Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business from scratch is no easy feat; I can attest to that first hand. You must know nearly everything there is to know about business. The problem is that you never know what you do and do not know because revelations happen all of the time.
When I started at the age of around 25, I had to hit the books and learn from the experience I did not have and uncover what I needed to know. Looking back at the first phase (to covering nearly $250,000 in salary and office space), I have written only a few recommendations for the aspiring entrepreneur and, all can be learned via studying books at your local bookstore. The equation is that simplistic.
Though, to establish authority (sales and marketing tactic) and give you an idea as to how important a blood thirst competitive nature is in entrepreneurship, I will use the quote of John D. Rockefeller and save a few readers some time:
“If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.”

1. Learn and Study Marketing, Continuously

There is no way to get around true entrepreneurship without being able to market yourself and your company. When it comes to your business, there are no shortcuts in marketing and I highly recommend that you do not outsource it.
Here are four facets of marketing to immediately focus on. Kindly do not take the word immediately to mean tomorrow or when you’re done with your accountant.
A. Website – your website must be painfully informative. This means that you are going to have to painfully learn how to write well and, even harder, you’re going to have to learn how to write in a neutral manner.
B. Web Exposure – prior to even discussing web exposure, in the least, get Google analytics on your website.
In my experience web exposure is best done through generic search engine optimization which is best learned by yourself.
Otherwise, you go into a pool of sharks who have only 10% more knowledge than you, and (- 200%) of the ethics. If you don’t learn it, you can get robbed.
There is also the PPC route which is best learned alone and
C. Marketing Yourself – here is the part that I don’t like and not many people want to hear. It is psychological fact that people judge based on appearance. Therefore, for me, that meant cutting out sushi and carbs. When you’re in public, always try to dress nice. Also, what goes into the web, stays on the web.
D. How You Market Your Company: Niche, Price, Service? – this is a part that takes a heck of a lot of creativity. It takes much research and competitive intelligence as well. However, once you stick to something, stick to it!
2. Number Crunching – Basic Accounting
Until you can have somebody internally do it for you, I suggest that you immediately outsource your finances as business must be about competition, and:
A. If you have too much revenue, you leave yourself open to complacency
B. If you are short, you leave yourself open to bad salesmanship
For this reason alone, I additionally recommend that you lay down firm expectations with your accountant that you have left 6 months to live and, unless the roof is falling, not to call you. Numbers never helped anyone win. They have only helped the greedy brag for a year prior to complacency.

Ken Sundheim runs KAS Placement, a sales and marketing staffing agency specializing in helping both U.S. and International mid to large size firms form sales teams from hiring the executive level sales manager to helping recent college graduates transition to a business development role. On his free time, Ken is a public speaker and likes to read non-fiction.
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