You Have One Task as an Entrepreneur, Are You Doing It? In order to make money as a business owner you must first create value, here's how to do it.
By Jeff Shore Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
People become entrepreneurs for all kinds of reasons. The desire to bring a product or idea to market, to get out from the grind of a nine to five desk job or perhaps to make a boatload of money. There's nothing wrong with any of that. But just keep in mind that those things must not be the focus. Making a gazillion dollars is wonderful and making your own hours is cool. But those are results, not focus points. As an entrepreneur you must remain singularly focused on just one thing: creating value.
That's it. That's your task. Create value. Then create more. And then never stop. Everything else is secondary, and everything else must follow behind.
Avoid the distractions.
So many entrepreneurs get bogged down with tasks that seem critically important at the time but are not related to the creation of value. For example, how much time do you spend responding to other people's e-mail requests? How much of your life is invested in balancing the books, in managing outsourced subcontractors, or in putting out micro fires all around you? Yes, those things seem important but look at the list again. There is nothing there that creates value.
Related: Five ways to stop being busy and start being effective.
The revenue chase.
Early on in your entrepreneurial career you were probably told that revenue is the fuel that keeps small businesses alive. I cannot argue with that concept. But instead of asking "How do I get revenue?" entrepreneurs should ask "How do I create value?" Focus on the latter. It is the only path to long-term success.
Related: Create value -- not just buzz -- for your customers.
The good news.
Take a page from every successful entrepreneur ever. You'll see something in common: they all excelled at creating tons of value. Jobs, Gates, Fields, Bezos, Corcoran, Branson, Winfrey, Robbins, Hsieh, Musk -- the list goes on and on. Yes, that is a list of people who made huge bank, but in every case that income was based on bringing a tremendous amount of value to the marketplace.
Related: Eight great entrepreneurial success stories.
In other words, bring enough value to the market and everything else -- yes, even the money -- follows thereafter.
Create value, and you can change the world!
