Management of small businesses is not for the weak of heart. If you feel discouraged by the inevitable setbacks, struggles, and setbacks that come with starting a business, don’t let them. The most outstanding entrepreneurs of the past century were there, had some tough lessons learned, and have succeeded. This article can be referred to as needed to provide advice that will help you get back on track with your business goals.
Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
Mary Kay was tired of working in a male-dominated industry. She took $5,000 from her savings and hired a few independent beauty consultants to open a small store in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Mary Kay’s business has flourished worldwide, employing hundreds of thousands of beauty professionals and generating billions of dollars. Mary Kay’s early success was due to two strategies. They both involved how she managed people.
She started by creating a solid business plan that was based on her Christian faith. Then she guided her staff and consultants to prioritize God, family, and work. Her business plan was the core of her leadership philosophy and was something her consultants could rely on. She also created a lucrative incentive program that included pink Cadillacs for top-selling consultants. Mary Kay is often ranked as one of the top businesses to work for in surveys.
P.T. Barnum
His reputation as a fraudster, showman and promoter of hoaxes has earned him many labels. The one thing that Barnum & Bailey Circus founder Ringling Bros. will never be called is a poor salesman. Barnum knew that selling was only possible when your prospect could identify their needs and wants and then fulfill them. He simply changed his pitch to help the prospect solve a problem and tried again if his sales pitch was rejected. He understood that selling wasn’t about just getting the sale. He wanted to make every customer feel good about their purchase, and so they returned for more.
Barnum understood the importance of taking risks to grow a company. Barnum was open to taking risks in business and tried new sales strategies. He wasn’t afraid of failing. He once famously had an extensive, advertisement-wearing elephant grazing in his front yard so that passing trains could clearly see it. He was known for his policy of offering customers good value for money, which he used as a backup to all his bizarre sales strategies.
Richard Branson
Richard Branson is an expert on branding. Virgin Group, which he founded in the 70s to sell mail-order records, is now an international brand that includes airline and music stores as well as hotels, non-profit organizations, and a mobile phone.
Branson may be involved in many honey pots, but Virgin still adheres to the corporate philosophy he established when he founded it more than 40 years back. His core values are sustainability, wellness, and equality of all people. He also embraces change. These core values are reflected in Branson’s brand. It is crucial to have a brand that offers value to consumers and to keep that brand consistent as you grow your business. Never forget where you began.
Warren Buffet
Warren Buffet is one of the most successful men in the world. His smart investments have earned him more than $60 trillion. The buffet isn’t afraid to take risks and invest in areas that are not well-known. Buffet has avoided the safe investments that most investors seek and instead sought out opportunities to be above average. He listens to his inner scorecard and trusts his own judgment.
His risks were always carefully calculated. Buffet strongly believes in closely monitoring expenses and limiting how much money you can borrow or charge to your credit cards. Buffet also recommends that all details of a deal be clearly stated in writing before you start. This is when you have the most bargaining power, and you won’t be surprised later.
Walt Disney
He lived up to the famous words, “If you can dream it, you can do it,” For him, Disney was about the pursuit of a dream he had created from his imagination. He believed it was a creative outlet, but it was also a business success because of his belief in it.
Customers have remained loyal to Disney over the years because the brand was so deeply rooted in their hearts and souls. He was aware of the responsibility he held to his customers and placed a high value on their happiness. His relationship with customers paid significant dividends to his business.
Disney did precisely what he loved, and the money followed.
Bill Gates
Two things are responsible for Bill Gates’ success: His natural ability to predict the market and read it. His unabashed geekiness. You can learn from his example: Follow your passion; there’s a reason it was given.
Gates, a teenager obsessed with computers, was busy years before Microsoft was founded. While he tried to follow the path of many others, he was half-heartedly enrolled at Harvard. But his passion for writing software didn’t let him go. Entrepreneurial opportunities kept coming up. Everybody has a talent. Gates was one of these talents. Gates was different from everyone else because he was willing and able to sacrifice everything to make his dream come true. He was willing to take significant risks, and he saw great rewards.
Gates’ enthusiasm for what he does was not stifled by lawsuits, market shifts threatened, allegations of monopoly, and falling outs with business partners. Don’t ignore something that is bothering you every day. With enough determination and hard work, almost anything can be achieved.
William Randolph Hearst
Hearst is perhaps the most disliked entrepreneur of the 20th century. However, it’s clear that he was a man of resilience and perseverance. His unethical business practices, questionable political and personal decisions, and reputation for the terrible treatment of his associates would have put any modern entrepreneur on the fast track to failure. However, there are many lessons that can be learned from his resilience throughout his career.
Hearst was faced with failures in business and personal relationships, but he got up and did his best to get back on track. Hearst had little faith in the world around him, but he believed in himself, and that was vital for business success.
Steve Jobs
Although there are many lessons entrepreneurs can learn from the man that created the Apple dynasty, the most important is this quote from Jobs: “It is not the customer’s responsibility to know what they want.” Apple was able to create loyal customers by understanding Apple’s audience and providing solutions. It’s as simple as that.
Learn about your audience. What are their goals, hopes, fears, failures, insecurities, and concerns? You can find out their needs and design a product or service that meets them. Do this repeatedly.
Jobs also understood the importance of having the best team. He believed that the most crucial task of a business leader was to hire a skilled team. You are in a unique position as a small business owner to hire the best people possible. They are the future of your business.
Estee Lauder
Lauder was a Saks Fifth Avenue counter girl selling her cosmetics and perfumes until she died as a millionaire at the ripe old age of 97. Her personal sales techniques earned her a loyal following as rich as her skin creams.
You are selling your business as much as you are your product as an entrepreneur. Loyal customers can be created by listening to their needs and offering a service that they can genuinely, really benefit from. Estee Lauder was determined to make women happy and beautiful, not sell. She built her cosmetics business with that approach.
Mark Zuckerberg
Disney once stated that “we don’t make films to make more cash; we make money to make more films.” Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, shared the same sentiments when saying, “we don’t build services to earn money; we build better services.” They will come if you create a great product and do what you love. This is a typical value that almost all successful entrepreneurs share.
One of the youngest billionaires in the world has been through a lot of personal turmoil and professional turmoil. But he never lost sight of his company and continues to strive for improvement. Success will come if you stay focused on the goal.