Making it big is the dream of almost every small business owner,
catching that break that would propel a simple idea towards national—and even
global—followings. With so many examples coming before us, we all know that it
is not such an impossible task and almost anyone who has the passion and the
perseverance may eventually get his share of entrepreneurial success. I say
“may” because there never really is a guarantee, not even if you do exactly the
same things as those who made it did. Still, the fact is that there are
entrepreneurs who have dared and who have conquered, and while the point is not
to copy what they did, there are a few good lessons to
pick up from their experiences nonetheless. Let’s look at three of these daring
entrepreneurs.
Ahmed Khattak Unlocks the Cell
Phone Market.
Image from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224539
Khattak’s million-dollar business was a product of his frustrations
with the U.S. cell phone market, to be more specific, his frustrations with buying a cell phone. He was dismayed, to
say the least, at how hard it was for him to get his hands on a phone,
especially given that he came to the country having no social security number
nor credit history whatsoever. Of course, just as any other brilliant entrepreneur
would, Khattak saw this as an opportunity that was waiting to be harnessed, and
long story short, he unlocked the U.S. cell phone market while earning millions
of dollars for doing so. Here are a few lessons to be learned at how this young entrepreneur changed
the U.S cell phone market:
·
Funding is important for growth. "I think the biggest mistake we made in
the early going was not having as much funding as we originally thought we
needed," was what Khattak said
referring to how his company grew so fast that the funding could not keep up. Obviously,
money is not something that anyone can just rustle up in the blink of an eye, but
this shows just how much it is important to do proper projections for when your
business grows. Planning is key.
·
Capital can come from the most unlikely sources. The last thing Khattak was probably expecting when he visited a
dentist, who happened to be a fellow Pakistani, was getting a $200,000 check to
use for his business. It’s curious how things can turn out so well, especially
since other entrepreneurs can only dream of experiencing the same thing. The
kicker here is that the dentist didn’t have a particularly strong belief in the
business’ growth; he just wanted to help Khattak in his venture.
Julia Erickson and Aaron
Ingley’s Nutrition Bars for Dancers.
Image from http://blog.chrislanger.com/2012/10/julia-erickson-and-aaron-ingley-for-entrepreneur-magazine/
Energy bars are not particularly delicious, and yet they are eaten
by dancers and athletes all over who need to keep healthy and fit. Julia
Erickson made one of the best decisions of her life when she decided to take a
crack at making an energy bar herself using ingredients such as dates, walnuts, pecans, rolled oats, sea
salt and cinnamon. Her creation was a big hit among her fellow dancers, and
that was when she decided to team up with her partner, Aaron Ingley, and start
their business, Barre. What is a good lesson to
take from Erickson and
Ingley’s success story?
·
Consumers make great entrepreneurs. This
statement simply means that whatever demographic you target as a business
owner, being part of that demographic gives you a big advantage. In this case,
both Erickson and Ingley were dancers and they knew exactly what dancers would need
and want in an energy bar. Getting inside consumer’s minds is easy when you know
personally how they think, and evidently that makes for good business.
Megan Duckett Sews Her Way
to Success.
Image from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224357
Megan
Duckett was a woman who not only knew how to sew, but loved doing it too.
And when her sewing skills were requested for her employer’s Halloween event, it
was then that she started to realize that she had skills that not everybody has
and that she could make use of these skills in order to offer something that
people will pay money for. She painted herself as a specialist of sorts, and
eventually her projects became bigger and bigger to the point that she was
making more in a year than her salary could give her. Duckett is the very person
many people aspire to be, someone who has managed to successfully make a great
living out of doing something she loves. And this is what the greatest lesson
from her success story is.
·
Hobbies can be businesses too. There’s a
chant that goes “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” or something along
those lines. But what if work and play are the same thing and that when you do
what you love, you are earning at the same time? It’s a hard goal to strive
for, but Duckett shows that it is entirely possible. With passion and some
skills you can accomplish so much more than you would sitting in an office doing
a “real job”.
Here are three great success stories that would hopefully inspire
entrepreneurs and small business owners into getting big. Learn from these
people and hopefully you would be writing your own success story and be the
inspiration for future entrepreneurs.
