Alan Hall

As entrepreneurs working to build a successful business, we often focus on finding the right employees, establishing the best strategy and aligning a product with the needs of customers. All of this is important, but we often fail to spend time and thought about crafting the right brand for our business.

Expert advisers are a business builder’s best friends and resources. We might also call them coaches, teachers or mentors. They are people with specific expertise, knowledge and/or business relationships. They have learned the key principles and best practices of their trade. They think abundantly and are willing to share what they know with those who ask for assistance. They themselves have been taught by other luminaries and are delighted to “pay it forward.”

Smart and successful entrepreneurs continue to enlist advisers on a regular basis for instruction and wise counsel. They recognize that pretty much no one has all the right answers on their own about how to start and run a great business.

A mentor might be an attorney, a CPA, a supervisor from the past, a kind competitor, an angel investor, a banker or a successful entrepreneur. Most are happy to give assistance pro bono. They are generous with their advice, but cautious with their time. Savvy entrepreneurs respect this special gift and carefully manage the relationship.

Renowned business builders carefully watch over their employees, like a shepherd over a beloved flock. They are kind, respectful, encouraging and highly supportive. They value their team and have learned that happy employees are the key to a first- rate business. This attribute is one of the powerful characteristics of award-winning entrepreneurs.

Successful business owners are focused on taking care of their customers. They wake up every day with buyers on their minds.

These entrepreneurs have worked long hours to win customers and now labor to retain and increase their buying activities. This attitude typifies the best entrepreneurs.

Intelligent business builders view customers as their lifeblood and greatly value loyal patrons. Entrepreneurs recognize that every dollar a client spends provides the revenue to cover expenses, produce a profit and keep them in business. They appreciate and respect the people who shop with them.

Knowing and understanding targeted customers is the overarching rule of exceptional companies. Award winning business builders know their customers as well as they know their own families, perhaps even more so.

Every business builder I know has made sacrifices to start and grow their business. It’s a key characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. By definition, a sacrifice is the act of surrendering something highly valued for the sake of something of even greater importance.

The concept of relinquishing a prized object for a highly desirable reward is as old as time. In today’s business environment, owners find themselves in situations in which sacrifices are made with varying consequences.

Speaking with entrepreneurs, we learn they often miss their wedding anniversaries and their children’s ball games, dance recitals, birthday parties, parent-teacher conferences. Why? They are often traveling on these important occasions, conducting business on behalf of their company. As I look back on my experiences, there were nights when I came home from work after the children were in bed and I was too tired to even enjoy a bowl of soup for dinner. My wife, Jeanne, was generally home alone raising the children while I was trying to close a business deal.