Updated April 26, 2023
Introduction to Successful Entrepreneur
The term entrepreneur can be referred to a person who starts and runs a new business or an organization. Sometimes an entrepreneur is also referred to as a founder. He/She is responsible for developing a business plan to thrive in the market, making a financial arrangement, and hiring employees who can run the business. A successful entrepreneur always starts a new business with a good idea. Later, when the business grows, the entrepreneur becomes the chief person of the business.
There is a difference between successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. The first is the person who runs the business, whereas the latter is a process the founder follows to succeed.
Below is a list of few successful Indian entrepreneurs who made their businesses a great success:
| Entrepreneur Name | Related Company |
| Azim Premji | | WIPRO |
| Lakshmi Mittal | Arcelor Mittal |
| Dhirubhai Ambani | Reliance Industries |
| Anand Mahindra | Mahindra and Mahindra |
| Sachin and Binny Bansal | Flipkart |
| Narayana Murthy | Infosys |
| Shiv Nadar | HCL Technologies |
| Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw | Biocon |
| Sunil Mittal | Bharti Enterprises |
| Mangal Prabhat Lodha | Lodha Group |
| Jamsetji Tata | Tata Group |
| Verghese Kurien | Amul |
| V.G. Siddhartha | Cafe Coffee Day |
| Venugopla Dhoot | Videocon |
| Anil Agarwal | Vedanta Resources |
| Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao | GMR Group |
| Karsanbhai Patel | Nirma |
| Shashi and Ravi Ruia | Essar Group |
If you read the above successful entrepreneur stories, you will find they had made a big out of nothing. Below is an abstract of Narayana Murthy, an Infosys co-founder.
N.R.N Murthy is a prominent Indian IT industrialist who founded Infosys with a few friends. Infosys is a multinational company that provides business consulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services. Murthy studied electrical engineering at the University of Mysore and M.Tech from IIT Kanpur.
Murthy worked on India’s first time-sharing computer system and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for Electronics Corporation of India Limited. Later, he started a company named Softronics which failed after about a year and a half. He then joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune. He has also worked as a chief systems programmer at IIM Ahmedabad.
Murthy, along with six other software professionals, founded Infosys in 1981. It had initial funding of INR.10,000, provided by his wife, Sudha Murthy. He served as Chief Executive Officer from 1981 to 2002 and then as chairman from 2002 to 2011. Later in 2011, he stepped down from the board and became Chairman Emeritus.
Today becoming a successful entrepreneur has comparatively become easy with incubators that help startup businesses and angel investors who can fund startups. Also, India’s Government supports startups by making business easy, providing tax benefits, funding, etc.
According to the Small Business Administration, only one-third of new businesses can survive for about 10 years or more.
Tips to Become a Successful Entrepreneur
Below mentioned are some of the tips for a successful entrepreneur.
#1. Always Love What You Do
It is a passion that is key to keeping your business strategy moving. If you do your work with Half-heartedness, then it will drive you away from success. In contrast, if you work with love, it is bound to succeed.
Perseverance (i.e. doing something despite having difficulty) is one important quality that guarantees to move anything over time, be it a person, job, or company. This quality of perseverance comes when you love what you do.
#2. Develop the Habit of Planning
Planning is a critical skill for entrepreneurs to steer their businesses toward success effectively. It involves creating comprehensive plans for various business aspects, which are necessary and should be consistently implemented and maintained.
Business planning is a necessary habit that involves meticulous analysis of business situations, often requiring research and data analysis and drawing informed conclusions based on thorough research.
A business plan also acts as a blueprint for setting and achieving goals in a structured manner. It serves as a guide for entrepreneurs to create a roadmap toward their business objectives and measure their plans’ success.
#3. Take Baby Steps
If you determine to succeed in business all at once, then it is rarely ever possible. You need to have proper risk management to succeed in the startup business.
There are success stories about people who have invested everything all at once and emerged as winners after a brief period. Here is an example of MakeMyTrip founder Deep Karla who has invested all his savings in starting an e-commerce business that provides online travel services such as flight tickets, hotel booking, rail and bus tickets, holiday packages, etc.
If you are a startup and want to thrive in business, take baby steps, i.e., small progressive steps. If you take smaller risks initially, you can absorb losses more easily in business. This will provide a lesson that will be helpful in business later.
#4. Attitude Matters
Attitude is a settled way of thinking or feeling about something. The below famous quote can determine the importance of attitude.
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
– Winston Churchill
The attitude of the entrepreneur will set the tone for the business. Negativity, laziness, procrastination, and other bad attitude can tarnish your reputation. Your business’s successor likely depends on making mistakes, accepting them, and, later on, rectifying them. An entrepreneur takes ownership and faces challenges head-on in his/her business.
The above-mentioned tips are necessary for the success of the business. Along with this, taking care of yourself mentally and physically is also crucial. Sleep, exercise, and diet play an important role in your well-being. All of these drive attitude, motivation, as well as relationships.
Successful entrepreneurs follow a pre-defined daily schedule of rising early, exercising, having healthy snacks, and socializing every evening. Maintaining a balance between personal and professional life can take some time, but working towards this list as a goal for starting your company will make a real difference.
#5. Learn the Art of Self-promoting
Most of successful entrepreneur has the quality to promote their business. If you have confidence in good communication s, you can pitch your business to the next level. You can learn the art of promoting business by believing in yourself. You should learn how to share your vision without misrepresenting it as a “seller” to others.
#6. Build your “A” Team
Building your “A” team is more than just hiring experienced people. This demonstrates the type of organization you want to be. It would help if you found people with the right skill sets and attitudes that can match your organization’s goal. Such people can comprise to form the “A” team.
These teams also support the culture of the brand you want to promote will, foster innovation, and enhance your reputation. You can include folks from outside the company for the people you can rely on. This will start a free marketing chain reaction that will build confidence in all and generate revenue.
#7. Learn from Others
A successful entrepreneur often learns from others, whether a junior or a guard at the office. Successful entrepreneur often works for others in their love field before starting their own business. It is great if you spend a few years working under a mentor who teaches business basics. This will be like a launchpad for your new startup.
Always learn from your earlier mistakes because that will thrive your business well. It will also improve the business model. It is rightly said that if you stop learning, you stop growing.
#8. Tackle Problems in Innovative Ways
The problem is a part of life. It come-up in personal as well as professional life. The only way to deal with the problem is to tackle it innovatively. I’m reminded of the below quote when it comes to the problem
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”
– Albert Einstein
To tackle the problem, you need to think out-of-box. If you are an entrepreneur, then problems always arise every moment. You should deal with a problem in innovative ways. It is often misunderstood that junior or blue-collar worker does not solve the managerial problem. If you share the problem with staff me, then more number of the brain is involved in solving it and can yield the perfect solution.
#9. Remember Customer is King
The one major difference between large competitors and homegrown entrepreneurs is that the latter can offer personalized attention to the customer. This is the most significant competitive edge over larger competitors. It is rightly said that the customer is king, and he is always right. Customer satisfaction is the most important thing to succeed in business.
According to research, it is found that around 80% of businesses will come from repeat customers rather than any new customers. Hence, you should always woo your existing customers and try to draw new customers.
#10. Always Take Action
An entrepreneur is always on their toe, i.e. ready to take action at every moment. They are often referred to as movers and shakers. They cannot afford to analyze everything in detail; if they do so, they will fail in business.
Entrepreneurs cannot afford to procrastinate, meaning they cannot delay completing tasks if they want to succeed. Entrepreneurs need to execute tasks at the appropriate time and in the correct manner to ensure success.
Being an entrepreneur, you should be available 24/7 and 365 days a. Successful Entrepreneurs should always make a brief assessment of every action to be taken and move on it.
#11. Learn from Mistakes
Mistakes are inevitable, i.e. unavoidable. The key is to learn from mistakes and rectify them. I’m reminded of a famous quote when it comes to mistakes.
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
– Albert Einstein
One of my friends, an entrepreneur, has outsourced its call center. The customer order mostly had errors. There was a situation during which the call center couldn’t handle the customer in a professional way. Later my friend immediately stopped outsourcing and personally contacted all the customers who were negatively affected.
He mentioned that it was great learning to test any new outsourcing process. He had learned that the mistake of outsourcing to poor partners could hamper business, which helped in a thriving business.
#12. Take Risks
Risk is a situation that involves exposure to danger, harm, or loss. The most successful entrepreneur like Dhirubhai Ambani and Narayan Murthy didn’t get to where they are by playing it safe. If you are an entrepreneur, you must make calculations to move your business forward. I’m reminded of a famous quote by a prominent American professional boxer quoted below.
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
– Muhammad Ali
Successful Entrepreneurs should have the courage to take entrepreneurial risks. The result would be such that all would appreciate it or fail to can teach you a good lesson.
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