Six Lessons of Successful Entrepreneurship
Six Lessons of Successful Entrepreneurship
Lesson #1. Discover who you are.
A common pitfall of many entrepreneurs is to equate making a lot of money with the desire for freedom, independence and self-realization.
Recently, at the supermarket, I encountered someone I met when I was first starting out. After he marveled that I had survived all these years, he remarked, “You must be really rich.” When I told him I wasn’t, at least not by his Wharton School standards, he became almost contemptuous. “The only reason to be in business for yourself is to make lots and lots of money,” he said.
We all want to make lots and lots of money. But what makes an entrepreneur successful—at least someone who prevails—is not just a desire to make a lot of money. We want control over our lives. We want to do what we want and love to do. We want to turn ourselves into a business that is a reflection of our own interests, talents, expertise, contacts and values. This is what keeps us going.
Lesson #2. Listen to what the market is telling you.
When we do what we love, money does not necessarily follow. While having a passion in what we do is crucial in our success, it is not enough unless we listen to what the market is telling us.
When I started out on my own, I made it my personal passion to help pull China and America closer. My passion gave me the focus and the drive to help more than 100 companies do business in Asia.
In 1989, when the Chinese leaders opened fire on college students who wanted democracy and freedom, my business took a hit. America decided not to do business with China. My personal passion became irrelevant in face of geopolitical events over which I had no control. I had to do something else to survive.
#3. Selling must be like breathing.
To succeed on your own, you must learn how to sell. But a common pitfall for most entrepreneurs is the inability to make the distinction between “selling yourself” and “selling your service or product.”
It’s easier to sell a product than it is to sell your own services. Telling people how good you are feels immodest, even aggressive. And it’s easy to communicate discomfort to those you’re trying to convince. Yet you have no choice but to learn to sell.
In the beginning, we might sell just a little too aggressively. Our eyes are open a bit too wide, our voices are strident, our faces stiff. We are too self-conscious about selling ourselves.
It’s important to remember that you’re not truly selling yourself, but rather the help you can offer, the solutions you can provide. In a way, it’s just as if you’re selling face creams or mousetraps. What you have to offer is something you know will do the job. The product you’re selling is not who you truly are, but rather the job you can do.
Separating yourself from the service or product you offer makes it easier to accept rejection. If people don’t buy, it’s not because you’re a bad person. Rather, it’s because they don’t think they need what you are offering. If you were a better salesperson, you might have convinced them otherwise. But just because you didn’t doesn’t mean you’re a less worthy person. Once you understand that, you can relax while you’re selling, which will probably make you more effective.
#4. Charge enough to live.
When I started my business seventeen years ago, I bought a book that offered a formula on pricing. It said that you should set your hourly rate at a level that would give you a reasonable living if you are able to sell about one third of your available hours. Another third of your time should be allocated to finding new business. The last third is taken up with such activities as bookkeeping, walking to the post office, gnashing your teeth and checking your email. I found this very useful advice because I was able to make it work. It helped me keep in mind how much time I need to spend promoting.
There are other formulas that apply to retailing, manufacturing or other sorts of services, and most of them are helpful both because they stress how much of an entrepreneur’s time is spent doing apparently nonproductive work, and because they offer a discipline that many who are new to business sorely need.
None of these formulas work, however, if you don’t offer what buyers want at the rates you need to charge to stay in business. All too often, beginners think that they can undercharge in order to get business. This seems like a logical tactic, but it’s the road to ruin. It costs money and may make it difficult to sustain your business. It can lead some customers to wonder whether you really know what you’re doing. And it can distract you from the more difficult, but perhaps more rewarding, task of finding something you can offer at a price that gives you a good income.
#5. Confidence is money.
There is no greater asset for an entrepreneur than an absolute conviction that you know what you’re doing. If you don’t feel sure of yourself, why should anyone else trust you?
This is obvious. But for most of us, confidence is something that comes and goes. What’s more, it often vanishes unexpectedly, just when you need it most. When I feel confident, everything seems to work better. When I feel insecure, nothing goes right. I become self-conscious. I begin to doubt my own abilities, and mistrust other people as well.
While confidence is useful for everyone, it is particularly vital when you are in business for yourself. When you work for a company, your very position gives you a sense of legitimacy. We spare room tycoons stand on our own, and we mustn’t be seen to be quivering in our high heels or wing tips. We demand to be taken seriously. Everything about us should inspire trust.
Everyone has moments of insecurity. Indeed, many of the stories in my book, Spare Room Tycoon, relate the impact of self-doubt on the lives of independent business people. Confidence is a quality that comes and goes, but it is also a discipline that can be learned. And if you can succeed in learning confidence, you will not simply be happier and healthier, but wealthier besides.
#6. Seek a sane balance between work and life.
Finding the proper balance between work and life is something with which all independent business persons must grapple. Some believe in drawing a clear line between the two, but that’s easier said than done. Not many of us can simply ignore a ringing telephone. It could be the next big opportunity. It could be a family emergency. We answer the phone and are often derailed from what we planned to be doing. To be able to ignore a ringing telephone is, I have concluded, the beginning of sanity.
Rocky Condino was 25 when he started his heating and air conditioning business in 1979, and he was determined to succeed. His day began at 7 am, and most nights it would be about 11 p.m. before he got back home. He barely had time to say hello to his wife. He was oblivious to their two babies.
Throughout the 1980s, sales increased at least 10 percent each year, and as much as 20 percent in a few of the best years. Because Rocky now had a dozen or more employees, he was now taking personnel problems to bed with him. In addition to working 16 hours a day during the week, he also put in 12 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, his easy day.
Although he felt stress, he says, “The work always came.” The business was growing in a way that fulfilled his expectations. He had nine trucks. His employees wore spotless uniforms and gloves, and were trained always to wipe their feet before they entered customers’ homes.
At night, though, it was a different story. His sleep was troubled by acid reflux, which his doctor told him was caused, in large part, by anxiety. Several times he awoke in panic, fearing that he might choke to death. “Don’t let the business kill you,” his doctor told him.
Triumph
After such a litany of pitfalls, you might ask, where are the triumphs? Well the fact is that there are more pitfalls in life than their are triumphs—and sometimes even apparent triumphs turn into pitfalls. Really, there is no such thing as a final victory when you are in business for yourself. Each day brings new challenges.
The real triumph comes when you withstand these challenges day in day out while doing something that you enjoy and that feels meaningful to you. Success for spare room tycoons lies in the ability to be ourselves, to grow as people as well as businesses, in undertakings that nourish our souls as well as our bodies.
Six Lessons of Successful Entrepreneurship - To learn more about this author, visit James Chan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Free Download - Building Self Assurance By James Chan |
Running a business is an encounter with forces far more powerful than yourself. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way since I started out 26 years ago. I’d like to present some of the pitfalls and triumphs we’ve encountered as entrepreneurs.
Lesson #1. Discover who you are.
A common pitfall of many entrepreneurs is to equate making a lot of money with the desire for freedom, independence and self-realization.
Recently, at the supermarket, I encountered someone I met when I was first starting out. After he marveled that I had survived all these years, he remarked, “You must be really rich.” When I told him I wasn’t, at least not by his Wharton School standards, he became almost contemptuous. “The only reason to be in business for yourself is to make lots and lots of money,” he said.
We all want to make lots and lots of money. But what makes an entrepreneur successful—at least someone who prevails—is not just a desire to make a lot of money. We want control over our lives. We want to do what we want and love to do. We want to turn ourselves into a business that is a reflection of our own interests, talents, expertise, contacts and values. This is what keeps us going.
Lesson #2. Listen to what the market is telling you.
When we do what we love, money does not necessarily follow. While having a passion in what we do is crucial in our success, it is not enough unless we listen to what the market is telling us.
When I started out on my own, I made it my personal passion to help pull China and America closer. My passion gave me the focus and the drive to help more than 100 companies do business in Asia.
In 1989, when the Chinese leaders opened fire on college students who wanted democracy and freedom, my business took a hit. America decided not to do business with China. My personal passion became irrelevant in face of geopolitical events over which I had no control. I had to do something else to survive.
#3. Selling must be like breathing.
To succeed on your own, you must learn how to sell. But a common pitfall for most entrepreneurs is the inability to make the distinction between “selling yourself” and “selling your service or product.”
It’s easier to sell a product than it is to sell your own services. Telling people how good you are feels immodest, even aggressive. And it’s easy to communicate discomfort to those you’re trying to convince. Yet you have no choice but to learn to sell.
In the beginning, we might sell just a little too aggressively. Our eyes are open a bit too wide, our voices are strident, our faces stiff. We are too self-conscious about selling ourselves.
It’s important to remember that you’re not truly selling yourself, but rather the help you can offer, the solutions you can provide. In a way, it’s just as if you’re selling face creams or mousetraps. What you have to offer is something you know will do the job. The product you’re selling is not who you truly are, but rather the job you can do.
Separating yourself from the service or product you offer makes it easier to accept rejection. If people don’t buy, it’s not because you’re a bad person. Rather, it’s because they don’t think they need what you are offering. If you were a better salesperson, you might have convinced them otherwise. But just because you didn’t doesn’t mean you’re a less worthy person. Once you understand that, you can relax while you’re selling, which will probably make you more effective.
#4. Charge enough to live.
When I started my business seventeen years ago, I bought a book that offered a formula on pricing. It said that you should set your hourly rate at a level that would give you a reasonable living if you are able to sell about one third of your available hours. Another third of your time should be allocated to finding new business. The last third is taken up with such activities as bookkeeping, walking to the post office, gnashing your teeth and checking your email. I found this very useful advice because I was able to make it work. It helped me keep in mind how much time I need to spend promoting.
There are other formulas that apply to retailing, manufacturing or other sorts of services, and most of them are helpful both because they stress how much of an entrepreneur’s time is spent doing apparently nonproductive work, and because they offer a discipline that many who are new to business sorely need.
None of these formulas work, however, if you don’t offer what buyers want at the rates you need to charge to stay in business. All too often, beginners think that they can undercharge in order to get business. This seems like a logical tactic, but it’s the road to ruin. It costs money and may make it difficult to sustain your business. It can lead some customers to wonder whether you really know what you’re doing. And it can distract you from the more difficult, but perhaps more rewarding, task of finding something you can offer at a price that gives you a good income.
#5. Confidence is money.
There is no greater asset for an entrepreneur than an absolute conviction that you know what you’re doing. If you don’t feel sure of yourself, why should anyone else trust you?
This is obvious. But for most of us, confidence is something that comes and goes. What’s more, it often vanishes unexpectedly, just when you need it most. When I feel confident, everything seems to work better. When I feel insecure, nothing goes right. I become self-conscious. I begin to doubt my own abilities, and mistrust other people as well.
While confidence is useful for everyone, it is particularly vital when you are in business for yourself. When you work for a company, your very position gives you a sense of legitimacy. We spare room tycoons stand on our own, and we mustn’t be seen to be quivering in our high heels or wing tips. We demand to be taken seriously. Everything about us should inspire trust.
Everyone has moments of insecurity. Indeed, many of the stories in my book, Spare Room Tycoon, relate the impact of self-doubt on the lives of independent business people. Confidence is a quality that comes and goes, but it is also a discipline that can be learned. And if you can succeed in learning confidence, you will not simply be happier and healthier, but wealthier besides.
#6. Seek a sane balance between work and life.
Finding the proper balance between work and life is something with which all independent business persons must grapple. Some believe in drawing a clear line between the two, but that’s easier said than done. Not many of us can simply ignore a ringing telephone. It could be the next big opportunity. It could be a family emergency. We answer the phone and are often derailed from what we planned to be doing. To be able to ignore a ringing telephone is, I have concluded, the beginning of sanity.
Rocky Condino was 25 when he started his heating and air conditioning business in 1979, and he was determined to succeed. His day began at 7 am, and most nights it would be about 11 p.m. before he got back home. He barely had time to say hello to his wife. He was oblivious to their two babies.
Throughout the 1980s, sales increased at least 10 percent each year, and as much as 20 percent in a few of the best years. Because Rocky now had a dozen or more employees, he was now taking personnel problems to bed with him. In addition to working 16 hours a day during the week, he also put in 12 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, his easy day.
Although he felt stress, he says, “The work always came.” The business was growing in a way that fulfilled his expectations. He had nine trucks. His employees wore spotless uniforms and gloves, and were trained always to wipe their feet before they entered customers’ homes.
At night, though, it was a different story. His sleep was troubled by acid reflux, which his doctor told him was caused, in large part, by anxiety. Several times he awoke in panic, fearing that he might choke to death. “Don’t let the business kill you,” his doctor told him.
Triumph
After such a litany of pitfalls, you might ask, where are the triumphs? Well the fact is that there are more pitfalls in life than their are triumphs—and sometimes even apparent triumphs turn into pitfalls. Really, there is no such thing as a final victory when you are in business for yourself. Each day brings new challenges.
The real triumph comes when you withstand these challenges day in day out while doing something that you enjoy and that feels meaningful to you. Success for spare room tycoons lies in the ability to be ourselves, to grow as people as well as businesses, in undertakings that nourish our souls as well as our bodies.
Six Lessons of Successful Entrepreneurship - To learn more about this author, visit James Chan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to James's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 |
|
James Chan Video - James Chan, Ph.D., created the phrase "The China Formula" to help Americans understand China in one word.
Dr. Chan is President of the Philadelphia-based, independent consultancy, Asia Marketing and Management (AMM). AMM specializes in advising U.S. manufacturers, trade associations, and information companies in building business relationships in China and in exporting American-made products and services in China and Asia. To view AMM's detailed profile online, go to: www.AsiaMarketingManagement.com.
|
|
|
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Optimize For Ask Checklist Get a Top 20 Ranking Federal Antitrust Laws Improve Web Site Conversions 4 QuickBooks Blunders |
|
 | ||
 |
Top Social Business Blogs
Top Social Entrepreneur Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||