8 Things you need to know if you're going to succeed as an entrepreneur

It's a great time of year to re-evalute your career and to start thinking about whether being your own boss will give you more job satisfaction and, ultimately, life satisfaction.

We asked Roberta Lucca, a leading female entrepreneur in the tech sector, to give us her top tips for business success. 1. Be truly determined. As an entrepreneur, you face adversity and feel lonely quite often. That’s the price you pay. You may feel there are more tough situations holding you back than pushing you forward. Don’t take this personally. We go through this every day. Enjoy the challenge and stay determined to succeed.

2. Act like a sponge. Observe, listen, learn. Stay aware and awake. Inspirations and insights for decision-making or product features come from everywhere, places you visit, films you watch, family conversations, an experience you had on the tube this morning.

3. Stay focused and positive. Whatever happens while you're building your start-up, product and team, you need to keep two thoughts in your mind: 'I believe I can change the world for the better; and I will make it happen.' 4. Create a culture, a movement. Start with a motto. It can be a very simple set of five beliefs you live for. Find ways to repeat these to your team and yourself every week. Publish on your website. Make sure every employee you hire absolutely fits your set of beliefs. Your shared beliefs hold you and your team together when tough times come. 5. Design flow and allow serendipity. Surround yourself with people who love what they do. They are the ones who grow as your business grows, because they are truly connected to themselves. Stay away from people who can’t take initiative or over-analyse everything, they typically struggle in a start-up environment. 6. Be open to change and honest with yourself. If your product or business is not succeeding as you set out to do, change it. Seek out the strengths of your team and build something new around that. Move on timely so your company doesn’t die with your product.

7. Be kind to everyone that crosses your path. Magic happens. Firstly, because kindness generates kindness. You’re creating a better world around you. You’re helping people practice altruism. Secondly, these people could be the ones who will return your kindness at the right time and place in the future.

8. Love your customers. Your massive hard work to make your start-up fly comes back to you as an incredible reward if you do so. Admire your customers’ lifestyle, and take pleasure interacting with them, delight them, understand why they buy your product, and what impact your product or business has on their lives. Roberta Lucca is the co-founder of Bossa Studios. Roberta is also a champion for The Sirius Programme, a pioneering scheme run by UKTI to bring the world’s best entrepreneurial talent to the UK. For further information about how to apply, please visit siriusprogramme.com

For more career advice and inspiration, check out the MC@Work section

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