You Will Fail As An Entrepreneur If You Do These 5 Things

It can be exciting to be an entrepreneur. You get to be your own boss, call the shots, arrive at work whenever you feel like it, and enjoy a lot more benefits. But while it’s a beautiful thing to hear everyone working for you call you sir or ma, many factors could easily send you back to being an employee.

It’s important to know that the most crucial phase of truly gaining financial freedom as an independent individual is being able to survive the hurdles of entrepreneurship, so you can eventually come out on top.

With the economic recession currently being experienced in Nigeria and several other parts of the world, many individuals that are being downsized are both looking for new jobs and/or starting up small businesses. For those starting businesses, it would take more than just a business idea and registration to succeed. Many factors would come in to play. And these are the factors that will determine who succeeds or fails as an entrepreneur.

If you’re ready to do anything to ensure your business succeeds, here are 5 things that will make you fail as an entrepreneur, and how to overcome them:

See Also: The 5 Critical Stages You Will Go Through As An Entrepreneur

1). You Lack Self-Discipline:

There’s a popular saying that goes thus; “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. An individual who cannot plan his/her daily activities and see them through is already not cut out for success.

One of the most important things that will guarantee your success in life, is your ability to develop a rock solid self-discipline. According to the book, “The Power Of Habit”,, by Charles Duhigg, scientific research has shown that self-discipline is a more important key to success than a high I.Q.

What’s the point of being extra-ordinarily smart without seeing your plans through?

If you cannot plan your next day’s activities a day before, stick to your new year resolutions, plan your year’s activities in succession, and focus on doing only the most important things first, before lesser important things, you’re already half way on the journey to failure.

To ensure you succeed as an entrepreneur, you must master self-discipline and make it an unconscious part of you.

See Also: The Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail

2). You’re Never On Time:

Money comes and goes, but time only goes. If you’re going to hit your goals, projections, and more on time, you must always start weigh ahead of the deadline.

Timing is everything. If you’re all about last minute preparations for almost everything you do, then you’re equally on a last minute preparation for a long-term failure.

Getting to meetings late, waking up late, having supper late, delivering projects & contracts late, paying salaries late, and much more, will make your staffs, other individuals, and organizations that need your services or products, look elsewhere for more credible businesses.

If you attend to your customer issues late, you’d discover they’ve already signed up with a competitor that truly cares about them and their time.

Not keeping to time will end up making you lose a lot, and eventually your business’s credibility. With a bad reputation firmly built, it’s a matter of time before you file for bankruptcy and go out of business.

Remember, timing is everything!

3). Change Is Difficult For You:

Times always change. What works today may not work tomorrow. What people buy today, may not be bought tomorrow, and the cycle goes on and on. If you’re stubborn to change, you’d eventually find your business in extinct, and wouldn’t be confident enough to explain how it all happened.

Attending digital marketing seminars, learning new sales techniques, studying how social media can help your business, and more will ensure you’re always vibrant with new information.

Don’t phase out like the great industries of the 1960’s that refused to adapt to the changing tides because after all, they always made statements like, “this is how we have always done things”. Position yourself in the new trend. Make your business a pillar for new achievements, and perhaps, you’d remain as relevant as Coca-Cola and Western Union has remained for over 100 years.

Change with the times, or you’ll be left behind!

See Also: 5 Wealth Creation Habits That Will Make You A Millionaire

4). Fear Consumes You:

The business world is like a battlefield. Crush your enemies or your enemies will crush you. But in this regard, the ultimate goal is to acquire as many customers, investments, valuable partnerships, and more, as possible.

If you’re too weak to go for what you want, you’ll never get it. As Oprah Winfrey once said, “You get in life, what you have the courage to ask for”.

Go for everything you want to achieve. Leave no stone unturned. Try every possible way to claim the whole market. For if you don’t do this, another bolder entrepreneur who’s currently executing his/her takeover plan would, and you just might get caught up in the turmoil.

If you’re too scared to demand what you’re worth, close sales, and knock on large doors, then you won’t succeed. Conquer fear today, and you’ll be one step closer to succeeding as an entrepreneur.

5). You Never Outsource:

No man or woman is an island. The same goes for businesses.

One of the keys to many business’s success has always been centered on outsourcing. This gives the business more room and time to focus on many other daunting tasks at a lower cost.

If you hire staffs for everything, or you choose to take on everything yourself, you’ll loose a lot of time and money on salaries. Valuable time could be spent acquiring newer clients, building your network, and brainstorming with your team. But if you choose to do everything yourself, or by your organization, you’ll have lesser time to focus on what’s truly important.

Don’t burn out your team or yourself. Outsource the little that you can, so you can have more time to accomplish greater things. This is one important key to succeeding as an entrepreneur.

See Also: The Most Important Skill Every Entrepreneur Needs To Succeed

What are your thoughts on these 5 things that will make you fail as an entrepreneur? Please leave your comment below.

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