Creating Success as an Entrepreneur

What qualities do entrepreneurs need to succeed? Do you have what it takes to make it big in business? Are you prepared for success if it does come your way? These are all questions everyone needs to ask themselves when considering taking on entrepreneurship. So let’s discover the answers together…

Hello, I’m Doug Barra. And in this video, we will explore the concept we call the entrepreneurial ladder. In America, the amount of self-employed people has been steadily increasing since 2007. I want to talk about the people who choose to start their business and take steps to help ensure success. To do this. We’ll look at each step of the ladder as a separate entity with unique characteristics.

First, let’s go over step zero, student. The entrepreneurial ladder starts with basically a student. A student is below the first rung, and it’s where we all start. In fact, the first couple of steps on the entrepreneurial ladder are actually dictated by society. We all start as students, we all start in school, and what’s the job of being in school. The job of being in school is to learn how to learn. It’s to learn problem-solving skills.

Once we’ve gone through that stage, we go to step one employee. We all get that first job. It might be a job where we go out and do odd jobs for others. I remember for myself; my first job really was doing odd jobs for other people. And I actually enjoyed that. I learned lots. I learned a lot of things I’ll never use, but I learned them. I learned how to put in sprinkler systems, polish floors, and re-tar a driveway. Of course, I would never actually use these things, but it taught me how to be an employee and get the job done. And that’s a lot about what we’re doing as employees. And I learned how to do lots of things that have served me over time.

In the world of an entrepreneur when we’re an employee, we actually want to have as many kinds of positions as we possibly can. I was a dishwasher. I was a line cook. I sold greeting cards, door to door. So I’ve done a lot of different things before I went into being an entrepreneur. Now, many times people think, well, I’ve been in business doing the same thing for 30 years.

Therefore I should be able to go into business for myself. Unfortunately, that’s not actually the case. That is having one year’s worth of experience 30 times. Now, once we learn all of that, then we move up to stage two, self-employed. Self-employed is where you are the business. It is all about you. You do most, if not all, of the work. Even if you have people that are working for you, you’re doing most of the work.

If you are not there, the business stops. This is what it’s like to be a self-employed person. This stage is critical because we learn how to be in business. First, we learned how to have a business. Then we learned how to take care of our customers. Unfortunately, it’s also the biggest struggling point on this journey.

Normally, this is the point where you’re totally overwhelmed. You’re trying to make it all happen. And a lot of times, people in this space decide, ah, I just can’t do this. I’m going to go back out and get a job. Now for some people, that might be okay. Maybe they prefer to be an employee. For those who are committed to being an entrepreneur, this is the point where you start to learn how to delegate.

This is the point where you move to step three, manager. You might’ve just thought, wait a minute. I would go from self-employed to a business owner. Nope. And I’m not necessarily talking about being a manager in a business, although you might get there that way, working for somebody else. Even if you are the boss, you have to go through the manager stage. As a manager, this is where you start to learn how to delegate properly. How to have people actually take over tasks and do them effectively. You need to learn delegation, measuring, accountability to make sure that once someone takes on a task, it gets done right.

Most people collapse leadership and management. They are not the same thing. Management requires that you actually cause people to produce results. You could be a great leader, but not a good manager. And this is where problems often lie. Many people skip over being a manager. They try to go straight to being a great leader. And yes, being a great leader as a manager is useful. However, you absolutely have to be able to do the management.

You have to understand how to manage people. Once you understand how to manage people, you can move into step four, business owner. This is where you’re actually starting to work on the business. Not just in it. You’re not just managing people. You’re leading them. You see the vision. You’re looking for where you’re going. You may even have managers at this point to start taking care of managing your people.

And this is where you truly have to have your vision, your mission. You truly have to understand where you’re going and inspiring your people to get there. Much of this is exactly what we cover in the Master Business Growth Workshop that will be occurring next week.

Click the link to secure your spot in this powerful program. The best thing is that the workshop is absolutely FREE because I am committed to bringing the possibility of a successful business to everyone.

I’d love to know what value you got from today’s video or what questions you have. Leave me a comment. I look forward to reading what you have to say. Please take a moment and like this video, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Be sure to click the bell, to get all notifications so that you don’t miss a single one of our videos.

Once again, I’m Doug Barra. And now it’s your turn. Click the link, get yourself registered, and I’ll see you in our next video.