Entrepreneurial excellence: 5 habits & behaviors that support your success

By Katie Tejada

Starting your own business is like paving your own path in this world. It’s the more difficult road to take, but in the end, it will be far more rewarding. Rather than marching to the beat of someone else’s drum, you will have created something that is entirely your own. However, nothing worth having comes without work. As anyone who has attempted this knows, none of this is going to happen overnight. To create something that’s truly worthwhile, you’ll have to take several steps to make your business stand out from the competition.

If you’re looking to make the next big step to becoming a successful entrepreneur, here are five habits that you’ll need to embrace.

– Embrace social media

“It’s never too soon to engage with your customers on social media. It’s important to build a sense of community and brand awareness early on.” –Katy Messersmith, owner of Katydid Wholesale

The results are in and it’s not just a passing fad. Online social media is the medium by which all commerce will be judged in the future. This can be particularly stressful for the old-fashioned types who want to conduct business in a classic way. However, it’s important to keep an open mind with these things. If you use social media effectively and completely from the onset of your business, you’ll find customer traffic increasing and your services becoming a brand far more quickly. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

– Know what your clients want even if they don’t

“Keeping your customers excited about your product or service is crucial to long-term sales and success.” –Chris Manitius, CEO of Pic Station

One of the most important aspects of being a successful entrepreneur is having deep and lasting connections with your client base. You’re never going to make it in this endeavor if you’re not a people person. It’s important to always carefully read into your client’s reaction to every change you make in your business. No observation is too minute. Looking at entrepreneurship, it’s easy to tell the people who know their clients from the people that don’t, and the differences in success levels are immense.

– Be result minded

Much like raising a child, there’s no real right or wrong way to create your own enterprise. There are books and lectures and mantras all over the place that will tell you what the “correct,” consistent, and specific practices are when it comes to running a business, but at the end of the day, all that matters is the results. Even if at times it feels like you have no idea what you’re doing and are playing it all by ear, good results will speak for themselves.

– Be open-minded

When it comes to running your business right, even the best-laid plans will have to take a sharp turn at times. Even if you’ve spent 100+ hours getting your perfect plan in order, there will be something you haven’t accounted for. There will always be times where you have to pivot and adjust your plan in order to adapt to the situation, and this will go a whole lot easier if you maintain an open mind.

Always innovate

“Everything you do in your business is about making something – you make a product, you make a service, you make an audience (but you call it marketing). It’s all the same, really — it’s about continuously freshening your ideas because you are continuously creating. And when you stop creating, your business stops too.” –Summer McStravick, Founder of Flowdreaming

If you’re not coming up with fresh ideas, you will stop growing. No matter how well you lay the groundwork for your business, you won’t grow and succeed without fresh ideas and perspectives generating more opportunities. Take a look at the world around you and find a need. You don’t have to be a genius, you just have to see an empty space and figure out how to fill it.

– Keep going

Starting a business can be daunting and it’s hard to know if you’re on the right track when you first start out, but if you cultivate great habits and keep pushing, success will be yours for the taking.

_______

Katie Tejada is a writer, editor, and former HR professional. She enjoys writing about events, travel, decorating trends, and innovations for the home, but also covers developments in HR, business communication, recruiting, real estate, finance, law, and investing.

Leave a Reply

The Self-Employment Survival Guide can help you succeed. Learn all about it here.

Self-Employment Survival Guide book cover