How to Become a Successful Business Owner

Most business owners reveal that one of the hardest and most rewarding methods to make money is to start a business. To be a successful business owner requires a lot of effort and dedication, and this also depends on personal qualities and business activities, which are common characteristics of successful business owners. These characteristics lie in the founding principles of the business in day-to-day operations as well as in decision-making. By following these guidelines, you have the potential to start a successful business or get your business back on track.

Table of Contents

Find the right perspective

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Do what you know well. You should start in a field in which you have experience. Experience can be from previous work or personal interest enough to develop into a career. Even if a business idea can theoretically be highly profitable, you shouldn’t start a business without being dedicated to it. Profit is important, but it won’t be enough to motivate you to arrive early every day and be motivated to grow. ^{[1] X Research Source}

For example, imagine you had coffee making experience as a bartender or waiter and want to turn your passion for coffee into a small business. You already understand the characteristics of this industry and are ready to apply your knowledge and emotions to your work.

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Start with a clear goal. While business goals are often centered around money, most successful business owners don’t start with the goal of making money. To build a business, you need to have a clear purpose in mind from the outset. This purpose can be more intangible than money, such as giving back to society by creating a job, solving a problem you see every day, or pursuing a passion. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on profits, but just define your primary goal as achieving the larger one. ^{[2] X Research Source}

For example, when you want to open a coffee shop, your aim is to serve every cup of quality coffee to your customers. In addition, the cafe is also a place for people to meet and spend time with friends.

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Understand your customers. Before you start, take the time to do market research and get to know your customers and industry. The American Small Business Council provides a wealth of information on services and products that are in great demand. ^{[3] X Trusted Source US Small Business Administration Go to the source} You should also think about who will buy your products or use your services, and learn how best to attract customers This.

With a coffee shop, ask yourself: am I attracting “coffee connoisseurs” who don’t mind waiting five minutes to enjoy? Or do I focus on people who are on their way to work and want a quick coffee to take away? Or both? Understanding your prospects will help you serve them “better”.

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Define the first step instead of the destination. You should adopt a business model that can operate quickly with low capital. Too many small businesses start with goals that require large capital and investors. However, a successful business is a business model that can be applied to businesses of any size. This proves to potential investors that your idea is a useful way to make money, and increases the likelihood of an investment (if that’s what you’re looking for). ^{[4] X Research Sources}

For example, you might want to open a large business that supplies, imports, processes, and packs coffee beans to market or serve customers at a coffee shop. Instead of looking for a big investment to buy all the equipment, you should start with a small coffee shop, then supply and import coffee, and from there build your own brand.

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Form a support network. One of the key factors contributing to a successful business is overcoming ego and seeking help. You need advice from a group of business associates or other professionals with the same goals as you. Surround yourself with knowledgeable and successful people, and absorb their ideas and enthusiasm. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Alternatively, you can also search for small business ideas online; The internet contains a lot of information and you should only access information from reputable sources.

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Find a mentor. This is someone who has successfully run or is running his own business. For example, you can find relatives or friends who are successful in business. This mentor will help you from learning how to manage your employees to paying your taxes properly. Their experience comes from reality, so they are more likely to help you than anyone else. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

Mentors may not run the same business as you, but they can still be of great help. For example, in the case of opening a coffee shop, another coffee shop owner may be able to provide useful information, but the shop owner can still effectively assist you.

Efficient business operation

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Initially focus only on the main activity. Avoid taking advantage of other business opportunities that appear before your eyes. One job for nine is better than nine jobs. This idiom applies a lot in making decisions to diversify your business as well as deciding to take on a project other than your main business model. Focusing on only one area helps you to utilize all your resources and be highly effective in this area. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

Continuing with the example above, imagine that you witness another coffee shop making money selling trinkets and coffee, and you are tempted to follow suit. Unfortunately, this makes you forget your main goal of serving coffee, leads to high risk, and distracts you from the quality of the coffee.

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Focus on cash flow instead of profit. While profit is of course one of the goals, it shouldn’t be the focus when starting a business. Cash flow is much more important – many small businesses run out of cash before they can stay in the market long enough to make a profit, and have to close. Pay attention to overheads and sales in the first year, and profit later. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

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Record detailed records. For a successful business, you should record the costs and revenue on every transaction, even the smallest ones. By knowing how money is moving, you can spot financial problems before they arise. In addition, it also helps you find ways to cut costs or increase revenue. ^{[9] X Research Source}

For example above, you need to record the amount of coffee bought and sold in the current month and the expenses paid. This helps you realize that the price of coffee beans is slowly increasing and make a decision whether to increase the price or change suppliers.

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Maximum cost reduction. This is obvious, but you should consider some areas that can produce the same effect but cost less money. Consider buying used equipment, finding low-cost advertising (for example, using flyers instead of newspaper ads), or negotiating more favorable payment terms with suppliers or customers. goods to save as much as possible. ^{[10] X Research Source} Try to maintain a low spending habit and only use money for obligatory work.

In this example, it’s a good idea to use a used coffee grinder (as long as it’s in good working order) and buy up to a maximum of supplies from the same supplier (cups, lids, straws, etc.).

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Consider supply chain efficiency. Costs and profits depend on successful supply chain organization methods. When you develop good supplier relationships, organize deliveries, and provide timely service to customers, you are strengthening your profitability and reputation. Successful supply chain management eliminates the source of waste, such as raw materials or labor.

For example, your coffee shop needs to negotiate well with its coffee bean supplier and establish an organized supply chain structure for a variety of reasons. This is especially important in ensuring there is no shortage of coffee, and also means that you can maintain a constant supply of coffee, try new beans, or negotiate lower prices.

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Looking for strategic partners. Just like a helpful mentor, a strategic partner can propel you to grow your business. Form a strategic partnership by approaching a business that benefits you, such as a supplier, technology provider, or complementary business. A good relationship with another company can help you advertise for free, lower the cost of doing business, or allow you to expand your market, depending on the partner you choose. ^{[11] X Research Source}

For example, your coffee shop can benefit from a strategic relationship with a supplier that offers discounts or new products. In addition, strategic partners in complementary businesses, such as bakeries, can help both parties find new customers and increase revenue. You can do this by recommending each business or putting your product into the other party’s business model and vice versa.

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Guaranteed payment in full. You need to realistically assess your ability to repay. Starting and operating a business is always risky, but you should minimize debt through spending when absolutely necessary. When debt arises, you should structure your cash flows so that you can pay off debt as quickly as possible. Prioritize debt repayment before doing other things. ^{[12] X Research Source}

For example, if you use VND100 million to open a coffee shop, you should pay off your debt in full before thinking about expanding your product offering or upgrading your coffee grinder.

Business Development

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Completing business presentations. Prepare a 30-second speech introducing your business as succinctly as possible, including information about your purpose, service/product, and business goals. Practicing speaking coherently with your audience helps you in doing business with customers as well as attracting investment. ^{[13] X Source of Research} If you can’t introduce your business model in a short time, you need to improve your business.

For a coffee shop, you should explain your activity (selling coffee), service (drinks provided to customers), special elements (maybe the coffee is rare or roasted directly). next), your next plan (expansion into another branch, new product, etc.).

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Build a reputation through good service. Building a good reputation is a free way of advertising; Customers will spread word of mouth about your property to their friends and return often. ^{[14] X Source of Research} View each transaction as the success or failure of the business depends on it. This also means that you should be consistent with each of your business and customer interactions. ^{[15] X Research Source}

With a coffee shop business, this could mean that you always serve fresh coffee so your customers get a really good product.

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Monitor competitors. You should learn from competitors’ ideas, especially when starting a business. Maybe their idea is quite effective. If you find those, you can apply them to your business model and avoid the failed experiments they went through. ^{[16] X Research Source}

One of the best ways to do this when starting a business is to study your competitors’ pricing strategies. In the coffee shop example, you might set similar prices to your competitors instead of testing different prices.

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Looking for opportunities to continue to grow. After establishing a business, you should aim to expand your business. This means moving to a larger location, expanding your production space, or opening a new branch depending on your business type and goals. Successful business owners often realize that one of the main factors that hinders long-term growth is sustained stagnation. This means that you should try to expand instead of staying in one place.

For example, when you run a coffee business, you may notice that an area nearby has few cafes. After the main location is completed and operating smoothly, you should research opening new shops in that area. This also means upgrading from a small coffee shop to a full-fledged coffee shop, depending on your circumstances.

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More sources of income. Another way to increase business value is to look at other income generating areas. Once you’ve set up your main business, you can search around and see where to service or offer new products. Maybe customers often come to your store to buy a certain item and go to another place to buy another product. You should find out what it is and source it. ^{[17] X Research Source}

Some items that you can add to the cafe are cakes, sandwiches, or books.

Advice

Pay all insurances for the year (e.g. debts, etc.) as soon as possible.
Prepare money for business spending within 6 months.
This article has the main content to guide business owners to get the most out of their business. For detailed instructions on starting a business, you can check out the articles on how to start a small business and how to run a small business.

Warning

Your private investment may be lost due to loss of business.

Steps

Find the right perspective

Efficient business operation

Business Development

Advice

Warning

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