Do You Want to Be Successful? How Building the Right Skills Can Turn Your Passion Into Success…

If passion were enough, then nearly every business would be successful.  Yet, somehow the failure rates of businesses in the United States fall somewhere between 50% and 90%, depending on who you ask.

You can be fairly certain that there are passionate people behind 99.9% of businesses out there. Unfortunately, passion alone is not enough to truly be successful.

In order to turn passion into profit, there are other necessary skills to help ensure a greater chance to be more successful in whatever your field.

First and foremost, you need to be organized.  The number one enemy of success is disorganization.  Any business (or any household for that matter) can’t function efficiently in chaos and clutter.  Thus, so much productivity is lost through disorganization.

Therefore, it is absolutely essential to be organized to get the results you desire and be successful.

A 2013 survey by market research firm Brother estimated that the cost of disorganization to US companies is $177 billion annually. When you combine the time spent searching for misplaced items in the office with the time spent searching for lost files on the computer, $177 billion is the value of the productivity lost.

Furthermore, you should have at least basic accounting and financial skills.

Having the mindset of allowing your CPA or your financial consultant ‘handle everything’ is just a bad idea – plain and simple.

There have been countless horror stories of seemingly trustworthy people taking full advantage of a client. Usually, this happens due to their lack of knowledge of lack of involvement in financial issues.  Oh, and there is also the dreaded IRS.  In 2012, the audit rate for individuals in the US was 1%. Whereas the audit rate for a small business earning $1 million or more was a whopping 12.1%.

Next, your business has to have a strategy and an ability in terms of sales.

For a business to be able to get off the ground and be successful, revenue generation is clearly near the top of the list in terms of necessities.

There are many components within sales that must be covered to help maximize your profit. These include lead generation, conversion, growth, retention.

Likewise, as a corollary to sales, you must be able to properly market your product or service.

If nobody knows that your product or service exists, how can you expect to convert sales?

Furthermore, in today’s economy, it is imperative to have a strong social media presence.  Nowadays, people are constantly connected through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. Thus, to compete effectively, you need to know where your customers hang out and how you can strategically connect with them.

The passion is there, but what else can you do to bolster your chances of having a successful business, or better yet, massively successful business?  How can you improve your skills and your knowledge?

Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of five children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.