The thought of starting up a business can be both exciting and daunting in equal measures. The intoxicating desire to make a success of a new enterprise can only be satisfied if the undertaking is approached with forethought, and the inevitable pitfalls that occur along the way, are negotiated calmly and not allowed to disturb the required focus and overwhelm a clear vision.
The expression: “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” should be highlighted on the first page of any budding entrepreneur’s start-up manual and re-visited regularly because thorough preparation is essential to allow any venture to succeed. Passion and drive can carry people a long way, but without sufficient research and a proper business plan, even the most fantastic ideas are likely to prove too challenging.
Small businesses are essential for cities, villages, towns, and other local economies. As such, it is always a good thing when small businesses are successful, and the business owner or founder can essentially pay it forward.
Some challenges must be overcome to achieve these successes. Many have come before, like Elijah Norton, the founder and President of Veritas Global Protection Services, which provides people with vehicle protection. Below, we take a closer look at exactly how these successes can be achieved using resources and tips from successful owners and founders like Elijah Norton.
Cultivating A Success Mindset
Before small businesses and their owners can achieve success, they will need to establish certain foundational views and principles that they will use to build their journeys in business. Elijah Norton didn’t start at the top; it took years of hard work.
Business owners will need to understand that they will need to cultivate a positive mindset. There will be challenges. The ability to successfully navigate them will depend on attitude and perspective. After all, perception is reality.
A positive mindset will form the foundation needed to keep any business founder focused on solutions and highly motivated. High levels of motivation and being focused on solutions will ensure that one sees challenges as an opportunity for the following:
- filling gaps that become present in the business
- growing and expanding in a new area of the business
- stressing less about what’s wrong
- getting excited about the positive possibilities that can result from overcoming challenges
Recognizing the Journey Within
The journey of entrepreneurship and business ownership is as much about the journey within. Many new founders or business owners will fail to realize that the daily grind of business ownership will significantly test their core values, confidence, views concerning the greater purpose for their lives and work. Essentially, there is more to the journey in business than merely crunching numbers, managing the bottom line, and growing profits.
It will become a regular part of the journey to question one’s ability to get the job done and realize the vision. This is not only normal but often encouraged. Owners and founders will be able to use these probing thoughts to measure their own abilities and look at areas they can improve in and how to go about doing so. Elijah Norton was able to learn from past experiences to be able to form Veritas Global Protection.
Endeavoring to Learn More
Speaking of improving aptitudes and skills, business owners and founders should expect to put in the work and study needed to grow their skills to perform at optimum levels. The business landscape is constantly changing (and quickly). In addition to the general changes, there are often industry-specific changes and requirements that a founder or owner may have to meet to keep operating within their given industry. As such, one may need to pursue further studies, certifications, or both to not just stay afloat but thrive.
Resource Management is at the Heart of Success
Chances are, the average business founder or owner will not find themselves with all the money, equipment, time, or other needed resources all the time. These will need to be carefully managed to ensure they are adequately leveraged for successful outcomes. This resource management skill will include what to use and how much of a given set of resources are used. Essentially, a business’ founder will need to ensure that they are sober, temperate, and measured yet flexible and intelligent in allocating and using their resources.
The Journey is Worth It When Embarked on Thoughtfully
Finally, even with all the tips mentioned above, owners and founders will still have challenges. This is where, in the final analysis, they will need to realize that one must simply understand that it is a marathon and not necessarily a sprint. They are in it for the long haul.
In the end, even with the greatest challenges, once overcome, the spoils of victory are always worth it.
Conclusion: The Business Owner Must Persevere!
If all the above tips could be summed up in one word, that word would be perseverance. Perseverance will be birthed out of finding the right encouragement when needed. Many successful business owners like Elijah Norton worked hard to become successful. Thankfully, this is not difficult to do in today’s business climate and with the help of intelligent modern technologies.
The truth is, inspirational resources and tools are often just a fingertip away. They are readily available thanks to the plethora of inspiring and motivational multimedia content all across the Internet. There are podcasts, video tutorials, articles, books, magazines, and other resources that can be accessed. A simple web search can bring up the ones best suited to the need(s) at the time.
Finally, mentorship is also an excellent way to go for business founders. There are those like Elijah Norton who have successfully walked the road of business ownership and success. Their tips, resources, and guidance are priceless and should be treated as such.
Krishna Murthy is the senior publisher at Trickyfinance. Krishna Murthy was one of the brilliant students during his college days. He completed his education in MBA (Master of Business Administration), and he is currently managing the all workload for sharing the best banking information over the internet. The main purpose of starting Tricky Finance is to provide all the precious information related to businesses and the banks to his readers.
