5 Things to Know Before Starting A Business – Part II

This article is a continuation of the article “5 Things to Know Before Starting A Business – Part I.”

As I was saying in “Part I:” I’ve made some major mistakes in business; this article contains things I wish someone had told me ten years ago.
In order for you to thrive in business, you must follow these lessons.
Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.
5 Things to Know Before Starting A Business (Lessons III-V):
III. Work Where You Have a Natural Advantage

In business there’s going to be competition, your strength lies in your ability to work in an area where you have a natural advantage.  If you are naturally athletic, you will do better in the sports arena, then the person who is a bit ungainly.  You will have a natural advantage that will automatically place you ahead of the pack.
If you are naturally a good speaker, use this to your advantage.  You must play to your strengths; others will be playing to their strengths, and it will be hard for you to compete if you don’t do the same.
What can you do better than others?  This is what your business should be centered around.  Are you more organized, are you a sharper thinker, are you a better teacher.
You have to play your strengths like a fiddle if you are to succeed in business.
IV. Provide Real Solutions to Real Problems
You have to solve problems!  Business, as well as life, is about solving problems for other people.  Discover the problems that people need solved, and solve those problems using your natural advantages.
People will gladly pay you to solve their problems.  It’s not money that people want…that’s why they gladly give it away every time they get paid.  Its problems that people want solved.  People will happily part with their money, when you find a way to solve their problems.
In business, determine exactly what the customer wants, and find a way to meet their need, in a way that makes their life easier!
Give the customer a specific, targeted solution, and they will return.  If you solve problems well, you will have no problems finding customers; your business will boom.
V. Play the Game Better
Albert Einstein said, “You have to learn the rules of the game, and then you have play it better than anyone else.”  When it’s all said and done, your success will depend on how well you played the game.
Business is a game, you must learn the rules, and you must strategize to get the prize.
A part of playing the game well is providing people with what they’ve never been given before, in a way that it’s never been delivered before.  You have to be two steps in front of the competition, and you have to see your customers’ needs before they see them.
You have to play to win, don’t play not to lose.  You have to give your very best to the game, that’s why it’s important that you pick the “right game.”
Don’t play the game if you don’t think you can win.  Only play the game if you think you can play it better than the current players.
You have to see things that the other players have never seen before; you have to out think and out smart the current players in order to win.
In short, you have to be hungry, you have to want it more, and if you do, you will win.
 - By Mr. Self Development