How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

By Joel J. Ohman

It seems like a pretty common place thing to hear someone say, “I want to start my own business” or “I should really just be my own boss and go work for myself”. If you are yourself an entrepreneur then you no doubt hear these kinds of statements all the more from others after you tell them what you do: “Oh, yea I had this idea for a business before. I should really start my own business too”.

With so many people talking about becoming an entrepreneur why is there so few people actually doing entrepreneurial things? According to the Kauffman Foundation the rate of entrepreneurial activity in the US is somewhere around 0.30%. This means that while a lot of people talk about starting their own business a relatively small portion of those people actually take action (or remain committed to their entrepreneurship goals for any real amount of time).

The most important step for becoming a successful entrepreneur is to simply take action. Yes, you won’t know all of the details before you begin but if you aren’t comfortable handling ambiguities and “learning as you go” with everything from business insurance to payroll taxes to health insurance then you may want to rethink becoming an entrepreneur. Planning is important but nothing is a substitute for simply taking action and getting started. Here are some practical tips for helping you to simply get started as soon as possible in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

#1 Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

It’s easy for those starting their first business to become overly concerned with all of the periphery of a business rather than concentrating on the business model. Would you rather have a great logo, nice business cards, and a great computer for your new business or would you rather have a bullet proof method of making loads of cash? Sure, you can have both but concentrate on the former while ignoring the latter to your own peril.

#2 Build a System

The great thing about building a system for your business as opposed to just flying by the seat of your pants (or keeping everything “recorded” in your head or in a clutter of paper on your desk) is that systems are scalable, concrete, and repeatable. If you have plans of growing your business then you had better design a system to accommodate that growth. Your system will make it much easier to train employees because it will give concrete measurements of what is expected and how tasks are to be accomplished. Having a system will allow you to delegate and free up a lot of your time as those under you can follow a system rather than constantly use up your time to find out what to do.

#3 Constantly be Learning

This may sound like a somewhat generic step for becoming a successful entrepreneur but it is no less important. Let’s dig a little into the specifics of what “constantly be learning” can actually mean and make this practical.

As an employee it can be easy to fall into a rut of just doing your everyday tasks day in and day out, same old same old. As an entrepreneur this type of thinking can lead to disastrous results. Coasting by while just focusing on rote everyday tasks is a recipe for disaster.

As an entrepreneur you should be a student of not only business principles but also a student of the market that your business is in. Study your competitors, be aware of changing market dynamics, be aware of regulatory changes, and on and on.

Questions

• Why do you think it is that so many people talk about becoming an entrepreneur but very few actually do?

• What is the #1 thing that you would change if you could to make it easier for you to strike out on your own?

• What additional advice do you have for anyone that is looking for guidance on how to become a successful entrepreneur?

Joel J. Ohman is a CFP® and a serial entrepreneur. He owns 4 companies and is currently working on a website that makes it easy for people to do an online car insurance comparison.