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Success Advice

Plan for Failure on Your Road to Success

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The quality that separates success from failure is the ability to keep moving forward in the face of failure — or even many failures. We speak from experience when it comes from overcoming failure. For every success we’ve had in our business, there are probably 10 failures to go with it. We’re not ashamed of that in the least. We’ve come to understand that the failures are an essential part of our growth.

We’ve created a multimillion-dollar company and brought an industry perceived as dark, disreputable and dirty more into the mainstream. Our company, Club Tattoo, is a chain of luxury tattoo and piercing studios. This success did not come easy. 

Still, quitting has never been an option, even in those times when it seemed we were backed into a corner. If we quit, not only would we lose everything we’d worked so hard for, but we have a passion — even an obsession — for what we’re establishing. Success happens through hard work, endless enthusiasm and moving forward despite the fear. We also believe that in a business context, luck is just being ready when an opportunity comes along.

Other entrepreneurs experiencing bumps in their road to success can learn from the challenges we’ve faced and overcome. Here are a few tips to navigating the tough times.

1. Understand what makes a partner tick

Most people enter a partnership out of fear. They’re scared to take on the risk of whatever business they’re starting alone. Throughout our careers, we’ve had business partnerships and learned from some early ones that went south. Partnering with band members in a rock band and with friends in a recording studio taught us some tough lessons. The biggest contributing causes to the failures involved the lack of a foundation of solid communication, cohesive goals and strategies to reach those goals. Learning to trust in your partner is an essential ingredient in a successful partnership. Stay in your lane and honor your partner’s roles. Make sure those roles are well-defined so that conflicts over boundaries are kept to a minimum.

2. Harness the power of mentorship

We’ve both had mentors that weren’t experts in any one field per se, yet they had more life experience, and their guidance was invaluable. The people we truly feel grateful for are the ones who encouraged us to keep going when we felt like quitting. As busy business owners, we know it’s hard to dedicate the time needed to engage regularly with a mentor. But it’s crucial for small business owners to have one who can get them through the tough times.

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.”- Napoleon Hill

3. Communicate a consistent message to your customers

For a business to take hold within a given market, it must communicate a consistent message to its target audience over time. The consistency of your message will reinforce the dependability of your company, build trust from your clients and eventually develop brand loyalty from the consumer. Our message is that we are an upscale “studio” rather than a “parlor,” and our clients can see that we’re different. Pinpoint and focus on the one thing you do better than your competitors. Perfect it, call attention to it and make it “your thing.” When your customers routinely travel past your competitors to get to your business, you have a brand that people are seeking.

4. Realize that challenges are the times in which you learn

Most of us have hit low spots or been overcome with failures that at the time didn’t seem like they could be overcome. It’s the passion and desire of the true entrepreneur that will get them through the rough times. If you’d asked us in 2019 whether we thought we’d ever go out of business, we’d have answered with a resounding “Not a chance.” Then came COVID. When we were forced to close our Club Tattoo studios, we began to understand the economic impact was going to be severe and we needed to formulate a strategy to survive.

Receiving PPP funding from the government was pivotal and enabled us to keep our staff on payroll. We knew from past experience that we had to trust our instincts. We used most of our savings to remodel our studios to make a better and safer work environment. We kept our company’s mission of creating an atmosphere that made people feel safe and comfortable in mind, while focusing on our core concepts: art and expression.

It’s those rough times and failures that are the driving forces that cause successful entrepreneurs to rise above and, over time, become great success stories.

Sean Dowdell is known as the Tattooed Millionaire, which is also the title of his first book (2017). In addition to his role as founder and CEO of Club Tattoo, he is a drummer with Grey Daze. He is a frequent speaker to a variety of audiences and has been featured in Entrepreneur, GQ, Billboard, and on CNBC, A&E and more. Thora Dowdell was formerly in marketing and sales before becoming a business partner with Sean, initially in the music recording industry and later in Club Tattoo. Thora is passionate about empowering women business owners through her story. Together, the husband-wife team have authored the new book, Brand Renegades: Our Fearless Path from Startup to Global Brand (Entrepreneur Press, May 25, 2021). Learn more at www.clubtattoo.com.

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
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Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

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micro financial habits
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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

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