It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur.

During the past decade, technology has levelled the playing field and fuelled an entrepreneurial revolution.

As an entrepreneur, you now have access to information that enables you to make more intelligent choices more quickly.

You have an advantage over big businesses in that you’re lighter, more flexible, and faster on your feet.

You can target new markets more quickly, and you can ‘turn on a sixpence, or ‘pivot’, as the cool kids call it.

But being a successful entrepreneur requires that you look at the big picture and follow a plan through from beginning to end.

Rieva Lesonsky, president and CEO of GrowBiz Media, gives some practical guidelines that can help you when beginning your own enterprise:

1. Don’t Quit Your Day Job.
Consider starting your business part-time, especially if it’s online.

Explore the potential of your new venture while you’re working and still have a steady income.

It usually takes six months to a year to get a business going and you don’t want your ability to make your house payment to hinge upon your company being an overnight success.

Start with what you can manage, financially and time-wise, and scale up as your success grows.


2. Find Your Niche.
The days of general stores are over. Particularly online.

Consumers are now looking for suppliers that specialise.

You have to find a need-something which a specific group of people want, but can’t get elsewhere.

You can’t compete with the big guys, so you have to find where the big guys aren’t and go into your niches.


3. Have an Online Presence.
Even if you’re not planning to start an online retail business, the internet can still play a valuable role in your company.

An online presence eliminates the limitations of physical location and broadens your customer base by millions, or billions.

It’s also a great tool for promoting yourself and letting people, even in your own area, know that you’re there, and what you’re doing.


4. Refuse to Quit.
Successful entrepreneurship requires creativity, energy, and a drive to keep going, even when you fail.

Few people realize that before Bill Gates and his team created the extremely successful Microsoft Windows 3.0, he created a Microsoft Windows 1.0 and 2.0, both of which flopped.

But he kept at it.

And that determination and refusal to give up is what will separate successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones.

Arm yourself with optimism to get beyond the No or the trouble.

Rieva Lesonsky

There ís nothing wrong in failure, just don’t repeat the same mistake!