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Passion

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Deb, you've talked with thousands of entrepreneurs and you've found some critical keys to business success and they all start with “P”. Your first one is Passion. You have to love what you do.

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It’s not unlike a relationship; it’s not unlike love. You have to be passionate about the person that you commit your time and your life to. It certainly doesn’t mean that you’re going to like them every second. Similar to operating a small business, you don’t have to love every part of it. A personal example of that … I used to own an inn in Bar Harbor, Maine and I cleaned more toilets in five years of inn ownership than most people would ever want to do in a lifetime. So that wasn’t my favorite part, but I was certainly passionate about my business as a whole and I was willing to clean the toilets to make it work.

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When you’re on the outside looking in, Deb, do you think there’s a tendency to romanticize that vision of what it means to own your business? I think a lot of people who have never done it before are disappointed that it’s not easy. It is hard, so you really do have to love it, but not romanticize it.

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Exactly. I always suggest that if you do have a romantic dream of owning an inn, for example, or operating a restaurant, that you go and work in one for a while. Really experience it; really find out what it’s going to take. Of course, it’s different when it’s yours, but you have to understand what the job entails.

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Yeah, you definitely have to make sure you know what you’re getting into. That you see that toilet!

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Product

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Moving on to your next “P” for business success – it is Product.

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You have to have a product or service that people will actually pay you money for. Oftentimes, I’ve seen entrepreneurs romanticize their idea for a product or a service or an invention even. They just think it’s the greatest thing … that everyone will want this. They’re in love with it, but they really haven’t tested the market to make sure that other people will be as passionate about it as they are. And that these people will actually pay money for it because that is really a key.

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Yes, because there are bills to pay!

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There are … that’s the reality! It’s worth it to take the time to do the market research to be as certain as you possibly can be that there is a market for your product or service.

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Persistence

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Next on your list, Deb, is Persistence.

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This is so important. When you start a business or when you’re trying to grow a business, things often can become challenging. They may not go the way that you want. Certain things may take longer than you hoped. You just have to persist through those challenging times. But you need to know when to cut your losses. It certainly doesn’t mean that you should just keep going and going and going if things aren’t going well. Sometimes you just have to say, “This isn’t working.”

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George just worked with an entrepreneur who had to do that. She had to call it quits. But what’s interesting is that she has a great attitude. She’s not calling entrepreneurship quits, just that particular business. There was really no place else to go with it. She’s taken the lessons learned and regrouping, but then she’s going to launch another business at some point. I admire that in her.

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Entrepreneurs are born with that genetic gift, as I call it sometimes. At other times, I call it a curse! We will come back with the next great idea and constantly be creating something. We just take those lessons, good and bad, and apply them to the next great idea.

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Planning

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And another one of your P’s for business success is planning.

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Plan! Plan! Plan! You really do have to develop a business plan. If you’re just starting a new business, it’s critical to determine many things, including if a market exists for your product. But also planning has to happen every day and every week and every month. You have to plan the small things out and you also have to plan the big picture. You constantly have to be in planning mode. When you’re the boss, there’s nobody else telling you what needs to get done this week.

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I think that’s one of the bigger challenges for people who just start a business. Not having that person to answer to. It could be a coach. In my former businesses, I met with one of my partners every week to make sure that he kept me on track. We try to do that with our coaches. You need that outside person to keep you focused and working on what you say you need to work on.

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Get more small business advice from Deb Neuman on her web site: debneuman.com.

Join us tomorrow when we discuss Deb’s last three critical keys to business success. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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(Image in today's post by k_vohsen)