10 Things Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know (From Someone Who Has Done It All)

Hey, if you’ve landed here it’s because you want to know how to become a successful entrepreneur. And yep, here, you will find 10 things every entrepreneur should know.

In fact, to be an entrepreneur, there are certain challenges that you have to face and conquer. There is no way to succeed without facing problems head-on.

This means that you have to become a problem-solver to grow. 

Although many of the challenges are often rewarding in the end, some are extremely harsh and turn out to be the stumbling block that causes so many would-be entrepreneurs to fail. 

According to industry statistics, the number of successful businesses has been falling steadily over the years: nearly 90% of startups fail. 

From time management and cash flow management to hiring employees, delegating tasks, and creating effective marketing strategies – the path to entrepreneurial success is fraught with obstacles. But, for those that make it through, success, profits, and a wealth of other benefits await them.

I have learned this firsthand through 8 years as an entrepreneur after bootstrapping 7 websites of my own and growing them into a successful 7-figure business. 

In this article, I share some of the most important lessons I learned on my journey to entrepreneurial success.

So read on to discover the 10 things every entrepreneur should know (from someone who’s done it).

10 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know

The challenges I outline below are common to most entrepreneurs in all types of businesses and industries.

By following the advice offered, you will be better equipped to deal with the challenges you may be facing currently, and help prepare yourself so you are ready to meet the future challenges that are sure to come.

1. Be Determined to Never Quit

The first thing of how to become a successful entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship inherently comes with tons of hurdles, and anyone taking it up should be prepared to persevere. 

The most important decision you can make as an entrepreneur is that you will NEVER quit – no matter what. 

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs are those who decided long ago that no matter what challenges or problems they faced, they would never give up.

With a mindset like this, no obstacle can stand in the way of your success. 

For instance, when I first started my online business journey I spent a lot of time building online courses in hopes that I would be able to sustain myself off of course sales. 

But, in the first year, you know how many courses I sold?  Zero.  

No one cared what I had to say at that time, so I adjusted my approach and continued to move forward. 

Even if you don’t have a full contingency plan for every type of failure that could occur, mental preparedness will be enough to help you through the most difficult times.

2. You Are Going to Fail (A LOT)

The key if you want to know how to become a successful entrepreneur, in as much as entrepreneurship has vast opportunities for success, it is also filled with plenty of opportunities for failure – and these are likely to arise multiple times.

If you ever hope to be successful in this arena, you cannot allow this to demotivate you. 

One of the best ways to protect yourself against being overwhelmed by despair when you inevitably fail is to have a strong support network of friends, family, and mentors who can help you prevent feelings of despair and isolation during those difficult times. 

It also helps to have a belief such as “I never really fail – I either succeed or I learn” so that you can always find the positive in any situation, no matter how bad it may seem in the moment.

3. Hard Work Is a Constant Necessity

For an entrepreneur, hard work is a constant necessity.

Entrepreneurs work harder and longer than people in standard jobs, and the most successful don’t have “optimal” work/life balance. 

That is not to say that entrepreneurs cannot be happy or satisfied in their work and personal life, but many of the most successful entrepreneurs do spend a disproportionate amount of time working on their companies as opposed to the personal aspect of their lives. 

For successful entrepreneurs, it’s not about balancing the time spent in each area of your life because sometimes it just isn’t possible to spend as much time in your personal life as you do in your business. 

The trick, rather, is to ensure that the time you do spend away from your work or in your personal life is quality time.

4. Outsourcing Is Crucial

Many entrepreneurs suffer from the need to micromanage everything.

However, if you want your business to grow bigger than just you, then you have to learn to give up control and outsource some of the work. 

You cannot do everything alone and allocating work to others is crucial for your business to grow. 

Regardless of the industry you are in, there will always be more work than you have time to do it.

Outsourcing is not only an effective tool to help you drive more sales and revenue, but it’s also a great way to avoid overworking yourself and setting yourself up for massive stress, anxiety, and various other health problems.

5. You Must Have Total Confidence in Yourself

Working for yourself, and to make an idea reality, requires the hardest work and having no one to fall back on but yourself.

This means you must have full confidence in yourself and your ability to transform your dream into a reality by any means necessary. 

As an entrepreneur, you must have a strong implicit belief in yourself. 

This isn’t about explicit beliefs, in the form of false bravado to cover up insecurities, but rather, that powerful, inner confidence.

And knowing that you can deal with anything that comes your way and that even if you make a mistake or get things wrong, you can make any amends necessary and move on with things every entrepreneur should know.

6. Time Is Your Most Valuable Asset

As an entrepreneur, you have already learned that there are just too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

That’s why you need to learn to make the decision of where to focus your valuable and limited time, and why.

Which aspect of your business will benefit the most from your full attention?

You will have to make hard choices as to what you will and won’t do with your time. 

Everything else that you do and every other action that you take toward your ultimate success will be affected by this decision.

7. Serving Your Audience Leads to Profits

Instead of focusing on the money, you’re better off focusing on how to solve your audience’s problems as this is the direct route to making profits for your business. 

There is no need to come up with great ideas if you can solve the needs of your target market.

Even if you come up with the absolute best idea in the world, it won’t serve you unless it can satisfy a large enough need, and one that can support your business. So focus on exploring the latest customer experience trends, and the profits will follow.

I still remember when I started to make an extra $1000 per month in income.

That was when I realized I had “made it” and would be able to succeed. 

The interesting thing though isn’t how I was making money, the much more interesting thing is that I made money with a website that I was mostly focused on serving my audience, not generating a profit.

That said, it’s important to understand that the more you serve your audience, the more money you’ll be able to make.  Keep that in mind. 

8. You Need Intense Motivation to Turn Your Idea Into Reality

Every successful entrepreneur has one thing in common: their desire to turn their idea into a reality.

When it comes to manifesting your ideas into reality, you must have intense motivation if you want to succeed. 

The idea you hold has to be manifested the right way for you to experience the success that comes with it.

You must have the intense will and motivation to bring your idea into existence. Without it, all the financing and marketing skills in the world won’t do you any good. 

More than anything else, you have to truly want to make something happen.

Without that intense desire, odds are, nothing will occur – at least, not in the way you want it to. 

The reason for this is simple; sometimes you’re going to have to grind day-in and day-out to make your dream a reality. 

For instance, let’s take the retail arbitrage business model. 

Though it’s not difficult to start and have success with, the motivation to continue working on it every single day is the most challenging thing, especially when you have a bad day. 

9. Build a Team to Assist and Advise You

Grant Cardone has mentioned it, if you want success as an entrepreneur, you have to learn to give up some control.

You can’t do everything on your own, and one of the best ways to ensure the success of your business is to build a strong team to assist and advise you. 

You don’t know everything there is to know about your business, and you don’t have the time to learn it all.

That’s why it’s crucial to have others around you who can offer valuable input and advice. 

As evidenced by the graph below, there are many different reasons why businesses fail.

However, by building a strong team around you, you put the odds of success in your favor. 

This is something you must make peace with, particularly if you’re the type of entrepreneur that fears giving up the reins.

As hard as it may seem to do that right now, your future self will thank you for doing it.  

To make sure your company and your team stay on track, it’s a good idea to use some type of business roadmap to make sure that there is a direction for the company in the coming 6-12 months as you grow.  

10. Know When Your Product Is the Problem

The last of the things every entrepreneur should know.

If your customers don’t like your product, changing the pricing, promotion, or positioning of the product won’t help you much.

If your product is unpopular, it’s going to stay that way until you come up with a different version that satisfies the needs of your customers. 

After all, it’s not you that determines how good your product is – your customer does that, and the customer is always right. 

As an entrepreneur, you need to know when your product is the problem, and if your target audience isn’t engaging, then whatever product you’re offering them isn’t any good.

This mindset will help you refine your product, and eventually help you land your biggest spenders. 

Rather than digging in your heels and trying new spins on the same product or strategy, you can use such a situation as an opportunity to pivot and make changes that will help put you back on the path to success.

Summary – How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

And there you have it. The 10 things every entrepreneur should know, shared by someone who’s done it. 

Although many of these things seem obvious now, when I was first starting out, that wasn’t the case.

Working on my businesses for the past 6 years helped me to grow into the entrepreneur I am today. 

Keep these in mind in your daily operations and you will save a lot of time and effort and progress in your business much quicker, now you know how to become a successful entrepreneur, it’s time to achieve it!.