Aspiring entrepreneurs often look up to successful product-based entrepreneurs for inspiration and guidance. But what sets successful entrepreneurs apart from those who fail? To answer this question, I’ve interviewed more than 200 product-based entrepreneurs and identified five common traits that successful entrepreneurs share.
- Passion for their Product The most successful product-based entrepreneurs are those who are passionate about their product. They believe in the value of their product and the positive impact it can have on people’s lives. They are willing to put in the hard work, long hours, and take risks to make their product a success. Their passion drives them to keep going, even when faced with obstacles.
- Willingness to Learn Successful product-based entrepreneurs never stop learning. They are always seeking new knowledge and skills to improve their products and grow their businesses. They are open to feedback, and they listen to their customers to understand their needs and wants. They stay up-to-date with industry trends and are not afraid to pivot their strategies when necessary.
- Strong Work Ethic Building a successful product-based business requires a lot of hard work and dedication. Successful entrepreneurs have a strong work ethic and are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. They are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. They are disciplined, focused, and consistent in their efforts.
- Focus on Customer Satisfaction Successful entrepreneurs understand that their customers are the lifeblood of their business. They prioritize customer satisfaction and work to build long-lasting relationships with their customers. They are responsive to customer feedback and use it to improve their products and services. They understand that happy customers are the key to a successful business.
- Resilience and Perseverance Building a product-based business is not easy. There will be setbacks, failures, and unexpected challenges along the way. Successful entrepreneurs have resilience and perseverance. They do not give up easily and are willing to try again and again until they achieve their goals. They see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, and they use it to fuel their determination to succeed.
In conclusion, successful product-based entrepreneurs share these common traits: passion for their product, willingness to learn, strong work ethic, focus on customer satisfaction, and resilience and perseverance. These traits can be developed and honed over time, and they are key to building a successful product-based business. Aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from these traits and work to incorporate them into their own lives and businesses.
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Delivering a good pitch is as much about conveying emotion as conveying information. If you get the opportunity to pitch in front of a live audience, both of those objectives should be top of mind. The phrase, “They don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” is sage advice and is the basis for starting a 10-minute pitch.
Startups are hard work. If you do not particularly care about the market or the problem you are solving, you may bail out when the going gets tough. Investors need to know this is more than just a business.
Related: 4 Powerful Communication Strategies to Win Any Sales Pitch
Minute 1: Personal Introduction
Let the audience know that you, personally, care about the people and the problem you are trying to solve. Use the word “I” instead of “we.” I know you are representing your team and your company, but for now concentrate on establishing your passion and commitment. Tell a quick, personal story about how you stumbled upon the business you are pursuing and what made you realize it was where you wanted to focus most of your waking hours.
Your slide(s) should be simple. They are just there as a backdrop to your opening monologue and should make you look good. I, personally, like to show photos of me and/or customers experiencing the problem first-hand. The focus should be on you and your message.
Step forward to the audience, make gentle eye contact and engage them on a personal level as much as you can. The goal is for them to trust you, have confidence in you and to like you.
Transition out of the personal introduction into the overview of the problem you are trying to solve. Your job is to describe the problem as one that goes well beyond just you and your experience. A nice phrase is, “When I started looking around, I realized that I’m not the only one with X problem. Lots and lots of other people have it too!”
Minute 2: The Problem
Remember to keep an emotional appeal included in your description of the problem. People with this problem are: struggling, irritated, angry, disenfranchised? Keep human emotions real. Break down the problem into its component parts accompanied by a diagram.
Your slides during this minute are simply visual aids that help explain the problem. Like in the introduction, photos can express the human factor, but diagrams can help explain how the problem is experienced by people.
Keep close to the audience and help them empathize with those who experience the problem. As you move into the solution, physically back away from the audience, smile and spread out your arms to make bigger gestures. Your job is to bring up the excitement level in the room.
Related: 4 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Improve Your Sales
Minute 3: The Solution
At this point, you are going to maximize the crescendo. Show excitement and passion for your businesses solution. Transition to “we” instead of just “I.” Walk the audience not only through how the solution works, but also through the great benefits of the solution.
You need to position your body in front of the room and make it as big and bright as you can with big arm movements, a bright smile, confident voice and lots of eye contact. The audience should begin to share your excitement for your business.
Your slides are visual aids and diagrams. They should contain little to no text. Keep them simple as possible as complexity will only suck the energy out of the room. You don’t have to explain everything your company does, just the main points. Remember, you only have 10 minutes.
It’s good to show images or screenshots of existing products or beta releases and other hard evidence of your execution, but overexplaining the solution will make the presentation less compelling, and it will take too long. You want to leave the audience wanting more.
Once you have your audience feeling great about the solution, it is time to talk money.
Minute 4: Business Model
There are several money-related topics you’ll need to touch on during your pitch, including how you’ll make money, how much money you will make and how much money you will need. Keep these parts separate so they are easier to digest.
Now is the time to tell the audience how you will make money. There are literally dozens of possible business models, including selling the product, selling a subscription, taking a processing fee, licensing and so on. Explain how you are going to charge people for the solution you are offering.
On your slide is an outline of the customer unit economics for your chosen business model — the price they will pay and basic terms of a typical contract. Explain how you will “do the deal” with customers. Whenever you show numbers, stand close to your presentation screen and point to the numbers you are talking about. Numbers are hard to follow. Pointing as you talk will help people stay engaged.
If the business model is attractive, as it should be, you will have to explain who else is going after the customer’s money.
Related: Tips to Follow When Re-Fitting Your Business Model to the New Normal
Minute 5: The Competition
There’s no such thing as a business without competition, and implying that you have none is a major red flag for investors and even potential partners or customers. Whatever problem you are going after is being addressed somehow, maybe not very well, but people experiencing the problem are trying to solve it, and the resources they access to cobble together a solution is where you will define your competition.
The key here is not to avoid the notion that competition exists, but how your company is different. The existence of competition validates the market. Do not talk about how you are “better,” focus on “different.” Your attitude towards the competition gives the audience a peek into your business soul. Are you dutifully respectful of their presences and power or are you arrogant and naïve enough to think your little startup will have no problem beating them? Err on the side of humility.
Your slides should depict your differences from the main competitors. Feature comparisons or positioning charts, for instance, can be effective tools. Many of the questions you will get from the audience will stem from what you say during this minute of your pitch.
Be clear and respectful before you transition to your sales and marketing plan.
Minute 6: Sales and Marketing
During you description of the competition, you struck a respectful tone. It’s now time to amp up the room again as you talk about how many potential customers are out there and how you’re going to get them. Show excitement and confidence as you walk the audience through the market data, your chosen point of entry and your communication strategy.
Slides will depict data, charts, and graphs which you will want to point to as you explain. Images of web sites, brochures, trade show booths in action, etc. are fair game here, too, and will help build excitement in room.
It is important to tie your sales and marketing plans together so it doesn’t look like you are shooting a scatter gun of one-off tactics. Show the logic and flow of lead generation to final sale and how your team plans to take the prospects through the buying process and into the customer experience.
End this minute by translating the marketing sizzle into numbers. It is time to talk about money again!
Minute 7: Money
Earlier, you explained how the business is going to make money. Now, it’s time to tell the audience how much money you are going to make. This is the good part. Your description of the deal shows the unit economics of a single customer (price), and your market description shows how many potential deals are out there (quantity). Armed with this information, you can describe how revenue builds over time.
Break it down for the audience. Show income and expenses in graphical format. Nothing beats a good bar chart, and pretty much anything beats a screenshot of a spreadsheet. Back up to your presentation slide and point to information like the weatherperson points to a weather map on TV.
Keep the tone upbeat and engaging. You’ll want to exude as much confidence as you can. To this end, avoid showing different scenarios in your forecast. Pick the scenario that you think is most likely to happen, and be prepared to defend your assumptions.
To make the business believable, the audience will now need to meet your team.
Minute 8: The Team
It may seem a little strange to wait until towards the end of your pitch to introduce your team, but waiting has benefits. It’s important to introduce your team in the context of the business so the audience understands why it is what it is. If you introduce the team upfront, you will have to circle back to describe their roles later, which wastes time and can get redundant. A 10-minute pitch must eliminate redundancy.
As you introduce the key players on the team, you can highlight what function they will perform and brag (yes, brag) about how great they are at their function and how lucky you are to be working with them. Talk about yourself with humility, and talk about your team like they are the best team in the world.
Rather than showing headshots and bullet points, show images of the team in action or in a group. You want to make sure the audience sees a team, not a collection of individuals.
Next, you will explain the great work this great team has accomplished!
Minute 9: Proof of Concept/Traction
A team without results isn’t much more than a cocktail party. To get investors or customers, you need to show results. What has the team accomplished? Have they launched an MVP? Does the company have revenue? Are the customers happy?
The more traction you can show, the better. This, more than just about any other minute of your pitch, will demonstrate your team’s ability to pull off this business in the real world. Display customer testimonials and read them out loud. Show pictures of your solutions in action. Maximize the excitement in your voice and facial expression. You’re almost at the end of your pitch, so be sure leave it on a high note!
You have one minute left. It’s time to ask for the money.
Minute 10: Ask
Assuming you are pitching your business for the purpose of raising money, you will spend the last minute asking for it. By now, your audience has everything they need to know if they are interested, or not, in working with you. You must paint a clear picture of what you need from the audience and what investing with you will look like.
Investors want their money to be used for growth, not exploration. Show them that everything is in place to grow, you just need to fan the flames.
Many founders aren’t sure how much money they will need and to what terms they will be willing to accept. They are keen to keep things open-ended. In my experience, however, investors want a starting point. Give it to them.
You already showed them how much you are expecting to make. This financial objective is based on many assumptions, not the least of which is how much outside funding will be required to execute the plan. Break it down for the investor. Do you want one main investor or a number of smaller investors?
If, for instance, you are raising $1 million, you could break it into 10 chunks of $100,000 each and say, “We are raising $1 million from up to ten investors in $100,000 units in exchange for a convertible note. How many units do you want?” Your slides can show the breakdown and the high-level terms of the note. This makes the deal easy to understand. An interested investor will not walk away from the deal based on your initial offer, they will counteroffer, and you’ll be off to the negotiating table — mission accomplished!
Express enthusiasm for their participation in your business. Keep the energy levels high.
Conclusion
The trick to delivering a compelling 10-minute pitch is to let the story flow logically and to avoid repeating yourself. It’s not logical, for instance, to introduce the team before anyone knows what kind of team is needed. Likewise, it’s not logical to talk about progress and traction before talking about how the business works.
Each topic in the above outline neatly flows into the next, allowing you to build your story and maintain the energy level in the room. A good pitch lets the story unfold naturally and doesn’t force things together. In this pitch, you may notice that there is no “money” or “financial” section. Making money is simply part of the flow of the story, so it is touched on multiple times during the pitch.
Perfecting the pitch means practicing the pitch. It’s much more than what you say. It’s also about when you say it and how you say it.
Related: Why You Need a Million-Dollar Pitch Before Your Start a Business
What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur and what does “success” even mean today? These are questions worth exploring, especially if you are just starting out.
Shutterstock You can never be fully prepared for the slings and arrows of entrepreneurship. Starting a new company from scratch is one of the hardest things you can do. Every obstacle and challenge will come your way, especially in the early years.
Let’s start with first principles: An entrepreneur’s job is to innovate, create jobs and grow revenues. But before you can do that, you need to determine if you really have the drive, dedication and confidence to fight for your dream every day, despite the obstacles. If you don’t have that hunger and perseverance, then entrepreneurship may not be for you.
Related: 7 Mindsets That Guarantee Enduring Success
Measure your own success
Fortunately, entrepreneurial success is not a zero-sum game. I don’t compare my success to that of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, nor should you. Their success doesn’t impede my own. I look to them for inspiration and ideas. I consider myself successful if I’m a little bit better today than I was yesterday.
I also measure my own success based on fulfillment. You don’t have to change the world to have a fulfilling and successful career as an entrepreneur. Owning a restaurant, bar or a retail or online store can be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling, and so can launching a niche product that creates a new and loyal consumer base. That’s successful entrepreneurship.
You should also keep in mind that success isn’t about the opinions of others; it’s about helping others. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to share in each other’s happiness. One way to help others as an entrepreneur is to grow your business and create jobs and livelihoods for your employees and their families. Another way is to touch the lives of customers by providing kind, attentive and respectful service every day.
Rethinking success is also about rethinking greed. For example, today’s technology is now so advanced that it’s given us a lifestyle that previous generations never would have imagined. We should rethink what it means to be wealthy. We can be greedy for the things that generations before us never had — the ability to be more effective at our job and to spend more time with the ones we love.
Related: Figuring Out What Success Really Means to You
Focus on superior products and services
The product or service you’re creating should be your focus. If you have a clear and achievable vision, and your product or service has unique value in the marketplace, then success will come from that. Your customers will tell you if you are successful or not. Everything else should come second to executing your vision and your business plans to deliver a superior product or service that’s in demand. Or creating new demand from scratch with an entirely new consumer category. That’s even better.
Forget about pedigree
I was fortunate to attend Cornell University, a prestigious Ivy League school with arguably the world’s best hospitality school. That undergraduate experience provided me the opportunity to build a stellar network of other success-oriented friends, mentors and business partners. Admittedly, it was a great place to start, but the prestige of my alma mater means very little in the real world. Investors evaluating my company don’t care. I must still execute and deliver every day. No one gives me a pass. Forget about pedigree. Focus on learning your chosen industry’s competitive landscape and what’s going to make your company stand out.
Related: 5 Secrets to Success in Business
Keep pressing on
After college, I realized I still had much to learn before I was ready to launch my own company. I took a job with a bank on Wall Street as an analyst evaluating the business plans of tech-focused start-ups. That experience was incredibly helpful in formulating my own business plans for HotelPlanner soon after. If you’re not quite ready to launch your own business, consider working a few years with a more established company. Think of it as an apprenticeship. But have an exit strategy because no job is permanent.
After two short years, I was laid off during the post-9/11 recession, but it was a blessing in disguise because I realized that I didn’t want to be an employee for others my entire career. I wanted to employ others. I wanted more control of how I shaped my future. When you face setbacks, brush yourself off quickly. Don’t dwell in the mire of feeling sorry for yourself. Keep pressing on. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur for the long-term, resilience is key.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
What’s the true failure rate of small businesses? Well, it depends on who you ask and whether it includes pandemic closures or not. Or, if there were economic or political drivers that worsened the closures. And frankly, it depends on who is counting and how they’re counting. It is arguable that the mistakes that make or break small businesses are similar across industries and geography. Whether it’s focusing attention on places that don’t produce income or build relationships, not setting boundaries or ignoring their online reputation, I’ve watched small businesses make these mistakes that make or break them.
Related: The True Failure Rate of Small Businesses
Seven mistakes that make or break small businesses
1. Not defining an ideal client
I attended my first networking meeting more than a decade ago. There was a woman who represented a skincare line who said, “My ideal clients include anyone with skin…” While it’s great to be able to serve anyone who comes to you, it is also important to have a specific ideal client well-defined. That doesn’t mean you can’t work with others. It simply focuses your marketing efforts, including your short presentation at a networking meeting. A better commercial would be: My ideal client is a woman of a certain age who is concerned about fine lines and wrinkles. Failing to define an ideal client means your business can go in any direction and you become #2.
2. Busy but not productive
If you don’t know who your ideal client is, you set meetings with anyone in the hopes to find your clients. You become busy but not productive. I can still remember a couple of guys from years ago who ran around to networking meetings like it was their job. And in some sense, I guess it was their job, or at least what their business had become. They just didn’t know who they wanted as an ideal client. So they wasted a lot of time doing activities that were not income-producing. They looked busy but when I sat down with them, they were struggling financially. It was sad to hear but it was also a good lesson. When you focus your efforts, you get more accomplished and business grows.
3. Not setting boundaries
If you like working weekends, late into the night or during a time when you’d otherwise not want to be working, then do not set boundaries. If you want a life outside of business, set boundaries. I’ve found that if I don’t send emails or contact clients when outside of my normal work hours, they respect my time. Boundary setting is also important in contracts or agreements when describing the scope of the project. If a client wants more work, I have a stipulation in the agreement for the cost for work outside the scope of the original project. It saves a lot of time for everyone wondering what is within the scope and what is not. By clearly defining the hours and scope of the project, I can focus on the work and delivery. Without those in place, I could be working on a project indefinitely.
4. Ignoring reputation management
My husband and I make it our goal to leave positive reviews as much as possible and appropriate. All too often businesses only receive negative reviews, and they deserve positive reviews as well. Whatever review your business receives, you’ve got to be aware of your brand reputation online and respond to all reviews. There are reputation management companies whose sole focus is to respond to reviews, both good and bad. It can be a great investment for your business to hire one of them.
5. Working without a contract
Find out what your state requires to be considered a contract. An email of terms that each agrees to within the email that is dated is sufficient in some states while others may require an official, wet signature contract. Not only does the contract define the cost and payment terms, but it should also define the scope of the project. That means if the client wants more work, there is an added cost. Allow for a provision for work that is out of scope that will be billed at an hourly rate or whatever is customary in your industry. This will save you from miscommunication when you have a contract in which to refer. When the client asks why you can’t do additional work, tell them it’s out of scope per the terms of the agreement and what the cost is if they’d still like the work completed.
6. Not selecting a business structure
What I mean by this is that you haven’t incorporated or created an LLC for your business. Without one of these, you’re operating as a sole proprietor and personal assets are all at risk should the business be sued or sent to collections. Once a business structure is selected and set up, put an Operating Agreement (LLC) or Bylaws (Corporation) in place. You need to do this so that in the event you are incapacitated or worse, your business can continue without you. That means employees and vendors get paid, along with other receivables. Clients can continue receiving goods and services. Your family will also be protected.
7. Not collecting outstanding invoices
I can’t tell you how many freelancers post in social media groups that they are having trouble collecting from a client. And, they continue to do work for the client! I have a stipulation in my agreement that if invoices aren’t paid within a certain number of days, the work stops until the account is made current. You can also keep credit cards on file or set up a monthly subscription, so you’re paid automatically. In 11-plus years of freelancing, I’ve had one $75 invoice left unpaid. The rest are paid, and most are paid on time. Make it part of your contract and process for clients to pay you on time.
Related: The 5 Worst Cash-Flow Mistakes Small-Business Owners Make
Without processes and boundaries, small businesses can easily work many hours with little to show for it on the bottom line. Learn from others the right ways to do business. Avoid these mistakes and be productive. Success is yours to be had!
Related: To Succeed With Your Small Business Avoid These 5 Mistakes
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Since 2020, millions of office workers have transitioned to working from home, and some of the biggest proponents of long-term remote work have been SaaS (software as a service) companies like Twitter and Amazon Web Services. So as the future of work changes, it begs the question: Does your company need an office?
Why we work in shared spaces
As early as the 17th century, people were gathering at cafes and libraries to work together. Today’s coffee shops are still full of people laboring away, of course, but now they’re doing it remotely from their laptops — instead of collaborating with the people sitting around them, they are connecting with distant colleagues.
Private workrooms began as a way for elite government officials and academics to collaborate, and essentially these first offices weren’t all that different from today’s — spaces that allowed people to communicate easily, because sending letters back and forth took time. Even after telephones were invented, in-person meetings were the most convenient way of exchanging ideas, and offices have remained until very recently the place to foster creativity and collaboration. So, as we consider the future of work, we must also consider the best option of supporting both those qualities.
Office design reflects the times
The history of office design is fascinating. While information on very early ones is limited, we know that 20th-century layouts often changed to reflect work culture. In the early 1900s, most spaces were sizeable open-concept rooms similar to a factory floor and were loud, vibrant environments. Often the supervisor’s office was raised to overlook the shoulder-to-shoulder desk workers.
German office design became influential in the United States beginning in the 1950s, part its intention being to organize space to reflect worker functions. Irregularly spaced desks and conference tables replaced the structured rows of desks in this new Bürolandschaft (literally “office landscape”) style, and the same movement introduced the cubicle, so that workers could have privacy to focus and isolate themselves from collaborative spaces.
Related: In Defense of the Office
By the 2010s, most workplaces had once again adopted the large and open-concept style — cubicles perceived at that time as roadblocks to networking and collaboration. While these designs weren’t always practical (a fact detailed in a 2019 article in the Harvard Business Review), they were still the dominant layout leading into 2020.
Put succinctly, office spaces have always changed to reflect the work culture of the day, and there is potential for them to remain a key business component, as long as they keep up with trends.
What purposes can an office serve today?
In a world where so many can now operate remotely, you may find yourself wondering, “What is the point of having a collective work space?” (Especially for SaaS companies that don’t need to store physical products.) Actually, they can serve a host of important functions, even for remote-first businesses.
Top factors to consider when deciding if you need one:
• People: Would employees use the office? Even if they can work from home, some may actually prefer to use it a couple of times a week, or even just for key meetings. Hiring new talent can also be easier when you have an onsite location for interviews and training.
• Events: Would your company benefit from having a space to host stakeholder or progress meetings, holiday parties or other gatherings? Investing in a dedicated space can have a positive impact on brand confidence for investors, employees and others.
• Mail: Even if you run a SaaS company, don’t overlook the importance of having a mailing address. To register your company and open bank accounts, you will need one, and an office is an obvious choice.
• Storage: Many companies need storage space for servers, equipment and other items. If that’s the case for yours, then an office space could be a great option. Many buildings, of course, also have built-in security features to help keep them safe.
• Community: Employees may prefer working remotely, but at what cost? If your business is stalling, then an office may get creative collaboration flowing again; face-to-face time with colleagues can encourage new ideas and also build a sense of community.
So, does your company need an office?
The short answer is, maybe. When we started ButterflyMX in 2014, flexibility was already a priority. I wanted my team to be as agile as possible and remote work allowed us to choose the best talent, regardless of location. But even as a globally distributed company, having an office has been vital. We’ve invested in spaces where our employees can meet, create and develop as they see fit. After watching this endeavor grow over the past eight years, I feel confident that the choice to be remote-first with the option to work in the office has been the best choice for us.
Related: How to Transform Your Office Into a Collaboration Destination
There’s a lot to consider before you commit. For many businesses like mine, an office has more pros than cons. If you’re thinking about securing one for your company, then chances are you already know why you need it. The best solution will be unique to you.