At one time or another, many people have all dreamed of starting their own business. But learning to become an entrepreneur is an exciting process. It takes courage for an individual to turn their dream into a reality.
Entrepreneurs possess the drive to take risks and start their own company from scratch with nothing but an idea.
What drives this desire to start a new mission?
As we learn and grow, we gravitate towards exciting or interesting careers. Reminisce about your childhood. Did you ever love hearing about the work of someone you knew? Or did you ever think about something you looked forward to doing in the future?
We are sure you have a positive answer for these two questions and don’t worry, it isn’t bad. It tells us that you definitely are mentalized in making your life a new opportunity in entrepreneurship.
However, although there are no specific requirements for entrepreneurs, it requires a lot of knowledge, passion, and the drive to succeed.
This type of venture requires someone willing to take risks and can provide support for failures or acceptances if they don’t meet the market’s needs.
But before we start the main topic of our blog, have you ever wondered or searched about what is an entrepreneur?
When searching for a specific concept or definition, you will find that an entrepreneur is someone who develops an enterprise around innovation. Still, an enterprise can be a bit too much, so let’s call it a small business as well.
Now, if there’s something to mention: they are responsible for the company’s success and manage it.
It’s not easy to define what an entrepreneur is, and you don’t have to stick to one concept, but this will help to go over the next part.
This blog post will teach you how to become an entrepreneur by discussing where you should start and the required steps to succeed.
Start by Identifying a Problem
You can start working around it once you have a great idea, such as a new restaurant, delivery service, coaching specialty, or app.
The idea of identifying a problem is to determine how you can solve it. After all, entrepreneurs start their careers based on how they can help others and make money with it.
Many problems are wide open in the world and ready for you to unveil them. However, keep in mind that it requires research and some time to determine if the problem you identified and the later solution are good enough to begin there.
You may have found a process or concept that will make life easier for consumers, but you must come up with an idea and proof that support your concept.
Where and how can you identify problems? Any entrepreneur might see the news and discover that there are not enough daycare centers in their area, supermarkets are missing in certain cities in the state, etc.
Education Is Key. Be It Informal or Formal
Entrepreneurship requires education.
It could be a college degree, apprenticeship, or any combination of these. It is essential to understand the basics of business, build your vocabulary, and have solid business acumen.
Many believe that the beauty of entrepreneurship is the fact they don’t have to go to college or study anything. That’s quite the opposite of what you must do.
Entrepreneurs are where they are because of the knowledge and education acquired because of how much they have invested in themselves and exploded their ideas in order to be successful.
Therefore, don’t think you won’t have to study or expand your knowledge and education.
You might want to look at the success stories and failures of business entrepreneurs before you start. This will help you understand the perseverance required and motivate you to achieve your goals.
Follow entrepreneurs at your alma mater, university, or college and even look for influencers via social media.
If you are not up for college or believe it is a waste of time, focus on what will contribute to your goals and plans. It doesn’t have formal education entirely. The informal one is just as crucial as the first one.
Your Network Is Your Best Asset
Although it can be difficult to start a business, you can get help from mentors or professionals. Networking and making new connections is a great way to gain valuable benefits.
These contacts may be able to provide assistance with starting loans or advice, as well as new opportunities.
Reach out to entrepreneurs through family, friends, neighbors, or alumni networks of universities and ask for information. You can think of yourself as an investigative reporter, and your goal is to learn at least two to three things about entrepreneurship from each one of the entrepreneurs you find, speak with, or read about.
Networking is mostly crucial to have more opportunities with financing and money for your projects. Of course, this isn’t an interests relationship all the time, but people are there with this idea 99% of the time.
Don’t feel bad about it. It is just how things work in this field, and if you want to become an entrepreneur, you have to work around what is necessary.
Financial Stability
Experts recommend that entrepreneurs with a new business have some savings in order to avoid losing money.
Talk to a financial professional about your P&L (Profits & Losses) and how the worksheet might look in one, two, and three years.
Entrepreneurs often find they can turn a profit within three to five years. However, a lot can happen in the market over that period. This can help you to plan your transition and educate yourself about the market.
The truth is that most entrepreneurs don’t have enough money or savings to start a business and even less to avoid losing it. You just have to look at Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and the big figures you admire nowadays.
However, it is a matter of affording some of your projects in terms of time. Can you stop working for 2 or 3 hours every day and invest that in your new business? This is another result you can get.
Being able to achieve stability in every possible way is another story, and it sure will give you more freedom about what you can do or not.
A Business Idea Can Solve the Problem
Remember what we mentioned about the solution after the problem? This is actually the phase in which you will invest your time to look after it.
Identifying the problem cannot be explained without including the fact of having to find a solution. However, this doesn’t mean they come together in terms of steps.
You would believe that networking comes after you already have the solution and you are right and wrong at the same time.
If you have a problem, you will think about the solution inevitably but won’t wholly develop it. It is impossible unless you have a business plan and someone who can invest in it.
This is why this step is right here because you need to develop your plan and start working towards the solution. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to reach this point to finally work on your solution.
When someone feels there’s enough information and logistics involved, you can jump or include this step while going over another or as you feel comfortable with.
Finally, the business idea is the life of the entrepreneur at this point. You want to make it work and guarantee things will be solved with it. Therefore, take the time to develop it properly to work in the next step.
Try the Idea
Entrepreneurs have a solid idea but need to validate it. The best place to start is with local business owners.
You need to survey businesses or people around the problem you’re trying to solve and work with those statistics to guarantee you0re covering the main need that isn’t only the one you thought about.
What will this do? If, for example, most of the business owners and community answer that the education in the area is lacking or schools are way too far for children, this would validate an idea that is referred to or associated with establishing a new educational institution in the area. In other words, it validates your business idea.
Of course, other aspects and factors are being excluded in this example, but it gives you the main idea we want to approach.
What you must focus on is:
- If most members of the community need the service or idea.
- Is it profitable and solves the problem at the same tie?
An analysis of competitors can help to identify areas for improvement in your business plan.
Find Money
While it is good to have some savings, entrepreneurs need more capital to launch the business.
This takes us back to what we were mentioning about financing and networking. You will notice how much you need them after figuring out how much money you will spend.
Friends, loans, banks, or usual lenders for your business are available. However, you have to determine the best alternative based on your possibilities and what you can truly afford regardless of the short and long-term “consequences.”
There are three main ways to get capital:
- Bootstrap: This can be accomplished by cutting costs or borrowing money from an individual.
- Apply for a loan: One common way to raise capital is to apply for a loan from the bank. Although it may not be possible to get a small business loan at this stage, it is possible. Individuals can still apply for generic loans to help with start-up costs.
- Find an investor: Networking opens this idea since it is a great way to find people who can help you financially. It is possible to pitch a business plan for investment to angel investors. A venture capitalist firm may be required if the individual is not successful. These firms require that entrepreneurs and their businesses meet specific requirements in order to be eligible to apply.
What It Takes to Become an Entrepreneur
Initially, we mentioned there aren’t specific requirements to become one.
Some people start their journey without even noticing and are successful in the process. However, do you think they don’t learn in the process or didn’t have a clue of what they were doing?
People learn along the road or go hard on themselves to make it possible and obtain the required knowledge.
However, we do have to mention there’s no need to worry about big issues like getting a college degree or some specific certifications. But don’t mistake this with something like, “I don’t need to learn anything.”
Some qualities indeed make some people a better fit to take this role right now or maybe in the future, but you have to ask yourself: can I develop them and become part of that team to be a successful entrepreneur?
Here, we will include the top 10 qualities that will be crucial in becoming an entrepreneur and remain as one that knows what starting a business and making it successful is:
Creativity
Successful entrepreneurs are creative and see the bigger picture.
By doing so, they are often able to come up with new ideas to have a product or service be at the top or simply focus on making their business grow overall.
Entrepreneurs need to be able to translate their dreams and ideas into tangible reality. Creativity is the ability to connect seemingly unrelated events and situations.
Many entrepreneurs come up with innovative solutions that combine other products. They may repurpose existing products in order to sell them to new markets.
To see their ideas come to life, they must be open to stepping outside of their comfort zones for these inventions to be able to lead to new technologies or advancements that could create industry breakthroughs.
Integrity
Integrity is the second quality that every successful entrepreneur must have.
A reputation for integrity is perhaps the most valuable and respected quality that you can build. Always be honest in all you do and in every transaction. Never compromise your integrity. Your word is your bond, and your integrity is everything in business. Trust is the foundation of any business.
The number of people who trust and support you as an entrepreneur is the most important factor in your success. Your character is the most valuable asset you have had throughout your life.
Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is the first quality that every successful entrepreneur must have. Self-discipline and self-control are the keys to success in business and life.
Your success is almost guaranteed if you are able to keep your head up and do the right thing, regardless of whether it feels easy or not. Self-discipline is a combination of self-control, self-responsibility, and self-direction.
Successful entrepreneurs are different from those who fail because they make it a habit to do the things they don’t enjoy doing.
Entrepreneurs who succeed are focused on their business’ success. They eliminate all hindrances and distractions to their goals and outline tactics to accomplish them.
They are focused on their daily operations and do not neglect their long-term goals.
Successful entrepreneurs are disciplined enough to take steps every day toward the achievement of their goals and objectives.
Passion
Passion is one of the most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur. They love what they do, and that has to show in your business if you want to bring more clients and customers as well.
Because they love what their business does, they are willing to work extra hours to ensure it succeeds.
Entrepreneurs who succeed will continue to research ways to improve their business and stay ahead of their competition; they are willing to invest their time and effort in learning new technologies or applications.
They are constantly learning about new developments in their industry so that they can be as efficient and up-to-date as possible.
Successful entrepreneurs want to see the view from the top of their business mountain. They want to see it all, and they are eager to get there.
Something important to remember is that their businesses flourish because they know how to communicate with their employees.
Self-starter
Because of their natural ability to manage time and control their performance, self-starters are more likely to succeed.
Entrepreneurs know that they must do the work themselves if something is to be done while setting the parameters of their projects and taking control, rather than waiting for permission from others.
They look for solutions, like Inc and Go, to make starting their business less complicated and other processes that can reduce complications in the workplace.
A clear sense of direction
Most business owners are now operating day-to-day due to the market turmoil and rapid changes. It’s almost like being a firefighter.
They are obsessed with the short-term and need to make quick sales and profits. They want to spend more time planning for the future but never seem to find the time.
This is not a good idea for successful business owners. It is important to have clear goals for your business and yourself. Your most important responsibility is to provide clear direction to your employees.
Competitive
Entrepreneurs know that when it comes to one specific job or task, they can do it better than others, and for it, they decide to start their own businesses when deciding to become an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs need to be successful in the sports they choose and at the businesses they start.
They should also be able to look at all options and still pursue their goals aggressively in order to succeed in business, and they are always open to taking on any challenge to help them excel.
If you aim to become an entrepreneur, you will have to love a challenge and like to win because starting a business can be one of the most difficult challenges anyone will face in their life.
It’s a constant battle to grow your market share and win new business.
It is also a challenge to turn all this into an opportunity to grow your business from nothing to a powerful, profitable enterprise that makes a lot or can be sold or acquired for profit.
Persistence
Persistence is the most important quality in a person’s character. The reason lies in how crucial the character and strength of a person who is supposed to lead an entire team, either small or big, and handle a business plan.
It is an essential quality that goes hand-in-hand with great success in your life.
One of the greatest secrets to success and persistence is to program your subconscious mind to be persistent before you experience any setbacks or disappointments on your way to success.
You must resolve in advance to never lose heart, no matter what. Your success depends on your ability to persevere in the face of failure and adversity.
Leadership
Leaders aren’t born; they can be made.
Are you the person who is always the first to respond? Are you able to give your opinion or help others make decisions? Are you a manager?
Leaders are people who value the result more than the hard work involved. A leader is more than tenacity, unlike what many people believe.
Suppose you want to know what it takes to be one in specific. In that case, they have strong communication skills, the ability to motivate and work effectively with others to achieve a common goal, and are able to earn the trust and respect their team members by being positive and confident, and then creating an environment that promotes these qualities throughout the team.
Learn what they don’t know
Although successful entrepreneurs tend to have strong personalities, the best have learned that there is always something to learn.
When they have the opportunity to gain insight that can be used to their advantage, they are not afraid to ask questions.
Successful entrepreneurs who are confident but not too egotistical can’t see the bigger picture and make the best business decisions.
What We Have Learned
A final word we can include is that you can do it, and just focus on letting your creativity fly, working on your self-improvement and growth, and bet for things you’re 100% sure will work (and even on those you aren’t even 50% confident about).
Starting is the hardest part, and once you get this done, you will see how things flow, and our steps, tips, and qualities included above will definitely help.
Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t simple, and it won’t be something achieved in a few days. Thus, have patience and make sure you are just following your way, and be confident. You will do great and finally have that business you’ve wanted all this time.
Entrepreneurship can be a challenge (and it will be). However, it is a big opportunity that will eclipse the difficulties and walls you will have on your way to success.
Just remember, there is no one right way to become an entrepreneur.
Key characteristics and behaviors like experimentation, persistence, and innovation can be developed with hard work, time, and the experience you will earn over the years.
Since there are no specific requirements other than knowing how to build something from nothing, if this sounds like it’s up to your alley, or you want help getting started in the process of becoming an entrepreneur yourself, just remember to come back to this post or find the required tools for the journey.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.