Four Things You Need for a Successful Business

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4 things you need for a successful business

Starting a business is hard work. I spent years trying to come up with the perfect business for me, but what I failed to realize is that to start a successful business, one only needs four things. When you break it down like that, it makes everything so simple. But it’s true. You only need four things to start a successful business.

And the beauty of it is that it doesn’t matter if you’re starting a dog walking business, a hair salon, a freelance writing business, or a non-profit; they all need these four things to be successful.

I think a lot of times we try to overcomplicate things and make it more difficult than it needs to be. I know that’s what I did. I was worried about creating the “perfect” business that I failed to see how simple it could be.

Get out a pen and write these down. You’re going to want to take notes.

Have a solution to a problem

The #1 thing you need to have a successful business is a solution to someone’s problem. This is going to be your product or service.

No one is going to want to buy your product or service if there’s no real need for it. For example, my business is proofreading for court reporters. Court reporters want to turn in a perfect transcript, i.e., no grammar or punctuation errors, transposed/wrong words, etc. That’s where a proofreader comes in.

You can apply this to every business idea. Let’s take two very different business ideas: dog walking and bookkeeping.

For dog walking, the problem would be that a person’s dog is cooped up in the house all day while the owner is at work. That dog needs some exercise that the owner just can’t give.

For bookkeeping, literally every business needs a bookkeeper to keep the numbers straight and to keep track of all money coming in and going out. That can be overwhelming for a business owner who has all kinds of other tasks to do throughout the day.

I know I said there are four things every successful business needs, but if you can come up with a solution to a need, you’re practically in business already.

Read: 28 Lucrative Home Business Ideas for Stay-at-Home Moms

Know your customer

Who are you solving a problem for? What type of person? What do they do for a living? Are they male or female? Do they have kids? Do they own a business?

You need to get specific here. It’s much better to have a specific niche than to go broad. If you market your business for everyone, you will serve no one.

I suggest making a list of qualities your ideal client has, and keep those in mind every time you market your business. This will attract a lot more clients than going broad.

Develop a marketing strategy

How are you going to market your business? Will this business be 100% online? Will your business have a blog? What social media channels will you use to market your product or service?

If your business won’t be online, how will you market it? Will you do any networking? Post flyers? It’s still a great idea for an offline business to be on social media.

Regardless of how you market your business, you need to make sure that you’re putting it out there. No one will buy from a business that they don’t know about.

Have the desire to succeed

This. Is. Everything. The level of desire you have to succeed will ultimately determine your success. Starting a business is hard work, and I’ll be honest, you’re probably going to want to quit at some point.

Don’t. You’ve got a great idea to solve a problem for a very specific avatar and a great marketing plan. It may take some time to get your business off the ground. It might even take a lot longer than you think. But if you don’t have that desire to make your business a success, it won’t last.

Figure out what your “why” is. Imagine what your life will look like when your business is bringing in a steady income for you. Believe it’ll happen, and don’t give up when things get tough.

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The sole purpose of these four things is to help you get crystal clear about what your business will offer and to whom, and how you’re going to get your business out there in front of people. It doesn’t have to be complicated. I think one reason people shy away from starting a business is that they think it’s this big, scary thing that has a million steps involved, but if you just sit down and think about these four things, it really is that simple.

Have you started a business? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Until next time,