Want to Be an Entrepreneur? Here’s What You Need to Know First

Do you dream of becoming an entrepreneur, but you don’t know how to start a business?

You can create a life you never thought was possible with the right information.

Here’s what you need to know before becoming an entrepreneur:

1. You must be passionate to be an entrepreneur

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

— Winston Churchill

 You’ve got to be passionate about your business idea because it won’t be simple. Things won’t always turn out how you’d like them to, but that’s no reason to quit.

There will be problems you need to fix and slumps between successes. If you don’t care that much, why bother fixing them?

Make sure your idea sets your soul ablaze with passion, so you can work tirelessly to make it happen. Keep at it and remember that every obstacle you overcome is where many others quit.

2. An entrepreneur focuses on helping others

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”

— Farrah Gray

All thriving businesses have one thing in common: they help people. Successful business people have integrity so they deliver what they promise.

Each transaction is a “win/win,” that way each side benefits.

You can’t scam people and build a long-lasting, successful company.

So, ask yourself how you can use your abilities to help others enjoy their life more.

Can you make something better or easier? What problems can you solve for your customers?

There’s a lot of brainstorming, so get a notebook to write your ideas and thoughts down first.

It only takes one incredible idea to create a life-changing business.

3. Create a plan to become an entrepreneur

“Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”

— Gloria Steinem

Above all, you need clarity on what you’re aiming to accomplish. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time if you don’t know what you’re doing or how you should do it. That’s why many people write out a business plan first.

Having a plan will help you understand what you need to do to reach your goals.

So, grab a notebook and brainstorm how you’ll become an entrepreneur. Answer these questions:

• Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
• What are your strengths?
• What kind of business do you want to start? Here are some business ideas, and here are some more.
• Is there enough demand for what you’re selling?
• Will you need business insurance?
• Are you going to need a business loan?
• How are people making money in this industry?
• Do you need to build or improve any skills to do this?
• What’s your vision for your company?

Meditate on your product.

• What is your product or service?
• Who will buy from you, and what do they value?
• How will you get them to buy? In what ways will you market it?
• How much will your product cost to create? What price will it be?
• What unique advantage do you have compared to your competition?
• How many products do you need to sell to be sustainable?

These are all valuable questions to answer before you start building your empire. Write them down and continue to refine and change your answers over time.

4. Create a company blog and social media accounts

Regardless of what kind of business you create, you’ll need a blog. Why?

Because entrepreneurs know that:

• Blogs help you build a relationship with customers.
• 94% of people who share your posts do so because they know someone who’ll benefit from what you’re selling.
• 61% of customers will buy something because of a blog post.
• It gets your company “out there.”
• When someone searches for what you sell, they’ll Google it first.
• A blog allows you to prove your expertise.

Get a host from Bluehost, then choose a theme that reflects your business. Write some articles about your product or service. Then make a landing page and an About page before publishing your site.

Then create some social media accounts with your company’s name so you can promote it. Then start posting and sharing your blog with the world! Show them pictures of what you sell or of yourself if it’s service-based.

You can sell your products on your blog and gain extra money with ads. The more streams of income, the better!

5. Get ready to work harder than ever

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

— Jim Rohn

Being an entrepreneur is NOT easy. You don’t just get an idea, and everything falls into place. Regardless of how smart you are, it’s a learning marathon. But that’s a good thing because the skills you’ll acquire will look fantastic on your resume if you decide this isn’t your thing.

Trust me; you’ll learn more valuable skills than you would by going to college for business.

What to learn:

• Graphic design: Social media (Canva), free to use stock photos, fonts, logos, color psychology, learn graphics software (GIMP is free), get designing skills.
• Writing: grammar, style, and clarity.
• Marketing: Creating ads, sharing to social media, commenting, copywriting, and enhancing your products.
• Optimizing: Setup Analytics to know who and how many people go to your site, site speed, and SEO.
• Planning: Scheduling your tasks so everything gets done. Setting up a time and place where you’ll work without distractions.
• Learning: taking online courses, reading books and blogs, trying out what you learn.
• Personal development: conquering the fear of failure, building confidence and emotional intelligence. Gaining more charisma and self-discipline.

But don’t get intimidated by all this; you’ll learn more and more every day. You don’t need to know everything all at once.

6. Get started!

“Fear is the disease. Hustle is the antidote.”

— Travis Kalanick

Don’t wait until the ideal moment when you feel you’re 100% prepared. You’ll never reach a level where the sky opens up, and you hear, “You’re ready now.”

You just need to get started and improve from there.

Don’t procrastinate. I know it can be frightening to put yourself out there, but it’s not scary enough to not do it!

Besides, anytime you feel nervous and awkward, you’re probably doing something that will change your life!

So, don’t let those feelings stop you. You’ll be okay, I promise. There’ll be lessons to learn and issues to fix, but when you start seeing income flow in, you’ll know it was all worth it.

The best way to prepare isn’t by doing endless research or obsession; it’s to feel your fear, shrug it off, and start anyway!

Fear has nothing on you! It’s imaginary, and you’re an actual human with talents and ideas that can change the world.

Starting will lead you down the path of what you need to learn and practice. Your skills and experience grow with each passing day—even though it won’t feel like it. Every tiny step matters.

7. Work on your most important tasks first

“The question I ask myself almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?’”

— Mark Zuckerberg

Knowing what your most important tasks are is valuable beyond measure. Otherwise, you’ll waste a ton of time on things you thought were important, but in reality, they weren’t.

What will give you the most results for your company?

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule (the Pareto Principle). It states that 20% of your tasks give you 80% of the benefits. So, don’t waste all your time on trivial projects. Find out what tasks will move you forward faster.

Then make sure you finish those tasks before anything else, and you’ll skyrocket your progress. Furthermore, you’ll be less stressed when you complete them.

8. Have patience

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” — Albert Schweitzer

Success won’t happen as fast as you’d like. Sometimes it’ll seem like it’s taking forever.

You might hear people’s stories of unbelievable overnight success, but they aren’t mentioning that they spent years working on their craft.

They won’t tell you about the multiple failures and the discouraging words from others. Or how terrified they were to take each step along the way to success.

Creating an excellent product or service takes time. It’s best if you don’t hate the process of getting there, so have fun! Your patience will grow when you enjoy what you’re doing.

9. Be persistent through the trials of being an entrepreneur

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

 — Steve Jobs

It’s not a simple process to become an entrepreneur and build a profitable business. So, develop the persistence needed to make it happen because things won’t be instantly amazing. Also, when they are, the results will fluctuate.

But don’t let that bother you because you’ll make it past the hard times. If you keep improving your business, there are no limits to what you can do.

You might lose friends because you won’t have time for them. That’ll be the price you pay to focus on your priorities. If your company means everything to you, you have to go for it. Everyone else will have to understand. Don’t deny the world of your unique ideas and talents.

10. Don’t quit your day job yet!

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

— Albert Schweitzer

Believe in your business, but don’t have it as your only source of income. Wait till it brings in enough to pay your bills, then you can consider leaving your day job. Things will be rocky at first, and it won’t be profitable for a while. But don’t get discouraged by that because someday it will be if you keep working on it!

As you can see, a lot goes into being an entrepreneur. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it! You’ll feel so proud of yourself after each day of work, way more than if you had a boss because you’ll reap all the rewards instead of someone else.

Plus, the only person who can fire you is yourself! So, have fun and be creative while becoming an entrepreneur!

Keep feeding your mind with inspiring, helpful information by subscribing to Motivated Progress. Then you’ll get new articles sent to you every week. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question below! Good luck!

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