Have you ever found yourself looking up the internet in search of some cookie-cutter solutions how to be a successful entrepreneur? And does it really make any sense? Everybody knows that there’s no magic pill, and it’s not enough to read a pair of books on business to become Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. Still, there are some things that most prosperous businessmen have in common. Let’s see what distinguishes a good entrepreneur from a second-rate one.

Of course, no one can learn to swim just sitting on the shore and reading the articles like “10 Influential Books You Need to Read to Become a Great Swimmer”. There is no other way to learn to swim than to jump into the water; to become a good entrepreneur, you should first of all run your own business. Anyway, there are some points that you should bear in mind and some guidelines to follow. Study our tips and think over the points that you should master.

How to be a successful entrepreneur

Don’t be afraid of mistakes

Maybe you are a unique prototype of a leading-edge robot created by a brilliant scientist. You are programmed to make perfect decisions and always choose the best option of all the possible. And you never make mistakes. So, you can miss this point and pass to the next one.

All the other people make wrong decisions from time to time, and there is nothing terrible about that. This is business, not mathematics or physics – there are no ironclad guarantees. If you have chosen wrong products for your store, oversaturated your landing page with pop-ups, met disreputable supplier or was cheated by a credit card fraudster – it’s not the end of the world. You’ll know better next time. Keep calm, fix it and move along.

Seek ways to work smarter

Try to minimize manual routine actions that are your main time robbers. You’ll be surprised how many of them can be automated.

For example, if you run your dropshipping business with AliDropship plugin, you’ll be relieved from the problems with pricing, placing and tracking orders, updating products, etc. The plugin does all these and many other things for you.

Promotion also can be automated with the help of special tools. Such great SMM solutions as Social Rabbit plugin can save you up to 40 hours a week!

Don’t try to keep every tiny detail in your head – use planners, calendars, sticky notes and other things that were invented to make our life easier.

Learn from the others’ experience

A smart entrepreneur knows how to combine business with pleasure. Reading success stories is a good way to spend your free time profitably.

There is always someone who is smarter, richer, more experienced and prosperous. Such guys have a lot to learn from. Luckily, many successful ecommerce entrepreneurs are glad to share their practice and knowledge with newcomers. So, reading their pieces of advice in blogs or on thematic forums is really helpful and inspiring.

Their valuable experience – both positive and negative – can give you the cue to some problem or save you from making a mistake.

How to run a winning business

Evaluate and manage risks

Taking risks is an integral part of any eCommerce venture since a calculated risk means a good opportunity.

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”  – Mark Zuckerberg

Anyway, pay attention that taking risks doesn’t mean going nap blindly. Any risky step requires a thorough analysis. Weigh all pros and cons, and if the risk is justified, get moving. This is the only way to develop your business and leave the competitors far behind.

Use complaints for further development

What is the main task of any business, including eCommerce? It must satisfy consumers’ needs. Retail enterprises must be client-oriented, and online trade is not an exception.

Your customer’s complaints help to find out the weaknesses of your business. Each time you have an unsatisfied customer, you face a wonderful opportunity to master your skills of customer service, to identify the weak point in the process and to fix it.

How do entrepreneurs become successful

Create long-term strategy

Actions without a plan and control are chaotic and unorganized. Even if they lead to the result, it will be difficult to track what algorithm worked there. Therefore, planning is your first priority.

You should have a clear view where you want to find yourself in a month, in a year and five years later. Formulating your main goal is the first step of planning process.  Your long-term strategy will determine your everyday tactics. The more effective and accurate it is, the faster the goal will be achieved.

Establish clear goals

The previous point is impossible without this one. There is a great purpose you set your sights on. To achieve it, you should clearly understand where to and how to move. Split your long way into small steps.

Needless to say that your goals must be real, attainable and tangible. Unfortunately, quite often companies either do not formulate goals at all, or operate with such non-specific things as “increase profits” or “work faster “. This will lead you to nothing. A detailed step by step plan with specific numbers is much more realizable than a vague idea “I want to be a millionaire”, isn’t it?

Ways to be a successful entrepreneur

Delegate tasks

Even if your business is young and small, and you think that can manage all by yourself, there may be some things that are better to be passed to someone else. You cannot be equally good at everything – graphic design, web development, copywriting, SEO, multimedia production, and what not. This is why you’d better hire specialists to solve some tasks.

If you are not an expert in some field, it’s logical to delegate it. For example, a professionally designed website is more attractive and user-friendly, and you will have a chance to concentrate on other things which you are good enough at.

Never rest on laurels

Keep on challenging yourself. Running a successful business is impossible without ambitions. A good entrepreneur always wants to keep growing, to provide a better service, to run more effective promotion campaigns. You shouldn’t simply want to be better than your competitors – you should aim to be better than you were yesterday. Look for new growing points, soar for new heights, and one day we’ll be glad to read your success story!

Factors of success are many and various, and one can hardly explain how to be a successful entrepreneur in several simple words. But if you start your own dropshipping business with a ready-to-go custom store, you’ve got excellent chances to go far in the world of eCommerce!