8 Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs

There are certain habits the best entrepreneurs practice every day.

Business is a skill, and those that have become extremely successful exhibit different work habits and tactics than most people do. Success is not an easy thing to achieve, and everyone works differently. Most successful entrepreneurs and business owners have gained success through trial and error, and along the way they have learned what actions and practices help them achieve success most effectively. There are definitely some helpful tactics you can pick up that highly successful people tend to exhibit however and so here are the eight best business habits.

1. Start at the end.

Successful people are motivated by their goals. In the beginning decide where you want to end up – what is your end goal? From there work backwards by laying out the steps that it will take you to get to that goal. Go big or go home, make sure your goal is something that is hard to achieve and will make you stand out as a successful business owner. Once you achieve your goal, create another one. Remember the sky is the limit, and every step you take forward is just helping you become even more successful. For example you could have the goal to create ten new network contacts within the next month. Once you network with ten new people your next goal should be to leverage those contacts for useful information or good vendor deals. Think of running your business as running a decathlon, once you win one leg of the race you have to keep going to achieve full-blown success!

2. Exercise.

Regular exercise keeps your body and mind in good shape, making you overall more motivated and productive. Creating this habit can prove to be quite difficult, in fact researchers say it can take up to 66 days to form an exercise habit. But once you do you will improve your physical and mental health. Exercising is a great way to increase your overall motivation; if you are motivated to make changes in your body and how you feel, and you succeed you will realize that you can succeed at anything you put your mind to.

3. Wake up early.

Going to bed at a decent hour and subsequently waking up early (without being groggy and tired from staying up or out late) can make you a lot more productive. First, being awake before most people gives you quite time to think clearly and set up a plan for the day without feeling like your running late. Waking up early gives you the opportunity to take a few hours out of your regular day as well to relax and reset, which coincidentally also makes you more productive! The co-founder of Ecquire a computer software company located in San Francisco, Paul DeJoe rises each morning at 4 a.m. He does this because he says it gives him the opportunity to step away from all the hustle and bustle and have a few hours just to himself to truly work on things he finds important. Remember the early bird catches the worm!

4. Ask questions.

Ask the right questions all the time. Asking questions allows you to get a birds-eye view on every aspect of your work. Asking questions also gives you a mode for self-reflection, which is extremely valuable when it comes to business. Without self-reflection and questioning you would be blindly moving towards a destination. To make that destination success and not failure be sure question what it is your business is doing (overall goal), how you're getting there and what you need to stop doing and do differently. These questions will help you understand the most basic aspects and core concepts of your business way better and help steer you towards success.

5. Be honest.

Business is more than just wheeling and dealing, a large part of running a business is running it with integrity. Business ethics are a really important aspect of any business and the number one thing every business owner should keep in mind is that honesty is the best quality. Be honest with your customers, your employees and yourself. Being honest with yourself is a really important part of staying productive and motivated. Ask yourself every single day if you did everything possible to keep your business running smoothly, or did you slack a little bit? Slacking is okay sometimes, but when it goes unchecked it tends to increase in frequency. By questioning your own work ethic you will definitely get more done.

6. Focus.

Maintaining focus can be a difficult thing to achieve, especially when you are trying to focus on multiple tasks at once. Things can start to slip through the cracks if you try to multi-task. Multi-tasking also results in less quality work. Give your full attention to any one project at one time, this way you can turn out the best quality work possible.

7. Organize.

Highly successful people tend to be incredibly organized. Organization is the key to staying on track and focused. If you are constantly writing things down, you wont forget anything. If your desk is clean and put together, you wont lose anything and if your calendar and computer are organized you wont lose time looking for missing documents, or missing meetings. Taking notes helps you outline your goals for the day and helps you achieve those goals by keeping your brain organized as well.

8. Lead instead of demand.

Being the owner of a small business you are the boss, but what does that really mean? If you want to run a successful small business being the boss translates to leading instead of dictating. Being a leader means you push your employees in the right direction and help them pull you to success. You take charge, but you also bear a large portion of responsibility and work. Don't demand perfection from your employees because you aren't perfect either, in fact try to stray away from dictating at all. Your employees will be a lot happier, work a lot harder and have better quality work as well if they feel as if you guys are a team instead of a dictatorship.

There are many useful habits you can take on to live a more productive and motivated life. These habits will help you stay focused and on track for building your business. What are some habits you exude that have helped you towards your success?

From Business Insider

BEE does not make good entrepreneurs

Vusi Thembekwayo says entrepreneurs are made in the school of hard knocks - and BEE isn’t helping.  

I have pondered on this article for some time now simply because I don’t know if I want to be the one to say this. However, having pondered this, I have realised that writing the article and sharing with you may help us address the issues I am going to raise.

We know South Africa needs more “entrepreneurs”. We know South Africa needs more medium-sized businesses. We know South Africa has among the lowest rates of entrepreneurial activity in the world, according the TEA (The Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity) report on entrepreneurship in the continent. Perhaps our president can ponder this fact: we are even lower than Malawi.

Why? Are we lazy? Are we too scared to fail? Do we not have the drive? Do we not have the education?

The answer is all of these and none of these. Yes, our education needs some work. You know that. Yes, we need to address the issues of work ethic among young professionals. You know that, too.

But here is my reason: BEE. And here are three reasons why.

Tame lions

The greatest crime of BEE as a principle is that it has made young, hungry and intelligent black youth opt for “access, not excellence”. So the measure of early success now is no longer how well you can do something but rather who you know, who knows you and what doors you can open.

Access drives success. Not the business, the innovation, the idea or the individual. Access.

Many corporates (who of course are white) have practised BEE or enterprise development from the highly paternalistic “ag shame” perspective. The narrative is around “the poor black entrepreneur who will never make it unless we help them”.

There are two injustices here. They honestly believe this to be true so they take the approach of helping businesses to the point of incapacity.

That is why even though we spend hundreds of billions every year on education, we have little to show for it. We don’t teach entrepreneurs how to stand alone, rather we teach them that we will always be there for them.

We teach dependency.

We, too, believe it to be the honest truth because the example of the entrepreneur that has conquered outside the BEE construct is so rare. We (black entrepreneurs) begin to believe the above narrative. So Richard Maponya is celebrated as an exception and Cyril Ramaphosa as a rule.

Lowered levels of “desirable difficulty”

Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell that their early sufferings were the periods most critical in their business success. You see suffering drives “necessity-thinking”. So entrepreneurs develop skills like cash-flow management, innovation (strategy and execution of business model) and most importantly, tenacity.

All entrepreneurs have one thing in common: they believe in themselves. They developed that belief through these years of early suffering. Once you believe you can, you can.

What BEE has done is lowered the threshold of suffering (the price you pay at the door of success so that you can enter the “club”) by making it easier for entrepreneurs to get in and make money. While the ideology means well, it completely defeats its own objectives.

All entrepreneurs, regardless of race, have to endure these difficulties so that when the going gets tough (and it will) they have sufficient emotional capital (invested in the “self-belief” bank account) to weather the storm of impending doom.

Framed and limited ambition and role models

All societies and population groups that succeed have a singularity in truth; their youth had role models. Human beings emulate other human beings.

So why are most Asians (Indian in South Africa) studying commercial subjects and now more recently the chartered accounting stream? Because they grew up in the cash-and-carry environment watching mom and dad sell Chappies for 5c to make a 1c profit.

They would spend their holidays in the store behind the till keeping count of the transactions: money in must be greater than money out, they learnt.

In essence, they learnt financial literacy before they even got to high school.

My ex-girlfriend, Natalie – and yes she is Greek – used to tell me the story of how many days she spent in her father’s restaurant during her formative years, watching him manage his business. When she grew older she was assigned to operating the till and then stock management – without pay.

Today he is among the most successful entrepreneurs in South Africa, having gone on to list his business. She, too, is equally successful. She runs a media sales business and makes silly money.

Why? Well, each of these societies had role models in “true entrepreneurship”.

Creating a few very well-connected individuals who form part of the global elite and über-rich may assist Johan and his team at Bentley sell more cars in the short-term.

It may even get Fabiani to hit record sales in Africa since inception, but it will not develop and grow a culture of entrepreneurship.

So, otherwise talented, black entrepreneurs today register a company and get a tax clearance certificate before they even open a bank account, a website or a business card. Why? Think about it?

We need a higher standard. We need to model correctly.

We need to reward and develop true entrepreneurs.

Where are the risk takers, the mavericks, the wide-eyed hopefuls?

Where are the “I will not be defeated”, “I will not give up” people?

Where are those who see opportunity in squalor and hope in deprivation?

Where are the entrepreneurs?

From The Mercury

Chinese entrepreneurs excel in creativity against aging Taiwan

Models present the luxurious interior design of a yacht. (Photo/CNS)

Taiwanese businesspeople in China chose to moan and complain about their misfortune instead of trying harder to find a better marketing strategy in the face of rising domestic competition, writes our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.

China's art and creative expression was gravely damaged during the decade-long cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976, but from this unfortunate devastation was born a generation of bold entrepreneurs mostly in their 40s, at the height of their careers. The most representative personalities are shopping portal Alibaba creator Jack Ma, 49 years old, search engine Baidu's creator Li Yenhong, 45 years old and Tencent creator Ma Huateng, 42 years old. In Taiwan, the only youthful comparison is in his 60s: Hon Hai's Terry Gou.

A Microsoft Taiwanese sales manager who does presentations about his company's products both in Taiwan and China always prepares two versions of a product. The presentation made to Chinese customers targets entrepreneurs between 30 and 40 years old while the Taiwanese version targets entrepreneurs between 50 and 60 years old.

Ling Lin-kuei, a Taiwanese businessman in Shanghai who operates golf courses, said his opinion on Chinese young entrepreneurs has drastically changed. "They have become ambitious, their thinking is agile, and if the situation keeps on going like this, the competitiveness of Taiwanese enterprises will be endangered," he said.

Yang Wanzong, the chairman of Sun Chateau in Shanghai, happens to play golf at Ling's golf course. Now 39 years old (born in 1975), Yang's business spans from restaurants, trade, wine imports and finance to investment and artistic collections. Yang owns five restaurants, two in Shanghai, one in Beijing, one in Wenzhou and one in Hefei. He intends to expand his restaurant business to 20 restaurants by 2015.

Yang's relies on his creativity to grow. All his restaurants in Shanghai were designed by well-known designers, each one with a theme. To give an example, Yang had one of his restaurants in Shanghai designed by a yacht designer, with the interior recreating the feel and luxury of being on such a boat.

Yang also cooperated with jewelry designers, fashion designers and wine traders to create other sorts of environments.

In the past, Taiwanese entrepreneurs knew how to make a way for themselves in China's business world. But nowadays, they only seem to moan about their misfortune, instead of finding new ways to make more money.

From Want China Times

Tips For Entrepreneurs: What are SEO and PPC, anyway?

The world is very much the same as when you grew up, but the major change is the speed at which everything happens.

Hacking [illustrative] Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Peter

My uncle Dov, a veteran of the War of Independence, is an avid reader of this column.

He recently confided to me that “Issamar, you have tons of readers my age who have no idea some weeks what on earth you are referring to in your column. You throw around terms like LinkedIn, social media, search engine optimization, PPC... can you take a column to go back to basics so we can get a handle on the newfangled terminology?”

Uncle! This one’s for you! 

Let me explain: The world is very much the same as when you grew up, but in one way it is very different. And that major change is the speed of everything.

Like the Panama Canal, which meant ships could cross between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in hours instead of having to go around the entire continent of South America, the Concorde, fax machine, overnight delivery and microwave ovens are all examples of the speed at which today’s consumer demands life happen.

That bit of introduction should help you understand the definitions below: 

LinkedIn: A live, self-updating rolodex of everyone you’ve ever known. It has the additional twist of empowering the employee to own their list of business contacts. No longer does the business owner “own” the client list the way it used to be!

Facebook: An online gathering place where folks share too much information with everyone they know, sharing news, thoughts on politics and pictures of cats. It has a powerful search feature, as well as a messaging service that lets you get in touch with people without having their contact information or even their names! (Like: “People who went to Yale who live in Halifax” will give you a list of people sorted by who you know in common.) 

But how is all this paid for? How can these offerings be free? 

That’s because of another twist to an old idea.

Remember mailers, those coupon packets that used to come to your door? Remember hearing about how “it costs the New York Times more to print the paper itself than what you pay, and the ads are paying that additional cost?”

Well, these changes in technology and the sheer amount of data these companies collect means they can get tremendously targeted advertisements in your way at just the right time. They can get a hit-the-nail-on-the-head response, hitting the perfect demographic and the right strike time, and therefore can spend much more on acquisition per new client.

PPC, or pay-per-click advertising on websites, means that really, the advertisers looking for you are subsidizing the searches you do. And when understood and properly optimized, can bring a very targeted clientele to your (virtual or real-life) door at a profitable margin.

SEO is search engine optimization – trying to do the same and generate business but by positioning your site as most relevant without having to pay for each visit or view.

If you understand what I’ve written above, you have a good picture of what the Internet is like “under the hood.”

It’s all the same as a decade ago as Bill Gates said in his book Business at the Speed of Thought. It’s all the same just a bit faster, with businesses using your own psychological habits to target you and ensure you keep coming back for more.

From J Post

5 Inspiring Books on Social Entrepreneurship

As the founder of a social enterprise called LSTN Headphones, I often look to companies and entrepreneurs I admire for advice on navigating our growing business while continuing our mission to do well while doing good. Below are a few of the books I’ve found to help guide our startup through new challenges and inspire the team to work harder to make our company succeed.

1. Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard: Yvon Chouinard is in many ways the original social entrepreneur, starting Patagonia in 1973 and 1% For the Planet in 2002. Patagonia brings in over $500 million annually and has donated millions of dollars to many environmental causes. In this incredible book, Yvon details his journeys around the world looking for inspiration for Patagonia. He explains how he incorporated giving into his business model from the very beginning.

2. Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie: Blake is the founder of TOMS, the famed leader of the “one for one” movement — a trend that has expanded to many industries and products worldwide. Start Something started with a small, humble idea in 2006 that grew out of his apartment. He now gives away 10+ million pairs of shoes to children in need. An easy and inspiring read, the book teaches that it really is possible to marry fun, profit and social good.

3. Get Big Fast and Do More Good by Ido Leffler and Lance Kalish: Get Big Fast is about how two young entrepreneurs took a natural beauty brand called Yes to Carrots from a dream to the reality of 28,000 retailers in 25 countries in less than five years. Ido and Lance launched the Yes To Seed Fund with a mission to plant micro farms within schools in Africa to help supplement students’ meals with nutritional fruits and vegetables. The program plans to feed 100,000 students a day by the end of 2014.

4. Screw Business as Usual by Richard Branson: Founder of the Virgin Group, everyone knows Richard Branson as one of the most incredible, famous and admired entrepreneurs out there. Screw Business as Usual is his take on bringing more meaning into your life while changing the world. Branson provides a treasure trove of real-life examples and how-to’s from his own foundation. He also sites companies as varied as Method and General Electric, which have used their businesses to make the world a better place.

5. Mission in a Bottle by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff: Mission is the story of Honest Tea’s ascent from small local business to where it is today. One hundred thousand retailers are currently selling it, and it’s being purchased by Coca-Cola. Seth and Barry detail their quest to become a big beverage company that is organic, healthy, authentic and yes — honest. This book is particularly unique as the layout is in comic book form. While many business books can come off as dry and inaccessible, this one could be just as entertaining to a seasoned entrepreneur as a teenager interested in business.

What other books would you add to this list?

From Business Insider

31 Business Lessons You Usually Learn The Hard Way

1. Sometimes your best effort isn’t good enough to land you the deal.

2. You can’t learn if you aren’t willing to listen.

3. The only way to get other people to care about you is to care about them first.

4. You can’t find opportunities for success if you aren’t looking for them.

5. Just because social media is free doesn’t mean it gets you results.

6. You have to change the conversation before you can close the deal.

7. The difference between success and failure is just a decision to keep trying.

8. If you market like a “person” you have a better chance of getting people to buy.

9. Just because all your competitors are doing it doesn’t mean you should too.

10.You don’t have to build rapport to build trust.  Chit-chat is overrated.

11. Pretending like you never make mistakes doesn’t make it so.

12. Working smarter is a result of hard work; not a replacement for it.

13. Your big moment usually comes before you’re ready for it.

14. “Apologies” and “Thank You’s” are the best way to create a conversation on your terms.

15. You have to give a lot to get a lot.

16. Spend less time networking and handing out business cards. Be amazing.  People will find you.

17. Once you provide the answer people stop listening. Leave clues instead.

18. There is no easy way out for big problems; but there is always a way out.

19.Negativity isn’t reality.  Not for you.  Not for your critics.

20. You don’t need permission to start marketing to a prospect.

21. Being “professional” is key to getting prospects to want to do business with you.

22. Working smart will get you more applause.  Working hard will get more done in the long run.

23. Sometimes bad things happen to good people with great strategies.

24. Just because it hasn’t worked out already doesn’t mean that it won’t ever.

25. Anything that is easy to do isn’t going to lead to success.

26. Ironically, the quickest way to become an experts is to defy industry experts.

27. The number of people who believe in you doesn’t correlate to your chances of success.

28. Being the smartest person in the room doesn’t necessarily make you rich or wise.

29. You don’t have to be “up for the job” to finish the job.

30. If you haven’t failed a lot, you probably aren’t going to win a lot.

31. Experience is what you get just after you need it.

From Business Insider

Money Is Not What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs Tick

Fact: a very high percentage of startups fail. They might run out of money, and they might very well bankrupt their founders in the process. Despite the odds, more people are jumping onto the entrepreneurial bandwagon.

I have seen highly successful people leap into entrepreneurship with the only goal of attaining personal wealth. They lose heart when faced with the inevitable setbacks. The most successful entrepreneurs are not motivated by money. It’s about the experience, the way of life, the chase, the identity, the rush. It is a calling. It's about scratching the itch that just won’t go away. It’s about knowing that this is the work you simply can’t not do.

Success in entrepreneurship can be handsomely rewarded but even if it was not, I would do it anyway. Entrepreneurship is not a job, or a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a journey.  

Creating an entirely new category of companies is many founders’ ultimate dream, believing it brings recognition, notoriety and wealth. The common wisdom is, successfully create a brand new category and you’re “set”.

Ignore the common wisdom. Before my co-founders and I created Eloqua in 1999, marketing automation did not exist. It is now a billion-dollar category. That brought me some success and recognition but I certainly wouldn’t consider myself “set.'' I am the definition of a work-in-progress. My success is not a final destination, it is a stepping stone. When entrepreneurs treat their company as the first and last thing they will ever do, they become too attached and make poor decisions.

The business I am leading now is not my first or my last. Instead of clinging to the past, I take what I have learned and apply it to my continued growth. Detachment allows for better decision-making, and a calm, collected approach to new opportunities or threats.

You can’t manage results or force outcomes. You can, and should, work hard toward a successful outcome for your company. It’s admirable to set lofty goals and work tirelessly to achieve them. What happens if you don’t reach those goals? What happens if you are one of the many startups that fail? I truly believe that focusing on the journey instead of the exit can be a powerful protective factor for entrepreneurs.

Like the ancient Greek athlete Milo who grew stronger by carrying a calf every day as it grew into a bull, focus on becoming a little bit better every day. Better management. Better leadership. Better sales, analysis, interpersonal skills. If the goal is not the payoff but regular progress on the journeyf, it’s a lot easier to withstand the wild gyrations of startup life and to stare down the possibility of failure

There is a reason that many of the most revered entrepreneurs of all time have coaches: they know and embrace that they can’t know it all. This is the concept behind Reid Hoffman’s theory of Permanent Beta. Outlined in his book, The Startup of You, the theory from the founder of LinkedIn revolves around applying an entrepreneurial mindset to one’s life and career. Hoffman suggests that truly great individuals live in a permanent state of growth and development. They are constantly iterating, responding to new experiences, knowledge, and opportunities. These are the type of people who relish the journey instead of racing to the finish line.

If you are singularly focused on the end-game of creating a company, you are bound to miss, or outright ignore, valuable learning opportunities along the way. Pause and take in these precious teachable moments that will turn you into a truly great entrepreneur.

If you do make a lucrative exit and turn toward teaching others, you will still be a work in progress. The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “While we teach, we learn.” By showing others how to build categories, I am still learning more nuances and applying insights to my present category-creation process.

Entrepreneurship is a craft and a vocation. To succeed, you need to treat it that way. Your goal should not be to win, but to master.

From Entrepreneur