10 Super Simple Entrepreneurial Success Tips You Should Practice

I shared 25 awe-inspiring tips about self-employment a few weeks ago. This list of entrepreneur success tips elaborates a bit more on a few of those initial suggestions and shares a few more I’ve learned, some just recently:
  1. SALES: In my strong opinion, you have to have a sales mentality to succeed at any business endeavor. I’ve written articles about sales in the past; I feel even stronger about this topic now. Everything I do in regard to running a successful business goes right back to what I’ve learned about in over 15 years of sales. If you can’t make sales, even the best product or service won’t get very far in the market. You have to be willing to open your mouth, meet the right people, and ask for the sale if you plan to get anywhere with your business. And no, you DON’T have to be a shady sales person to succeed:
  2. VISION: If you don’t have a clear vision of where you want to go, you’ll waste a lot of time going nowhere. I think the hardest part about this discovery is that sometimes, probably more often than any of us would like to admit, we don’t really know where we want to go. What are tips you’ve used to help you determine where you want to go with your business?
  3. TIME MANAGEMENT: Playing soccer with your kids at 1:30 in the afternoon is a great reward and worth all the time.
  4. VACATION: Going on family vacation is totally different as a self-employed entrepreneur. Nope, there is no PTO as a self-employed entrepreneur. However, what I’ve learned about vacation is that, if you work really hard the week or two before you go on a family trip, things can happen that are pleasantly surprising while you’re away. It’s also a great idea to build a team as soon as you can: independent contractors that can be working on projects while you’re taking in the sun.
  5. ROUTINE: Get in to a routine as quick as you can. Although it’s nice to work on your own schedule and “free-lance”, a routine will really help you stay on course towards hitting goals and objectives for your business.
  6. NETWORK: Create a list of ALL your contacts and contact them via “in-person”, phone, Facebook, email – in that order. Don’t be afraid to let them know what you’re doing and ask if there’s anyway you can help them. You’ll be surprised at some of the opportunities that will come around, even if they’re not working directly with friends or people you know.
  7. INSURANCE: Your “corporate job” didn’t really take that good care of you in regards to insurance. I don’t mean that they ALL are like that, but in my experience, my “benefits” were really just a PR stunt and so so at best. One of the biggest fears my family had when I declared “self-employment” was what we’d have to pay in insurance. Rumors of $2,500 per month were thrown out there. I realized pretty quickly, though, that although it can be a bit of a headache to get everything in place, there are self-employment insurance plans that are, in many ways, BETTER than what your “corporate benefits” package paid.
  8. PA$$ION: The more you love what you’re doing, the easier it will be to see success with your business – just make sure what you love to do will pay the bills. I recommend working on short-term projects AND long-term projects. By short-term I mean having things you can do (services, small jobs) that will make quick money. The long-term projects may take more time to develop, but the overall pay-off should be promising. The error I’ve seen in focusing exclusively on the long-term project without having any short-term money makers is that you can lose confidence (or your shirt) before anything positive really happens. For me, this would be an invitation to be forced to go back to the rat-race – which is not a short OR long-term goal of mine.
From my wife:
  1. ORGANIZATION: Organization is Key. I’ve been reading the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen – FYI: it’s not a skim-it-over book, it’s a study. This book has been really helpful in creating a strategy that is effective. Having a clean office space has also helped me turn some corners and see almost immediate positive results. Finally, a white board with day to day tasks and overall outcome goals has been helpful. I thank my wife for her help in “cleaning house” when it came to a ton of CRAP I’d collected over the last few years, most of which I had intentions to use but honestly never would have. The trash was a great place for all this unused stuff.
  2. PACE: Take things one step at a time and don’t get overwhelmed. The biggest money won’t come overnight (beware of companies that promise the “pie in the sky”), but it will come if you’re consistent, hard working, and are not afraid to set goals and monitor your progress. Don’t forget that creating a team of people can actually be really helpful to get you where you want to be even quicker than doing this completely on your own. Just be selective and don’t rush into things (ie. get things in writing ALWAYS before forming partnerships).
How do these tips help you in your entrepreneurial pursuits? Nate Moller, a self-employed entrepreneur, has been teaching clients how to start an online business for over five years. He’s worked with thousands of companies who are looking for answers in their online marketing journey. Follow Nate on Twitter and become a fan of Moller Marketing on Facebook!

13 thoughts on “10 Super Simple Entrepreneurial Success Tips You Should Practice

  1. Delena Silverfox says:

    My biggest concern has been insurance. I’ve been running on no insurance for quite some time, and I’ve been pretty lucky, but I haven’t found any policies that were reasonable for us! It’s rather concerning.

    Where would you recommend looking?

    Delena

  2. Nate says:

    @Delena Silverfox
    Hey Delena,

    My “key to success” was to ask friends in my area who had taken the same route of self-employment. Each of them gave me great advice and recommendations for my local area. I (my wife mostly) did quite a bit of research and we found a policy that was reasonably priced and gave us the coverage we needed.

    Thanks for the comment! Let me know if I can help you more.

  3. Mark @Restaurant Marketing says:

    Nate, you make several excellent points here. For me the one that resonates most is the point about insurance and “benefits”. Wage earners have been lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to these benefits. As you said, self-employed folks can get benefits that are just as good, if not better than what most people are getting at a wage earning job. Don’t get stuck in a job you hate just because you think the benefits are good.

  4. David Stevens says:

    LOVE this — I’ve been working both the mines (eg, a 9-to-5) and the entrepreneurial open spaces off the clock. I’m LOVE the ‘net and have been developing revenue-generating sites like http://adjunctprofessoronline.com and the newly launched http://showyouknowit.com. I break out in a grin just thinking about new ways to tweak keywords!

    Keep up the good work. Your site is a real hit of nitrous for us entrepreneurs!

    David Stevens
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidstevens123

  5. Nate Moller says:

    @Timmy@Marketing Tools
    Amen to that one Timmy. Although “Freelance” can sound appealing, most of the time “freelancers” get caught with too much “free time” because they don’t manage their time very well.

    QUESTION: What have been your best strategies for creating and sticking to a consistent routine?

  6. Nate Moller says:

    @Mark @Restaurant Marketing
    Just reading the word “wage” or “salary” makes me cringe now. I think both those words are synonyms with “slavery” 🙂

    Getting stuck in a job you hate is what a high percentage of my “salaried” friends are doing right now and I feel bad for them and wished I would have seen the light quite a bit earlier.

    Thanks for your comment Mark. I’d love to talk with you more about what you’ve found to be the best things about being self-employed.

  7. Pam Sheraton says:

    I believe that the biggest challenge as a self employed person is time management-you get the impression that you now have a lot of free time at hand, which to some extent is true but if you want to be successful you need to learn how to share your time between work and family. In the initial working days, you may find that you have to dedicate more time to your work rather than family, but in the end it all pays and worth the sacrifice.

  8. Steve says:

    I believe only those who have the courage to take risks and want to have an “extra” mile from whatever do should be engaged in self employment and its only these people to grow and prosper..

  9. Steve says:

    Another point is that a servant will always be a servant no matter how high post he is running on in the company…. but businessmen are the ultimate kings

  10. Nate says:

    @Pam Sheraton
    Great point Pam. I feel that same challenge. I’m home so I should be playing with my kids, right? WRONG (sort of)! Sure, I can take a few extra minutes to eat breakfast with the family or maybe even go out for my “lunch break” to kick the soccer ball around with my 6 year old; however, when I’m working I must be focused and committed or I’ll waste a lot of time.

    Thanks for the comment!

  11. Nate says:

    @Steve
    Thanks for the comments Steve! I couldn’t agree more. I think back to my recent job and look at a couple of the guys who are “high up” in the company. Those guys don’t really have “JOB SECURITY”, instead they are forced to kiss the A@# of their boss in order to stay afloat. They are the “servant to the ultimate king”.

    Another guy I know there who WAS at the top of the food chain had a disagreement with the “ultimate king” and low and behold, a few months later he was demoted, making over half what he made before and working late nights 5 days a week.

    Self-employment definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you are committed and set goals and have people that can help you stay accountable, self-employment is the most secure and rewarding career their is!

    Thanks again for your comments and insight!

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