Characteristics of Today’s Entrepreneurs

There’s so much variety in the world today. We pretty much have all the options and accessibility that anyone could want. This includes what we pay attention to, what we buy, and what we want for ourselves. As we go through our lives, we make choices through the options we see which eventually lead us to what we spend the majority of our life doing. 

Now, let’s look at what we could consider the average layout of someone’s life. Go to school, meet people, gain experiences, get a job, meet more people, have a family, and eventually retire, then you’re free. Something to notice about this path is that there is an emphasis on the individual. What about someone who wants to make a bigger impact than just their life? What might they think, want, or do?

Well, the ones who divert from the norm sometimes tend not to think only about what their life will look like. They instead think about how their life can influence the lives of others. To create something sustainable and influential enough to do so, their idea or concept becomes this person's purpose and eventually business. To build a business with this kind of power, they must create something that will attract attention and create value. This is not an easy or quick process, this is entrepreneurship. 

You might look at the successful entrepreneurs of today, maybe with envy or as if they have some superpower you don’t. This is not the case, these individuals have adopted values and searched for answers over an extraordinary amount of time. During that time, they were most likely broke at points, making sacrifices, working regular jobs, and unsure of what was to come. Yet there is always something in our lives that pulls at us. It’s very subtle, and you have to be careful with it. But it is often us gravitating towards our purpose. 

Hundreds of thousands of new businesses are created each year. As we know, the success of a business is based on leadership, so let’s look at a few things the successful entrepreneur might do to run theirs:

Plan and Adapt

A truly successful entrepreneur has guided their business through changes in the market, consumer interests, and many other difficulties. You can think of an entrepreneur as the captain of a ship, guiding it through storms, using the help of the crew, all while headed towards an intended destination. When you develop a concept for a business, it will not be a one-and-done approach. You must be open to the fact that it will undergo revisions and even unexpected changes. 

When these changes happen, an entrepreneur can adapt their approach by prioritizing and aligning their team as well as getting their help.

Imaginative

A wild imagination is a pillar of creativity. Most entrepreneurs see something in their ideas that even others sometimes aren’t able to. By fine-tuning the logistics and reasoning behind the idea, they can turn it into reality. Entrepreneurs see a future that isn’t real in the moment they see it, but they trust their imagination and create a place for it in their future. 

Additionally, being able to plan for future initiatives, campaigns, or contingencies requires an active imagination. 

Take Chances

Now do not assume that the chances entrepreneurs take will lead them on a linear progression, they will have to endure failure of some kind to learn what works and what doesn’t. The point is, that entrepreneurs need to believe in their cause enough that they see the value in taking chances for it. These changes will ideally lead to innovation. This continues the idea of keeping up with changes in the market.

Some things will not work— that’s how you learn what does, but trying to find those answers accumulates over time to an efficient operation. 

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is a complex lifestyle, but it can be incredibly rewarding and give you an unmatched sense of fulfillment. It will be hard, but full of lessons, and becoming successful depends on how you use those lessons to your advantage.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

Written By Ben Brown

—

ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.

The Silent Slayer: Avoiding Complacency

You’ve done it, you’ve accomplished that goal you’ve been working so hard and waiting so long for. Congratulations! This is amazing! Oh wait, what're you doing? Stopping there?! Well, it’s back to square one…

Accomplishments are such powerful moments that bring us some of the greatest feelings of happiness and fulfillment. The problem with those feelings is that they’re fleeting. They get the best of us when we think accomplishment is the end goal. For this reason, continuous objectives need to be set. You reach one goal and that equates to one step on a very long stairway to success. 

Now, setting new goals sounds easy enough but doing that may not be an attractive choice. If you’ve accomplished something and someone tells you you need to get to work on the next one, you might think “that was hard, I just finished this, let me enjoy this”. Of course, this is where the trap begins, when the “enjoyment” period lasts longer than it should and one becomes complacent. 

So if complacency is so toxic, how can we avoid it? Well, you won't just avoid it by someone simply telling you to. Often, you will have to have experienced it and caught yourself in that moment. Think back to a time when you thought you were on top of the world because of something you did. Did you stay up there? Build it into something more?

If you did, great! Keep going. If you want to be able to do that same thing for your next accomplishment, here are some ways to make it happen:

Try New Things

We get used to our ways of doing things and this can make change intimidating, especially the longer we’ve been doing something a certain way. However, as time advances, so does methodology. If you want to have a fair shot with the competition of today, looking for ways to adapt your approach to the ever-changing market is essential. How do you do this? Networking, public relations, and overall being a brand ambassador for your organization or the organization you work for. There are numerous ways to keep up, but the real key is taking the action to do so. 

Improve What You Have

It’s very common to have something with potential, but because it hasn’t been maximized, you may want something different. This could be anything from an idea, working towards a degree, or even a small business. Whatever it may be, because it is not fully optimized yet, or because it is hard, you might want something different or give it up. Everything starts as an idea. If that idea doesn’t terrify you or test your resilience, it’s probably not big enough. 

Set Goals

Building things to not even 50% of their potential is a common tragedy. So much so that research is finding nearly 80% of people never set goals for themselves to begin with. Of the 20% that do, 70% of them don’t see the goals to fruition. Goal setting is so important, if you ever wonder why such a small percentage of people become incredibly wealthy, it is because they continually raise the bar. What’s even more interesting about that is even when they’re wealthy, they don’t stop setting goals. 

Don’t Wait

How many times have you heard “set goals”? You're most likely sick of hearing it but it is so fundamentally important to improvement. Believe it or not, a lot of people wait until they’re middle-aged to try to become successful. There seems to be this misconception that things are just going to happen for you as you get older. But things don’t happen unless you give yourself objectives, and deadlines, and strive towards a vision you’ve created for yourself.

Conclusion

Complacency is a very easy pit to fall into. That sensation of success and feeling untouchable will come with every great accomplishment in your life. Don’t let it cloud your vision or cap how far you go after the fact. There’s always something bigger, better, and helpful to more people’s lives than just yourself.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

Building a Supportive Environment: The Importance of Kindness

An attitude is more than just an expression of how you feel; it is the way you make others feel, it is how people will perceive you and what you represent. In a business environment, being friendly is pretty much the minimum standard for building a community. However, people are not robots. We have real things and emotions that impact our mood. To combat the repercussions that could come from overt negativity, we need to understand why it is important to be kind and what it leads to. 

In any team setting there will be situations of uncertainty, worry, or even bad attitudes among members. While it’s normal to experience these issues, they must be dealt with to mitigate the impact they have on the team and the overall mission. When you focus on the positive in what you do, you can handle interactions far more rationally. 

This level of control is the first step to emotional intelligence and being a professional in the workplace. This is important for career advancement and community building, especially after studies have shown that nearly 60% of workers in America have considered leaving their job because of a co-worker. Plus, let’s be honest, if you’ve made it this far into the article, you’ve probably dealt with someone at work who’s tested your patience. If you are interested in building an empowering community for your organization then building a friendly and supportive environment is the best way to do so.  

Here are some ways to actively implement this:

Value In The Negative

When a negative situation happens, it feels like everything is falling apart and you may begin to overthink. However, negative or hard situations are not there to break you down— they can equip you to handle further difficulties should you face the situation and not avoid it. 

For example, let’s say you have a co-worker who does not follow through on their tasks or maybe leaves out key details. This would annoy anyone passionate in their role as this person is directly hindering production quality. While one could become frustrated, bring it to HR, or just clean up the mess that person made, they could instead ensure they’re on the same page with this co-worker at all times. This may require staying on top of them frequently, or making goals for them but that is a small price to pay in contrast to a lack of quality work. 

Put Your Pride Aside

The core reason for ending up in conflict most of the time is because of ego. It’s easy to see what everyone else is doing wrong, but how often do we look at our role in situations of conflict? When you check your ego, you become far more positive in the eyes of your team and you will be easier to work with.

Sounds great, right? It is, but it is also difficult to do, especially when rank enters the picture. For the sake of the team, put your ego in check before focusing on the actions of others.

Embrace Autonomy

Teamwork is great and staying on the same page is important, but just like anything else, it needs to be balanced. To ensure the satisfaction of team members and the production of quality work, everyone needs time to work independently. This can be balanced by having planned meetings at appropriate times. Each meeting can have goals that you want to have reached by the time they happen to ensure the time apart is used efficiently. This is also going to be beneficial to the planning process. 

Again, a supportive environment cannot be built by over-controlling. Teams have to assess what areas to focus their support on. Balancing this by managing the team to produce their work will have everyone engaged. This will not only help the quality of work but it will allow members to improve as professionals.

Conclusion 

With today’s working conditions, people are either making the most out of their job or in search of a new one. As an organization, you want to attract talent and build a community around your brand. This starts at an individual level; your attitude and energy are transmissible, so don’t waste that power on negativity.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!