15 Business Tips for Beginners

Are you planning to enter into the business arena? Perhaps, you want to get out from corporate slavery, have more time with your family, and earn unlimited income. Maybe being a business person or an entrepreneur is what flows in your blood that is why you want to unleash that entrepreneurial spirit within you right now. Whatever your reason is, you’ve got to succeed in business even if you’re just a newbie.

There are people that say it is okay to make mistakes because it is just your first time. But why do we need to commit mistakes if we can avoid them by learning from the people who have already experienced those mistakes?

In this world where time is essential, we don’t need to personally experience all things to know all the lessons we need. We can learn lessons beyond experience, that is, by learning from others and reflecting it to ourselves. And when it comes to increasing your chance to succeed in your first business, you can learn right here, right now – here are 15 business tips for beginners who want to make it big in their small business startup.

 

1. Your business starts on your mind

The time you think of business, you already become a business person in mind. Thus, you have to be serious even just in your business thoughts. You have to think and plan seriously. You have to brainstorm ideas – your business name, slogan, purpose, vision, mission, et cetera. You should also think of the strategies and tactics you will need to succeed in your business. If you can’t build a successful business in your mind, then how much more in reality?

 

2. Start little with a big thing in mind

It doesn’t mean you are starting a small business, you will already think small. Your short-term goals should be aligned with a long-lasting goal. In other words, you should not only start business to make instant money. Think of a greater goal or mission that will keep you going despite of the many challenges you will face in doing business. The smaller goal you have, the easier you will give up. So have a bigger business goal, like helping your country to grow economically or helping humanity live a better life.

 

3. Focus on that first big thing first

Distractions come in many forms. Some of them are awful, others are beautiful. The enticing distractions are usually the harder to beat. This kind of distraction includes opportunities to earn more money or succeed in other things, causing your original plan to be destroyed. And the worst thing that will happen is you’ll not achieve success in anything because you are not taking things one step at a time.

If you are just starting your business, choose that one business that you think you can give your best. Concentrate on it until you succeed. Before you start your next big thing, make sure you have achieved your first big thing first. And before you wish to achieve many successes, concentrate on achieving the mother of success first.

 

4. Ask for help

Most business aspirants are personally independent. But in business, you have to learn how to depend on other people. Just like when it comes to financing, you cannot start a business right away having enough money or capital to put up on your business – unless you are born rich.

By creating a simple yet clear business plan, you can use it to ask financial assistance from other people, like your friends, relatives and other people who can lend you money. And if you are qualified for getting loans from financial institutions, you can also try to obtain fund from them.

But of course you have to make sure to only borrow money if you can repay them in return. There are also some instances that you don’t need to borrow money to start a small business, for there are really some businesses that you can start with a very small amount of capital.

Furthermore, money is not only the thing you will need and will ask from other people. When marketing or promoting your business or brand, you will also ask time and effort from other people. For example, you can ask your friends or relatives to promote your business online or offline. You can ask your friends to promote your business on their social media network, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. But always remember to balance your asking and giving. In other words, don’t be abusive, but instead be also helpful to them.

 

5. Be sociable

In business, you will face existing and potential customers, suppliers, employees, service providers, investors, creditors, and other people who may have interest on your business. If you will stay introvert, then you might be having trouble in dealing with these people. Hence, learn how to be confident, friendly, and sociable.

The social media plays a very important role in Internet marketing and in giving your business total online exposure. Therefore, you have to learn how to interact and build relationships with people on Facebook, Twitter and other online communities. Blogging is also one effective way to earn loyal followers and customers for your business. And in order to be successful on your blog, you also have to be good in communicating and interacting with other people.

 

6. You don’t know everything

Never claim that you already know everything and you are already more knowledgeable than other people. There is a lot to learn out there. There is a lot to copy, experience, and realize. Moreover, the business world and the market are always revolving. Consumers’ behavior, technology, and even your competitors are innovating. Thus, always keep your eyes and always keep updated with the changing world of business. Continue increasing your knowledge and insights by reading news, listening to your mentors, experimenting your hypothesis, and by practicing reflection.

 

7. Be humble

Humility will help you win more friends and even loyal customers. This is because a humble person is uplifting to other people, unlike an arrogant person who is degrading to others. You will also need humility in leading people, who can be your employees or your outsourced professionals. Furthermore, you will need humility to accept that you and your business still need to improve more.

 

8. Create a good karma

Whatever your definition of karma is, think of the golden rule which is universally practiced by almost all of the major religions of the world – “do to others what you want them to do to you”. Thus, starting from thinking or planning your business, intend to make your business good to other people so that people will also do good to your business. Specifically, produce or provide high quality products for your customers’ satisfaction so that you customers will also satisfy your sales or revenue. Also, be fair and just to your employees or even to the community so that they will also become fair and even more helpful to you. Moreover, always take care of your business so that your business will also take care of you always.

 

9. Be fit and healthy

Take care of yourself – your body, your mind, and your way of life. As the captain of your business, you have to protect yourself from illness so that your business will continue going. Thus, do not only think of money as your wealth, but also remember that health is also an important wealth. Allot enough time to have regular exercise and learn how to choose the healthy foods to eat. Having a healthy lifestyle will teach you self-disciple, which is also very helpful in bringing your small business to success, as well as in saving your money from medical expenses.

 

10. Manage your money

Know how to be frugal and learn the right personal finance management. Money is the financial asset that quickly runs your business. That is why you should know how to spend it or invest it the right way. You also have to separate your personal money and business money. This means that you should not spend your business cash for your personal needs. It is also wise to build an emergency fund to make sure you have the money when emergency happens and to avoid running to a creditor instead. So whether it is a small amount of money, make it a habit to keep or invest it wisely. The point is that… if you can’t manage a small amount of money, then how can you manage a larger amount of money?

 

11. Be honest

Lying will not bring you good. It may give you instant relief or bring you instant profit, but it will only ruin your integrity and reputation. It’s okay to work hard and earn money, but don’t earn money without earning trust and confidence from your business stakeholders. You have to earn money because you have first earned the trust and confidence of your customers, employees, and even of yourself.

Yes, it’s hard to be honest and in fact liars are common in this world. But if you want to become extraordinary and stand out from the crowd, you have to do your best to become honest.

 

12. Learn how to collaborate

Do you think you can do it alone? Do you think that because you are good at multitasking you don’t need other people to help your business run? It’s normal to start as a one-man business since at this stage, you still don’t have enough money to spend on employees’ compensation. However, as your business grows, you have to learn how to delegate other tasks, either to employees or to outsourced professionals. The benefits of outsourcing and delegation is that you can be able to focus on the most important tasks that generate more revenue for your company, while delegating other tedious tasks to other people on a reasonable cost.

 

13. Achieve personal development

When you’re in business, your focus is on your business development. However, don’t forget to also concentrate on your personal development. Work on improving yourself by developing good principles, values, attitudes, and habits. Also acquire good virtues, like patience, diligence, kindness, compassion, and love – these things will help you grow as a person and will also help your business grow in a long-term. Remember that without personal development, you can hardly attain real business development.

 

14. Abide the law of the land

Before you start your business, study first the laws and the government regulations that you should comply to avoid being penalized. For example, you have to know where among the government agencies your business should be registered. You should also learn what kind of taxes and licenses you should be paying in respect to your type of business and operation. Though it sounds bothersome and costly to comply with the rules and regulations, complying with them will show how you are serious in doing business. Besides, legalizing your business gives you a lot of benefits, such as earning more trust from clients in doing business with you, getting honor from the public, and having good night’s sleeps.

 

15. Be ready for failure, as well as for success

Brave entrepreneurs and business aspirants usually make preparations to ensure that they will be able to withstand any problems and troubles they will encounter in the coming days of their business lives. However, we should not only prepare how to manage risks or dangers when they arrive, but we should also prepare how to handle successes when we achieve them.

There are actually business owners who can manage to overcome the many challenges in doing business till they achieve success. However, because they are not prepared to handle success, this success is wasted. Just like when a business owner wish to attract more customers. He will diligently and patiently perform effective marketing to promote his brand, and consequently succeed – he will successfully attract lots of customers. However, if he doesn’t know how to handle this sudden rush of customers, failure begins.

 

Conclusion

A business must not only be started because you want to earn extra income or because you want to be your own boss. A business must begin because you are sincere in building a company that will last and in serving the people who will be your customers and other stakeholders of your business.

There are many challenges that are waiting for you in the business world. And in order to prepare for it, you have to personally develop yourself and be ready to overcome, not only the challenges from your business competitors, but also the challenges within yourself. Furthermore, be ready to handle both failure and success so that failure will be overcome and success will be multiplied.

Finally, always track your progress.