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What It Takes For Entrepreneurs to Become Million-Dollar Businesses

By July 14, 2013December 29th, 2016No Comments

book-eyesA pretty famous guy wrote a best selling book and sold like a gazillion copies. In it he said that entrepreneurs didn’t need things like personal assistants and that he was getting along just fine without them. I have two words for this. Hog. Wash.

As a wife, mom, and business owner who also cares for an ill parent, there’s no way I could get done what I get done without some help.

I went to an event where successful women-owned businesses shared their stories. These women owned and operated multimillion dollar businesses so I found great value in what they had to say.

I asked one business owner how would an up-and-coming business cross that million dollar threshold. It seems that there are a lot of women starting businesses but the number of those businesses making a million dollars or more is small in comparison.

She asked me if I was running my business by myself.  At the time the answer was yes. She told me I would have to hire and train people to do my work so that I could conduct higher level business initiatives. Of course there are other things but this one point was golden. Pay someone to do your work. In the beginning, starting out on a shoe-string budget, hiring people was out of the question and I did like most entrepreneurs and burned the proverbial candle at both ends.

Because what every entrepreneur learns is:

  • Marketing their business is a full-time job.
  • Offering excellent customer service requires attention to details.
  • You have to produce excellent work on-time and on-budget to keep the lights on.
  • Staying on top of industry trends is a must.
  • Networking and meeting new people is the lifeblood of the business.
  • Effective communication is the lifeblood of the business.

Thankfully there are products and services to help entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their businesses into multimillion dollar entities. A few of my favorite are:

  • Zoho.com – online CRM, email client, calendar, invoicing and so much more. Your online forms can be integrated directly into your CRM saving you time. Zoho also has a program to manage your financial books. Everything is free and you can always upgrade to take advantage of features like autoresponders.
  • Virtual assistants – these lovely people can be a life saver but vet carefully. You can even find some on that five dollar site who will do data entry and some other light tasks.
  • PrettyWork.co – affordable subscription-based graphic design services that understands and caters to small businesses.
  • Buffer – will help keep your social media streams filled with great images and content.
  • Evernote – never wonder where you saw that great online article again. Just save it to your favorite notebook.
  • Cloud storage – Dropbox happens to by my favorite. Google and Amazon also have online storage. Having my files stored in the cloud has saved me many a day.

Marry these services (or others like it) and you’ll find you have more time to work your big vision and develop your brand. Because attempting to do it all yourself is sure to cause entrepreneurial burn out and falling way short of your goal.

Here’s to finding the good help you need and deserve.

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