We had students ask us what can be done to stand out from the crowd to do things differently as there are many like them who are doing similar courses and they want to do things differently, so they stand out and carve a niche for themselves.

Entrepreneurship is simply defined as starting a business, taking a financial risk in the hope of profit.

Many Entrepreneurs have visions of transforming the world with their ideas. An entrepreneur needs to either have or develop few qualities which will help them become successful.

Below are few of them:

  • Strategic planning
  • Empathy
  • Collaboration
  • Management
  • Inquisitiveness
  • Strong Ethics
  • Marketing

So let us elaborate on the above points.

Strategic Planning – A business should always have a plan in place, A strategy for success. The plan should have your vision for your business, financial forecasts and planning, organisational structure, policies and procedures, marketing plan, risk analysis, mitigating risk and implementation plan. This will help you follow a structure and also will clearly define your aims and goals which makes it more structured for you to work towards.

Empathy – Many entrepreneurs miss this very important point. A business owner should be empathetic towards their customers, employees and partners. Wondering why? Because only when you have the capacity to put yourselves in their shoes will you ever be able to relate and understand their needs. Once you have that empathy towards them working with them or working for them will become easier. Only when you fully understand what their needs are can you fully support them or provide to them successfully. So If you are not naturally empathetic it is a good skill to develop both in business and personal life.

Collaboration – Always look for opportunities to collaborate. It could be referrals, outsourcing, partnerships or affiliations. Collaborations contribute towards the growth of the business and provide you with additional intellectual property, resources or manpower which normally might be out of your reach. Ensure the collaboration works within your business strategy. You should not change any of your major business operations for a collaboration, you should be able to integrate them within your operations.

Management – Efficient management of a business is an art in itself. Good organisational skills are essential for a good manager. Some might have these naturally and some might not. It is good to develop them or there are tools like reminders and calendars which can be used to ensure you are organised. An efficiently run business is like a well-oiled machinery which runs smoothly with minimal interruptions. For this to happen the business owner or the CEO should ensure there are systems and procedures in place which are adhered to strictly.  If this is something you struggle with it is a good idea to hire someone with these skills.

Inquisitiveness – An entrepreneur should always be curious about what else is out there in the marketplace. You should never be satisfied with what you have and should always try to make it better and more competitive. The only way you will know that your product or service needs improvement is when you are inquisitive about what else is out there, is that offering better than yours in value, quality and usefulness? What can you do to improve what you offer? Once you see this make those changes. Never stagnate your product or service. Continuous improvement should be part of your business.

Strong Ethics – While a business or enterprise is about profit, it should never be just about that. Generally, I believe that all entrepreneurs have good hearts, they start with the idea of providing something better than what is out there. Operate your business with solid ethics. Don’t compromise the quality of your product or service even if it affects the bottom dollar in the short term. Think of the long-term benefits and the business value.

Marketing – Last but the most important of all is a terrific marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy is what makes you stand out. Many businesses fail because their product or service does not reach the consumers. You might have the most outstanding product or service but, if not enough people know about it success will be a struggle. In this world of online and digital media, digital marketing is the only way forward. We spend more than 50% of our time online. So it makes more sense for you to market online. There are many tools like social media, search engines, industry portals etc for this. Check out my article on ‘Social Media and Digital Marketing for Small Businesses’ for more information on this.

Hope this has given you some ideas. Wish you all the success!

Vahini Panda

About the Author: Vahini is the CEO and Founder of Health Academy Australia and Health Courses Australia. She is multi faceted in her skills and expertise which is backed by 20 years experience in the areas of education, health, ecommerce and Information Technology. She is a CEO, Passionate business owner, Author, Blogger, Nutritionist, Digital marketing expert and a Mum.