Many people dream of starting their own business, and some will take a leap of faith and try to pursue their dream. Despite their good intentions though, many of those businesses will fail during their first two years. Why do you suppose that is? Maybe it’s bad decisions, a bad economy, or simply not understanding enough about one’s core business. Yet still there are examples of some businesses taking off despite those reasons, while others seem to languish and ultimately fail.
Why are some successful and some not? There is an old saying that is very true in business – you reap what you sow – you get back what you put in.
When you first start your own business, it’s easy to become discouraged, especially during the first or second year. It’s important to realise that you aren’t likely to make a profit or even cover your operating expenses during your first year or so. Being successful at business is much harder than it looks, and it requires a lot of work, determination and patience.
There are some things though that you can do to make it more likely that your business will weather the storm, and grow and prosper. In this post and the following I will share some tips to make the survival and the success of your business more likely.
Be Committed And Stay The Course
One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is that they don’t stay committed to the course. They start out strong, and then they get bored and distracted. They either close their business outright, or they change up their business model, and go with a new product or concept before they gave their original plan a chance to work. The biggest part of being successful in business is making a plan before you jump in. Do your due diligence in whatever field it is that you are entering and make some plans before you start. Once you’ve made those plans and have a product and core concepts about your business, make a commitment and stick to them. Don’t jump from one business idea to the next, take the time to learn and master your core business areas.
Get Serious About Your Work
Are you not as successful as you thought you would be or as you planned to be? Have you taken an honest look at how much actual effort you are placing into your work? Are you really focussing on the core areas of your business or are you just getting caught up in “busy work” that isn’t actually the work that’s critical to the success of your business? One of the keys to being successful is knowing what is actually work and what is not, and getting serious and focussing your energy to those tasks that are really work. Here is a big hint, spending your days reading email, going to meetings, holding meetings, looking for excuses to change things up when you haven’t even given them a chance to work or not, that really isn’t working, but spinning your wheels. Anything that doesn’t advance your core goals, no matter how much time or effort it costs is not true work.
Assess yourself against these two tips. Next week I will share some more tips to help you build a sustainable and profitable business.