How to Succeed as a Modern-Day Entrepreneur

Do you often envision yourself sitting pretty at the pinnacle of your career ladder? If you want to scale these heights and succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavor, it’s crucial that you put all of the advice laid out below into practice.

Here are three things you must do to succeed as a modern-day entrepreneur:

Know your audience

Skill, talent, and hard work will only get you so far in the world of entrepreneurialism. If you truly want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you also need to know your audience. These are the people that are going to be putting money into your pockets for years to come, which is why you need to garner a deep understanding of them. 

User research will help you do just that. Once you align yourself with an agency like Angelfish Fieldwork, you will find it easier to set up focus groups for market research. In turn, this will help you to perform in-depth qualitative research and, ultimately, get a better idea about who your ideal customers are, where they live, how much they earn, and the services/products that they like to purchase. The result? You will know everything there is to know about your target audience, and, crucially, you will have the capacity to tailor your marketing campaigns around their exact specifications.

Trust yourself

If you don’t trust yourself, who will? Once you wholeheartedly believe in your ability to solve problems for your target consumer base, your confidence as an entrepreneur will grow. This will then help you to provide a more well-rounded service to your customers, which in turn will aid you in your bid to forge an authoritative reputation for yourself in your field.

Does the trust that you have in yourself and your abilities currently leave a lot to be desired? If so, be sure to put the following advice into practice. Here are three tips for learning how to trust yourself in the world of entrepreneurialism:

•   Practice mindfulness on a daily basis, as this will help you to become more self-aware

•   Stop overthinking simple situations — you will be strong enough to cope with every hurdle that you encounter, so there really is no need for you to worry

•   Regularly take some time to think about how far you have already come in your career

Be tough

No matter which pieces of the above advice you choose to put into practice, all of your hard work will amount to nothing if you aren’t tough. No, this doesn’t mean that you should attempt to climb your chosen career ladder in a rude or hostile manner. It simply means that you need to persevere in your attempt to achieve your goal, no matter how many challenges you face along the way.

If you want to become a tough and gritty modern-day entrepreneur, you must:

•   Be courageous whenever you are faced with new opportunities

•   Take lessons from each failure that you incur

•   Exercise a lot of patience

•   Handle setbacks in a resilient manner

•   Have passion for everything that you do

•   Practice proactiveness

4 Ways to Modernize Your Business

If you bristle at the thought of adjusting the way you do business, you're not alone. Many entrepreneurs are resistant to changing their companies. After all, you created your business plan and set yourself up for the successful workplace that you operate now. However, if you want your company to remain relevant and your employees to keep on thinking up good ideas, you must listen to constructive criticism. Educate yourself about ways you can improve your company's performance in these areas.

1. Technology

Perhaps you started your company with no technology more advanced than a landline phone and a fax machine. While this was a valid way of operating for a long time, it is no longer enough. Speak to your information technology experts about recent developments that could help your company, such as the Enterprise Knowledge Graph. Choose a few new types of software or machines to try, and evaluate them after a month or two. 

2. Time Tracking

You've used the honor system for clocking in and out since you opened your doors, but it's time to switch to a more accurate method. Most of your employees are honest about the times that they sign in, but they frequently forget and make up their times. To avoid losing money to this practice, purchase time-tracking software. Most platforms are available either on people's desktops or apps. Before you approve someone's hours for the pay period, you can see how long they worked each day, including any breaks they logged. Your employees may resist this change at first, but soon they'll like being able to quickly see how many hours they've worked each pay period.

3. Discrimination

Discrimination occurs whenever someone treats another person differently because of the second person's race, age, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic class, or another uncontrollable factor. Whether you're aware of it or not, discrimination is probably occurring in your workplace, and you need to address it immediately. Talk to your human resources department to see how many people have filed discrimination reports recently. Invite your employees to a forum where they can share their experiences of unjust treatment in the workplace. Once you've listened to these stories, invest in diversity training for your entire staff. Watch your own actions to ensure that you do not favor members of certain groups while rejecting others.

4. Environmental Issues

For a while, you could get away with buying the cheapest materials available, regardless of how wasteful they were. Now, however, climate change has progressed to such an alarming extent that it's time to use your resources responsibly. Buy materials locally whenever possible, and choose the ones that are made in environmentally sustainable ways, even if they're more expensive. Encourage your employees to bring their own coffee cups rather than buying disposable ones. Avoid using paper for memos that you can just email to everyone. While these steps may seem insignificant, together, they have a real impact on the environment.

Don't let your company get stuck in the past. Instead, take these steps to modernize your workplace.