To Be An Entrepreneur Think Like One

Merriam-Webster Online defines an entrepreneur as “One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” But how does one become an entrepreneur?

Everything we do involves some kind of learning curve. To think like an entrepreneur is no different. It contains a number of elements that have to be developed by utilizing techniques others have discovered and used successfully. Here are a few things you must attach to yourself in order to THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR. Thinking like one is the starting point for becoming one.

Entrepreneurs know how to control fear of failure, rejection, and other business reversals. They view these events as challenges to their abilities and relish the chance to prevail in the face of disaster.

It’s often hard for home-based entrepreneurs to think in terms of a very large picture. The prospect of a six-figure income is awfully remote if one is worried about $5 to eat tomorrow. But successful entrepreneurs always see the big view. They don’t ignore small details, because these must be satisfied. But striving for grandiose and seemingly unattainable goals develops entrepreneurial abilities and very often helps successful people attain lofty goals.

People don’t want to take risks if they can help it. This is ingrained and causes a person to remain at a job they absolutely can’t stand because they fear losing what little they actually have. An entrepreneur must take some risk, so they have to mentally condition themselves not to fear taking risks. Successful entrepreneurs willingly take risks; they constantly test the water’s depth to see what is under the water. Continuous testing eventually uncovers successful ideas helping you develop plans that work for you in your own environment. No matter what the results of your testing may be, never ever give up. 

That is the only sure way to fail!

A significant cost of every successful business is adequate training. Successful business people believe they should invest in every kind of learning feature they can find. Why would people already wildly successful participate in training programs when they are proficient in most business areas already? Why would they continue to pay big bucks for this training? Most of them expect to learn some little thing they don’t already know. They are continuing to learn in order to excel even more than they are now doing. The most successful people are on a lifetime learning plan.

The entrepreneurial spirit requires a successful person to share information with those around them. A tendency for many is to believe that keeping knowledge to themselves ensures a competitive advantage. The contrary is true. There is a “universal principle” that generally says “the more you give the more you get.” Become known as a free giver and you can expect to receive a lot of help when you ask for it from other knowledgeable people. Give and you will surely get!

Some people, even though they are in business to make a profit, have a mental set against making big money. This idea probably comes from the cultural training received through churches and our educational system. When the idea of “it is better to give than to receive” is constantly beaten into our heads throughout the formative years, it becomes difficult to imagine it’s O.K. to make large profits. One way to work through this is to always ask a price that is just as fair to you as it is to your buyer.

Shyness is not accepted by entrepreneurs. Everyone has people they know who for some reason intimidate them. Perhaps they are perceived as super successful, very wealthy, or they have some other awe-invoking cloak around them. These are the very people who can help you most and you need to ask them for whatever help you need. You may not get a favorable reply every time, but you will get enough to make it worth the trouble to try. Don’t be afraid of anyone. These people have the same hopes and dreams you have; they just may have been able to accomplish their goals sooner than you.

Take a chance. That is a basic job of an entrepreneur. It may cost a little money to try new ideas. By all means available insure there are some funds set aside to go out on a limb and try something very different. Doing the same old thing encourages mediocrity. Because change is ongoing if you don’t grab the first plane that flies by with a new idea there may never be another one. Some of your testing will not work at all, but some will turn up successful ideas beyond your wildest dreams.

Do everything you can to expand the world in which you move. If you are home-based or any small entrepreneur, you live in very restrictive environment. If you remain in this small world, the things you accomplish will also be relatively small. The most successful people will do everything they can to expand their network of contacts. Start creating more involvement with family, friends, and neighbors. Take advantage of seminars and other educational opportunities outside your normal surroundings. Interaction with your network will encourage you to do new things and thus achieve much more than you could by remaining secluded within you normal surroundings.

The idea of outsourcing tasks is increasingly seen as a wise move for even the smallest home-based enterprise. Why is this? One reason for going into a home-based business is to cut expenses; doesn’t this mean the entrepreneurs do everything for themselves? The answers are “Yes” and “No.” While keeping expenses, low the wise entrepreneur realizes the money is to be made pursuing your business idea and goals. Many business-related functions, such as web design and promotion, require investing time in an extensive learning curve. Each person has a strictly limited amount of time. No one can do everything. So the successful operators, no matter how small, will seek to outsource time-consuming functions best done by others. The job of the entrepreneur is to get the best outside people they can afford.

Every business operator must strive to know all there is to know about their field. Online retailers will need to read books about how their products work; they may have to attend seminars on product functions; and they must visit trade shows to keep up with current developments. The same is true for writers, consultants, Internet services, or whatever else anyone does with their small business. These things cost money, as do office equipment and supplies, advertising, and everything else needed for daily operations. This brings us to the point every successful entrepreneur will realize: you must spend money to make money!

Success as an entrepreneur requires passion, very strong feelings, about what you are doing. This ultimately will mean you love what you are doing and actually have fun every day as opposed to hating to get up in the morning. When I had to concentrate on all the self-help ideas I ever studied to literally force myself to go to work, I knew it was time to do something else. Many self-employed people have come to this same conclusion. In order to survive after losing their job, some entrepreneurs will start businesses they really don’t like. One or two successful people I have interviewed said they aren’t really passionate about their current business. But they also said they plan to do something they enjoy as soon as they can. You must have passion and consider your business fun in order to do what successful entrepreneurs do.

Most entrepreneurs agree it is best if you can use ideas people are already successfully using rather than inventing your own new way to do the same thing. That’s a very good move. But the successful entrepreneur will avoid copying others to the extent that their ideas become yours. If your business is just like all others in your field, why would anyone choose you over the original pioneers you have copied? By all means use methods and ideas developed by others. You will waste much valuable time if you try to invent everything yourself. But stay focused on YOU and use information from others in your way, not theirs.

Whether you believe in luck or not, you need to seize the moment and pursue your idea right now. You don’t know everything about your new project, but you can learn as you begin to build your new business. Don’t investigate and analyze every possible outcome before taking action. You will lose your opportunity by over-studying it.

Realize that your time is extremely valuable. Giving away or wasting time is doing away with irretrievable parts of your life. You don’t know how much time you may have, so your time also has an urgency value. Do what you must right now and always consider your life’s value.

Nothing in any industry is like it used to be. In fact many industries exist that were not known at all two or three years ago. The future is uncertain and will be full of changes as well. This unknown environment will produce far different actions among business leaders, depending on their positive or negative views of the facts. Main frame and mini-computer manufacturers declined and most disappeared at the same time Intel, Microsoft, and others established mammoth profitable companies. The entrepreneur’s job is creation of something valuable out of almost nothing. The entrepreneur must focus on positive details and act accordingly.

Entrepreneurial activities exist for the purpose of creating and retaining customers who will buy products or services at a profit. Successful business owners never stop thinking about their customers. Customer service is high on the priority list of ways to keep people buying the things you offer. Many companies offer very poor customer care; the observant entrepreneur will find niche markets in the problems of other businesses.

You must have a clear view of exactly how you want your business to operate and exactly how the business will help your customers. This view should be articulated clearly in some kind of mission statement. This mission may be altered as necessary, but it should always remain the point where you intend to take your business. If the mission is completely accomplished, the entrepreneur will then develop some new goal for which to strive.

Ability to gather, analyze, and act upon information critical to your company is another required trait of an entrepreneur. Critical knowledge areas are management, marketing, and money. The successful entrepreneur spares no effort in finding what needs to be known about each of these areas. This requires a continuing mental process of collecting and thinking about new information related to the business.

All these entrepreneurial characteristics may be summed this way: entrepreneurship carries a willingness to confront and dispute prevailing thinking about anything. It also implies a willingness to constantly take risks and test new ideas, even if failure is probable.