Are you an established entrepreneur looking to scale up your operation? Well, there are several lesser-known secrets to making it big time as an entrepreneur (seven, to be exact) that we’ll share with you. These range from exploiting your existing skill set to outsourcing the basics. When combined, these seven secrets will help you to extend your wealth creation and business portfolio.

Learning How to Spread Risk

The truth is, no matter how secure you might feel in your comfortable bubble of built success — you are never truly safe. Concentrating solely on one business venture can lead you to be vulnerable to external change, meaning that all of your hard work and investment could dwindle in an instant.

Having a diverse business portfolio means that you can rely on a separate prospering business if another venture isn’t going so well.

There are multiple key benefits of owning more than one business, which include:

• A diverse network of contacts in different fields and sectors –Owning more than one enterprise means you are not limited to the contacts you’ve made so far in your business journey. Building a rich and diverse network means your bank of opportunities will never dry up.
• The ability to spread your risk and investment in different markets – Business is unpredictable — external forces like employment rates and new technologies can change the way your customers behave. Be prepared for the worst by having other enterprises to fall back on.
• More practice makes perfect — setting up shop will become second nature – Sure, taking on several businesses might seem daunting, but the more times you practice the process, the easier it will become. Before you know it, you will be considered a top-class consultant who can give words of wisdom to startups.

Here are the seven secrets that a successful entrepreneur uses to effectively juggle their diverse enterprise portfolio:

1. Possessing Key Interpersonal Skills

In addition to money management and essential leadership qualities, there are key skills that an entrepreneur must have to make a venture work from the start. However, in terms of personal development, you must step up to yet another level. This enhanced level of development is all about time management.

When managing a new business opportunity, you’ll often have to fit in double the workload in the same amount of time. Some entrepreneurs use time blocking, while others outsource all of the basic tasks to give them the time they need to perform the most important tasks.

2. Getting into a Mastery Mindset

Mastery doesn’t just happen — it requires a lot of hard work. Becoming a master is a conscious decision and, as such, it requires a shift to a specific mindset. For this, you don’t have to always look at business leaders for motivation — look at political figures or famous athletes who are classed as masters in their respective fields.

For a quick review of the topic, we have compiled together three key mindset shifts that will grow your business.

3. Leveraging the Power of Learning

If you want to take on a new project, you will have to admit that you don’t know everything there is to know to hit the ground running. This doesn’t mean your potential success has already sunk into oblivion — it means that you’re going through a period of change.

To continually reach new heights in your career, the secret is to leverage the power of learning. There are many free resources you can take advantage of, such as blogs, ebooks, podcasts, and webinars. In fact, you don’t even need the internet to get started. One of the best ways to learn is to assess your previous failures and evaluate why they didn’t work out.

“Change is the end result of all true learning.” – Leo Buscaglia

4. Accepting a Helping Hand

It makes logical sense to cut your workload to make space for other projects. You can do this by outsourcing freelancers or investing in virtual systems and automation. If opting to do this, it’s important to make sure you have a clear plan and maintain consistent communication so that you’re always on the same page as others.

5. Carefully Crafting Your Communication

As the owner of several enterprises, you will need to communicate all of the time, so learn how to do it well. On a personal basis, practicing effective communication can transform your level of influence. Have you ever walked into a room and felt the dominant presence of a leader? This type of quality communication is essential to appear as a legitimate figurehead.

Externally, you should use tried-and-tested tools to create foolproof ways your customers can communicate with you. Whether you use a virtual phone system or employ somebody to monitor social media engagement, your customer retention rate will benefit.

6. Creating a Roadmap for a Long-Term Viewpoint

You may not have had a thought-out strategy, roadmap or action plan in front of you from the beginning, but this level of planning is crucial when you have several enterprises on the go.

A roadmap of the next few weeks, twelve months or five years will quickly become a useful and highly referenced tool in your organization. This resource should be available to every member of staff or external freelancer to make sure they are carrying out their part of the master plan correctly.

“Don’t expect people to understand your grind when God didn’t give them your vision.” – Anonymous

7. Setting Your Priorities Straight

The final secret is all about setting your priorities straight. Think of it as a one-to-one therapy session with yourself where you ask questions like “what’s my key motivation?”

The fundamental way to succeed in entrepreneurship is to do meaningful work. Figure out what your end goal is and what will make you feel fulfilled — your business plan(s) should be built around this to ensure you don’t burn out after a few years.

Surviving in business is all about finding the balance between stepping outside of your comfort zone and reveling in it. Here is where you will find sustained motivation and passion, along with challenges  to continue expanding your potential and building long-term success.

Which one of these seven entrepreneur secrets resonated most with you and why? Share your thoughts below!