Keeping your small business in sync with current needs takes a certain amount of creativity as well as updating of your products or services.
In order to continue to offer innovative products, you need to understand your customers and how they feel when they are interested in purchasing what you have to offer. While many business owners know how they feel about their products, do they have any idea how their customers feel about them?
The longer you own your business, the more experience you have, not only with running the business itself but also with the people you meet because of this ownership. But this experience is only part of what helps to make you a successful business owner.
Many entrepreneurs who go on to lead great companies started out very small. Various part-time jobs ranging from washing dishes to acting and picking produce gave them a varied background which led to a growing determination to succeed, an ability to work with a variety of personalities and just the right amount of humbleness, which always helps when you have a company of your own. Many of the skills they acquired while working at the most menial jobs were what made them strong, not just physically but emotionally.
These business owners have learned that hard work is what pays off over time but they also learned that it can’t be all work. Some have travelled to distant countries to work at jobs in which they had no experience. They pursued positions with cruise lines and remote camps and what they gained the most from these jobs was not so much the skills that they learned but the experience of being somewhere totally different than what they were familiar with. Different customs, ways of life and especially methods of doing business left its effect on them and taught them that there was more than one way to run a business successfully.
The end result was a combination of learned skills and life achievements that made them what they are today. The diverse experiences had an impact on their personality and their personal growth that in the long term helped them to succeed in various occupations and led to the development of a business that thrived, while also satisfying their need to create something useful for others.
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014
image courtesy of luke dowling
