HotStrategies.com

Becoming an entrepreneur is the dream of many. However, like most things, most people stay at the dream stage forever. Becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy task, that is, if you really want to succeed. Anyone can just go and pour in money in a business and call themselves an entrepreneur. Starting a business, make it grow, profit from it and make it a real success is what will separate you from the rest.

There are certain characteristics that make someone a great entrepreneur. You see, entrepreneurs have a special mindset when it comes to money. They are different from simple employees in a company, very different. Here are just a few of these differences.

1) Working for someone else doesn’t have any advantage.
2) Trading hours for dollars just doesn’t seem right.
3) Being able to shape a company is a must.
4) The money made isn’t nearly enough for the value your bring to the company.

The only way to become an entrepreneur is to think like an entrepreneur. Like mentioned above, they think different. A simple employee always thinks in terms of wages. For example, how much money is made by the hour. An employee who works for $10/hour sees the job at $15/hour a great opportunity. A real entrepreneur however sees the $15/hour job as bad as the $10/hour job, in the sense that trading hours for dollars is the wrong concept of making real money. $5/hour additional can only go so far, compared to having a great business idea that will grab the attention of everyone and make you millions.

An entrepreneur has vision and thinks long term. While the appeal of making instant money is common to everyone including entrepreneurs, they know that it is worth sacrificing a couple thousand dollars and some happiness now, to be able to make possibly 10X, 20X or a lot more in a not so far future.

Here is a very little list that lists the traits of an entrepreneur.

1) You are self-motivated.
2) You are ready to make sacrifices
3) You understand the business of taking risks
4) You have mega ideas (tangible plans with possibility of making millions)
5) You are creative
6) You are action oriented
7) Your focus is always the future
8 ) You like, or better, you love to learn
9) You understand the importance of time and money management
10) You’re a problem solver

It is very common for people these days to start a business. They don’t really know what kind of business they want, they just know they want to be out of the corporate world and want to be on their own. Sure enough, a few months later you have your business and it is not doing as well as you had expected. In fact, it is doing so bad that you were better off not starting a business at all and keeping your job. Your life now is full of stress and debts.

All of this can be avoided with a business plan. A business plan will not only help you make money, but it will minimize the chances that you business becomes a failure.

A business plan must clearly layout every aspect of the business, this includes everything from the start. Why did you start the company to start off with? Was it for more income, or for more free time? If it was for more income, how much more do you want to make exactly? Write it down on paper. Far too many times you might lose focus. If your goal was to make $5,000 more by the end of the 2^nd month and you haven’t reached that goal, you need to revise your plan and your objectives.

You also need to look for what kind of market you are in and what potential it offers. Having a dream is good, but having an achievable dream is better! Is what you are looking for possible? Are you expecting too much? Will you give up if it doesn’t work out well?

How will you get customers? Do you have clear methods on how to get customers, or are you relying on lady luck and your excellent products? You need to have clear marketing strategies. Your marketing is what will decide of your success. There has been countless amount of times when a great store with a great objective and a great target audience in mind failed miserably because their store was constantly empty.

Do you have an exit plan? Face it, even the best plan can fail. Will you go bankrupt if your business goes bust? Will your life be miserable if your plan collapses? A good exit strategy is one that minimized the damages.

There are other numerous questions to ask yourself, but you get the idea. Your plan must address many eventualities and also lay clearly all the methods used to achieve your goals.

If you want to achieve anything in life, especially if you want extra income, you’re going to have to take some risks. The risk may come in different forms, whether the amount of time spent, the hard work you are going to put it or the extra money you will need to spend or sacrifice. But what you need to understand is that the risk will always be there at some degree, and you will need to adjust the risk at your need and within reason to be able to reach your goals.

The word risk scares away a lot of people, as it is automatically connected to “you will most probably lose money”. You see, risk is a 2 part equation, you are not risking in exchange of nothing; losing money is one thing, but winning money is another thing. When you balance out both parts, only then can you truly you if you have a winning edge.

For example, let’s say you are looking to buy an online business. The online business brings in a yearly profit of $50,000. Now usually with online businesses, the price can be anything from 6 months income to 24 months, and some want to sell their online business for 4 or 5 years of worth. Let’s say in our case the seller wants to sell it for 1 year and a half worth of income, which comes to $75,000.

Right of the bat, without even knowing anything about the business, those who are afraid of taking risks would say that you are risking $75,000 and you could possibly lose it all as anything can happen. Does it make any sense? Of course not! They don’t even know what it is all about. There are so many things to take into account.

How are the monthly returns divided? Are they stable, or does the pattern look like up and downs?

Is the business relying on a trend?

What is the business about? Are you selling electronics, furniture, sports equipment, etc…?

What is the competition like? How likely is it that a new guy can come around and take the lead?

What is the type of expenses?

There are dozens of questions like these that you can find and think about that will all help you determine if the risk you are taking is worth it. The main point is that risks should not always be attached to losing money. In the example above, by asking yourself questions, you might figure out that this business would actually have a great chance of doubling its profits within the next year as you are forecasting a great trend, something the seller did not even think about. In this case, your $75,000 could turn out to be a bargain!