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(Gloucestercitynews.net)(May 22, 2020)--No entrepreneur wants to launch his/her business and not expect profits! Business isn't about becoming complacent after attaining the initial gains. Instead, it is essential to move ahead and embrace the best technological aid, innovative thinking, and systems to achieve more success, an increased customer base, and returns on investment. If you are an ambitious entrepreneur and want your business venture to attain incremental success, follow the best business practices. There's no substitute for consistent effort, smart thinking, constant innovation, and careful planning for business success.

The basic entrepreneurial thinking - Boris Wolfman

Before heading out to the market at large, business owners and start-up entrepreneurs need to do necessary thinking about their business set-up, its potential, expansion plans, and the capital at hand. Most importantly, they need to realize how do they want to tread on the entrepreneurial path.

If you are in this phase, it’s a smart call to ask yourself a few questions like:

• Am I serious about this start-up venture? Or is it something I am doing momentarily out of an outlandish wish? 
• Do I want to expand locally? Or, do I want to work on local and national brand awareness simultaneously?
• Is my existing workforce sufficient to accommodate the business expansion plans? Do I need fresh recruits? Do I have the capital to pay for their fees and other allied expenses?
• Do I need to make changes to the business launch and PR plan? Is my business ready to face media queries? 
• Are there any reputation management issues that I need to address before launching the business? 
• Do I have the necessary capital for business investment?
• Am I willing to undergo the changes personally and professionally to expand my brand?

These are a set of questions that you need to address before setting out a business strategy. It will help you to assess your commitment level concerning your business. Once you go ahead with the business launch, it will appear rather unprofessional to pause and rewind everything until required. Your audience and other business partners might interpret such an abrupt move in a negative way. Your customers might switch to a competitor brand. Your investors and business partners might not get interested in investing in your business or working with you. Entrepreneurs and business owners need to exercise caution and not sacrifice their business reputation. 

Start motivated throughout the journey

Entrepreneurship is not predictable! It has unknown consequences which no business leader or start-up entrepreneur can predict. For instance, the current COVID-19 situation, which has given a big blow to the business and healthcare sector, was unanticipated. Even though there were preliminary warnings, no one knew the extent to which a virus could harm anyone until the death tolls occurred, leaving many patients still infected of the novel coronavirus. This, however, is the extreme end of the spectrum in terms of a crisis. The idea is that entrepreneurs should know that there can be moments of uncertainties during their entrepreneurial journey. And it's essential to stay motivated and keep looking forward.

What is the best way for entrepreneurs and business owners to stay motivated? Reading about other leading entrepreneurs who have made their mark in the industry is useful. One name that every young entrepreneur should know and learn about is Boris Wolfman. A man who heads several ventures under one brand will undoubtedly motivate others to follow their dream business. Wolfman is attending to businesses related to iron supplies, citrus fruits, canola oil, and many more. His mission is to let the world benefit from Israeli technology.

Dabbling on every business vertical isn't easy for Wolfman. But his commitment to innovative thinking, thought leadership, consistent effort, and fostering useful business connections, helps him manifest the best outcome for his business. One entrepreneur can manage varied ventures if he/she plans the same carefully. Reading more about this ace entrepreneur will help you learn about various marketing, public relations, client management, media relations tactics to shape your business. 

The golden rules for entrepreneurs to live by

There’s more to execute, other than following the best business practices inspired by Wolfman. Young and experienced entrepreneurs can make good use of the following guidelines:

1. Know your niche and how you wish to expand

You need to get identified for a specific business niche. It could be confectionaries, organic food, books, industrial supplies, home décor items, and many more. Initially, when you start, it makes sense to concentrate your efforts on one niche and cater to the customer needs. It will help you get identified by people easily and enhance the brand recall value. Once people get to know your brand better, you can think of business expansion and diversification. Launching too many business verticals might confuse your audience at the first go. If you don't have the resources to support all the business verticals for the future, it might upset your audience. It also suggests that you should know your market correctly and invest in apt and smart marketing strategies that work.

2. Don't waste too much money on the business launch

Start-ups need to be very cautious about their spending since most have a limited capital in the beginning. Do you resonate with that? If yes, then you need to get careful about the business expenses and spend only when necessary. For instance, you don't need an extravagant launch for your start-up. You can plan a cost-effective launch and share the relevant details with your customers, business partners, media partners, and the like. You can also update your website and social media channels. It will help in spreading the word about your business launch. It will help you to keep the business savings and spend it on future business investments. 

3. Finding a mentor helps

It is true, especially for young entrepreneurs. The business sphere is dynamic and competitive. New brands get launched every day. The economic situation might be at a standstill right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But still, business owners and entrepreneurs are thinking of ways to connect with their audience and business partners. They are making the crucial business plans so that once the situation gets back to normal, businesses can start rolling out their marketing plan and achieve their set targets.

Young entrepreneurs have the required zest and zeal. But sometimes they might not know the way to navigate through all this. Hence, a mentor or a business consultant can help. They can help entrepreneurs focus their energy, resource and capital on favorable ventures and investments.  

4. Be willing to take risks

Entrepreneurship is not about dictating from an ivory watchtower! It’s about walking through the business challenges with your team members and moving beyond it with a positive outcome. Entrepreneurs need to take business risks and also face the circumstances. Else, they won’t be able to grow. From making the business launch to bringing new products, services, online forums, and the like – entrepreneurs should keep playing with new ideas and be willing to test it out with their audience.

Your customers might not like every product/service that you introduce, even if they are loyal customers. Hence, it is essential to have practical expectations and an open mind, to accept both criticism and appreciation. In case a product or service launch and performance doesn't match up to your expectations, make sure you take time to know the reasons behind it. Mull on the following questions:

• Did the product/service cater to the audience's needs? Did it address the pain points?
• Is there a gap between the product/service promotion and actual performance?
• Have you had the chance to go through the audience's feedback?
• Is the product/service overpriced?
• Did your customer miss the marketing message? Is your audience confused about the product/service?

When you delve into these questions, your risk-taking gets the desired direction. It helps you make informed decisions and expand your business.

5. Don't just hire people, but hire character, intelligence, and commitment

If you want to stay on the entrepreneurial journey for the longest haul, you need to hire dependable people. Once you have attained initial success, you need an expert and trained team to help you accomplish your entrepreneurial goals. Take time to understand the talent, ideation skills, and commitment level that you are expecting from your team. It will help you hire the correct candidate. 

Simply hiring a candidate isn't enough! You need to train them as well. An ace employee might come with excellent communication, business execution, and analytical skills that you can use. But he/she might lack client negotiation skills. Identify the skill set of your present team and analyze both their strengths and weaknesses. It will help you to train them on relevant skills that can help them to accomplish a task faster and better. Keep track of the employee performance, which will help you decide on the training module. Take time to guide your employees with correct resources, training sessions, and one-on-one consultations.

Entrepreneurship is a journey! There's no fixed rule for success here. Hence, you need to keep clued in to all the positive business practices, follow the same, and ensure business expansion and success.

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