This guide outlines the entrepreneur’s most important how to: business success rules and tips for those starting a new business venture.
How to use the 80/20 Pareto Principle rule for business
How to: business success rules
How to: business success rules – 1. Be unusual
The market is full of normal hairdressers, average screwdriver workshops, monotonous internet startups, boring corner shops, and … and … and …
When you have an idea, develop it in such a way that it stands out and stands out from the crowd. Give us a very special added value, a benefit that makes us shout out jubilantly, “Why was that never thought of before? ” Then your chances of finding your niche in the market increase enormously.
How to: business success rules – 2. Set yourself bold goals
It doesn’t matter whether you are striving for world domination or whether you want to deal with the market monopoly in New York or Los Angeles first: Set yourself courageous goals! Only those who have goals can really set off and not let themselves be shaken by the troubles and worries of the founding phase.
How to: business success rules – 3. Learn from others
Old Confucius once put it this way: The wise learn from the mistakes of others.
The smart learns from their own mistakes. The fool never learns.
Adopting the lessons of other people’s mistakes will not only save you a ton of headaches, but also a huge chunk of money. So keep your eyes and ears wide open and keep your surroundings – and not just your competitors! – in view! In short: Always be vigilant and use advice, tips, hints and help from others! – That’s what we’re here for! 🙂
How to: business success rules – 4. Plan for good and bad luck
” Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you will get, ” said Forrest Gump in the film of the same name. And the guy was right! Because luck and bad luck cannot be factored into the sales plans – and yet we have to reckon with them. Only then does it not throw us off track and can still bring positive benefits even in a negative case.
In short: If you have not only “Plan A” in your pocket, but also “Plan B to Z” at hand, you can sleep much more peacefully and are optimally equipped for all ups and downs.
How to: business success rules – 5. Network until you drop
Nobody in this world has pulled up even the smallest successful company all alone. Successful and resilient networks have always been involved. Now some politicians tend to overdo it, but we do not run this risk – at least for the time being – on the contrary. Those who focus too much on themselves lose touch with reality!
So networks wherever and whenever you can. Use every opportunity that presents itself to join business associations (usually cost a membership fee ), to go to trade fairs, events and workshops. And for all the work you undoubtedly have: Invest AT LEAST half a day a week in your social business contacts! AT LEAST.
Of course, that should be your subject-specific first. But if you don’t want to become operationally blind and artificially restrict yourself, you should also keep an eye out for related industry contacts. These people are also at least good friends with whom you can chat over a beer (or tea). And who knows?! Maybe your next contract is already lurking there?
How to: business success rules – 6. Product? Good! Distribution? Better!
Of course you have a great product. Of course your service is the best in the world. … But do your customers know that too? At this point is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for young entrepreneurs: They are so focused on their product or service that they completely forget to think about who should buy it …
Don’t let that happen to you and prepare for sales right from the start. Thoroughly plan your sales strategies! Prepare your arguments, practice one – or several different – elevator pitches. In short: deal with your product or service. But above all, deal with sales!
How to: business success rules – 7. You need a plan
Not a single company in the world is run “without a plan”. … at least not a successful one. So sit down and plan! Write a business plan ! And be sure to formulate all your plans in writing and in as much detail as possible. Don’t be satisfied with the ” plan to get rich ” because it won’t be enough. 🙂 You have to take too many steps to get there, there is too much to consider, to take into account … and to plan.
How to: business success rules – 8. Follow. Your. Plan.
It has already been mentioned several times: Life is not straightforward. And the entrepreneurial life doesn’t even exist.
This is why it is so incredibly important that you have a good and well-engineered plan that you consistently pursue over the weeks, months and years before, during and after the founding.
Measure all your successes and failures against this plan. Large and successful companies even have their own departments for this. … At least at the beginning you have to do this job. In short: you should learn to love numbers.
How to: business success rules – 9. Your team makes the difference
Your business idea is amazing. You’re a hero. So don’t be satisfied with the average, get the best people you can afford on board. Only – and only – then your company will remain exceptional.
Many companies save on personnel costs because these are almost always the largest expense item. Some can afford it – but others save themselves completely (Or would you visit a pub where an underpaid and bad-tempered waitress works more than once?). … So find the middle ground that suits you … and always orientate yourself upwards at every opportunity!
How to: business success rules – 10. These are no rules
” Success is a law of series and failures are interim results. If you continue, you can’t prevent success at some point. ” With these words Thomas Edison (who was the inventor of the light bulb; his heirs will have annoyed a wolf, that he never had it patented;)) we introduce the last rule.
And that is quite simply: These rules are not set in stone! They should offer you a common thread. In the end, you alone decide what is good and important for you.
How to: business success rules – 11. Strengthen customer loyalty
The most important asset of any company is its good reputation. On the Internet, this reputation is largely shaped by social media and rating platforms.
Online customers leave comments about the companies they’ve dealt with. Especially for small and medium-sized companies, it is essential to receive positive reviews in order to survive in their local environment. Online reputation management helps with this. It monitors a company’s good reputation on the Internet and uses targeted measures to enhance the company’s reputation.
That means: Good reviews on the Internet are an important marketing factor and of inestimable value for image cultivation. If you want to win new customers, you need positive comments on the internet – both on the rating portals and in the local industry directory.
How to: business success rules – 12. Don’t envy the competition
If a company manages to be particularly successful with a certain product or service, market observers and competitors usually assume that this success is guaranteed to be based on particularly good decisions and ideas. No question about it – good planning is the prerequisite for every new product launch, every company merger and every market entry, and failure is inevitable without it. However, the future can only be planned and forecast to a limited extent. A good pinch of luck is part of every success.
If a particular competitor is more successful, it should not automatically be concluded that this is necessarily due to more intelligent decisions. Top managers who take the lead in large companies over a successful period of time, are often recruited by other companies – in the hope that they will repeat their successes with them too. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.
For example in sports. If a team is particularly successful during a particular coach’s tenure, they will most likely be recruited by a larger, more famous team.
In doing so, we repeatedly experience that the high expectations placed on the trainer do not come true. A good coach is not the only success factor of a team, but luck, the given circumstances and the performance of the players are just as crucial for a good end result. And who knows, maybe the coach was just lucky in the previous team?
It is similar with companies that experience a sudden success story and thus attract a lot of attention. Usually the competition tries to follow suit and to copy the supposed “success strategy”. In the long run, this is not the best course of action, because the market conditions that led to the particular success can change again just as quickly.
Worse still, a smaller company is taking a huge risk that pays off through sheer luck. When something like this happens, people like to stick the label of genius on the decision-maker and try to learn from their “wisdom”. The problem is that, of course, only winners are reported when the risk pays off. The many losers disappear from the market unseen.
How to: business success rules – 13. Prepare for the unexpected
Every day things happen around the world that have never happened before – and that nobody would have expected. In 2007, very few predicted that the world would soon be hit by one of the worst economic crises, and yet it did.
When confronted with a business decision, one always has one foot to face the potentially devastating and very unpleasant consequences. Although every business decision is usually preceded by a risk analysis, most people tend to underestimate unpleasant results and even dismiss them as unlikely in their decision.
A company that wants to be successful in the long term must, however, at all costs avoid situations that may have serious consequences or at least protect itself in advance against liability through insurance and legal agreements. So, consider beforehand all of the potential implications of any major business decision you make. Do you have a plan in place to protect your business if things go wrong?
How to: business success rules – 14. Make decisions that maximize the long-term result
If you have the choice between different options, the temptation is great to choose the one that promises the apparently more likely or short-term success. That seems logical but is unfortunately not always the best choice! It is often better to rely on the less probable solution if it promises greater profits if it is successful or if it does not result in losses.
For example, let’s assume that option A has a 70% probability of winning $10,000 and option B only 30% chance but a profit of $100,000.
If A were chosen, the average profit would be $10,000 x 0.7 = $7,000. With option B, this would be offset by the invoice $100,000 x 0.3 = $30,000. So even if one could assume that option A is more likely to produce a profit, option B is definitely preferable, because average experience shows that one would make a greater profit in the long run.
Insurance is a good example of this opposite situation. Most of the time, insurance seems to cost money and not profit, but if you forego the expense of an insurance premium, there is a real possibility of suffering a very large loss, possibly of a magnitude that you can no longer expect recovered. So if you look at the average result, it is better to invest the money in insurance.
How to: business success rules – 14. What if you made the wrong decision?
Let’s take a look at Kodak and the digital camera. Kodak was the first camera manufacturer to develop an industrially manufactured digital camera. The first working model was invented in 1975 and in 1989 the design of the first digital SLR camera followed. However, the company’s management level was not particularly convinced. They predicted low demand and believed the new technology would only jeopardize their previous core market of analog still and film cameras. On top of that, the company would have to rely on the capital of the early adopters until the device could reach the mass market. In their opinion, the chances for digital cameras to dominate the market were very slim and therefore not worth the investment. What they did not take into account were the consequences for their business if they were wrong. If digital cameras were to replace analog film cameras, they would have the advantage of being the first to be playful, causing huge damage to the company. So if they had properly considered the possibility that they might be wrong, they might have focused more on the digital camera market.
Failure to include this in their deliberations was undoubtedly one of the key factors that led to the company’s decline and, in 2012, ultimately bankruptcy.
Large, contemporary companies are usually far more aware of the importance of a balanced relationship between opportunities and risks and are therefore less prone to this type of wrong decision. However, smaller companies should also avoid making decisions based on their own instinct and should carry out a detailed risk analysis.
The best way to ensure that you don’t end up on the same track as Kodak, Compaq, Borders, or any other failed company is to stay close to the market and identify and understand the upcoming trends that could affect your industrial sector. Market research can help to gain insights into expectations and future market requirements.
