There is nothing like a great success story about starting from humble beginnings to grow and become a global brand. Growing from a blue-collar business doesn’t often happen instantly. It often requires finding your niche, a lot of hard work and a strong conviction to succeed.
A new infographic from Housecall Pro looks at how some blue-collar workers struck it rich and shares some of their advice which was responsible for their success. Titled, “The Best Leadership Advice From Blue Collar Entrepreneurs” there are 11 lessons in the infographic.
Blue-collar jobs typically entail workers performing physical labor in the workplace. The jobs include occupations in construction, manufacturing, plumbing, mining, sanitation and others. This classification gets its moniker from the type of clothing that was typically worn by workers in these positions. Many blue-collar workers wear denim for its durability to help them perform their jobs. Historically, this class of workers was synonymous with highly-skilled trade jobs.
So what are the lessons from these successful blue-collar entrepreneurs?
Lessons from Blue Collar Millionaires
Have a Clear Vision
Henry Ford had a vision where he wanted to make a car for the masses. A vision is a vivid image of what you want your business to be at some point in the future. This is based on your company’s goals and aspirations. Having a vision will give your business a clear focus, and can stop you from heading in the wrong direction.
Adopt Good Company Values
Good company values can go a long way towards building customer loyalty. Your company is as great as your employees. Instilling quality values in your workers will help your employees in their decision making and actions. Nike’s company values have allowed them to reach the peaks they enjoy today. They include ‘The consumer decides’, ‘it is our nature to innovate’, and ‘Remember the man’ according to Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, .
Start Small
Starting small because success and survival in the business arena always favors the agile over the cumbersome, the small over the big. Small does work and thanks to increasing technological advances — you no longer have to be big to appear big. The bottom line is you can be small and still compete.
Don’t Stress about Having a New Idea
Many small-business owners succeed in businesses that are hardly unique or innovative. Most small-business owners look into their niches because they love the product or service they provide. Several small business tales are of founders who cared so deeply about their product or service that they made it their mission.
Take an inventory of your skills, interests, and employment history to select the business best suited to you. Choosing a niche that you can be passionate about will also help improve your chances of succeeding.
Set Goals that Works
Businesses need to set goals if they want to reach there. Never set goals without first planning how to reach them. Wanting to increase sales by 25% isn’t enough, you must have a game plan on how to do so.
Changing goals midstream is okay -for the right reasons. The success of a small business is in part due to being able to make changes faster than its larger competitors.
The two biggest mistakes when setting goals are when they aren’t measurable and do not include specific time frames for the goals.
Understand Your Customers
No matter how busy you are, be sure to spend time to understand your customers. You can’t make the right business decisions without understanding the customer’s viewpoint. The best way to satisfy your customers is not by selling them products but by providing solutions to their problems. You will need to understand the difference in order to succeed.
Keep Learning
Really successful business owners come with an insatiable appetite to learn. As businesses change and grow business owners need to grow and change with it. What sets Bill Gates and Steven Jobs apart from others is that they continue to learn about their business. People who effectively make things work for their customers and for their business do so by learning how to improve the systems.
Take a look at the infographic below to see more lessons from blue-collar millionaires..
Image: Depositphotos.com