7 Things I WISH I KNEW Before Starting A Business

Are you a Muslim entrepreneur who is just starting their own business? In this article, I want to share with you my seven best pieces of advice that I wish I knew when starting off, that I would give to myself, and today I want to give them to you so that you can avoid making the mistakes that I made when starting growing your business and hopefully achieve success much faster.

Advice #1: Always Start With “Why”

This is a concept that’s been popularized by Simon Sinek and I found it extremely valuable in helping me grow my business efficiently and successfully, and the reason is, as I first started

working on my business and I decided that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and build an online business, I started to face a lot of challenges, and of course, in the beginning, I was just doing it for the money, I just thought that I wanted some financial freedom.

I wanted to be able to make an income outside of a 9-to-5 job, but that only kept me going for so long before I started to feel like I wanted to give up, I didn’t want to keep going because it was getting hard.

Building a business is tough and challenging, there’s going to be a lot of obstacles on the way and it’s only when I truly took the time to sit down and figure out :

  • Why am I doing this?
  • What is the reason that I want to build this business?
  • What am I trying to bring into the world?
  • What kind of change and impact am I trying to have? 

It’s only when I figured that out, that I really had a powerful purpose and a powerful reason to keep marching forward and to overcome these obstacles and the challenges that I was facing so I could ultimately reach my goals.

Advice #2: Go All In

I meet so many entrepreneurs that are half-heartedly working on their business, they only work on it for an hour or two every week and then they wonder why they’re not achieving much success.

I was the same when I started off, I thought to myself:

“All I need to do is think about a few ideas and maybe work on my business for an hour or two and that would be enough to build a successful business that would allow me to quit my job and get enough income to do the things that I want to do in life”

But I quickly realized that this is really not the case, you have to go ALL in, you have to commit and you have to really put in your best, your 110%, if you want to get 110% out of your business, you got to put all of your effort to get all of the results.

So it’s important that if you’re going to start to be committed then don’t waste time in that place where you’re kind of floating in the sea of Indecision and you don’t know if you want to go right or left.

Make a decision and go all in and follow that path and trek forward and give it your 100%

Advice #3: Fail Fast & Fail Forward

A lot of people are afraid of failure and I was too when I first started my business.

I started as a digital marketer offering marketing services to local businesses, and every time I would talk to a potential client on the phone and they’d tell me “sorry I’m not interested” I saw that as a failure and the problem is, I actually felt like a failure and it’s only when I realized that failure is part of the process and that there’s really no such thing as a failure but only a lesson learned 

I want you to think about something that Elon Musk shared that really stuck with me and he said

“When you win you celebrate, but when you fail you ponder and you learn, so which one is better?”

Do you grow when you celebrate or do you grow when you ponder and learn?

So look at failure as an opportunity for growth and look at it as an opportunity to realize and pinpoint what are the things that you might be doing wrong and what should you be adjusting in your business

Advice #4: Seek Discomfort

I want you to go out there and put yourself in uncomfortable situations.

When I was first building my business I wanted to do that while remaining in my comfort zone and I didn’t want to do things that I wasn’t comfortable with.

Things like getting on sales calls with strangers, reaching out to potential clients and putting myself out there, sending those emails, booking those calls, and meeting these new people that I had to meet.

I am naturally an introvert and I felt very anxious and I really just wished that I could remain in my comfort zone and stay at home and do my work on my computer and not have to talk to anyone.

But I quickly realized that it’s only through discomfort through the things that I don’t want to do that I’m able to grow my business, and so it’s important to realize if a situation makes you uncomfortable but you know that it’s good for your business then you should actively and purposefully pursue it because that’s an opportunity for growth, so actively seek discomfort.

Advice #5: Trust In Allah ﷻ

When I was first starting my business I was relying on myself. I was really counting on myself to succeed. I had this belief that all the results that I got out of my work in my business were directly based on the work and effort that I put in and the actions that I took.

While this is true, as Muslims we have to remember that Allah ﷻ  is in control of the outcome and the only thing that we are in control of is the effort that we put in and so you want to remember put 100% of your effort and then rely on Allah ﷻ, trust in him to grant you the result that you’re looking for and remember that God teaches us 


“I am as my servant thinks of me”


So it’s important to remain optimistic and have that positive belief in Allah ﷻ to grant you what you seek, to have that positive mindset, that positive relationship with your lord that allows you to be optimistic about the results that you get from your business and that’s going to make a dramatic shift in your business just like it did for mine.

Advice #6: Work On Yourself

To be an efficient and effective CEO you have to work on yourself.

When I was starting off I realized that I was lacking many skills that were essential to my success, skills like being good at sales, or being good at designing a website, or being good at creating an offer that my clients would want to pay for, these are things that you will develop over time and it’s important to realize and pinpoint what is it that you need to work on, what kind of knowledge and skills do you need to acquire to reach the next level of your business.

Then you want to go and laser focus on these and acquire them whether it’s through the form of courses mentorship guidance or any other vehicle the important part is you want to go and focus on what is it that you need to learn how can you grow your own self and grow your business

Advice #7: Get Guidance 

A lot of times we want to start a business on our own and that’s completely okay, I mean, I started on my own as well, but when I was first starting off for the first five months I was spinning my wheels and I had absolutely zero dollars in sales that means I had zero dollars in income.

So for five months of working on my business day and night, I didn’t see a penny earned, and it’s only when I got fed up and decided that I’m going to go out there and find myself a mentor and get the proper guidance to achieve the success that I want to achieve, to build the business I want to build.

It’s only then that I was able to find success, and really, the easiest and best way to achieve a goal to get a certain result is to go and find someone else who’s achieved that goal and get their guidance, help, and mentorship.

So if you’re someone for example who wants to become an author, maybe you’re gonna go and reach out to other authors that have done that before, that are accessible to you, or that you could possibly email and you want to see if they would be open to helping or mentoring you so that you can do the same insha’Allah.

So this completes my seven pieces of advice for Muslim entrepreneurs that are just starting off and starting growing their businesses and seven tips that I wish I knew when I was starting and that could have saved me months of hard work and effort.

If you want more training on growing your business and you want to understand what steps you should take, the path that you need to follow then make sure to check this free webinar where I share with you the steps that I followed to grow my own halal online business to six figures and how you can too insha’Allah

For Professional Muslim

If you’re a professional Muslim who wants to build a 6-figure halal online business that gives you freedom, income, & impact, then watch this free masterclass 👇.

 

Written by Abby El-Asmar

Abby is a business & marketing consultant – and the founder of Ummahpreneur. His passion is to nurture a new generation of Muslim entrepreneurs that will impact the world in a positive way while uplifting the Ummah!

April 27, 2021

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