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Entrepreneurs are nothing if not inspirational. It’s not easy to say that you’re going to create something out of nothing, even the attempt at trying is worthy of respect. However, it’s also true that while entrepreneurs and business leaders are inspirational, they are competitive by nature, for obvious and necessary reasons.
For this reason, entrepreneurs must fortify themselves against bad deals, false promises, and unhelpful situations in order to make sure their plans suffer the least amount of setbacks. This requires a combination of learning how to present yourself, of being discerning in all of your interactions, on applying and enforcing your standards, and in remaining thoroughly consistent throughout your decision-making.
In fact, it’s those four methodologies that we hope to consider in this article, and aid you in applying them to your everyday planning. Furthermore, we hope that this advice is just universal enough to be applied to anyone, no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey. With that in mind, let’s consider some of the following advice:
Work On Your Professional Candor
It may seem that ‘work on yourself to avoid being taken advantage of’ is something of a hollow, presumptive, and even insulting tip, as if you would deserve that kind of treatment if you were lacking in confidence. Let’s dispel that impression right now, because you’d be right in thinking that way if this point was being made.
It’s true that in business, you will meet all kinds of characters. Some of them will be good, some of them not so reliable or trustworthy. It’s important that you project an image of confidence, of sharpness, of dependability and of being able to uncover deception where necessary. This means keeping your posture well-aligned, and dressing well (but not necessarily in an expensive fashion), of standing behind your vision, and of ensuring everyone you deal with is accountable, including yourself.
This way, you can help dispel those who might see you as a naive entrepreneur willing to do anything. It will help you avoid shoddy business deals without looking through them to the letter. It will allow you to more easily enforce discipline and respect in the relationships you curate, even if that means outsourcing part of your startup to another firm. Working on your professional candor leads to self-respect, which allows you to more easily assess treatment in terms of how helpful it may be. In that respect, you’ll be better off.
Read Through The Contracts
Make sure you read through every contract you find. This can take some time of course (which is why most people don’t do it), but as an individual entity, you don’t have the luxury of agreeing to terms you haven’t reviewed.
Anything as simple as integrating a business management suite for your personal email, to setting up a virtual address, all of this can be helped if you focus on reading through each proposal to the letter, allowing you to understand the ramifications of such a dealing. And, if it’s not suitable, you can simply go elsewhere.
Understand Terms & Practice Skepticism
It’s important to know your jargon to avoid it getting the best of you. This might sound condescending, but you can be supremely intelligent and still struggle to understand the various terms, identifiers, and the consequences of such when reading through legal definitions. For instance, understanding what under contract really means in real estate can help you more adequately make a more prescient and worthwhile approach.
Furthermore, it’s important to practice skepticism. If a deal looks too good to be true, it usually is, as they say. Understanding that can help you avoid those who might try and sell you on their partnership without offering an equal balance of credit, or it can help you avoid presenting your own ambitious deals in this way. Skepticism is healthy in business, it’s the cornerstone of coming to your own conclusions, and ultimately, applying your own vision.
Keep Your Cards Close To Your Chest
Unfortunately, even in the entrepreneurial circuit, intellectual property theft, criminal activity and people trying to take advantage of one another by overriding value can happen. You need only look at the founding story of Facebook to see a tale like that in its full form.
For this reason, keeping your cards close to your chest, and applying for the right legal protections (such as a product patent) can be essential. In this way, you protect yourself and your ideas, which are what nourish you as an entrepreneur.
With this advice, we hope you can avoid being taken advantage of in business, and instead have more to focus on your success.
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