The “right” business is different for everyone. One thing that’s for sure is that starting a business has never been more important for you and your family’s survival.
J.O.B.s won’t be around forever. Worse, you have to work harder than ever to get ahead, and someone is always trying to steal what you have when you’re working for other people.
Running your own business offers the exact same challenges, but puts you straight in the driver’s seat rather than relying on someone else to put supper on the table.
Here’s 5 tips for starting the “right” business for you, complete with quotes/advice from the greatest entrepreneurial minds of today:
1. Prepare your mind.
I was listening to millionaire Andy Frisella’s podcast yesterday. He’s become an anti-motivational-motivational-speaker as of late. He’s also considered an Instagram expert, growing to almost one million organic and highly engaged followers in a few short years by doing the opposite of what other influencers have done in the past.
Andy’s a smart guy. I took him twenty years of toiling in the trenches, but he’s built his supplement brands into hundred-million-dollar a year businesses with perseverance. Without the right mindset, you won’t have the resolve to tough it out to get where you want to go.
“What you think about, dream about, talk about and focus on will become your life.” Andy Frisella
2. Log all your bad experiences.
How many times have you heard a successful entrepreneur tell you all the best businesses solve a problem for the end user? And, how many times have you experienced trials and tribulations during an average day?
Write those problems down, let them simmer in your head. Brainstorm ways you could prevent that same problem in the future. Or, think of how you could make the problem go away faster the next time it rears its ugly head.
“The best businesses come from people’s bad personal experiences. If you just keep your eyes open, you’re going to find something that frustrates you, and then you think, ‘well I could maybe do it better than it’s being done,’ and there you have a business.” @RichardBranson
3. Mind your talents.
Are you actually good at doing anything? Yes, I’m being facetious, but it’s to drive a specific point home. If you’re good at something, why haven’t you turned it into a business yet?
Mark Cuban demands that any entrepreneur he goes into business with both love and are good at the business they’re in. However, you can hire someone who’s good at business if you aren’t talented in that area. You can also combine your business talents with someone who has a particular passion.
I inserted the (OR) in the following:
“Choose something that you both love and (OR) are good at doing.” @MarkCuban
4. Stop looking for ideas to copy.
Thing is, the world is changing. It’s a well-documented fact that millennials and Generation Z prefer to build relationships with the brands they spend their money on. They want real interactions with problem-solvers who’ve actually been there and done that.
Being a poser who takes another’s idea and makes it your own is disingenuous in this day and age. Whatever you choose to push forward with: Make sure it’s very much your own, or you run the risk of not just becoming a charlatan, but also of copying the failures of others. There are no guarantees!
“The most painful mistake I see inexperienced entrepreneurs make is copying or doing the same things that successful entrepreneurs have done, expecting similar results. What first-time entrepreneurs don’t realize is that the world is not a vacuum and there’s more going on behind the scenes than it appears. There’s much more effort that has gone into creating the success they see on the surface, and there’s no guarantee that a particular tactic or strategy will be successful for everyone.” Sujan Patel
5. Get in the game.
No offence to Mark Cuban and company, but stop watching Shark Tank until you’re actually in a position to need business funding.
Taking the plunge and just actually moving forward with an idea is how the one-percent who do get successful, and the ninety-nine-percent who don’t never get where they want to go.
“For an idea to get big, it has to be something useful–and being useful doesn’t need funding. If you want to be useful, you can always start right now with just 1% of what you have in your grand vision. It’ll be a humble prototype of your grand vision, but you’ll be in the game. You’ll be ahead of the rest because you actually started, when others waited for the finish line to magically appear at the starting line.” Derek Sivers
Are you up for the challenge?
Main Image Credit: Homethods.com
