You may have become an entrepreneur to make a profit and achieve financial independence. While making a profit is as simple as bringing in more money than you’re spending, getting to a point where that happens is more difficult than it sounds. There are a number of things you can do to make the journey to that point a lot easier.
1. Building Relationships
You can’t do anything alone as an entrepreneur. At the very least, you need customers. Beyond that, you need suppliers, investors, and employees, as well as the community that grows around your offering. Problems come up when you fail to create and nurture these relationships, and forget that no matter how big an organization or group is, they’re made up of individuals.
Forgetting that they are people can result in a cold approach that hinders your attempts to build relationships with these groups. Your employees will be dissatisfied, which will affect their performance. Customers rarely go back to a business that treats them like money dispensers.
There are a number of things you can do if you remember that they’re individuals. Talk to your suppliers and understand that they have lives of their own. Collaborate with them and find a solution for their late deliveries. Find investors who agree with the way you run your company and how you want to offer your product to the world. Make sure that your customer service is on point to create return customers and a persistent revenue stream.
2. Purposeful Action
Entrepreneurs are by nature inherently busy. There’s always another fire to put out, another idea to bring to life. You may find yourself forgetting to ask a simple question, one that should power every action you take: why?
Every move you make must have intent. How you position your product, why that product has those features, even how you determine your branding — all of these and more must have intent behind them; there must be a clear reason. Even your reason for getting into entrepreneurship is relevant. Are you here just to make money or because you have a vision for how the world should be?
Constantly asking, and knowing, why is what will give your actions and your company consistency. At every decision point, you must ask why you’re doing it. Not only will it clarify what you want out of that action, but it will also ensure that what you’re doing is consistent with your reasons for being an entrepreneur. This can lead to a unified effort from you and your partners, which results in improved performance.
3. Being Proactive
Due to the sheer number of things you handle on a daily basis, you may find yourself adopting a reactionary stance. It seems like a smart move, since problems are going to come up and interrupt your tasks, so you may as well brace for impact. The issue with this stance is that reacting to problems rarely gives you the opportunity to look to the future and consider the consequences. Things are interconnected, and if you don’t think about what you’re doing, it’s likely that you’ll end up disrupting something down the line, which can impact productivity and your profit margins.
Taking initiative gives you the opportunity to think about what your actions will affect, and prepare for those consequences. It gives you the time to process what you’re about to do properly. In most cases, your company should also be positioned to act instead of react. Being reactive will cost you a lot in terms of money and resources, which not only will affect your profit margins but cut into what meager capital you have. That isn’t to say that there aren’t times where the company shouldn’t be reactive, but pushing your agenda should be the default state.
Making a profit as an entrepreneur doesn’t have to be complicated if you place importance on the right things. Pay attention to your partners and nurture your relationships with them. Make sure everything you do has a purpose, and stay active instead of reactive. Do these things, and you’ll make it easier for your start-up to starting bringing in profit.
About Vinod Ramchandra Jadhav: A self-described first generation Entrepreneur, Mr. Vinod Ramchandra Jadhav is the Chairman of SAVA Group and Devtech M2M. With a professional career spanning more than two decades, he is well versed in marketing, sales, supply chain management, and regulatory and corporate affairs in various capacities.