Making Your Dream a Reality in Business

“We all have [dreams] and they’re a great motivator to living a bold life.”  Who hasn’t fantasized about turning their passions into a thriving, successful business? That being said, not all have the courage to go out and make it happen.  Quitting a corporate job and becoming an entrepreneur is often a scary proposition and it takes time, patience, fortitude and perseverance.  There are many ways that you can make your dreams a reality in business and I will outline some for you below.

First off, look at your passions.  Think about what you already like to do or problems you see in the marketplace that you think you could solve better.  While it might take time and research, look into ways you can provide solutions to others through products or services that you feel may not already be offered to a wide audience.  Often, those services may already be offered but that’s no reason to be deterred.  Think about how you can do it better.

Plan ahead.  While it might be an overwhelming challenge to sit down and write out your thoughts on a business model, it needs to be done or success won’t follow.  Make a business plan of what you want to achieve, who your potential clientele will be and how you can actually make your business profitable.  Do the research and the math as difficult as it may be.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Start networking.  Find a mentor to help guide you or ask former colleagues or friends for advice.  Asking others opinions isn’t something to be ashamed of.  In fact, it’s really very helpful and often the best route to take.  Getting advice is key and someone you know might have a better understanding than you do of how to make your business a success.  Bouncing ideas off of people and asking for feedback is a great place to start.

Stay motivated and work hard.  Don’t let your inspiration slip away.  Often starting up a new venture means you have to step away from other things that give you pleasure like spending time with your friends and family, going to the gym or meeting up with people for after-work drinks.  There’s no reason you can’t work those pleasures back into your life once your business is up and running but in the beginning, you might have to face the reality that they need to be put on the backburner for a while.

Write it down.  Dreams turn into reality when they’re well-thought out and put to paper.  While it might sound strange in this digital age of computers and iPads and other electronic devices, try long-hand and lists.  Get a dry erase board and hang it on your wall.  Keep a pen and paper on you at all times and jot down thoughts as they arise.  Paper lists allow you to cross things off as you start to think certain ideas might work but you can always refer to it later and see what you have indeed thought of before and then maybe it will allow you to revisit it and think of how you might improve upon it and actually implement an idea you thought was faulty to begin with.

While it might not sound like fun, imagine the worst case scenario and try to overcome it.  Write down your fears and describe your possible failures.  Keep asking yourself what’s the very worst that could happen and figure out ways to avoid it.  Then ask yourself a key question: If something did go wrong, what’s the worst that could happen?  Creating your own business takes a lot of starts and stops so always be thinking, re-evaluating and re-inventing yourself.

Stick with it at all costs.  Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back.  Hold onto your dreams and keep fighting for them.  Do everything in your power to stay focused and you’ll find there’s no reason you can’t make your vision a reality.

Create habits.  Set aside time each day to go over your business plan.  Continue to revisit and revise it.  Staying focused takes a rigorous schedule but set one each day and keep it in place.  It’s easy to get discouraged but if you make time every day to go over your goals and ideas, you can indeed turn them into a thriving business.

Try bringing others on board.  While you might have visions of going it alone, sometimes getting a business partner is the best way to go.  This way, you have to minds working on a goal and two sets of eyes going over every idea and speed bump.  Don’t get greedy and think: “Well, if I bring on a colleague, my profits might be less in the long run.”  That’s often not the case.  Your success and finances can often grow with an additional person to help and be there to go along for the ride.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to others for financial backing.  Sometimes you have to swallow your pride in order to make your dreams a reality.  If you know you can pay it back down the road, there’s no reason you can’t ask someone close to you for a loan.  If they give it to you, this might inspire you as you’ll feel you have someone in your corner that believes in you and your dream.

While going it alone in the business world is often a scary proposition, there’s no reason you can’t turn your passions and dreams into a reality and successful new venture.  Take the advice I’ve offered above to heart and you’ll find it might indeed be helpful in your long-term success.

If you have indeed become a successful entrepreneur, what are some of the best things you did to turn your dreams into a reality?  Was it something I mentioned here today or did you take a different route?  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.  Let’s start up a conversation and bounce ideas off each other!

Here are some articles you might want to check out about making your dreams a reality in business:

“Make Your Dream Business a Reality”: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/starting-a-business/2013/09/16/make-your-dream-business-reality/

“How to Make Your Dream Business a Reality”: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217422

“Turning Your Business Dream into a Reality”: http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/oct/11/turning-business-dream-reality-tips

Until next time…

Why Competition is Good For Business

While it might sound strange, competition is actually healthy for growing your small business.  Many entrepreneurs might actually think it’s easier to market their new ventures without the hassle of dealing with competitors but in fact, the opposite is true.  In truth, you can’t afford to ignore your competitors and in all honesty, you don’t want to.  If you do, you are actually doing yourself a disservice.  There are many reasons competition is good for business and I will outline them below.

Competition fosters innovation.  By keeping an eye on your competitors, it will force you to consistently look at your core business strategies and goals for the future and enable you to make changes, should you need to.  Additionally, it will allow you to better evaluate what you’re doing well, what you’re not doing well and how you can make improvements to better serve your customers and clients alike.

Competition validates your ideas.  If you see that others are trying to position themselves in the market with a similar idea, it will lead you to know that maybe you are in fact on the right track and are really in touch with the target audience you are trying to reach.  It will show you that there are indeed customers that want the product you are selling.  If those competitors are failing, you are either leading the pack or maybe it will allow you to realize that, unfortunately, your idea isn’t working and lead you to further evaluate your business plan.  This is a good thing!

Competition forces focus.  Without competitors it’s often easy to lose focus on what your customers’ needs and wants are along with your goals and vision for the brand you are selling. Competitors help you build a better business by opening your eyes to what you need to spend the most time working on and what you should highlight in your business plan and objectives.

Competition drives down business costs.  You can benefit from your competitors’ research results and use them as secondary data to your own to either update your strategy or develop more innovative ideas.  Basically, this allows you to allocate less funds towards market research as you are in essence, getting it for free when you pay attention to your competitors.

Competition helps improve customer service.  Your competitors motivate you to set a higher standard in meeting the needs of your customers and clients.  While you don’t always need to have the lowest prices, competition can motivate you to care more about your clientele.  Helping build customer satisfaction is key to the success of any new venture and competition can help you keep your eye on this and not lose focus that it is always essential to be in touch with what your customers want, need and expect from you.

Competition encourages creativity.  Seeing your competitors make a name for themselves in the marketplace, actually allows you to better position yourself for success.  To be the best, you always have to find new ways of thinking and continue to grow and reevaluate your vision.  Competition helps point out flaws in your business model and therefore, forces you to think in more new and innovative ways.

Competition helps point out your strengths and weaknesses.  You can always look at your competitors and see what you are doing better than them or what they are doing better than you and then work to grow your strengths and readjust your weaknesses.

Competition helps you identify potential threats to your business.  If a competitor fails, you can look seriously at what led them to that point and make sure you stay clear of making the same mistakes.  This will help you decipher what plans are in fact detrimental to your business.  You may have thought an idea or product was working and then by looking at the failure of a competitor that was doing the same, you can make adjustments so that you don’t repeat their mistakes and end up hurting your business and its growth potential in the long run.

Competition stops complacency.  In essence, competition forces you out of your comfort zone and makes you think in more innovative ways and challenges you to keep pushing forward with new ideas and products.  Competition forces you to continually look at the marketplace you are targeting and make sure you are servicing it well.

As strange as it may sound, competition also allows you to get rid of customers that are actually a hindrance to your business.  You can’t please everyone and often some difficult customers can hold you back so sometimes it’s often best to let the competition deal with them and take away an unnecessary headache that you certainly don’t need and that hinders growth and you reaching your goals and objectives.

Competition makes seeking knowledge about your customers and the marketplace key.  You always want to keep ahead of the competition or at very least stay current with them so that your business doesn’t lose relevancy.  It shows you the true value of always doing market research and really staying on top of what your customers are truly asking of you to help better service their needs.

Lastly, competition helps you learn how to improve your employees’ performance on a daily basis which is obviously needed to help any business grow, succeed and stay relevant in the marketplace you are targeting.  By asking your employees to stay up-to-date on the competition, they will become more knowledgeable of the overall industry you are focused on in general and may lead them to come up with more innovative and effective ways to do their jobs better which, of course, enhances the success of your business.

If you haven’t thought about the benefits of competition, I sincerely hope you will because you really should.  Not only should you always know what your competitors are up to but you really can learn and grow from having competition and I hope I’ve proven that here today.

So what are some of your thoughts on why competition is good for business?  Have you used some of the ideas I’ve pointed out today or are there others you have used successfully in the past that weren’t mentioned?

Here are some articles you might want to check out on why competition is good for business:

“Competition is Good For Business (Plans)”: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/entrepreneurs/2012/09/24/competition-is-good-for-business-plans/

“7 Solid Reasons Why Market Competition is Good For Small Business”: http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2013/05/31/7-solid-reasons-why-market-competition-is-good-for-small-businesses/

“Why Competition is Good For Business”: http://expensereduction.com/blog/why-competition-good-business#.UmaIdBAcQs4

“Competition Good for Small Businesses”: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-small-business/2009/01/29/competition-good-for-small-businesses

Until next time…

How to Stay Focused at Work

Getting distracted at work happens quite often and is something that plagues many employees on a daily basis.  When you work in an office with other coworkers, distraction comes easily.  This often leads to loss of concentration and an inability to stay focused on the task at hand.  There are continuous visits and phone calls and emails to respond to.  Focus is something you must fight for at work.  It’s not something that comes easily and so you have to take certain steps to get there.  If you want to stay focused, make sure your surroundings make that as easy as possible.

First off, plan your day ahead of time so you can know what your objectives are and what goals and tasks need to be met to finish your work in an efficient and timely fashion.  You can write out a list and refer back to it and check things off as you go.  Make sure your top priorities and most pressing tasks are first on the list.  This will keep you motivated to indeed complete the list.

Manage your emails so that you’re not distracted while working.  While important emails flood in at all times throughout the day, you might consider designated certain time periods to check said emails.  This will allow you to avoid being distracted from more pressing matters.  Try setting up email folders and set up a filter that allows emails to go directly to those folders.  Then you can see what emails are more important than others.

Not getting lost in personal distractions is a great way to stay focused at work.  Try to avoid checking personal email and stay away from certain social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.  If you really want to check those sites or shop on line, take lunch at your desk and do it then.  Don’t take long personal calls; set your cell phone to silent.  Unless, certain personal phone calls or emails are pressing, try and avoid them throughout the day.

Considering using earphones might also be a good way to block out distracting noise around you.  Sometimes background noise can make it difficult to focus on reading and writing important documents and getting your tasks done in a timely fashion.  Silence is often key to staying focused.

If you share your calendar with others, block out personal “working” sessions for yourself so that others know not to interrupt you.  If you set aside time for yourself, you can focus on the task at hand.

Avoid water cooler talk.  Don’t just “shoot the shit” with coworkers all day long and participate in office gossip.  While you might want to vent to a colleague about your boss or someone else, don’t spend too much time doing it.  Additionally, you don’t want to be seen as someone who speaks poorly of coworkers.  You can’t trust everyone you can confide in so be weary of that.

Organize your desk regularly.  Make sure you have plenty of file folders and other necessary organizational tools nearby at all times.  If you allow your desk to become chaotic, you can easily loose important documents in the clutter.  This can leave you feeling overwhelmed.  Cleaning up your desk on a regular basis and getting rid of documents or sticky note reminders for tasks that have already past is a great way to stay focused.  Order a tack board so that you can paste important information on it that is readily accessible.  Or consider a dry erase board, where you can organize the most pressing tasks in order and easily look up and see it and refer to it regularly.

If you are using Outlook or another database that allows you to set up tasks and calendar appointments and reminders use it effectively.  Instead of constantly writing sticky notes all over the place, stay organized electronically.  Or keep a notebook handy.  Use sticky flags to mark certain pages that need your attention.

Set up a comfortable work station.  Make sure you have a comfy chair.  Use a back or leg rest if needed.  Consider using gel mousepads and wrist wrests to make yourself more relaxed while typing away all day long.

Keep certain snacks and water handy on your desk at all times so that you can grab them for sustenance throughout the day and don’t have to constantly be running out to the store to find things to eat and drink.  Consider making your lunch beforehand and bringing it to work so you don’t have to leave the office in the middle of the day to go grab something to satiate yourself.

If you’re allowed to listen to music while at work, maybe you should try it?  Often soothing sounds can help you stay focused on the task at hand and additionally can block out the noise of surrounding coworkers.

If your company uses an internal IM system, make sure to set it as “unavailable” or “in a meeting” when you need time for yourself or even consider logging out of it at times.  You can often also set it to “do not disturb.”  This is a great way to stay focused at work.

Make sure you don’t have a million documents, Excel spreadsheets or Internet browsers up and running at all times.  When you are done with a document or website close out of it so that you are not constantly going back and forth between documents all day.

While it’s often difficult to stay organized at work with meetings and phone calls and the surrounding noise of coworkers, these simple steps above can really and truly help you stay focused at work.  Your main objective every day is to complete your tasks in a timely and efficient manner so do whatever you need to do to achieve that and some of the tips I’ve mentioned today are very useful in helping you do so.

So what are some of your favorite ways of staying organized at work?  Is there something you use in particular that I haven’t mentioned here today? Leave a comment and let me know what you find is the most effective measure for staying focused at work.

Here are some articles you might want to check out about staying focused at work:

“12 Ways to Boost Your Concentration at Work”: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/12-ways-boost-concentration-work/story?id=19449004

“7 Ways to Stay Focused at Work”: http://www.mensfitness.com/gear/fashion-and-trends/7-ways-to-stay-focused-at-work

“5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work”: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/five-ways-to-keep-yourself-focused-at-work/

“10 Ways to Reduce Interruptions and Stay Focused at Work”: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-ways-to-reduce-interruptions-and-stay-focused-at-work/

Until next time…