Entrepreneurship is a precarious yet rewarding pursuit. It takes drive, self-sacrifice, looking ahead, and a pinch of luck to succeed. Learning all you can about proven practices doesn't hurt either, especially if they're different from the same rehashed nuggets of wisdom so many online articles provide nowadays.
This one strives to be a little different. In it, you'll find some well-known tips cast in a new light, along with ones you may not have considered before.
Embrace Zero-Click Content
Advertising your business on social media for faster growth is nothing new. However, you may need to reconsider how you're going about it. You know what most people don’t want to see on their social feeds? Yet another aggressive ad! However, if you provide value beforehand, they may respond positively to you in the long run.
Enter zero-click content. Think short how-to videos, posts filled with interesting facts, or any other content that offers worth without asking for anything in return. People take zero-click content more willingly, and search algorithms reward it more. Users who identify with your content are more likely to express genuine interest in your company – and your products.
Don’t Cheap Out on Your Website
Stellar marketing campaigns can eventually get people to click on your ads. But, how they respond once they visit your site depends on what they see and experience. No one wants to explore a site that looks cobbled together from generic themes and uninspired photos.
While "make it pop" is too generic and not always welcome advice, your site does need that certain something. We're talking about consistent brand identity, quality presentation, and a story people can get behind. Resources like Authority Hacker and Affiliate Lab Review can help in this area. It needs to be as close to “technically perfect” as possible. That means a clean UI, maximum clarity of product information and pricing, fast loading times, and responsiveness regardless of the visitor's device.
Recognize and Avoid Opportunity Costs
Keeping your business lean to maximize profit early on and attract investors is a tried and true tactic. Even so, many entrepreneurs fall into the opportunity cost trap while doing so.
Opportunity costs are the benefits you're foregoing when choosing an option. For example, you might be doubling as your business's accountant to save costs. That might sound good and even be necessary when you're just starting. However, not hiring a dedicated accountant hurts your ability to strategize, court investors, and learn how to expand your business.
Make Minimizing Cybersecurity Risks a Priority
Succeeding as an entrepreneur means keeping up with industry trends, innovating, and pivoting toward the latest marketing and customer retention practices. These rest on timely decisions, which in turn require that you collect and analyze a lot of diverse data.
Much of that data – like customers' personal and financial information or your patents – can lead to irreparable reputational and financial damage if cyber crooks manage to expose it through a breach or take it hostage through ransomware.
Investing in cybersecurity from the beginning and scaling up as needs dictate will more than offset the costs. There are no excuses since doing the bare minimum, like setting up a password manager for your team, is straightforward and affordable.
Password managers reduce data breach risks by creating unique and robust login credentials for all employees, regardless of how many services they use. They also safeguard these credentials in encrypted vaults. This eliminates duplicate passwords and the need to write them down physically, decreasing the likelihood of breaches.
That still leaves human error as a major contributing factor to the success of cyber attacks. Organizing a few sessions to help everyone recognize phishing emails and increasingly sophisticated social engineering attacks will do wonders for your business’s cybersecurity resilience.
There's also the matter of securing your workplace from outside threats. Now that people work from home and teams can collaborate from anywhere, centralized protection measures can't cut it.
You'll want to adapt new tools like a business VPN instead. Virtual private networks provide endpoint security by encrypting users’ connections. The tunnel that forms around them protects sensitive meetings, transactions, etc., from being intercepted while also allowing for greater privacy and discretion. However, with the market brimming with various options, it may be wise to check Reddit’s famous VPN comparison table to see all the providers and their pros and cons.
Ditch the Ego
Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires a risk-taking attitude and follow-through, which not everyone can deliver. Sometimes, this can-do attitude can also be a setback. Your ego might be sabotaging your prospects, and learning to leave it behind is a hard yet core lesson.
Your business might be your baby, but there comes a time when you need to let go of much of the hands-on involvement in favor of strategizing and big-picture thinking.
Another trap is to assume you don't need help to become a better leader and businessperson. Someone more experienced and successful will always be willing to share their insights. Make connections with such individuals by being active at meetups and networking events.
Seek out a mentorship and consider becoming a mentor yourself after you’ve gained some experience. With proper guidance, that bright-eyed young go-getter could one day become an invaluable business partner.
Conclusion
It’s never been easier to start on an entrepreneur’s journey. Concurrently, rising above others and carving out a space for yourself and your ideas has become all the more challenging. We hope the above advice will help give you that extra edge that can make all the difference.
