The successful entrepreneur asks one key question every day
at every opportunity.
How can I get this done without spending any of my own time or money?
As a corollary to this essential theme, the follow-up question is, if I have to spend my resources, how can I:
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Spend as little as possible
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Spend someone else’s money
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Joint Venture with someone to get the job done.
Big Business is Not Always Smart Business
Corporate business units submit budgets and get ideas funded by bureaucrats who have never met their customers.
Too many small business owners try to emulate the high profile corporate executives as a model for success. If you do, you will not stay in business long.
You don’t need fancy offices and fancy cars and tons of self-important meetings when you are running your own business, what you need are for things to get done quickly and efficiently.
It is the energy, enthusiasm and efficient decision making of an engaged owner that powers a small business.
So how do you build an entrepreneurial mindset and learn to be that kind of leader?
By running a business you are passionate about.
Spend wisely as if it was your own money
It is amazing to me how the solutions most people come up with to any business problem always starts with spending money.
One of the worst things you can do for any enterprise is giving it too much money to spend. Inevitably the money gets spent foolishly because it can be. If there is limited money then you have to be creative and figure out ways to get what you want without it.
Most businesses fail because they spend foolishly on
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Ads that don’t work
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More employees than they need
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Equipment they don’t need
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Services they don’t use
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Inventory they don’t sell
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And rent that is too high.
Greg L. Alston is an Author, Educator, Pharmacist and Entrepreneur with a unique resume of management success, in the chain drug industry, as an independent pharmacy owner and as an academic administrator. During the last 35 years he has been a pharmacy manager, corporate training manager, marketing manager, category manager, regional pharmacy manager and owned and operated several successful businesses including Halloween shops, Drug stores, medical supply, medical billing and internet marketing operations. He has published in academic journals, authored textbooks and spoken at too many conferences to count. His latest book is, The Bosshole Effect. Follow him at Twitter or on Facebook or Linkedin
