After building a 7 figure income from scratch in the past 24 months, there are 5 Components of Successful Entrepreneurship that I feel are critical in order to truly succeed in today’s marketplace.
I shared this information on my sister in law’s Internet Radio Show called Nothing But the Truth with Anh Vu on Money Mondays, so just in case you missed the show LIVE, here are my notes:
#1 – Know Exactly Why You Want to be an Entrepreneur
Your reasons for wanting to be successful have to be much more than just “making money”.
Now of course making money is great but you must know exactly why you want to make a lot of money.
It could be that you want more free time for yourself, or time w/ your spouse, or kids.
Or perhaps you want a more flexible schedule to do whatever you want, like workout everyday or travel, or take more vacations.
Or perhaps you want to pay off your bills or become free from debt and reduce the fear, stress or anxiety that you feel from financial pressures and obligations.
Or… maybe you have a much bigger vision that includes restoring water for a 3rd world country or perhaps building a chain of fitness centers around the world, or perhaps even helping to find a cure for cancer through extensive monetary contributions for research.
Ultimately, whatever your reasons for wanting to be a successful entrepreneur, as long as those reasons are bigger than the challenges that you will encounter along the way, you will always have the edge over your competition when it comes to making your dreams come true.
Now I don’t like to tell people what to want or what to do – I will only share here what I wanted and what I did to get it.
Me personally, my goal was to start working for myself part time, so that eventually, I could go full time.
Then, my goal was to work only part time – but make a full time income.
Sometimes, part time even means “no time”, because there have been times that I don’t work at all, for days, even weeks, if I don’t want to, or even can’t, as was the case of when I was in the hospital earlier this summer and needed extra recovery time when I returned home to my family.
In the wake of “no time”, my wife & I are still able to earn many thousands of dollars on a daily basis, whether we work on our business or not.
And yes, this is a part of what we wanted to achieve when we first got started – to work less, but earn more, so that we could spend more time together and with our 2 boys, Carter & Legend.
As you will read below, this is only possible when you know how to automate and create leverage through different processes within your business, which is exactly what Sophia & I have done in the past 2 years.
But back on track here, Critical Component of Successful Entrepreneurship #1 – Know exactly why you want to be self employed.
#2 – Find a Great Mentor or Mentors
This Critical Component of Successful Entrepreneurship is often overlooked, most often by new Entrepreneurs, so, to put a stop to it right now, you want to pay close attention to this one if you are just getting your feet wet in starting your own business.
First of all, you must understand that it’s not the duty of your mentor to struggle for you, but ensure you that you struggle is absolutely worthwhile.
And struggle you will at first – unless you are one of those rare people who enter into entrepreneurship “ego-less”.
Truth be known that very few people get started that way, but learn quickly that “ego” is the #1 culprit that robs most people from the very opportunities that their mentor is showing them.
But let’s get back on track in regards to finding a great mentor.
Here’s a short list of what you should look for when selecting a mentor:
A) Your mentors should have already achieved what you are looking to achieve yourself.
It could be income, lifestyle, or both.
It could be relationships, skills or perhaps even contacts.
Don’t just randomly pick any old person to be your mentor because you like them.
It’s like they say in Hollywood, “Success is not about Show friends – that’s why it’s called show Business!”, so treat your business like a business and select a great mentor to help light your path.
B) Make sure that your mentor in business, is still IN business.
Far too often, people who have had success, stop building their business to teach others how to succeed. They start coaching programs and sell information products and this is great, but if they are not also building their primary business that made them successful, this is called “Management Mode”.
The problem with “Management Mode” is that with the ever changing landscape of the marketplace, the economy and people’s wants, needs and desires, your mentor should be constantly learning or they will fall behind and teaching you strategies that don’t work the same way today, as they did years, months, even weeks ago.
You don’t want to work with a “One Hit Wonder” that made some money back in the ’90s and now claims to know what is working today.
I see this far too often, where people hire mentors who never even really had success.
Make sure to do your research and find out if what your mentor is going to teach you, they made their fortune putting into practice, not just theory.
#3 – Choose Your Product Wisely
This is a Critical Component for several reasons.
First, make sure the Business / Product that you are marketing is in alignment with your own interests & passions.
In other words, you won’t just be working for a “living”, but for a loving!
And it will show in every way imaginable.
Because if you don’t love what you are doing, don’t have fun doing it and don’t enjoy yourself, your prospects will pick up that and find someone else to buy from.
You also want to make sure that your product is as close to whats hot on the market as possible. If you start selling vinyl records, unless you cater to an old school DJ marketplace, your probably not going to make a lot of money.
Find out what’s selling in today’s market, what people are searching for and buying no matter what the economy is doing or not, and see if it’s something that you like, enjoy or can be passionate about.
This is how fortunes are made – by doing some smart research.