Forming and operating a business requires patience and courage. Patience, because the process and paperwork involved in getting your business off the ground are time-consuming and complex. Courage, because entrepreneurship is not for the fainthearted.
It takes a hardy individual to survive, let alone succeed, running their own business entity. Beyond the owner’s character, a successful business is a combination of having the right support, getting good advice, and having the right resources.
If you’re wondering what it takes to be successful at starting and running a business entity, look no further. We will tell you what it takes.
The Right Person
Do you look around and see solutions to everyday problems that no one else does? People who start businesses are often visionaries.
They aren’t easily discouraged if they’re criticised for the idea or turned down for financing. They are creative and resilient. They are persuasive and charismatic too, and usually able to get others to believe in their product or service. The successful business operator is a lifelong learner, with one eye always on their industry’s future trends. This person is also a multitasker and must be able to wear many hats.
Support and Good Advice
Very few people in business are successful by themselves. Some of the world’s best-known entrepreneurs have been publicly grateful to the teams behind them. It is an acknowledgment that even if the business operator is already near-superhuman, they can’t be a success without the combined efforts of those who work with them.
This doesn’t only refer to their employees or partners. A successful business operator’s family often bears the brunt of their late nights and long days. These are the people who support them no matter what and are often the first to give them unvarnished opinions about the business’s products and services.
The most successful business operators also seek help when they need it. Setting up a business entity the right way might require more time and knowledge than they have.
Formation services can help, but there are so many, it is difficult to know which to choose. It is good when they can rely on the experiences of others, like this businessman giving his ZenBusiness review, to help weed out the good from the bad. Investing in sound advice from a lawyer or tax accountant can also help you avoid unnecessary trouble and expense later in the life of your business.
The Right Resources
More than anything, having access to financing is the lifeblood of any successful business operation. A business needs money to buy equipment, stock inventory, and to re-invest in its own growth. An entrepreneur can have the best ideas, but they will come to nothing if there’s no money. There are three main ways to source money for a business:
- Self-funding
- Borrowing from friends, family
- Raising funds from investors, venture capitalist, banks
Business owners who are successful often utilize at least two of these methods. They aim to strike a balance between finding cost-effective solutions that give them the best business edge, while not burdening their growing business with unsustainable debt.
If money is the lifeblood of a successful business, then information is its air.
A successful business operator must have information about:
- Their industry
- Their competitors
- Their market
- New trends, techniques, and technologies
- Customer preferences
Successful businesses do not operate in a vacuum. They are always sensitive to the environment in which they operate and use the information to help navigate ever-changing times and tastes.
A Long Term Plan and Good Record Management
Most businesses start with a business plan. This plan tends to get discarded as the business grows and changes. The best business operators have plans that evolve as they and their businesses do.
This plan will set out what the business operator wants to do by a defined period. It is also flexible enough to accommodate changes in goals or the business environment.
Long-term business planning has to be built on something. The most successful businesses keep meticulous records of their accounts, their consumer metrics, and their wins and losses, so they can make better decisions in the future.
So there you have it. The qualities you need to become a successful business operator. Which do you have, and which do you need to develop?
