11 Changes Entrepreneurs Should Make to Gain Long-Lasting Success

By YEC, FORBES

Today’s business world is changing at a rapid pace. To be successful, you need to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to incorporating new and exciting opportunities and ideas into your business venture.

To develop your organization, you need to do your research on strategies and tactics used by successful groups in your field, as well as network, both via social media and in person. You need to recruit strong talents, something

that's remarkably tricky at times, as well as establish a transparent business approach.

While these methods help, they're not the only things to keep in mind. Below, 11 members of Young Entrepreneur Council talk about the approaches entrepreneurs need to consider in order to achieve long-lasting success in the modern business world. Here is what they recommend you focus on:

1. Education

Entrepreneurs must quickly scale the startup learning curve and stay current on the best strategies and tactics used by the most successful founders. If you wanted to start a company 10 years ago, it was difficult to find out where to start and how to develop an idea or business model. Now, experts have created tons of free education content for you to leverage. - Kyle Stoner, Abode Technologies, Inc.

2. A Strong Personal Brand

Entrepreneurs need to be building a personal brand to establish thought leadership and display subject matter expertise in their respective marketplace. There is no better marketing strategy you could utilize than being a trusted advisor to your ideal customers by educating them about how your product or service can provide their organizations with a competitive advantage. - Samuel Thimothy, OneIMS

3. Transparency and Intuitive Service

Business feels more human nowadays. It's not as "behind closed doors" as it used to be. Now, we have more transparency and opportunity for personal connections, which is a great thing. Companies that adopt the idea of being transparent and provide their customers what they need, before they even need it in our 24/7 world, will succeed. - Brandon Pindulic, OpGen Media

4. Conviction in Your Vision

It is important to have conviction in your vision and in how you believe your business should look. There is a fine line between taking advice from mentors, and completely bending over backwards to satisfy people who think they know your business better than you do — and it's difficult to stand up for your own vision when you speak with people who are "older, wiser and with more industry experience." - Christy Ai, Autodidactic I LLC

5. Networking Via Social Media

Entrepreneurs need to learn how to network through their social networks so that they can amplify their ability to promote things, ask for help, and get empowering introductions that can help their business thrive. - Gregory Gopman, Photon Network

6. Networking With Peer Groups

Networking with your peer groups, not just those that have already made it to the next level, is crucial. Networking and reaching up is important, but reaching sideways is just as important because you enter as a "class" of entrepreneurs working to build your practice. - Martin Ekechukwu, WHTWRKS Inc.

7. Effective Recruiting Strategies

Founders are often surprised by how much time is spent, and wasted, on recruiting. It sounds simple, but finding good people is hard, and hiring the wrong people can be crippling. The challenges in recruiting are multifaceted, and there is no panacea. Still, history shows that bringing in outside help to source candidates, and build a systematized, skill-based evaluation program, has a strong ROI. - Giles Ochs, Prospect Bio, Inc.

8. Customer Acquisition

One of the most important keys to success for entrepreneurs has always been customer acquisition. In the past, customer acquisition usually revolved around a handful of sources. Today, customers stumble upon your brand from an unimaginable number of paths. It's more important than ever to ask customers how they found you. Otherwise, you'll hemorrhage time, money and talent on the wrong sources. - Christopher Tedder, Clinger Holsters

9. Human Connection

In this modern social world we live in, it is important as a business owner to connect with people on an individual basis, regularly. With so much attention on the external — branding, social media, press and marketing — it's easy to lose sight of what keeps your business going: The people who support you. - Jessica Rosen, One Down Dog, LLC

10. The Mentality of a Leader

The shift in business — from strict, corporate focused to flexible, employee focused — is a positive shift, but in order to achieve success, entrepreneurs need to have a big-picture view of company goals and a detail-oriented focus on employees: the abundant leader mentality. Don't micromanage, but instead give credit, extend trust, engage and meet unspoken needs. - Sasha Rowe, Rivvly

11. Identifying Ways to Reduce Risk

A friend once shared some advice years ago that stuck with me. While discussing risk and pursuing my dreams he said, "you will never know till you try." Taking the first step is important for sure, but reducing that risk is even more important. He was one of my mentors and didn't realize that he was how I was reducing my risk. Find successful mentors that you trust to reduce your risk today. - Charles Nick, Third Wave Water

Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invitation-only, fee-based organization comprised of the world's most successful entrepreneurs 40 and younger. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year and have created tens of thousands of jobs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program.