Becoming an entrepreneur is, without a doubt, an intimidating endeavor. With the internet and technology these days, it seems like it should be easier than it is. But with everything available to us, it makes the decision on how and what to start an overwhelming smorgasbord of options. How do I build my network? What does it take to put together a team? What sort of business do I want to be in after all?
Whether you're a recent graduate with a brilliant idea or a seasoned professional looking to transition into the world of business on your own, there are a few fundamental steps you can take to set yourself up for success.
In this article, we will explore three key aspects of building a successful entrepreneurial career: (1) building a network, (2) finding the right people for your team, and (3) identifying your niche for the business you want to start. These elements are the building blocks of any successful business venture and will help you navigate the seemingly complex world of entrepreneurship.
Element 1—Building a Network
I’ve been in sales and entrepreneurship for 17 years, the first seven years in sales and sales management, and the last 10 in business for myself. I never set out to build a network in the beginning. I don’t think anyone really does. Your network naturally becomes the people who you enjoy spending the most time with, usually because they have similar interests as you, or time flies when you are able to “talk shop” with them. Mine, by default, became my fellow salespeople. Had I been more intentional about building a network, I may have be-friended and sought out more business owners, but I guess I got lucky, because most salespeople, by nature, are entrepreneurial-minded, and many of my friends and colleagues went on to build businesses for themselves.
I did hold a few jobs after college, before I got into sales. I was a scuba diving divemaster in Hawaii and taught surfing lessons with my friends on the side. I worked at Starbucks for a brief period. And I supplemented my diving and surfing income with a job as a “lunch-lady” at a preschool.
It was always curious to me how most of my co-workers complained about working, as if it were a chore. Even my scuba and surf friends had a very cynical attitude towards work, almost as if they had been captured and put into forced indentured labor. Despite having some of the coolest jobs in the world in the most beautiful location on earth, they always managed to bitch about their work. It never made sense to me how the majority of people complain about doing the thing they do for a large percentage of their waking hours.
If you are gravitating towards an entrepreneurial career, chances are you are having the same experience as I did. You don’t seem to relate to your fellow employees. You look at people who are 10 years ahead of you, on your same track, and you just “don’t want to be that guy” in 10 years. Maybe you want to enjoy showing up at your job every day and want to feel at least a little bit of passion about the work you do. I was not able to find that at any of my past jobs while I was an employee with a salary. Something about the competitive, unpredictable nature of sales and entrepreneurship made me feel more alive.
My first taste of sales and entrepreneurship came by chance. I was riding the bus to my job as a lunch-lady, and the bus driver started giving me books to read and eventually recruited me into a company called Primerica.
Primerica is a multi-level marketing business that sells insurance. Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not a pyramid scheme. It's a legitimate business with a real product to sell, but the people above you are financially incentivized to help you learn the ropes. Primerica was the first business where I felt like I shared a common attitude with the people there. They seemed to enjoy coming to work and were passionate about the work they did.
For many, it was their side hustle, and they maintained a steady 9-5 job while they got their businesses going. In multi-level or network marketing businesses, you learn entrepreneurship by starting in sales, and then gradually you learn how to recruit. It’s the best training for entrepreneurship that you could ever have because selling and recruiting are some of the most essential skills to building a business.
I was lucky because most salespeople have an entrepreneur mindset. They are accustomed to a ROWE—Results Only Work Environment—where they only get paid for the money they bring into a business. They are not usually interested in trading time for money, which is the typical employee mentality in America. As I took other sales jobs, my network slowly became a group of likeminded, entrepreneurial guys, who I could bounce ideas off of, and who I could ask about emerging opportunities that we began to see.
Networking is the art of cultivating valuable relationships that can open doors, provide support, and offer guidance on your entrepreneurial journey. Here are some other ways you can build your network:
Identify Your Goals and Values
- Before diving into networking, it's essential to clarify your goals and values. What are you looking to achieve in your entrepreneurial career? Are you driven by a particular cause, industry, or passion? For example, I came to realize that my own driving force was a passion for building things, whether that was building sales teams or construction projects. Understanding your objectives will help you identify the right people to connect with.
- If you are brand new in business, try to find people who have been in the business for 10-15 years and ask some questions to see if they still enjoy their work. Would they get into the same line of work again if they had the option to start over? If you’re a seasoned professional, talk to the founders or the owners of your current business and see how they got their start. Is their experience duplicatable?
Attend Industry Events and Conferences
- Industry events and conferences are goldmines for networking opportunities. These gatherings bring together professionals, experts, and potential collaborators in your chosen field. Attend as many relevant events as possible to meet people who share your interests.
Seek Mentorship and Coaching
- Finding a mentor can be a game-changer in your entrepreneurial adventure. Look for experienced individuals who have walked a similar path and can provide guidance, share their experiences, and offer valuable insights. A mentor can be someone who may be in your same line of work and voluntarily pass on wisdom in often informal, unscheduled time frames.
- Coaches are good resources as well. Try to find a coach who has already achieved what you are seeking to achieve. For example, if you are wanting to build a business, a coach who has been a lifelong accountant is not going to be able to provide you with much value. As opposed to an unpaid mentor, volunteering their time, a coach is an hourly paid consultant, to offer advice, specific solutions and connections when it comes to advancing your business.
Give Before You Receive
- Building a strong network isn't just about taking; it's also about giving. Offer your expertise, help others when you can, and try to be a valuable resource. Building a reputation as someone who contributes will attract more meaningful connections. By maintaining these connections over the years, you’ll often be surprised who will come back and work with you or for your company later in your career.
Follow Up and Nurture Relationships
- Networking isn't a one-time effort. After making initial connections, follow up with your contacts regularly. Send a thank-you note or email, share interesting articles or insights, and maintain a genuine interest in their success. If you can’t personally help a friend, point them in the right direction of someone who can.
Element 2—Finding the Right People for Your Team
In the beginning, your team may very well be the people you have worked with in the past. Those who are already in your industry, but want to break off, like you, and start your own venture. This is a good way to bring industry-specific knowledge with you, when starting your own business. Just be careful not to violate non-compete clauses in your contract or non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
Building a successful business often requires a strong team. Finding the right people who share your vision and complement your skills is crucial. Here's how to assemble your dream team:
Define Your Needs
- Begin by identifying the specific roles and skills your business requires. Consider what tasks you excel at and where you might need assistance. Determine your strengths and weaknesses. If you’re strong in the sales (the front end) of the business, you may need to find someone who is strong in operations/fulfillment (the back end) of the business.
- If you’re strong in ideas and creation, you may need to partner with or hire someone strong in implementation. Most businesses are led by a visionary and an integrator. The visionary creates the ideas and is always pushing for growth. The integrator uses discernment to clarify and filter ideas and determine which ones the business has the resources to implement and the how-to do so. See the book Traction and other books in this series by Gino Wickman for a more in-depth understanding of this concept.
Leverage Your Network
- Remember the network you've been building? It can be a valuable resource for finding potential team members. Reach out to your connections, seek referrals, and tap into their networks to identify suitable candidates. Keep your eyes peeled for people who seem to be really good at their jobs in other fields and invite them in for an interview. Or listen for others, in everyday conversations, who seem to be unfulfilled in the same or similar businesses as yours.
Conduct Thorough Interviews
- Interviewing potential team members is a critical step in the hiring process. Ask insightful questions to assess their skills, experience, and cultural fit with your business. Ask difficult questions to make your interviewees really think. Questions like: “What are some negative personality traits you know you need to work on or that co-workers in the past have told you that you need to improve on?” or “When was a time in your life, personally or professionally, where you faced extreme adversity and how did you overcome it?” Running a new entrepreneurial start-up, you don’t want people who have had it easy their whole lives. They’ll quit the first time it gets hard, which it inevitably will.
Consider Cultural Fit
- Building a cohesive team involves more than just skills and qualifications. Consider the cultural fit of potential team members. Will they align with your company's values and work well with your existing team? This is a big one. Some of my biggest hiring mistakes (that caused major headaches) happened when I hired someone based on their skillset, knowing full well that they didn’t hold our company values. Do they seem to care more about themselves and about money than they do about helping or collaborating with people or about the company mission? Probably a good red flag that they don’t belong in your business.
Offer Equity or Partnership
- In some cases, you might not have the resources to pay competitive salaries. In such situations, consider offering equity or partnership opportunities to attract top talent who are willing to invest in your vision.
Start with Freelancers and Contractors
- If you're on a tight budget or aren't ready for full-time employees, start by hiring freelancers or contractors for specific tasks. This allows you to assess their work before committing to a long-term relationship. Don’t be afraid to outsource administrative and online tasks to Virtual Assistants living abroad.
Trust Your Instincts
- Lastly, trust your instincts when making hiring decisions. If something doesn't feel right about a potential team member, it's important to address those concerns rather than rushing into a partnership that might not work out.
Element 3—Finding Your Niche (What Business to Start)
I realized pretty quickly that selling insurance was not my passion. I didn’t enjoy selling intangible products, let alone talking to people all the time about death. I got into alarm sales and realized that when I could physically see what I was selling, I could engage my prospects’ emotions and it made more sense to me and to them.
Identifying the right niche or business idea is the cornerstone of your entrepreneurial journey. Here's how you can find your niche and determine what business to start:
Assess Your Passions and Interests
- Start by reflecting on your passions and interests. What are the activities or subjects that excite and motivate you? Building a business around something you genuinely care about can be much more rewarding than selling widgets.
My mom was a realtor for 20 years, and, using her industry contacts, she helped me get a job as a grunt for a home-building construction company during my summers in college. I discovered that I found a great deal of satisfaction in seeing things being built. I took pride in pointing out houses around town that I had helped build. Not to mention, I came to love the smell and sounds of a construction site. I dreamed about building houses from the ground up and then having my mom sell them for me.
Using my network from alarm sales, one of my friends hired me into his company for a job selling roofs. At the time, getting back into the construction industry felt right. It reignited my passion for building, and it was a seamless transition when, later, I wanted to break off and start a roofing and solar company, which is my current business, to this day.
Identify Market Gaps
- Look for gaps or unmet needs in the market. Are there problems or pain points that people are currently facing? Solving a relevant problem can be the foundation of a successful business.
Evaluate Your Skills and Expertise
- Consider your existing skills and expertise. What are you exceptionally good at? How can you leverage your knowledge to create a business that adds value to others?
Research Trends and Industries
- Stay up-to-date with current trends and industries. Explore emerging markets and technologies that could present exciting opportunities for your entrepreneurial venture.
Seek Feedback
- Don't hesitate to seek feedback from your network and existing customers. Honest feedback can help you refine your idea and make it more appealing to your target audience. Don’t be afraid to take constructive criticism. Instead of getting upset about an angry customer, get out your notebook or your phone and take some notes.
Start Small and Scale
- Once you've identified your niche and validated your idea, start small and gradually scale your business as you gain traction and build a customer base. If you are a brick-and-mortar or a service business and have established yourself in one market, chances are there’s a need for your services in another market, in a different city.
Building a network, finding the right people for your team, and identifying your niche are crucial steps in your journey as an aspiring entrepreneur. These elements lay the foundation for a successful business and provide you with the support and resources needed to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship.
Remember that entrepreneurship is a dynamic process, and continuous learning, adaptation, and perseverance are the keys to your success. With dedication and the right approach, you can turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.
