How Do You Define Success as an Entrepreneur?

Do your research to make sure your brand is propelling in the right direction.

After a very busy few months running my corporate video production company, I thought a lot about my business, my employees, and my traits as a leader. For the first time in five years as CEO, I asked myself, “Am I successful?” I thought about where my company is now compared to where it was when I started. Our employee count has tripled, sales have increased every year, our quality of work has improved significantly, and our brand presence has become notable in our industry. But this only brought me to the question, “What now?”

Success is loosely defined. There is always work you can do to become more successful. Here are a few steps you could be taking to bring your company to greatness.

Explore New Markets

While you may be successful in your target market, you should be thinking bigger. Think outside traditional markets and see if it makes sense for you and your team to be reaching those.

For example, we saw a potential business opportunity in producing videos for finance companies. To complement and highlight our expertise in the financial industry (and our already established portfolio of finance-related video content) we created a subsidiary company focusing solely on finance-related video production. Let prospects and clients know they are working with experts in their field.

Update Your Website

Your website may be your most important marketing asset. Having a poor website could mean a lot of missed business opportunities since it’s the first place people go to learn about what you do. Update your website at least once every six months. Stay up-to-date on keywords and SEO trends, while making weekly adjustments where you see fit.

We researched the best ways we could improve our site, which included using Google Analytics, A/B testing, focus groups, and analyzing all our traffic. We looked at how people were engaging with our site, and how we could keep them on our site longer and convert them to clients. We believe our new design will decrease our bounce rate and get more people to send inquiries, resulting in better conversion rates.

Improve Workflow

Even if nothing is broken, you should never shy away from looking for new ways to improve your workflow. Try software like Asana or Slack to get organized, and see what works best for you and your team.

We invested in organizational software for the whole company to stay on top of every project, and saw an increase in productivity almost immediately.

Invest in People

With all the growth your company may start to see, it’s important to invest in your staff. The key is not hiring people just because you need to fill roles quickly. Take your time in finding someone who fits into the long-term plan of your company.

When it comes to finding new team members, we really do our research and utilize online resources find the right person for the job. As we continue to grow our brand and reach new heights, we’ve invested in people who can help tackle all the big changes.

It wasn’t until I asked myself if I was successful that I was able to realize all the great things our company could still accomplish. My business has broken free from the status quo, and we now see potential in areas we hadn’t yet journeyed to before. As an entrepreneur and a leader, I believe this mindset is essential to bringing continued success to your company.