Starting a business can be tough. Staying in business can be tougher. There are thousands of reasons why businesses fail, but there are three things you need to focus on that will help you start one and stay in business. This article will discuss what they are, how they work, and how to get started with them today.

1. Learn to sell

Learning how to sell is one of the most valuable skills you can develop and master. If you can learn how to sell, you’ll never be without a job or money. You will always be able to make money because selling is one of the few things that people are constantly buying from others.

• Learn to Sell. Whether you are selling your products, your services or yourself, the ability to sell is one of the most important skills in business. It helps you stand out from other businesses and can help you make money quickly.
• Sell Yourself: Selling yourself is key for any entrepreneur looking for success. You have to be able to sell people on why they should buy from you and why they should do business with your company instead of another competitor’s company. It doesn’t matter how great the product is if nobody knows about it so it’s important that when someone asks “Why should I buy from YOU?” You have an answer ready immediately!
• Seek more understanding and spot opportunities: Understand what makes humans tick so as not only what they need but also why they need it (e.g., there could be an opportunity here because some people don’t like eating vegetables).
• Learn how to pitch: You need to be able to pitch your products or services in ways that make people want them. This will come with experience, practice, and insight.

2. Understand your numbers

Your numbers are the key to your business, otherwise, you won’t know if you’re making money or not. If you don’t know this information and haven’t been keeping track of it, then you need to start doing so immediately.

Start recording down everything if you have to. Maybe even just a simple notebook will work for now. I know writing down in a notebook works better for me. For others, it’s digitally.

But you need to understand your numbers. It’s essential for you to know if you’re making money, and whether or not you need to make any changes in your business model.

The 3 things I want you to focus on are:

• Your costs (the amount it costs to run your business)
• Your revenue (the amount of money that comes in)
• Profit (the difference between revenue and cost)

Quick Takeaways:

• Understand your numbers. If you’re like most business owners, you have a lot of money going into your business and a lot of money coming out. It can be difficult to understand what’s happening with all these numbers—and even more so if you don’t know where to find them or how to interpret them correctly.
• Know your costs. The best way to make sure that you’re running an efficient operation is by knowing exactly what it costs you (and the value of each cost) at every step along the way. For example:
• Know your revenue. Tracking revenue helps ensure that customers are paying their bills on time and provides important information about whether clients are satisfied with their services or products so that other adjustments can be made as necessary for future success.
• Allowable cost. Knowing what you should be paying for. Knowing your allowable costs will help you keep expenses under control. Know what kind of overhead cost you can expect. How much does it cost you to get a client or customer to buy from you? There are 4 ways allowable costs will help you:

1. Know when an investment opportunity makes sense; and when it doesn’t.
2. Make sure that there are enough sales being generated by the marketing efforts and activities.
3. Decide if it’s time to raise prices or not.
4. Determine if something needs to change before profitability gets worse as opposed to waiting until profits are already bad before making changes (this could result in unnecessary losses).

3. Control your time

If you want to start and run a successful business, the first step is to gain control of your time.

The biggest mistake that many people make is they try to do too much in a day, and they end up not getting anything done. The solution is simple: focus on what you need to do, not what you want to do.

Use the 80/20 principle in business

The 80/20 principle states that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your activity. It’s important to focus on those activities that produce favorable results, not just those you enjoy doing. For example, if you’re a personal trainer who wants to make more money, maybe it’s time to spend less time teaching classes and more time promoting yourself through social media and blogging.

Time is the most valuable asset you have. You can’t make more of it, and you don’t want to waste what little time you have left here on Earth.

So how do you use your time effectively? First, work on your business, not in it. The 80/20 principle says that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. This means that if you want to be productive, focus on what matters most – not everything at once!

There are only 168 hours in a week – don’t waste any of them by working on things that don’t matter or taking breaks when there’s work left undone.

By Understanding these 3 areas you will make more money…

• Understand your numbers
• Learn to sell
• Control your time

So that’s it. Pretty simple, huh?

If you want to make more money, learn how to sell, understand your numbers and get control of your time. The best part? These are skills you can have for life. They’ll help you in personal areas as well as business ones!