If you have ever had those sleepless nights in front of a TV, you have probably seen the get rich quick infomercials promising to make you rich with a “six or seven figure income while relaxing on your yacht”. They promise to get you rich with little work, little energy and very little money (Except for the thousands of dollars you pay them for these “secrets”!) But for the rest of us who can smell the B.S., we know a scam when we see one. And we know it’s a scam because we have heard the countless horror stories (or experienced it ourselves) of people getting taken to the cleaners from these types of products. All in the name of a quick easy buck!
That being said, there are millions of small business owners who are thriving and who have cracked the code to success. These business people have been through it, tried everything and have left clues to their success. So what makes some people successful and others not? I believe a lot of it comes down to habits.
Here are 7 habits that you MUST have if you want to rock your own business. These are 7 consistent and proven habits that, if followed, will set you up for success.
Always Look For A Starving Audience
No, I don’t mean you should get into the food industry! It amazes me at how many small business owners miss this concept. So many business owners start a venture because they think they have a great idea. But they don’t even think to check if it’s something the public would WANT or NEED!! They are emotionally attached to their product or service but never stop and take a logical look at the situation. Make sure there are consumers for what you are offering.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a passion for what it is you are doing, but if you have a hobby of collecting old type writers and decide to one day start selling them, you may run into people asking “What the heck is a type writer?!?”. If there isn’t a strong enough market for what you are selling, it doesn’t matter how strong your passion is then there probably won’t be enough demand to make a living at it. Don’t get me wrong, if you can find and service a small niche market you can be wildly successful, but you have to make sure they are hungry for your product. Once you find that group and you can solve their problem/need, you can begin to rake in the money.
If You Don’t Have A Sale, You Don’t Have Anything (Yet)
Unfortunately sales is part of the process. I know you may not like “sales”, but it’s an integral part of the process. If you don’t have sales, you basically have a hobby. Without sales, your business won’t be sustainable. Then you are basically just volunteering your time. Sales and marketing are the backbone of your business so you will need to learn to get good at both. (Or hire someone who is!)
You have probably heard the saying “It’s more expensive to get a new client than it is to keep the existing ones you have” and this is true, but if you want to build true wealth, you need to continually be growing your client list and learn to sell to them over and over again. Some businesses are willing to take a loss up front in order to gain that first client (also known as a loss leader) but they know they will more than make that money back if they can get the client into their sales pipeline. True wealth earned from lifetime values of clients.
So get in the habit of learning to sell. If you want money in your bank account, you better get good at it!
A Strong Team Is A Must
Leverage is the key to massive success. One of the best ways to do this is by leveraging people. Very few ultra-success stories are come from single business owners. There is always a team behind the success.
Robert Kiyosaki Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad says, “Business and investing are team sports.” It’s hard if you are just starting out as a small business owner because you are trying to make ends meet, but a lot small-businesses go under because they don’t have a team or the RIGHT team in place. The business owners who don’t learn to leverage with a strong team eventually get pushed out of the way by the businesses that learn to leverage teams!
When you are starting to build your business you put in a lot of time and energy and realize you run into this thing called the 24 hour day. You can only do so much. And you quickly learn you can’t do everything (or you don’t figure that out and then you crash and burn). That is why you need to start looking for opportunities to delegate the non-revenue generating activities to someone else so you can focus on growing the business and making money. Don’t waste your time on the things that someone else could be doing for less.
Get in the habit of looking for opportunities to grow your team. Growing a successful team with help you grow your bottom dollar!
Work ON The Business And Not Just IN The Business
One major roadblock a lot of business owner’s face is focus. This can be the lynch pin that separates you from success. Failure to focus on the big picture can be the downfall of many businesses and it doesn’t need to happen.
You hear it all the time from business owners, “No one can do what I do” or “No one can do it as good as I can!” This may very well be true, but this could also ultimately be the downfall of their business. The purpose of a business is to fund the perfect life. I don’t know about you, but becoming a slave to your business does not sound like the perfect life to me. If you have ever read The E-Myth Revisited (and I highly recommend it!) you will learn the importance of taking “you” out of the business as much as possible.
Get yourself in the habit of looking at small ways to remove you and to begin automating and systematizing the process. With the ever growing options in technology, this is becoming easier, faster and cheaper every day. I just met with someone the other day and we were discussing options for her to create a system for some of the follow up processes for her clients. When she realized she could automate a large portion of the process she was ecstatic. This simple act will save her countless hours and reduce her work load. Now she’s free to do what she does best, and that is meet with her clients. (And meet more of them!)
You Must Have A Clearly Defined Business Plan And Theme
I see this all the time… Business owners think they are going to miss out on some business opportunity so they try and get their hands in as many business opportunities as they can. You hear them saying “I need to create multiple sources of income if I want to be rich.”
Don’t get me wrong, having multiple sources of income can be a blessing and a great way to financial freedom, but if not approached correctly, can become a nightmare! A mistake I see a lot is they try and create these multiple streams of income from multiple businesses that have nothing in common. For example, you may find someone trying some network marketing, doing a bit of internet sales and then trying to run a home based business all at the same time.
The reason this seldom works is that they never gain full momentum. In order to really succeed, you need to use leverage, and when you are spread out with a bunch of different business strategies vying for your time and energy, you can never really leverage the businesses correctly (or efficiently).
So what’s the secret? Successful business people “get” the law of momentum. Let’s say you have a passion for writing. You decide to write a book. That’s a great business on its own. But probably not a good fit to leverage with an MLM business. But you COULD leverage that book and create an empire. You could turn it into an e-book, an mp3 download, a work book, a seminar, a coaching program or a self-study course.
Can you see how you could have multiple streams of income but ensure you maximize the momentum by combining similar businesses into one? The key is to get in the habit of focusing on a clearly defined business plan and theme to maximize your efforts.
The Ability To Adapt
People sometimes ask how they can compete with big corporations and box stores. One way to fight back is to use your ability to adapt and change quickly. The hierarchy of corporations tends to slow many of them down when it comes to change. They may invest tens of thousands of dollars into a project and may be slow to change for fear of loss because they committed to the project.
So how can you compete? As a small business owner, you have much more flexibility to change. You can test on a small scale and if you find something that works, you run with it full out. And if it’s not working, you cut it loose and move quickly onto the next project or idea. This freedom allows many small business owners the opportunity to stay ahead and change when needed and can create an advantage over their large corporate competitors.
So make sure you keep up the habit of knowing when it’s time to adapt and change. It could save your business!
Never Stop Learning
I’m not saying you have to stay in a formal education setting for the rest of your life (Or heck, even step foot in a post-secondary education) if you want to be successful. But one thing that truly successful business owners have in common is they never stop learning. If you have ever followed the late Jim Rohn, you probably have heard this great quote “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
The act of continual personal development and gaining specialized knowledge will be the deciding factor between barely scraping by and massive success. Why? Because successful business owners know that the best investment they can make is in them self.
There are countless seminars, e-books, online courses, coaching programs and business books that you can immerse yourself in and stay ahead of your competition and hone your expertise.
This is one of my most favorite habits to master! It should become one of yours too.
Conclusion
So you decided to build your wealth for yourself, now you need to ensure you learn these habits and make them stick. If you want to speed up the process, model yourself after other countless successful business owners who have created these habits for themselves. Start today and watch how quickly success will follow.
To you and your success,
Ryan Smith – Chief Content Creator