How to Start your Entrepreneurial Journey and become a Thought Leader

The basic question is what makes an entrepreneur? Risk propensity, focus, passion, resilience, versatility, cognitive abilities, motivation, greed, self-determination, attitude,  and so on. The entrepreneur is the man of action, one who discovers an opportunity and reaches out beyond one’s grasps to seize a possibility. They are not born geniuses, however, with an action plan, entrepreneurs can be made.

How to start your entrepreneur journey?

The HP garage is the most celebrated example for entrepreneurs to start companies even in garages. Obviously, the garage signifies more than just a commonly perceived locus of entrepreneurship here. An entrepreneur's garage may symbolize multiple things and every entrepreneur's garage story is different.

The entrepreneur in making….

Gaining knowledge from the success stories of other successful entrepreneurs can reveal and highlight the circumstances under which successful entrepreneurs started their business ventures and help one to step in their shoes. This knowledge needs to be backed up by a feasibility analysis and opinions from third parties. Further, the knowledge gained can help entrepreneurs to bear calculated risks.

How you can scratch it?

• Joining the gig economy
• Start a franchise
• Acquire a business
• Sell for a brand
• Start a service business

How will you take it further?

The most successful entrepreneurs are not only great product innovators but also master communicators. What makes Apple so successful? Indeed, It’s breakthrough consumer technologies; however, communicating the value of his breakthrough products in words and images that people could easily grasp is what makes the product so popular. Steve Jobs was as much a genius communicator as a genius technology product and design innovator.

Beyond Leadership….

Raising this art of communication to the next level is “Thought Leadership”. Kurtzman explains “A thought leader is recognized by peers, customers and industry experts as someone who deeply understands the business they are in, the needs of their customers and the broader marketplace in which they operate.

What started out to be an executive coffee table journal at McKinsey & Co has now become a buzzword. Be it attracting funding, customers, and employees or solving industry problems, with real evidence to back their assertions, thought leaders can leg up on competitors. Today, anyone can become a thought leader and benefit from the added visibility, a larger amount of credibility, and millions of customers. All you need is distinctively original ideas, unique points of view & new insights.

How one can become a thought leader in his/her industry?

• Give a Face: Build your personal brand, through which you can provide credentials to your audience and deepen the connection with them. Thought leadership facilitates a brand’s relationship with its customers. In fact, when customers need to solve specific problems, they will seek out the brand because it provides them with relevant and useful content.
• Get Granular: To establish personal dialogues and relationships with many customers at the same time, one can use modern marketing concepts like blogs, web presence, social media marketing, email marketing, etc, and build a following.
• Start Niche: Don’t run after a large niche instead win the smaller one first and work your way up into bigger and bigger niches. As a phased approach can help you gain a deep understanding and prevent from destroying your reputation.
• Build an Excellence Team: Cross-departmental team, external partners, or working with influencers will help you get the word out about your expertise.
• Embrace Disrupt Thinking: You really need to offer something different to stir things up. It may be some new information or disruptive ideas that can arouse the curiosity of your audience.

These things do not happen at once or even close to overnight. Lots of time effort, work, and dedication along with consistency and planning can help you become a thought leader fairly quickly. Above all, it is worth remembering, it’s an ongoing process and one cannot stop.

Even if you’re the type of person who rolls their eyes when they hear the term thought leader, these core principles behind thought leadership can help you succeed as an entrepreneur. Look past the buzzword and focus on the tenets to mark your presence. If you are interested checkout this real life example of my Journey on Entrepreneurship and Thought Leadership in this article

What is your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur?