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What Can We Learn From Mark Zuckerberg?
21 March 2014 | By Catherine Wheatcroft

Whether you love or loath Facebook and whether you like or dislike him as a person, there is no doubting Mark Zuckerberg’s success. He launched Facebook back in 2004 for his fellow Harvard students. Such was its success that it was quickly made available to students at other universities and then finally, to anyone with access to a computer!

Now, it has become the largest social networking site in history with more than 1.23bn monthly active users!

Success

Business owners like us can learn an awful lot from his innovative approaches, consistent actions and strategic mindset to business. How did he create such a hugely successful business, and what can we learn from his story?

Having researched his methods, there are five clear elements of success that we can all take away and benefit from implementing ourselves. Now I am not saying that these insights will make you the next Mark Zuckerberg success story or indeed, that you will enjoy his revenue. But the concepts and mindset that he uses have worked, and you cannot deny that examples such as him provide an invaluable learning experience for us all.

Passion
You have to be passionate about what you do or it will reflect on your results and what you achieve. Mark Zuckerberg has always been passionate about connecting people through technology. Facebook keeps evolving and growing every day and this is fuelled by the company’s passion to make things better and improve on what they already have. When the passion ends, the desire and drive ends with it and this is reflected to the outside world of customers. So be passionate about your product or service; believe in it and so will your customers.

Purpose
You need to know what your purpose is to begin with, what are you trying to achieve, what problems are you looking to solve or what is it that you can do to make the lives of others easier? Once you know your purpose you then need to stay true to it.

It is easy to become distracted or go off in other directions because we feel there might be a better market opportunity elsewhere. But there are opportunities everywhere for YOUR product or service, so stick with it no matter what obstacles might stand in your way.

Facebook’s vision was to ‘make the world more open and connected’ and they have stayed true to this, even though the company has changed and grown over the years.

Process
Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg have passion for what they do, but also put in the hard work required to achieve their success. Estee Lauder once said: “I didn’t get where I am by thinking about it or dreaming it. I got there by doing it.”

If you know what you need to do to make your business a success, know what the overall plan is and how to get there…then just do it. Follow the process, climb over the obstacles and set backs and keep putting the effort in. The results will come!

People
A company is about people, whether that is you as a sole trader or in each and every one of your employees. Every person in a company needs to share the same outlook and have the right skills to contribute towards its success. So look for the right skills, look for the right attitude, look for that spark…whether that is in an employee, partner or supplier.

You as a business owner, want your business to be great, you want your customers to come back to you time and again with more business. Who those customers or potential customers interact with, will influence the outcome. So make sure that every person or supplier you add to your company is really great.

Product
Your product or service should never be finished…what do I mean by that? What I refer to is that you should be always alert to improvement. Be open to reviewing what you are offering, how you offer it, what your customers need and why they need a solution.

Don’t just assume that peoples needs don’t change, because they do and as business owners, we need to be receptive to this.

Thanks to communities such as Facebook and Linked In, it is now easier than ever to gain feedback, insights and knowledge on peoples buying behaviours, needs and wants. There is a receptive audience out there just waiting to provide you with ways to refine your product or improve your service to attract more customers. So get out there and use it…along with your existing customers, of course!

Do you need help making your business more successful? Call me now to arrange a free half hour consultation on 07895 389919.


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