Dave Ramsey Says This Is the Key to Business Success. Is He Right?

Current and potential entrepreneurs should read this Dave Ramsey advice.

Running your own small business can be lucrative and rewarding. But it can also be a risky proposition because there is no guarantee of success and your future is entirely in your own hands.

If you are running a company already or are thinking about starting one, finance expert Dave Ramsey has one crucial piece of advice that he believes could be the key to making your company a success.

This is the key to any successful business

According to Ramsey, the very first step that you should take if you're considering becoming an entrepreneur is to consider one key issue.

"The first question you need to answer is, 'Why am I doing this?'" Ramsey stated. Ramsey says that "knowing their why," is "what separates the owners who make it from the owners who don't."

So, what is your why? It's the reason that you're opening the doors of your company in the first place. And, according to Ramsey, it's also "the engine that'll keep your small business moving forward on days when it gets hard."

As Ramsey explains, around half of all new businesses fail, and even when companies succeed, there are inevitably hard times. But if you know what you are hoping to accomplish, have the right motivations for starting your business, and are committed to making it a success, your business is far more likely to be among the companies that grow and thrive.

Is Ramsey right?

Ramsey is absolutely correct that you need to have a clear goal or objective in mind whether you're starting a business for the first time or are running an established one.

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You need to know:

• Why does your company exist? What needs will it serve, and who will your clients be? The answers to this can serve as the foundation for your business plan and guide you in making all of the choices for your business over time.
• Why do you want to make your living this way? Understanding your own motivations can help you stay on track even when things are difficult. Being an entrepreneur often requires long hours and financial sacrifices at the start, so you need to have the big picture in mind and be able to keep focused on what you're trying to do.

If you don't take the time to think through the reasoning behind your decision to start a business and the justifications for opening the company in the first place, it will be much more challenging for you to move forward in a cohesive way. You can't run a business successfully without a plan, and answering this all-important question is of the utmost importance when you make all those business plans.

So, if you're thinking of starting a company or you have the process of becoming an entrepreneur underway already, take a little bit of time to do some introspection and make sure you know your why. This is advice from Ramsey that you won't regret following.