Humble Beginnings
The movie The Social Network showcased Mark Zuckerberg’s ability to create an enormous business from seemingly nothing. Not all entrepreneurs have been accepted to Harvard like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates to hit it big. However, having the intelligence to get there doesn’t hurt.
I grew up next door to a very smart man who worked his way through a state college and started a little company with $5000. That man was Leonard (Sam) Shoen who created U-Haul by asking gas station owners to let him rent trucks from their lots. Amerco is now the parent of U-Haul and is a far cry from the corner gas station beginnings.
There are plenty of Leonard Shoen and Sam Walton stories out there. Accountingdegree.com recently published a list of 10 big businesses that got started in a garage including:
For more detail regarding how each of these companies got started, you can click on each individual company or read the article by clicking here.
To see Steve Jobs’ Commencement Speech at Stanford explaining how he started Apple watch the following video:
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