by Brandon Boushy
We all start a business because we want to achieve something great, but so many entrepreneurs get lost along the way. We’ll share 107 tips from successful business owners to help you learn what successful business owners do.
We’ve included tips from some of the greatest minds of all time. You’ll find business concepts from philosophers, world leaders, CEOs of major corporations, and some of the most profitable businesses UpFlip has interviewed. We divided the advice into:
- Team building
- Delighting customers
- Learning
- Self-care
- Finances
- Operations.
Get ready to learn what makes the difference between success and failure for small businesses.
Tip 1. Business is Personal
When you’re an entrepreneur, business is personal. You’re the one who makes all the decisions, and you’re the one who takes all the risks. That’s why it’s so important to stay focused and motivated.
Many things can distract you from your business goals, but you have to remember why you started your business in the first place. Stay focused on your vision, and don’t let anyone or anything get in your way.
Mark Cuban agrees:
All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal.
The journey to business success is never easy, but it’s worth it in the end. So keep your head up and stay focused on your goals. Everything else will take care of itself.
Keep that in mind when you read the rest of the tips.
How to be Successful in Business through Self-Care
One critical aspect of business success is making sure you’re taking care of yourself. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you won’t be able to care for your business.
Keep reading for a few tips on how to stay healthy and focused.
Tip 2. Be Fearless
One essential trait of a successful business owner is fearlessness. You have to be willing to take risks and face challenges head-on. If you’re afraid of failure, you’ll never achieve anything significant.
Famed business author, Gary Vaynerchuk, said it best:
I’m not afraid of failure. I’ve been married twice.
Don’t be afraid to take risks and chase your dreams. Just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Otherwise, you’ll just end up disappointed.
Tip 3. Keep a Positive Attitude
One of the most important things you can do to become a successful entrepreneur is stay positive. A positive attitude will help you stay motivated and focused on your goals.
Bad news and setbacks are a part of business today, but it’s how you deal with them that determines whether you succeed in business. Stay optimistic, no matter what happens.
When things get tough, remember what Sir Richard Branson said:
My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, ‘Oh, God, I’ve got to do this today.’
It may not be easy, but it’s definitely worth it in the end.
Tip 4. Eat Healthy Meals
Small business owners have a lot on their plate. New businesses need to focus on sales, marketing, operations, and finances. But one of the most important things they need to do is eat healthily. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables while avoiding processed foods and sugary drinks. This will be a positive influence as you progress into a successful entrepreneur.
Tip 5. Maintain Positive Friendships
Maintaining positive friendships is one of the most important things you can do to succeed in business. Positive friends will help you stay motivated and focused on your goals. They’ll also help you stay healthy and positive.
On the other hand, negative friendships can have a harmful impact on your business. They’ll bring you down and make it difficult to stay motivated.
That’s why it’s important to surround yourself with positive people who will help you achieve your goals.
JCPenney once said:
Toxic environments can be deadly for businesses. A small business is an uphill battle, and toxicity will just make it worse. It can cause those starting a business to fail before they even have a chance. Toxicity can also make it harder to attract the right employees and will often lead to decreased productivity. If you’re running a business, it’s important to watch out for: If you see any of these signs, it’s time to take action and create a more positive work environment. Successful entrepreneurs will recognize the signs before their company gets dragged down with it. That is why leadership qualities are so critical. A successful entrepreneur is always on the go. There’s always a long to-do list and hardly any rest. This can be a great thing, but it can also be problematic. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up burning out when you least expect it. That’s why it’s so important to be patient with yourself. Don’t expect too much from yourself, and give yourself time to rest and relax. If you’re not patient with yourself, you’ll end up frustrated and exhausted. This will lead to decreased productivity and decreased business success. Prepare yourself for success and be patient. Benjamin Franklin said: He that can have patience can have what he will. Being authentic is one of the most important things you can do as you ponder how a successful business gets started. When you’re authentic, people will be able to see your true colors, and they’ll trust your small business more. They’ll also be more likely to do business with you, as they’ll know that you’re a genuine entrepreneur who cares about your customers. When you’re not authentic people will avoid your company. Yves Saint Laurent said it best: The most beautiful makeup is passion, but cosmetics are easier to buy. The Dalai Lama said it best: A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity. Most businesses cannot afford to lose customers, so make sure you are honest about what your small business can do. If you are charging more than other companies, be ready to explain why when you get feedback that what you are asking is too much. One of the best ways to succeed in business is to follow your passion. When you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll be more motivated and focused. Some of the most successful people in business have had a passion or goals that seemed otherworldly. As John Lennon said: You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Go for it with all you have! Maintaining a work-life balance is one of the most important things you can do to become a successful entrepreneur. When you’re balanced, you’ll be more productive and focused. You’ll also be less stressed out and happier. Michell Obama said: We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own to-do list. Remember to find a balance that works for you and stick to it. Here are a few tips: Keep reading for more tips on how to start a successful business. Making each year your best year is a great way to ensure business success. When you’re constantly improving and setting new goals, you’ll be more productive and focused on how to succeed. Judy Garland once said: If we could all be a little more gentle with each other, and a little more loving, have a little more empathy, maybe next year at this time, we’d like each other a little bit more. Here are a few tips for making each year your best year: Keep reading to find out why a successful entrepreneur needs to be gritty to start their own business. Grittiness is one of the most important traits a successful entrepreneur can have. If you’ve got some grit, you’ll be able to keep pushing through when your small business doesn’t quite live up to your business plan. Some of the most successful people in business have held pure grit and determination that seemed otherworldly. As Arnold Schwarzenegger said: You can’t just be a little bit grittier. You have to be gritty all the time. Here are a few tips for being gritty: Don’t quit reading now. That wouldn’t be very gritty! Get ready to become a successful entrepreneur by challenging yourself. One key to business success is challenging yourself. To become a successful entrepreneur, push your limits and see what you’re capable of overcoming. When you do this, you’ll find that you’re able to accomplish more in your small business than you ever thought possible. You’ll also develop new skills and strategies to help you in business. So, don’t be afraid to push yourself. The rewards will be worth it! Saint Francis of Assisi once said: Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and before you know it, you’ll be doing the impossible. Ever noticed how successful entrepreneurs seem to be happier than everyone else? You’re about to find out why. Passion helps you stay motivated when things get tough for your small business. It’s what keeps you going when the road gets rocky. So, if you want to be successful in business, it’s important to live with passion. When you’re passionate about what you do, it shows in your work. If people can see that you’re genuinely invested in your small business, they’ll be more likely to trust you and do business with you. Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs once said: The only way to do great work is to love what you do. That’s the real reason why businesses ask, “Why do you want to work for this company?” The best answer is: Any other answer will not lead you down the path of a successful entrepreneur. One of the most important things you can do for small business success is to trust yourself. Have faith in your abilities, and don’t doubt yourself. When you do so, you’ll be more likely to take risks and put yourself out there. That is the essence of a successful entrepreneur. Thomas Edison once said: That’s how to start a successful business that changes the world. Can you imagine where we’d be today without light or electricity? The website emarketer.com estimates the average American spends nearly 8 hours watching TV or online videos. If you’re spending too much time watching TV, you’re not allowing yourself to succeed. Instead, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. So, try to limit your TV time and use that time to focus on starting and improving your small business. One of the best ways to achieve success in business is to visualize your goals. In doing so, you create a roadmap for yourself, and you’re more likely to achieve your targets. Pablo Picasso once said: Use graphs, tables, or a whiteboard thermometer to measure your progress. See them, draw them, and build the product or service. Like any other art form, business is a creative endeavor, but a successful entrepreneur wears far more hats than an average person. They build more than most think possible. They create a to-do list and mark it off faster. Successful business folks see value in every aspect of the small business. And look to build the right employees even higher through creativity. 1971 Nobel Prize winner for the creation of holography once said: The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented. It was man’s ability to invent which has made human society what it is. We all want our business to be a huge success overnight, but sometimes you need to take baby steps. When you do this, it is easier for everyone, and it takes less time in the end. Lao Tzu wrote: The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Like Forrest Gump, a successful entrepreneur just has to keep going, and eventually, their small business will likely become a success. Add everything to your calendar and review it at the beginning and end of your day. You are less likely to forget important things for your business and your life if you review your calendar daily. Using this approach will show you that this quote by Michael Altshuler (A career coach and keynote speaker) is true: Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: Stay physically fit so you can rise above challenges that may seem insurmountable. When it comes to small business success, staying focused is key. It’s important to create a routine and stick to it. You also need to be organized and have a clear plan for what you want to achieve. George Lucas once said: It’s hard to take vacation time, but it’s necessary to get some time away from work and the office. People in the U.S. work between 200 and 400 hours more than many comparable countries. Take a vacation and buy a burner phone to take with you. The world won’t end. As Oscar Wilde said: Live life with no excuses, travel with no regret. Jack Welch once said: For a large organization to be effective, it must be organized. Start planning for business success early by developing an organizational structure and documenting it so that others can follow your small business organizational structure. There are tons of customer relationship management (CRM) tools to make it easier to organize a small business. Choose which works best for your own business. In addition to staying organized, record keeping and labeling conventions make it easier to find the right information. For online organization, it’s helpful to understand how search engines work so you can create meaningful tags and labels. Watch Google’s YouTube video about how search works below. Use a format like 20210201BrandonsWorkLog. Better yet, automate it where it adds the date at the beginning of every saved document automatically. These small business tips show how successful entrepreneurs empower people and build company culture to create success. These are crucial because even the most successful entrepreneur needs other people. Eventually, it’s good to let someone else run the business with you. You need a great team that believes in your goals. We’ll share nine tips from successful entrepreneurs on how to build teams that will enhance success. It’s important to respect others’ time, especially when it comes to business. Employees work for you because they need to make a living, and they will have outside responsibilities just like you. A successful entrepreneur respects the time people are away from work. Armen from Bicycle Pit Stop told us the most challenging lesson he learned was: Hiring good people. I see now that once you get good people, honor that beyond all else… Honor your people, and never keep disruptive people, no matter how short-staffed you are. Good people HATE lame Coworkers. Check out our blog about how to start a bike shop. Paying them a salary doesn’t mean you own them. It means you have purchased 40 hours of their time. No more. Give them the same work-life balance that you should be giving yourself. Small businesses that demand too much from their staff may hinder the success of sales because employees may look for a new job and be less dedicated. Most people want to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves. A successful entrepreneur knows how to make every role in the organization feel meaningful and has an impact on the world. Create a company that is changing the world. Whether through social work, your main products, or how you treat people. Give your employees a mission that makes them proud to go to work every day. Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great and Built to Last, once said: It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Get his books on Amazon. Entrepreneurs should be able to tell whether someone looks at the company as a job or something of value. Sit down with those who only view your business as a job and ask them what you can do to make the job more enjoyable. Then listen to them. Positive company culture is the key to success. When employees feel good about where they work and what they’re doing, they’re more likely to be productive and happy. Some ways to create a positive company culture are having a clear mission, offering great benefits, and being transparent with communication. You also need to make sure that you end toxic environments as soon as they start. As an entrepreneur, remember to start building your company’s culture from the time you decide you need help in business. Zig Ziglar, the author of Selling 101, said: Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company. There are many businesses out there that improve the lives of others. For example, companies that provide social work or donate to charities. Other businesses may have a great company culture and work to change the world for the better. Sam Houston, former Senator and only person to be Governor of two U.S States, once said: A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under. When it comes to business, it’s not all about profit. There are many ways to help other people and make the world a better place. Find ways to improve lives. It’s worth it. Patience is a virtue, and it’s one that business owners need to have when it comes to their employees. It’s important to be patient with them and understand that they may not always be on the same page as you. In our interview about Kaizen, Paul Akers said: Make it about profit and lose. The real benefits an organization will see when they eliminate waste are happier customers and employees. You’ll also be putting out fewer fires because your organization runs more smoothly. Check it out below: You can take his approach about what annoys you, or you can do what we do at UpFlip and assign a 2-hour weekly personal growth project. Both will help develop patience because you know progress is underway. That’s what success is all about. Small things make a difference and can develop a network. I have heard about restaurants that feed the homeless if they come into their establishments. Small things can make a huge difference. Paul Akers suggests using WhatsApp to leverage technology to help communicate. If an employee has a personal issue, don’t make it about work. Ask how you can genuinely help. They might need an ear to listen, therapy, or time off. Do what you can to make it easier on them. It will pay off in due time. Building a team gradually is important because you don’t want to overload your employees with too much work. When you’re starting a business, it’s important to take things slow and steady. Eric Ries, Author of The Lean Startup, said: Sustainable growth is defined by one simple rule: New customers come from the actions of past customers.” There are many ways to build a team gradually, including: Employee feedback is vital for business owners because it can help them understand what their employees are thinking. This information helps to improve the business owner’s products, services, and company culture. Even Bill Gates wants feedback. He says: Some ways to collect employee feedback include conducting surveys, holding focus groups, and using anonymous feedback forms. It’s also important to act on the feedback that you receive. When hiring employees, ensure that you’re selecting the right people for the job. Consider the skills and experience that they have, as well as their attitude and overall fit for the position. Lee Smith From Urbanity has this to say about hiring boutique employees: When I am hiring employees, I consider whether they seem to fit the style of the clothes we are selling, whether they are pleasant, and whether I trust them. As a small business, trust is big. I don’t have the resources of major corporations to catch people stealing, so I need to trust my employees. Read about this and other input in our blog about how to start a boutique. The next section will cover tips about how successful entrepreneurs delight their customers. Business success is all about customer service. You need to delight them and make them feel valued if you want to retain customers and increase profits. We’ll share 12 tips for delighting your customers. When it comes to business, it’s important to know your target market. This means that you need to understand who your ideal customer is and what their needs are. Peter Drucker, former reporter and creator of one of the first MBA programs, said: You can do this by conducting market research. Read our blog on market research for a deep dive into the subject. A great product or service is enough to delight some customers. Involving customers in the design process is a great way to make sure your products delight customers. When customers complain, business owners should take the time to listen and understand their concerns. This will show them that you care and are willing to make things right. Some ways to handle customer complaints include: My favorite approach is to: I have used this solution hundreds of times to get favorable results for both the customer and the business in multiple industries. Business success hinges on exceeding customers’ expectations. Going the extra mile shows you care. To exceed customer’s expectations: The customer is your #1 priority. As Lee Smith said: I don’t have to be in the stores, but if I’m not, I won’t have my ear to the streets. I get to hear everything customers ask for and talk about, which helps me make better inventory decisions. Getting brands that customers love is what keeps them coming back. If you’ve ever been to a fast-food restaurant and they forgot an item, you know how important this is. It’s disheartening, wastes time, and reduces brand loyalty. Building word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to promote your business. When customers are happy with your products or services, they’ll tell their friends and family. There are a few things you can do to encourage word of mouth marketing: Marketing is the key to business success. You need to reach as many people as possible to increase profits. To expand marketing, you need to: Make your marketing fun and make it personalized to perform better. We go into a lot of detail about marketing with Google Ads on our podcast with one of the team members that started the Google Ads Optimization System. One of the best ways to reach more people and grow your business is to build an online presence. This includes a website, social media profiles, and an email list. Your website should be easy to navigate and include information about your business, products, and services. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly, as most people now browse the web on their phones. Read our blog about how to create a website to learn more. Social media is a great way to connect with customers and promote your business. Create profiles on all the major social networks, and post regularly. Make sure to space out releasing posts, so you don’t blow up their phones with 10 notifications. An email list is a great way to stay in touch with customers and keep them updated on special offers and new products. You can collect email addresses by offering a free download or incentive for signing up. One of the best ways to get more business is to ask for referrals. When customers are happy with your products or services, they’ll be more likely to refer you to their friends and family. There are a few things you can do to encourage referrals: One of the best ways to improve your business is to ask customers for feedback. This gives you a chance to learn what they like and don’t like about your products or services. Follow these best practices when collecting feedback: Share your marketing, tell stories, and provide support through social media. The companies that do it best without making it look robotic tend to get the best results. I know I love using Facebook Messenger when other customer support channels fail. Ninety percent of the time, I get far better success because it gets flagged as I’ve tried on multiple channels. Plus, a customer going to social media for support often indicates it’s about to go public. This section will cover the learning aspect of running a small business. As an entrepreneur, you’ll need to embrace continuous improvement because you’ll be wearing a lot of hats. Keep reading for tips on learning for business owners. As a business owner, it’s important to understand finance to make sound business decisions. You need to know how to read financial statements, manage your cash flow, and make projections. Financial statements show how a business is performing financially and include: Without understanding these, it is harder to manage your expenses. You can do this by monitoring your accounts receivable, accounts payable, and inventory levels. As a business owner, it’s important to develop your leadership skills. This will help you manage your business effectively and make sound decisions. Some things you can do to build your leadership skills include: Learning to sell is an important skill for business owners. You need to sell your products or services to customers and make a profit. You’ll need to: Reading case studies is a great way to become a more successful entrepreneur. Case studies are detailed accounts of how a business succeeded or failed. Reading or watching case studies helps stimulate creativity, improves business strategies management techniques, and provides new ways to handle difficult situations. Great places to find case studies include: Learning to promote yourself is an important skill for business owners. You need to celebrate your successes, share your struggles, and connect with people from a place of confidence and compassion. Networking is key to business success. Here are a few tips on how to network effectively: Knowing more people means more potential customers and more referrals. For those that are introverts, this may be difficult. Just practice interacting. It becomes easier. Successful business owners know there is always more information to gather. Make sure to ask lots of questions, and get information that may not be immediately offered. When running a business, sometimes things don’t go the way you want. That’s okay! It’s important to learn from misadventures and do better next time. That’s why documentation is so important. Lessons tend to fade over time, but if the lessons learned were documented, everyone on the team could refer back when doing research. Research is an important part of successful businesses. Do adequate research to understand your customers, your competition, and the market in which you’re operating. Then do more research to improve your business strategies, products, and services. A successful business can control its costs. This means keeping expenses low and ensuring that the company is making a profit. Keep reading for 20 tips to control costs. Successful business owners know it’s important to have a plan for the business finances. It’s important to know how much money is needed to operate the business, how much to spend, and how much revenue to meet organizational profit goals. Create a budget and track your expenses. Here are a few tips on planning your business finances: Running a business comes with a lot of risks. But, by managing your risks, you can increase your chances of success. Here are a few tips on how to manage financial risks: Managing cash flow is one of the most important aspects of running a business. It’s important to ensure you have enough cash on hand to cover your expenses, but you also don’t want to have too much cash sitting around doing nothing. Here are a few tips on managing your business’s cash flow: When creating a budget for your business, it’s important to plan for the worst-case scenario. For example, arrange your budget based on the assumption that you will not make any money at all. In doing so, you can better ensure that you will have enough money to cover your expenses. Here are a few tips on how to budget for the worst-case scenario: Before buying anything, ask these questions: Just because it is on sale does not mean you should buy it. It just means the seller is trying to get people to buy more of the product or service. If you have any assets that you’re not using or don’t need, you can sell them and use the money to cover some of your business expenses. Here are a few tips on how to sell your assets: Just get rid of them. They consume space that could be better used, depreciate in value, and require more time and energy to manage. When running a business, it’s important to get paid upfront for the services you provide. This helps to ensure that you’re not out of pocket any money if the client decides they no longer want your services. It also helps protect you from clients who may not be able to pay. How to require down payments for services: Many major companies practice Lean manufacturing principles because inventory is costly. If you are storing a bunch of merchandise, sell it. You can cut the price down to as little as $.01 over the cost of goods sold and still make a profit. If you have net-30 loans and the items aren’t selling in 30 days, try to reduce the quantity so you don’t risk paying interest. Then stop carrying the products that weren’t selling well. There’s no point in tying up funds on products that don’t sell. Payments should be paid entirely upfront, except for some dine-in restaurants and service businesses. Whether the payment is through cash, card, third-party financing, an escrow account, or other means doesn’t matter. If you have contracts that specify payment terms, make sure to send an invoice immediately because the terms may have cut-off dates that extend the time between invoicing and the date paid. When running a business, it’s important to make sure you’re doing everything you can to manage the finances. One way to do this is to earn interest on your financial holdings. There are several ways to earn interest, including: If needed, look for vendors that offer payment terms for financing inventory in which you pay the vendor in 10, 30, or 90 days. This lets you shift cash flow from pay first, earn later to earn first, pay later. It may cost more, but it will let you build cash flow, and the profits can be invested into products that sell fast. According to NAV, the easiest way to get net-30 payment plans include: Offer a small discount for paying early. Businesses typically offer a small discount of 1-3% percent if paid within 10 days instead of 30 days. To learn more, check out Tipalti’s article on early payment discounts. If you’re having trouble getting customers to pay on time, there are a few things you can do to attempt to collect payment. Creating subscription plans helps with cash flow. This is because you’re guaranteed to receive payments at regular intervals, which makes planning your business budget easier. Additionally, if you have customers on subscription plans, they’re less likely to cancel, meaning you’ll have a more stable stream of revenue. This can be especially helpful if your business is seasonal or cyclical. Tesla ended its cash flow problems with the Model 3 pre-sale. Tesla pre-sold the Model 3 with a $1,000 deposit when it first launched, generating $276 million in cash flow and nearly $10 billion in forecasted additional revenue. While you most likely won’t have this big of a pre-sale, it can still help with cash flow. Just make sure you keep a portion of it for refund requests. It’s probably a good idea to assume 25% cancellations. When running a business, it can be tough to afford all of the equipment you need. This is especially true if you’re just starting out and don’t have much money saved up yet. One way to save money is to buy used equipment. There are a few things to keep in mind when buying used equipment: Once you’ve taken these things into account, buying used equipment can be a great way to save money. Cautionary Tale: I had a client who took over the lease from a major restaurant closing a store. The deal involved the major chain paying for any repairs to the cooking equipment and HVAC in exchange for the client taking over the building. The repairs and replacements came out to nearly $60K, but that’s far less than the exit clause on a 30-year contract. It came out to be a win-win. The major restaurant paid less than they would have to exit the lease, my client got a building with mostly new equipment, and my company got a nice payday. Make sure to negotiate who pays for scenarios like this, and you might be able to turn a problem into a profit. The barter system has been around for centuries and is a great way to trade goods and services. Here are some of the benefits of the barter system: Business lines of credit can help owners struggling with cash flow concerns. A line of credit is a loan that can be used for any business purpose, such as expanding operations, purchasing inventory, or meeting payroll. This type of loan is different from a regular business loan, which is typically used for a specific purpose. Business lines of credit are unsecured loans, which means that you don’t have to put up any collateral. This makes them a good option for business owners who don’t have any assets to use as collateral. Another advantage of business lines of credit is that they have a variable interest rate, which means that the interest rate will change depending on the prime rate. This can be beneficial for business owners when rates are dropping. Using credit to fund business (or personal) expenses is an expensive way to grow. Unless the credit genuinely makes more money than it costs, you want to pay it off as quickly as possible. Controlling business costs is essential for any successful business. Review expenses for incorrect billing amounts. Review contracts to see if they can be renegotiated. Invest in technology. Sell anything that is not necessary. There will be more examples of how to cut costs in the operational section. Operations management is the process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the activities of a business or organization to achieve desired results. To manage operations successfully, business owners need to be able to: Get ready to read about 31 tips to help manage business operations. Developing partnerships can be a great way to grow your business. When choosing a partner, successful entrepreneurs proceed based on how the merger, acquisition, or partnership can benefit both businesses. Some things to consider when selecting a partner include: Negotiate a partnership agreement that outlines the expectations and responsibilities of both parties, including: The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, is a business principle that states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. This means that business owners need to focus on the tasks that generate the most results. There are several ways business owners can follow the 80-20 rule. Identify the tasks that: Businesses fail when they spread themselves too thin. If you want to be a successful small business owner, know what the company is doing right, and eliminate everything else through outsourcing, discontinuing the products, or selling the underperforming assets. Read the Harvard Business Law Case Study on how General Electric removed its designation as a systemically important financial institution to learn how businesses can remove problematic assets. Taking risks is a key part of being successful in business. When taking risks, you’re putting yourself out there and trying something new. This can be a scary proposition, but it can also be very rewarding. Check out the X Blog to learn about Google’s moonshot factory. This is what Eric Teller has to say about the risks he has to manage: We developed a simple blueprint to help us find ideas that could deliver 10X impact, not just incremental improvement over the status quo: an X project must solve a problem that affects millions or billions of people; it has to have an audacious, sci-fi sounding technology, and there has to be at least a glimmer of hope that it’s actually achievable in the next 5–10 years. To succeed in business today, entrepreneurs often have to act fast. Quickly making decisions can have the following benefits: When you’re trying to be successful in business, it’s important to focus on what is important. Many things can distract business owners from what is important, but by focusing on the essentials, business owners can stay on track. Some tips for staying focused include: Small business owners who can stay focused on what is important will be more successful in the long run. Between 2012-2018, corporate America spent between $20 to 30 Billion on restructuring costs. That’s because successful business owners know that the financial landscape changes, and their businesses should too. The most common business structures are: Each has its benefits and tax consequences for small business owners. Make sure you change your business structure to meet the current challenges. That might mean changing from a Sole Proprietorship to an LLC or from an LLC filing under the personal tax code to the corporate tax code. Work with a corporate law expert and tax consultant to establish what makes sense for your small business each year. Using analytics software is a great way to identify customer patterns. By tracking the data from your customers, you can see what kinds of products they are buying, what services they are using, and where they are located. This information can help you better serve your customers and improve your business’s products and services. Some benefits of using analytics software include seeing: By using analytics software, business owners can gain better insight into the audience their small businesses serve. One of the best ways to make your small business more successful is to make your web assets mobile-friendly. By making your website and other online assets mobile-friendly, it’ll be easier for customers to access your products and services from a phone or tablet. Some benefits of having a mobile-friendly website include: Cloud computing is a great way to store and access your business’s web assets. By using cloud computing, you’ll have access to your files from any computer or device with an internet connection. This can be helpful for business owners who need to access their files while on the go. Some benefits of using cloud computing include: Small business owners should update their business plans regularly. Annual business plan updates are a good way to track the progress of your business and make sure that you are on track. You can even do them quarterly if you want to be more proactive. Successful entrepreneurs know that max performance and optimal performance are not the same thing. In response to a question about the number of weekly hours one should work to change the world, Elon Musk tweeted: Varies per person, but about 80 sustained, peaking above 100 at times. Pain level increases exponentially above 80. In other words, know yourself and how you perform best. To make a business successful, entrepreneurs need to be performing at their peak. Successful entrepreneurs know building steadily is an important part of any business. By building your small business slowly and methodically, you’ll be more likely to avoid any major setbacks or problems. Tips on how to build a business steadily include: Those are just some of the ways to manage business growth. Keep reading to learn how to run a business that consistently becomes more secure. Many business owners focus on growth, but this can be risky. Focusing on security instead can help you avoid any major problems or setbacks. Security means you always have a cushion if something goes wrong. Some small business tips for building security include: When starting a new business, owners often want to cover all portions of the market, which is almost impossible to do. Find a niche and focus on it. This will help you become an expert in your field and attract customers interested in what you have to offer. Some tips for narrowing your niche include: If it’s your first business and you don’t know what aspects of the market most interest you, it’s okay to start wide and narrow the target market as you go. When my significant other and I started our photography company, she did not know which of the opportunities she’d like best, so we took what we could get and established: We eventually decided to focus entirely on outdoor lifestyle shoots for product marketing. Check out one of the pictures below. Successful entrepreneurs know not to enter dying markets. Choosing a market that is shrinking or in decline can be a recipe for disaster. One of the best resources for market growth is the bureau of labor statistics (BLS). The picture below shows you some of the fields with the highest and lowest growth rates. Successful entrepreneurs know that high demand and low supply equals increased revenue and margins. Expanding your business through franchising, opening new locations, and online sales are all great ways to grow your business. By expanding in this way, you’ll be able to reach more customers and increase your profits. Mike Andes told us: One of the mistakes I made when I started franchising was failing to expect a growth of revenue at my other stores because of the increased marketing. This caused me to need to hire more people at my original locations and at the call center. Listen to Mike talk about starting a franchise below. Continuous innovation is important for any business. It is how successful entrepreneurs stay ahead of the competition. Keep up with the latest trends, innovate, and improve your business’s efficiency and productivity. We had a whole section on how successful entrepreneurs delight customers, but raising the bar applies to all aspects of business. Going above and beyond what others do improves your business’s reputation. I view Dan Price, the owner of Gravity Payments, as a leader that goes above and beyond for business stakeholders. He’s most well known for his $75K minimum wage employee setup. During the pandemic, revenue dropped, and the company almost failed. Employees voluntarily reduced their pay to prevent any layoffs. After revenue returned to normal, all employees were rewarded on any pay reduction they took to save the company. That is the impact going the extra distance can make on a business. Price developed so much loyalty that his company was able to survive through employees’ actions. Go the extra distance. It is worth it. Making your business outlive you is important for two reasons. First, it ensures that your business will continue to operate even after you’re no longer able to run it. Second, it allows you to pass down your business to your heirs, ensuring that they can continue running it. There are several things you can do to make your business outlive you: Competitors’ prices are a key aspect of maintaining a clear understanding of your industry. Successful business owners should be watching their competitors’ prices to determine whether they are lowering prices. If you aren’t already, start monitoring the competition and adjust your prices accordingly. Tips for watching your competitors’ prices include: Depending on your industry, this might be easy, but some industries are shady about their product or service pricing. It may help to send a member of your team into the stores to establish what your competition is doing. By observing your competitors’ marketing initiatives, you’ll be able to gain a better understanding of their business and what strategies they are using to attract customers. This can help you develop your own marketing strategies and improve your business’s competitiveness. Some benefits of observing your competitors’ marketing initiatives include learning: Combine this with quarterly and annual reports (for public companies), so you can see what strategies succeed and what strategies are a waste of money. By observing your competitors’ customer service, you’ll see what type of service they provide and how well they achieve customer satisfaction. You might even find some new ways to operate the business. Learning from your competitors’ mistakes is a great way to improve your business. By observing their mistakes, you can learn how to avoid making the same mistakes and succeed faster. Measuring customer acquisition costs is important for business owners because it allows them to see how much money they are spending on acquiring new customers. This information can help business owners make more informed decisions about their marketing strategies. Some benefits of measuring customer acquisition costs include: To measure customer acquisition costs, you need to collect customer data. Without data, entrepreneurs cannot identify return customers from new customers. You can use loyalty programs or analytics software to collect the data. Customer lifetime value is a measurement of the total revenue or profit attached to each client throughout a relationship. This metric is valuable to business owners. While some entrepreneurs claim to treat everyone the same, the sales you get from each customer should impact how you solve problems if they arise. Some benefits of measuring customer lifetime value include: Most businesses collect this data on a macro level, while the most successful entrepreneurs can easily identify how much each customer is worth, how often they spend money with them, how much the business spent on maintaining the relationship, and all customer feedback that has ever been given. Emailing and texting prospects are great ways to reach out to potential customers. By sending them personalized messages, you can increase the chances of them becoming a customer, especially if you are a smaller business. According to Campaign Monitor, cart abandonment emails can turn 10% of forgotten carts into purchases. It’s even higher if they are staged at rational intervals. You’ll obviously need analytics for this. You can also use remarketing on social media to gain similar results. Emailing and texting current customers can help keep them informed about your business. By sending personalized messages, you can increase the chances of them remaining a customer. Small businesses can use emails and text messages to: Emailing past customers can help keep them informed about your business. By sending them customized messages, you can increase the chances of them returning as a customer. A successful entrepreneur might use emails to: Making hard decisions is something that business owners have to do on a regular basis. By making tough decisions, business owners can improve their business’s chance of success. Whether it’s firing a toxic employee, canceling an underperforming product line, or deciding to contact a professional sales team, successful entrepreneurs are willing to make the tough calls. Most successful businesses have an owner that understands Lean business processes are needed to succeed in business today. By eliminating waste, business owners can improve the profitability of their business. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. Paul Akers has been a Lean practitioner for over 25 years, and he still finds new ways to improve. Check out our playlist about Lean manufacturing to learn how successful entrepreneurs succeed by finding better ways to run a business. At this point, you have 107 startup business tips to help you learn how to become an entrepreneur. Test out the ones you like best, and come back later for a few more. We hope this list of tips help you on your entrepreneurial journey. We love customer feedback. Give us some input below. What topics would you like to see in UpFlip blogs?Tip 6. Recognize Toxic Environments
Tip 7. Be Patient with Yourself
Tip 8. Be Authentic
Tip 9. Be Transparent
Tip 10. Follow Your Passion
Tip 11. Maintain a Work-Life Balance
Tip 12. Make Each Year Your Best Year
Tip 13. Be Gritty
Tip 14. Challenge Yourself
Tip 15. Live with Passion
Tip 16. Trust Yourself
Tip 17. Reduce TV Time
Tip 18. Visualize Your Goals
Tip 19. Create
Tip 20. Put One Foot in Front of the Other
Tip 21. Maintain Your Calendar
Tip 22. Get Some Exercise
Tip 23. Stay Focused
Tip 24. Use Your Vacation Time
Tip 26. Stay Organized
Tip 27. Keep Records of Everything
Empowering Your People
Tip 28. Respect Others’ Time
Tip 29. Build Something Meaningful
Tip 30. Build a Positive Company Culture
Tip 31. Improve Others’ Lives
Tip 32. Be Patient with Others
Tip 33. Help Others
Tip 34. Build Your Team Only as Fast as You Can Train Them
Tip 35. Ask for Feedback from the Team
Tip 36. Hire the Right People
A Successful Business Delights Customers
Tip 37. Know Your Target Market
(Quote edited to use non-discriminatory pronouns.)Tip 38. Have a Great Product or Service
Tip 39. Listen to Complaints
Tip 40. Exceed Everyone’s Expectations
Tip 41. Focus on Customer Service
Tip 42. Deliver What You Promise
Tip 43. Build Word of Mouth
Tip 44. Expand Marketing
Tip 45. Build an Online Presence
Tip 46. Ask for Referrals
Tip 47. Ask for Feedback from Customers
Tip 48. Use Social Media to Communicate
To Make a Business Successful: Never Quit Learning
Tip 49. Understand Finance
Tip 50. Develop Leadership
Tip 51. Learn How to Sell
Tip 52. Read Case Studies
Tip 53. Promote Yourself
Tip 54. Network
Tip 55. Ask Questions
Tip 56. Learn from Failure
Tip 57. Do Research
A Profitable Business Controls Costs
Tip 58. Plan Finances
Tip 59. Manage Risks
Tip 60. Manage Cash Flow
Tip 61. Plan Your Budget Based on the Worst-Case Scenario
Tip 62. Only Spend on Necessities
Tip 63. Sell Unused or Un-Needed Assets
Tip 64. Require 10-50% Down Payments for Services
Tip 65. Sell Excess Inventory
Tip 66. Bill Immediately
Tip 67. Earn Interest
Tip 68. Use Net 10-30-90 Vendor Payments
Tip 69. Incentivize Early Payments
Tip 70. Collect Unpaid Accounts
Tip 71. Create Subscription Plans
Tip 72. Pre-Sell Products
Tip 73. Buy Used
Tip 74. Barter
Tip 75. Get a Business Line of Credit
Tip 76. Only Use Credit in Emergencies
Tip 77. Cut Business Costs
Successful Entrepreneurs Know How to Run Business Operations
Tip 78. Develop Partnerships
Tip 79. Follow the 80-20 Rule
Tip 80. Take Risks
Tip 81. Act Fast
Tip 82. Focus on What Is Important
Tip 83. Use the Right Business Structure
Tip 84. Use Analytics Software to Know Where You Get Customers
Tip 85. Go Mobile
Tip 86. Use Cloud Computing
Tip 87. Update Your Business Plan
Tip 88. Operate at Optimal Performance
Tip 89. How to Grow a Business: Build Steadily
Tip 90. How to Focus on Business Security over Growth
Tip 91. Narrow Your Target Market
Tip 92. Don’t Enter Shrinking Markets
Tip 93. When Ready, Grow Outside Your Geographic Area
Tip 94. Continuous Innovation
Tip 95. Go Above & Beyond
Tip 96. Make Your Business Outlive You
Tip 97. Watch Competitor Pricing
Tip 98. Watch Competitor Marketing
Tip 99. Observe Competitor Customer Satisfaction
Tip 100. Observe Competitor Errors
Tip 101. Measure Customer Acquisition Costs
Tip 102. Measure Customer Lifetime Value
Tip 103. Email or Text Prospects
Tip 104. Email or Text Current Customers
Tip 105. Email Past Customers
Tip 106. Make Hard Decisions
Tip 107. How to Run a Successful Business: Operate Lean
Meet the operational needs
