How to Become Successful in Business

Video Transcript

"I'm here today to talk to you about how to be successful in business, a mammoth topic, but there are some common threads, so let's look at what those are. It's said there are only two types of people in business the quick and the dead. I'll add to that the flexible and the rigid. What can we learn from people that actually are successful. One of the greatest quotes I've ever heard was the idea that to be successful in business you have to do three things: get up early, go to bed late, and discover oil. What's actually inside those ten words though? Getting up early, means actually scanning the environment and seeing what's going on out there and heading your competitors off at the pass. You know, it's being quick and nimble really matters in today's business world. Going to bed late, I interpret as meaning delivering stuff, being reliable, being on time every time, a bit like Amazon and Federal Express are in terms of going the extra mile to get things to people. Finally, discovering oil, that means having what marketing people call a USP, a unique selling point or a point of uniqueness that marks your offer out as being different from your competitors. As well as these things you can learn a lot by actually learning from what the three M corporation say about this business. No, I don't mean the people that do the post-it notes. What I mean is the three M's, money, marketing and motivation. Under the heading of money you need to know the difference between profit and cashflow. Profit is important, but cashflow is king if you're going to be successful in business. If you don't know those skills yourself, get someone around you that can actually manage the money properly for you. Marketing is crucial, you can have the best product in the world, and yet nobody knows about it, is interested about it, wants to have it or is able to buy it. So marketing in every sense of the word is probably the next most important thing. Finally, motivating people, not just yourself but the people that work around you, you need to be motivated. In the words of George Michael, enjoy what you do."