As entrepreneurs, we are always looking for inspiration to help guide us through this myriad of unknown, unchartered waters of entrepreneurship. Looking at those who are the most successful with their businesses often gives us an insight into how our businesses can thrive.
In this post, we will take a look at five successful entrepreneurs and see what they are doing so that they can inspire you to be more successful in 2017. The following amazing entrepreneurs all dared to break away from the crowd and do their own thing, in spite of the protests from competitors, friends, and even family members.
Each of them was willing to dive head first into their particular niche area and learn everything possible to make them able to become real experts in their chosen fields. Read the following information about five of these millionaire entrepreneurs and see if you can find some inspiration for your business in 2017 that will help your business soar.
Sam Ovens
Sam Ovens is an example of literally came from the “ground up.” He was living and working from his parents’ garage after dropping out of college in New Zealand.
He was on a downhill spiral until he discovered the lucrative career of digital consultancy. He knew a lot about digital media and advertising and had spent some time working in a traditional environment, but he knew that he did not want to be an employee all of his life and work for someone else.
He attempted to run three other businesses before finding his way in the world of digital products, but he never gave up hope that he would figure it out.
Some of the best insight you can derive from Sam Ovens is that he had a moment of realization about how he had been creating digital products and services and hoping people would buy it. Instead, he should have been asking customers what they want and creating it for them. Once he made this change and got to know what customers were after, he was able to create a 10 million dollar income in a few months.
Some of the other insights entrepreneurs and business owners can learn from is that he says that he stuck to the most important expenses and cut out any unimportant expenses that were not essential to the running of his business. This helped him to free up a reserve to use for his business as it grew.
Practicing fiduciary responsibility is an important aspect of creating and maintaining a successful business.
An interesting tip that Sam Oven gives is that he says to “get a job” related to business such as sales or networking positions. But he recommends working at night only so that you will have an entire eight hours each day to devote to your business while making money on the side to sustain yourself.
Using these tips and insights, you may be able to learn from what Oven has done and emulate some aspects of it in your business plan.
Follow Sam Ovens on Twitter.
Tomas Gorny
Tomas Gorny isn’t just an immigrant millionaire, he also went through the process of making millions twice. Having grown up in Poland and making the move to the United States in his teens, Gorny then joined a startup to make his first millions… only to lose it all have to start from scratch once again. It’s always special to make a million dollars, but if you really want to stand out from the crowd, you need to know how to make it all back again should it be lost in the first place. Gorny’s rags-to-riches story is a special one, because of the lessons and values that come out of it. Gorny has the following tips for other entrepreneurs looking to find success to follow:
- Don’t underestimate people based on their appearance or speech.
- Don’t be afraid to fail.
- Approach everything from the customer’s perspective.
- Focus on building your business — forget about money and an exit strategy.
Gorny wants every entrepreneur to focus less on the game of raising capital and perfecting an exit strategy, to focus more on product and service over the money. “Creation is greater than accumulation”.
Follow Tomas Gorny on Twitter.
Joy Gendusa
Joy Gendusa started out running a graphic design business that wasn’t doing as well as she had hoped. So she ordered a postcard advertising campaign to help her business and realized that direct mailings are one of the best possible ways to advertise a business. So she developed her postcard mailing company known as “Postcard Mania.”
She made $45.7 million in 2015 by sending 135 million postcards for more than 13,000 customers. She was able to create a business relatively quickly using the direct mailing system because it is a service that is so efficient for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Postcard Mania’s website now earns around $50 million per year.
In the case of Joy Gendusa, she didn’t “reinvent the wheel.” She simply tapped into an already important industry of direct mailing and improved upon it. She marketed to her customers as well as to other direct mailing companies that promoted the products.
Follow Joy Gendusa on Twitter.
Rick Hopper
Rick Hopper is a creative entrepreneur who never followed the traditional paths of the educational route and skipped college completely. His specialization area dealt with erector sets and engineering tools that he created from scratch.
He has appeared on ABC’s popular “Shark Tank” show where he promoted his original sunglasses which he referred to as “shades for every occasion.” ReadeREST was a sunglasses holder that the “sharks” recommended selling as a bundle. He had created a unique way to keep your glasses secure using only a magnet and some metal.
The simplicity but practicality of Rick’s system has pointed out the ability of one entrepreneur to look around for a need and to create it to fill that need.
Follow Rick Hopper on Twitter.
Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg is the founding developer of the extremely popular WordPress blog and web platform. His background is very artistic in nature and not technical, which surprises some people when they think about the impact of the WordPress platform. His first company, Automatic, became the technical platform that allowed WordPress to run the way it does now.
He’s been named to PC World Magazine’s Top 50 people of the web and Business Week’s top 25 most influential people online. His net worth currently stands at $84 million.
Follow Matt Mullenweg on Twitter.
Summary
All of these entrepreneurs have one thing in common. They never gave up, they used their specific skills that would allow them to create something that people needed and wanted, and they never gave up on the dream of being an entrepreneur.
Finding the thing that you do the best is the goal of every entrepreneur. You have to be aware of your financial status at all times, whether you are an entrepreneur like Sam Ovens or a technology innovator like Matthew Mullenweg, knowing what you are good at and devising a plan to get there is a great start toward fulfilling your dream.
Take inspiration from these millionaire entrepreneurs and borrow the best of their techniques for yourself. But always remember that an entrepreneur is a solo flyer. We have the need to soar far above the rest, to create new direction or invention in order to make an impact on the world.
And, ironically, while the money naturally comes when you produce something great for the world, the biggest motivator for most entrepreneurs is not in the money that can be made but in the freedom that money can buy to direct one’s own life and in the work, itself.