Here at Dent, we’ve met with over 5000+ entrepreneurs to discuss strategies for their business and we seem to have spotted a common trend.
People often tell us they previously had a normal day job but during this time formed an original idea that no one had thought of before, or that they could provide a better service or solution to a problem.
So they decided to leave their day job, and go on a journey to become an entrepreneur. They believe starting a business and becoming self-employed, will bring them three key things:
1.More money
2. More time
3. Less stress
After 12 months, they realise in fact, they’ve ended up with the following:
1. Less or even no money
2. Less time
3. More stress
The truth is, you can actually achieve the first three things by being in business, but nearly 70% of all businesses don’t have the strategies to get them past the first hurdle which is proving to the market and to the government that you have value to offer by becoming VAT (Value Added Tax) registered.
Here’s how you can avoid the three common frustrations which business owners face:
1. Assets = Money. If you have a property in the city, you have an Asset. If you put that property up for rent, you’ll be receiving a nice tidy sum of money every month from your tenants and your property will soon start to pay itself off.
It’s the same in business; you need to build assets to attract money. Assets in business are things which can keep your business performing in the same way, even if you didn’t exist in it. These are things like your intellectual property (published content, your unique methodologies, registered trademarks etc.), your products and the systems you have in place to manage your sales, marketing and admin. Find out how strong your current assets are.
2. You have the same 24 hours in a day that Richard Branson or Elon Musk do. So, how are they both getting more stuff done?
The key is to hire a core team and then outsource the rest of the duties. You need a Key Person of Influence (who is the face of the business), a Sales/Marketing person who deals with all product enquiries and gets your products to market, a Finance person to make sure you’re using your cash wisely and a person in Operations to ensure you deliver on your customers’ promises.
If your revenue is below £500K, organise the names of the people on your current team in the structure below and see if you have any staff that don’t fit the categories. If you do, then consider outsourcing the tasks they carry out as they may not be necessary on your payroll until your business is achieving a higher revenue.
3. Chasing Clients = Stress. Chasing clients is a curse that no entrepreneur wants to deal with. This stress leads to burnout and frustration in your team, as you and your business look desperate for sales.
To overcome this, incorporate campaigns into your business. Campaigns are a great way of attracting a large amount of potential clients as opposed to attracting them one by one. It takes the pressure of you and your team to try and gain clients every day, and instead you can focus on four big campaigns a year to reach your maximum client capacity. There are five key steps to running a successful campaign. Read an example campaign by Tesla.
We’re hosting a full-day event on the 31st of March where our keynote speakers will be delving into the three solutions mentioned above and more. If you think the above was beneficial to you, click here to head over to our event page.
