Useful tips for budding entrepreneurs. Tips for Startup Entrepreneurs 4 Tips for Startup Entrepreneurs

Andrew Griffiths

Andrew Griffiths is an unusual businessman. Parents left him six months after birth, so Andrew does not know the exact date of his birth. A difficult childhood did not stop Griffiths from realizing his own dreams. Now he is a well-known business coach and consultant helping entrepreneurs earn the coveted million. His portfolio includes speeches at the Million Dollar Round Table, TEDx and 11 best-selling marketing and entrepreneurship conferences.

1. Do not listen to skeptics

Andrew Griffiths admits: most of his friends from the marketing world were adamant and advised not. However, he ignored skeptical remarks and did what he wanted. The first book was nevertheless written and published. It has become commercially successful worldwide and has brought Griffiths popularity and wealth. Since then, he has published 10 more bestsellers.

2. Pursue your goals

Getting out of bed in the morning, you should clearly know why you are doing this. Test your goals and aspirations daily. Sometimes you will feel your desires change. In this case, you must definitely find out why this is happening.

Your daily activities should be organized in accordance with a global goal. If it changes, then your schedule too.

3. Do not make common mistakes

Modern entrepreneurs are impatient and often give up long before their business is successful. You need to find your niche and do everything to occupy it. Then the business will work.

Another common mistake: entrepreneurs do not talk about themselves and their business. But many consumers want to know all about it.

By the way, Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president of retail and e-commerce, also speaks about the importance of the story about her own company:

As the world becomes more complex and connected at the same time, stories get an amazing ability to educate, unite and inspire. I believe that with the tools of the digital age in service, the future of storytelling can be even richer and more significant than its past.

Andrew Griffiths advises: you need to realize how your business is different from any other, and tell your customers about it to stand out among others.

4. Think of problems as opportunities.

The problem should be regarded as a new opportunity. But you need to be prepared for this. Identify bad scenarios and find out how you can respond to them in each case. What will be the biggest damage? Maybe your company will only get better in a disaster? You should not consider it as a sign that your business should change. You need to learn how to use critical situations for the development of your company.

When I was 20, I lost $ 50,000. A little later I realized that it was an investment in the future, which would save me a fortune in a few years.
Andrew Griffiths

5. Do not forget about reputation

Honesty and a good reputation are very important for an entrepreneur: they will feed you. Therefore, be careful when choosing partners. Respect people. Constantly . Lay the foundation for future steps and perspectives. Be patient. Make acquaintances.

Help people get what they want, and they will definitely give you what you want.

6. Learn to empathize

Put yourself in the shoes of other people. Think not about yourself, but about how to help people listening to you. Before you start talking, ask yourself what you can do for your interlocutor.

11 commandments of a novice entrepreneur

Readiness

Readiness for business ... This is such a state ... When you understand that you want it or when you decide that you want to work for yourself and only for yourself. When you will not plow days and nights at some uncle .. When you are ready to devote yourself to this business ... When you are ready to face problems. When you live an idea, when you breathe it - then you are ready ...

Confidence

Confidence in the idea. In your future business. What you want to open must be successful. It cannot be otherwise. When you definitely tell everyone interested, all employees, friends - YES, I will do it. YES, I will definitely do it. And only then take the idea. If you are not ready to speak, if you are not sure, do not even try. If the idea of \u200b\u200bfixation in your brain, accompanied by the words - I want or it seems to me that I will do it - is not the case. When you are burning with an idea, when you are confident in it, then take it.

Enterprise

You must be a non-worker. You must be a businessman. You have to organize a business. You must lead people along. You should see an entrepreneur in you. Feel it through conversation and business. You have to see ideas, you have to take everything you need ... You have to be ideological. You have to be adventurous. Remember this.

Responsibility

Business needs money. You must realize that this is a huge risk. You should not take money without realizing that this is a huge responsibility! Many people around me committed suicide because of debts. This breaks marriages. Friends are lost from this, relatives turn away. If you take money, you must give it away. Please understand that this is a huge responsibility and that it is a huge risk! Do not borrow if you are not sure about 100% repayment. Is it dangerous.

Awareness

You must know your sphere. I must understand what it is and how it works. It’s great if the business is your favorite. You understand this. You know loopholes ... Imagine a grandmother who wants to engage in web design rather than sewing. Not so simple.

Business plan

No matter how it seems to you that everything is so simple, clear and wonderful - you are obliged to write a business plan or its semblance ... A brief strategy. If you do not have a business plan, open a business - you will make a big mistake. Without an action plan - do not do this. You must know your customers. Must see the big picture. How silly it would not look - write. That's better.

Friends

Do not take friends to your staff. You will understand your mistake as soon as you do it. Friends will not fit the job as wage workers. Friends will not cope. Friends will want more than others. Friends can put pressure on you. Friends will pull your company down. You cannot fire them out of a sense of duty. If you hire a friend, you will make a big mistake. An old true saying: "if you want to lose a friend, give him a loan." So it is here. Do not take friends. You can cooperate with them, but not take them into the staff.

Honesty

If you are a good partner, you can rely on you. You do everything on time, you don’t let anyone down, you don’t throw anyone. Partners will stay with you. They will repay, rather, the same. Do not throw! You said you did. Keep your words! And people will reach for you. But all the same, do not forget that in business they “throw” and “bred” everyone ... Caution never bothers.

Thrift

Do not spend all the money. If the company brings amazing income - do not get used to it. It may just be some kind of luck, temporary success, or just a sucker client. If you own a company, you need better clothes. Entertainment is more expensive. The car is cooler. You will pursue this. In this pursuit, you will forget about business. And if he will bring even less - you will consider that life is over. And remember - "it’s easier to earn than to save."

Saving

Not that you are taught in high schools !!! the idea is sucking wrong! We are imposed the opinion that a company means when there is a corporate culture, when everywhere there is a Euro-repair, white walls, new furniture and cool equipment! All wrong! Save! No need for cool equipment! All to a minimum! Why offices for workers? Basements, Pentium1, ordinary pennies students. Here are the realities of the business. There will be no cool company. Everywhere you need to save! All to a minimum!

Distance

You cannot be friends with your own employees. Keep the distance. Keep them close to you. You are in charge. You are the boss, you are the director. For example, you can not switch to "you". In my opinion, this will elevate you, and employees will feel an ever greater responsibility.

I hope you read these tips and more fully see the picture of the business world. If you have only one desire, this is not a business. Use the tips. Take this seriously.

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Each businessman sleeps and sees how to improve the work of his enterprise. But not everyone can clearly articulate exactly what indicators can be used to judge that the enterprise has become successful.

Very often, active and confident people come up with ideas to open their own business. And not in vain - energy for action, experience and the desire to change life for the better do not allow such people to be content with little. But not all ideas turn into goals achieved.

Various factors stop: a person realizes what responsibility he will have to take, or he is faced with strong competitors, adverse market conditions and other difficulties. Over time, ideas to start your own business remain only ideas.

We have prepared a selection of practical tips for budding entrepreneurs who will help you succeed and see the most positive aspects of this type of activity. Speaking of the positive, we mean an unlimited opportunity to create: in your own company you can build a unique corporate culture, set the pace of work, promote the development of your employees, establish valuable contacts and so on.

1. First, take money as a holistic flow, without focusing on issues of profitability.
Providing a good gross income, you will get a decent net profit. Setting up a system is the first challenge to a person opening his own business, and you can already make adjustments and improve processes along the way.

2. Do not expect a sharp, miraculous jump in profit.
There are no jackpots in the business; here you have to move forward daily in small steps, investing time and effort in future profits.

3. Do not pause in movement towards your goal.
No breaks! Yes, there will be setbacks, but they are not a reason for a timeout, but rather the opposite. More movement, activity, continuous search for customers and partners. Such activity will sooner or later “shoot”.

4. In matters of business, listen to the people who practiced it, not in words.
As an adviser, only experts who know this kitchen from the inside are suitable for you. Only a person with personal experience in entrepreneurship can give valuable advice to a novice businessman.

5. Be persistent in business.
Have chosen a course - move along it, because excessive variability in decisions will only harm the result. In addition, not adhering to your own stated ideas, you will create embarrassment and misunderstanding among your employees. And if you had to change plans for objective reasons, be sure to inform your colleagues about this. You should have one main goal (known to your employees) that you need to focus on.

6. From now on, optimism is your life partner.
Maintain a positive attitude and belief in success in any situation. Only with a positive person is the team ready to perform real feats! Infect others in a good mood. A healthy team atmosphere is very important for the profitability and success of the company.

7. Make friends with innovation.
In any business, they are the key to prosperity. Understand the technologies and innovations from your field, be on a short foot with the developers or manufacturers of your product. So information about future trends will come to you first hand. Offering your customers only the demanded services and products, you will be one step ahead of the competition. And this is a direct road to leading market positions.

8. Communication is at the forefront.
Communicate with customers as much as possible. Let them convey to you their desires about what your product / service should be like. Hear them. In addition, communicating with your target audience directly, you form a positive attitude towards your person and your brand. Feedback is provided to you, and you can look at it from a practical point of view. Who will refuse free marketing research?

9. Test any idea before implementation.
Explore, collect data, study figures and facts, make presentations in front of the team - create a powerful information field around a new product or service. So you can identify and fix potential problems at an early stage.

10. Arm yourself with the legal framework.
Knowing the laws is a powerful privilege that will protect you from many difficulties and help to defend your rights. Faced with various government agencies, you will not allow them to dictate their conditions. If there is no desire to delve personally into all the subtleties of jurisprudence, then buy this knowledge - hire a lawyer.

Yes, the path of beginning entrepreneurs is not easy. But own business gives freedom of choice: how to live, how much to earn, when to relax, how much to work. Trust your instincts, do not lower your arms halfway - and achieving any goal will only be a matter of time.

Natalya Churkova,Commercial Director and owner of the company "Project Studio" Our City ", Smolensk

What questions will you find answers in this article

Why is it important to love the product you sell
Should small companies establish close relationships with employees
How to motivate the sales department to strive to fulfill the established plan without reminders

A little over 10 years ago, my husband and I decided to devote ourselves completely to your business. We already had a company, but it did not grow as fast as we would like (due to hired work, we did not devote maximum time to it). Of course, it was scary to quit and lose a stable income. The circumstances pushed us: a replenishment was planned in our family, we waited for the twins and understood that there was no time to think - it was obvious that the first time the family’s income would not only not increase, but would also decrease sharply due to investments in a new office, etc. Looking ahead I’ll say that we made the right decision and achieved what we were striving for: independence. I’ll tell you about the principles that helped us.

Principle 1. Choose products and a field of activity that bring you moral satisfaction.We started with the development of sites to order. It was a distant year 2005, and the topic for a small regional city with 360 thousand inhabitants was not clear to everyone. At that time, the sites had units of local enterprises, and even more so, no one really knew how to make money with their help. I had to get through with this idea to the directors, explain to them how you can get profit from the web resource. The studio bore fruit, but almost all of the income went to salaries for programmers, designers and sales managers. And after a couple of years, too many started to create sites. It became difficult to compete with freelancers.

Then we began to look for a new idea. I needed a product related to our favorite field of information technology. It was at that moment that we learned about the BSA "System Glavbukh" and agreed to meet with its developers - representatives of the Aktion Publishing Holding. Doubts were until his arrival in Moscow. The fact is that we both started working in a company selling a similar monopoly product - then it seemed to me that to compete with it was an adventure. However, the meeting with Aktion employees convinced the opposite. I realized that we found what we needed. At that time (in 2009), the BSS “Glavbukh System” needed improvements and, like any new product, found its way. But there was a fresh idea in it, and I felt that I could charge her team, they would love the product, which means they would sell it well. I was right. For six years of work in the Smolensk market, we have reached such a client base that sellers of a competing system have been developing for more than 15 years. Of course, everything didn’t go easy at once: in the first three months we didn’t make a single sale, and at the same time we paid salaries to employees. We were helped by the readiness for the fact that for the first six months or a year a business can be unprofitable: we formed an airbag by developing sites.

6 rules for choosing a partner who will ensure sales growth while diversifying a business

Principle 2. Quickly identify problems and solve them.Mistakes will always be! It is important to quickly correct them. This is the key to success. For example, after a year of work, we were faced with the problem of a large outflow of customers. The fact is that customers gain access to the BSS “System Glavbukh” for a certain period (for example, for a year) and our task is to convince them to renew their subscription for the next period. We could not understand why customers refuse to re-subscribe. Customers like the product, there are no complaints about the quality, the price is competitive, but people are returning to their old suppliers. Then we began to interview customers, offered them to fill out questionnaires. We found out a paradoxical thing: our main advantage, which we were proud of, turned out to be a weak spot. The BSA “Glavbuh System” was the first product on the help systems market that could not be installed directly on the user's computer — access to it could be done remotely through the website www.1gl.ru. This gave, in our opinion, two advantages. Firstly, the user was not attached to the workplace and could access the necessary information wherever there is Internet. Secondly, the system was updated on the site daily and automatically, customers did not have to wait for the weekly arrival of the support manager. Many really liked this at the stage of purchasing the product, but then the same paradox occurred when the client began to consider the advantages as disadvantages. The fact is that over many years of work, users are accustomed to the fact that system support specialists come to them and that they can discuss their issues with them once a week, talk, and just drink tea! And it was this warm, friendly communication that customers valued more than a product. We even heard reproaches from inaction from some companies. We were told: “Previously, a person came to us once a week and brought news, but you just call and no one has ever come to us in three months!” A similar opinion is characteristic of the regions. And if the telephone customer support scheme worked perfectly in Moscow, it failed miserably with us. We had to ride and drink tea!

How to solve the problem. To admit, we were not ready for such a turn. In addition to maintaining the sales department, the support service seemed illogical, given the technical capabilities of the product and its automatic update. But later we realized that the creation of such an escort department is simply necessary, the product developers came to this decision, setting the standards for customer support. Now we have it: its employees go to customers and really drink tea there. In addition, the specialists of this service record in the questionnaire the date of birth of key subscribers of the company, the birthday of the company, professional holidays, etc. At the beginning of each month, we approve the list of congratulations and deliver "good mood" (gifts). A small monthly budget has been allocated for this, especially for March (most of our subscribers are women) and December. Since our company has the status of a “Golden Partner”, from time to time we receive interesting gifts from Aktion, as a rule, these are some designer items that are exclusively created for our customers.

Principle 3. Appreciate employees, but do not consider them family. As James Goodnight (General Director of SAS Institute and the best American employer of 2010) said: “Every evening, 95% of all my company's assets are driven home by car. My task is to create such working conditions that the next morning all these people have a desire to return. ”

Do not go away from uncomfortable questions of employees. Then subordinates will trust you and will not fail. So, I constantly collect feedback from employees, often arrange contests of ideas to improve the work of the company. Once, an employee asked me a question why we have no material motivation for my seniority. Soon we introduced the award for the number of years worked. And many have been working with us for four years or more, and this award is significant for them.

We also had a problem with the loss of documents when transferring them from department to department. Most of all, the customer support specialists were outraged (they have fines for the loss of documents). During the next outrage, I invited the employee to write to me how she sees the system of storage and transfer of customer contracts. The emotions of subordinates immediately waned, and in the morning I received a letter with concrete proposals, which I later implemented. All that was needed was to introduce the rule that when removing an agreement from a shared folder, one should put a piece of paper with the name of the one who took the documents to work. The mistake of most managers is that they do not want to notice small discontent, to spend time on it, which is always not enough, namely because of these trifles, then the work of the whole unit collapses at the most inopportune moment.

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Remember that all subordinates are just hired employees. And tomorrow they can leave, because somewhere they will be offered better conditions. One must always be prepared for this and not let it pass through oneself as a personal drama. And know in advance how to quickly solve the problem. To do this, the company should always have a personnel reserve for key positions.

Principle 4. Do not take work home and do not work on weekends.I am often asked whether there is time for myself and for rest at such an intense pace of work. It remains! Yes, my husband and I are workaholics: we come to the office first, we leave last. However, I have a rule: do not take work home and do not work on weekends. Because first of all, I’m mom. I spend evenings and weekends with my three children. Three years ago we realized a long-held dream - we completed a house that without a successfully developing business would have been impossible. We love to travel and have already visited many countries, which also became possible thanks to our own profitable business. You can’t leave your business for a long time, so our holidays are usually short - 7-10 days, but 2-3 times a year.

10 tips for budding entrepreneurs

Believe in yourself. Whatever you are told, listen to yourself.

Read books on how successful people built a business. They always have something to borrow. And most importantly - you will see that the greatest ones also had falls and disappointments, and not the one who was not mistaken won, but the one who knew how to correct mistakes and prevent them. One of the last books that inspired me is the biography of Steve Jobs, written by Walter Isaacson.

Plan. Get the rule "not a day without a plan." Plan your store purchases, weekend activities, work cases.

Connect with successful people. Those who have not achieved anything in life will not teach you anything, rather they will envy. The main thing is to remember that success is not measured only in money. Where do I find new friends? Due to the nature of the work, I often have to communicate a lot, even on vacation, I enjoy talking to new friends because I never know where an interesting person will meet on your way.

Do not waste time on envy. This empty feeling inherent in weak people, in addition, it takes a lot of energy. If someone is doing something better than you, analyze why this happens, draw conclusions, learn from experience and act!

Hire employees, but try to have a minimum of partners. Very often at the initial stage it is scary to take responsibility for a new business, and we take someone to help as a partner. But if you work intensively, but your partner doesn’t, you will soon feel disappointed. Meanwhile, the business is already common, and it will have to be divided. At this stage, unfortunately, many companies are collapsing.

Pay great attention to working with people. Think of a motivation system - this is a key point: people work for an idea only if they are satisfied with their salary. Everyone should know how much and what he needs to do to get a certain amount. We are all lazy by nature, so every sales manager knows that according to the sales funnel, he needs to make 50 product presentations per month in order to get the planned five sales. Everyone knows, but until we introduced a bonus for the implementation of the presentation plan, not a single seller did the right amount. In the second month, only three out of ten made the plan; in the third month, only one manager did not fulfill this plan.

Count the expenses. Keep the most detailed costing of all expenses. Start with household. Accustom yourself to consider how much you spend, and you will see where it is rational to save. This should be a habit.

Set specific goals with deadlines. The theory of small cases is, in my opinion, a very effective tool for self-organization and self-motivation. You encourage your employees, and who will praise you? Only you, therefore, you should set goals for yourself, achieve them and be sure to praise yourself for it!

Have a rest! No matter how interesting your business is, and no matter how long it takes, do not forget about the holidays and loved ones who are waiting for you at home. Do not deprive yourself of the joys of life. Since salary day was not a day of income for you, but a day of expenses, you also need to encourage yourself!

reference

LLC "Project Studio" Our City "

Field of activity: website development; sale and support of BSS “Glavbukh System”

Number of staff: 40

Annual turnover: 16 million rubles (in 2014)

Using text and social science knowledge, formulate four tips for a new entrepreneur starting a business.

Over the past 250 years, mankind has managed to significantly increase production and improve the quality of life. And now the economic progress of society is opening up more and more effective ways of turning the resources at its disposal into desired goods and services. But this does not abolish the fundamental law - a person still experiences and will experience a deficit. Resources in the world are limited, and human desires are endless. And, since it is impossible to have everything that you want, you have to choose.

If we use labor, machines, natural resources to produce any one product, this forces us to abandon other goods that could be produced in a different situation. This choice in a market economy is carried out by consumer demand and production costs. Demand for goods is a consumer signal indicating to the entrepreneur what should be produced. However, in order to produce, the initial resources must be “bought out” from other areas of their use. The cost of purchasing resources reminds the entrepreneur that there are other industries that require the same resources.

As a result, manufacturers have a strong incentive to deliver to the market only those goods that can be sold at a price at least equal to the costs of their production, and especially those goods whose value in the eyes of the consumer is the highest exceeds the costs of their production.

It is important to understand that a product can be provided to a person or group of people for free only if someone pays for it, and this will only redistribute the burden of costs, without reducing it at all. Politicians often talk about “free education,” “free medicine,” or “free housing.” These expressions can only be misleading. None of the benefits are provided free of charge - scarce resources are required to produce each of them. For example, the buildings, labor and other resources involved in the training process could be used for food production, the provision of services in the field of leisure and entertainment, etc. The cost of “production of education” is the cost of those goods that had to be abandoned as a result of that the resources required for their production were spent on education. The government can shift these costs from one shoulder to another, but it is impossible to get rid of them. The rule "you have to pay for everything" is true in all cases of life.

(R. Stroupe, J. Gwartney)

Explanation.

The following tips may be formulated:

1) to study in detail the market of the goods or services that are planned to be produced;

2) draw up a business plan for the development of the company;

3) find the most profitable loans;

4) be honest;

5) do not produce goods that cause harm to people;

6) remember the environment.

Other tips may be made.

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