Muawad founded seven different companies - enough to impress the most active serial entrepreneurs. He is currently the CEO of Taskworld, an online collaboration platform, and also helps manage his family's 125-year-old jewelry business.
Here are 10 steps that, in his opinion, every successful entrepreneur should take and know.
1. Reevaluate Values
“Your startup is the embodiment of your beliefs,” Muawad explains. Therefore, before you open the doors of your business, spend some time thinking about these beliefs, your hobbies, your intentions for a new company and how your ideal company will look.
At the same time, look honestly at your weaknesses and - paradoxically as it sounds - try to find your own blind spots. If you want to build a successful business, it is much more important to know what your weakness is and what you need.
2. Choose the right type of business
You will have to devote a huge part of your waking time to your business if you want it to be successful. You will also have to think about it forever - there will be times when you just want to be distracted and do something else. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the work you started is in good agreement with both your values and the way you would like to spend your time.
Consider not only the business itself, but also the characteristics of the industry you choose. Some industries require you to be formal and understand traditions. Some of them depend on your ability to form customer relationships. Others are changing so fast that you have to constantly adapt to progress. In some industries, everyone is cordial and friendly, while in others, hard talk is the norm. Consider whether all aspects of the business are right for you.
Finally, your business should provide a return on investment, and work for you. Carefully evaluate the financial indicators - how much you earn and how things are going with other companies in this sector - before making a decision.
3. Find out how much money you need
“Many businesses make optimistic financial assumptions before starting their business,” warns Muawad. This is a mistake that can ruin your business. The key point here is to ask yourself: “What problems might arise?” And then try to imagine the scenario even worse. How much money does it take to stay in business, under any circumstances?
4. Hire the right people
“Business is like sport: usually the best team wins,” says Muawad. So make sure you have the best team you can have. Spend a lot of time hiring, get to know the people who will work with you, and make sure that they are well suited to your company in terms of personalities and their actual work skills. And as soon as you have a suitable team, you need to provide them with suitable conditions and the opportunity to grow careerly.
5. Create a culture of victory
We all talk about culture and stick to it, but Muawad says that most entrepreneurs do not pay enough attention to this important issue. “Culture is a living organism that requires constant monitoring and development,” he says.“Once you come to this, you can inspire and motivate your team to achieve goals that might initially seem impossible.”
6. Learn to empathize
Today, both qualified employees and customers have a wider range of capabilities than ever before. So Muawad says that if you want your business to survive, it is important to learn to look at things from the perspective of others.
“Understand the world as it is, not as you would like it to be,” says Muawad. “Each entrepreneur offers solutions to an existing problem or need. The ability to empathize with others not only makes you a better person, but also makes you better in business. ”
7. Find the main benefits of your business.
Spend some time thinking about what success really looks like for your business and what you need to adhere to in order to truly succeed. Then create a strategy that focuses on these elements. This is much better than using every opportunity that appears.
8. Use incentives
Incentives are effective ways to promote desired behavior from all stakeholders, from employees to customers and suppliers. After you have completed step 7 and know exactly what are the key points of your enterprise, you can use this information to structure incentives that will help improve these specific areas. Then track the performance of these indicators to see if your incentives give the desired effect, and if not, adjust if necessary.
9. Experiment with changes
Every industry and every business is faced with constant changes, and you will need to constantly change if you want sustainable success.
Muawad recommends making small changes and using new programs to try out new ideas. Then evaluate the results of your experiment to see if it had the predicted effect, and make adjustments if it is not.
10. Keep an eye on the future
Managing a successful company is an everyday task. It is very easy to lose sight of the long term, so make sure you have the time and the knowledge to think about where your business is heading. “Record how you progress and deal with the challenges you face,” Muawad suggests. “Create an advisory board to create an additional external perspective.”
Muawad also recommends considering your exit strategy as a seven-time entrepreneur; this is probably always the main thing for him. “Do you plan to sell the company, pass it on to the next generation, or enter the market?” He asks. Thinking about exit options “makes you evaluate your company and figure out how to increase its value,” he says.