Successful entrepreneurs build wealth through strategic business activities, underpinned by disciplined habits. My Rich Habits Study, which examined 233 millionaires (177 self-made) over five years, reveals the behaviors that drive entrepreneurial success.
This article outlines the top ten business activities that are propelling today’s entrepreneurs to accumulate millions, offering actionable steps for aspiring entrepreneurs.
1. Launching scalable tech startups
Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk built fortunes by launching tech startups with scalable products. Musk’s Tesla revolutionized electric vehicles, scaling through Gigafactory production. In my study, the millionaires who pursue innovative ventures accumulated the most wealth in the shortest amount of time: $7.4 million in wealth in just 12 years.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Identify a tech-driven problem (e.g., renewable energy) and develop a minimum viable product (MVP). Then, pilot, pivot and re-pilot your product until you figure out what works and what doesn’t work.
Related: 67% of Millionaires Do This Every Morning — Do You?
2. Developing innovative consumer products
Sara Blakely created Spanx by designing shapewear to solve a personal pain point, disrupting the fashion industry. In my study, I found that 60% of the Entrepreneur-Dreamer millionaires built their wealth through passion-driven products.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Brainstorm any product that either solves a problem or adds value to the lives of others.
3. Scaling e-commerce platforms
Jeff Bezos grew Amazon by reinvesting profits into logistics and warehousing, dominating online retail. In my study, the entrepreneurs reinvested almost all of their profits back into their businesses.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Start an e-commerce store on Shopify, focusing on a high-demand niche like sustainable goods, and reinvest early profits to scale your business.
Related: Airbnb Is a Social Network Now
4. Forming strategic media partnerships
I learned from my Rich Habits study that successful entrepreneurs devoted a large portion of their time to building “Power Relationships” with influencers and other business partners, who could help them open doors and gain access to working capital in order to grow their businesses.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Partner with content creators or brands to co-develop a media project, like a podcast or YouTube channel, to expand your reach.
5. Creating subscription-based services
Reed Hastings pivoted Netflix to a streaming subscription model, investing in original content like Stranger Things. The wealthy entrepreneurs in my study all shared one common Rich Habits – Pivoting in the face of adversity. Oftentimes, my entrepreneurs would pivot multiple times in an effort to figure out what worked and what didn’t work.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Develop a subscription service (e.g., a fitness app) and test it with a small audience, pivoting along the way, in an effort to refine/improve your business model.
Related: What to Know About the Next Phase of Subscription Services
6. Diversification of business profits
Many of my successful entrepreneurs, once their core business venture began to turn a profit, invested a portion of their business profits into real estate, rental properties or wealth management services.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Once your business turns a profit, invest 20% or more of the profits, every year, into alternative wealth-building investments such as: real estate, equities, side business hustles, annuities, retirement plans or passive-income generating investments.
Related: How to Diversify Income Streams for Long-Term Financial Growth
7. Building digital platforms
Mark Zuckerberg scaled Meta by acquiring synergistic platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Launch a digital platform, like a niche social network or SaaS tool, and commit to regular updates to attract users. Then, reinvest your profits into synergistic businesses to help grow your wealth.
8. Create synergistic businesses
Many of the entrepreneur-millionaires in my Rich Habits Study created offshoot businesses that were separate, stand-alone businesses, related to their core business in some way. This helped these successful entrepreneurs build multiple streams of synergistic business income, which acted like a safety net, protecting their wealth in the event one of the streams became impaired due to economic downturns. In my Rich Habits Study, 84% of entrepreneurs had 3 synergistic income streams, 39% had 4 streams, and 27% reported that they had 5 streams or more.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Start a side hustle that is related to your core business or invest part of your core business profits into startups that are synergistic to your core business.
Related: Sisters’ Savory Side Hustle Averages $7,000 a Month: ‘Reward We Didn’t Feel in a Corporate Job’
9. Launching health and wellness brands
Richard Branson’s Virgin Active gyms capitalized on the fitness trend, per Business Insider. According to my Rich Habits research data, self-made entrepreneurs 95% exercised aerobically 30 minutes or more every day. This helped improve/maximize brain performance by increasing the supply of oxygen to their brain cells and also boosted their energy levels, allowing them to work and focus longer during each day.
Rich Habit Action Tip: With an increasingly health-conscious society, start a wellness brand, like a fitness app or organic product line, targeting health-conscious consumers.
10. Emerging and growing industry segments
In my Rich Habits Study, successful entrepreneurs identified an emerging or growing industry segment and invested their time and money in building businesses serving these emerging or growing industries. Today, AI and Blockchain are emerging and growing industry segments that will spawn many future millionaires and billionaires.
Rich Habit Action Tip: Find an industry segment that you believe will become a leading industry. Then, create products, services or apps to serve that emerging or growing industry.
《创业者》杂志撰稿人所表达的观点均为其个人观点。
成功的企业家通过战略性的商业活动积累财富，而自律的习惯是其坚实的基础。我的“富人习惯研究”历时五年，调查了233位百万富翁（其中177位是白手起家），揭示了推动企业家成功的行为模式。
本文概述了推动当今企业家积累数百万美元财富的十大商业活动，并为有志成为企业家的人士提供了可操作的步骤。
1. 创办可扩展的科技初创公司
像埃隆·马斯克这样的企业家通过创办拥有可扩展产品的科技初创公司积累了巨额财富。马斯克的特斯拉彻底改变了电动汽车行业，并通过超级工厂实现了规模化生产。我的研究表明，那些投身创新事业的百万富翁在最短的时间内积累了最多的财富：短短12年就积累了740万美元的财富。
富人习惯行动建议：找到一个技术驱动的问题（例如，可再生能源），并开发一个最小可行产品（MVP）。然后，进行试点、调整和再试点，直到弄清楚哪些有效，哪些无效。
2. 开发创新型消费产品
莎拉·布雷克利创立了塑身衣品牌Spanx ，其初衷是解决她个人的身材痛点，从而颠覆了时尚行业。我的研究发现，60% 的创业型百万富翁都是通过充满激情的产品积累财富的。
养成良好习惯的行动建议：集思广益，想出任何能够解决问题或为他人生活增添价值的产品。
3. 扩展电子商务平台
杰夫·贝佐斯通过将利润再投资于物流和仓储，发展壮大了亚马逊，并最终主导了在线零售业。在我的研究中，这些企业家几乎将所有利润都再投资到了他们的业务中。
Rich Habit 行动建议：在 Shopify 上开设一家电子商务商店，专注于可持续商品等高需求细分市场，并将早期利润再投资以扩大业务规模。
4. 建立战略媒体合作伙伴关系
我从“富裕习惯”研究中了解到，成功的企业家会投入大量时间与有影响力的人和其他商业伙伴建立“权力关系”，这些人可以帮助他们打开机会之门，获得营运资金，从而发展他们的业务。
富人习惯行动小贴士：与内容创作者或品牌合作，共同开发媒体项目，例如播客或 YouTube 频道，以扩大你的影响力。
5. 创建订阅式服务
里德·哈斯廷斯将Netflix转型为流媒体订阅模式，并投资制作了《怪奇物语》等原创内容。我研究的这些富有的企业家都有一个共同的“富人习惯”——在逆境中灵活调整。通常情况下，他们会多次调整方向，以找出哪些方法有效，哪些无效。
Rich Habit 行动建议：开发订阅服务（例如健身应用程序），并小范围地进行测试，不断调整方向，以完善/改进您的商业模式。
相关内容：订阅服务的下一阶段需要了解哪些信息
6. 业务利润多元化
许多成功的企业家，一旦他们的核心业务开始盈利，就会将部分利润投资于房地产、租赁物业或财富管理服务。
致富秘诀：一旦你的企业开始盈利，每年将利润的 20% 或更多投资于其他财富积累型投资，例如：房地产、股票、副业、年金、退休计划或被动收入型投资。
7. 构建数字平台
马克·扎克伯格通过收购 Facebook、Instagram 和 WhatsApp 等具有协同效应的平台，扩大了 Meta 的规模。
致富秘诀：创建一个数字平台，例如垂直领域的社交网络或SaaS工具，并坚持定期更新以吸引用户。然后，将利润再投资于相关业务，以帮助你积累财富。
8. 创建协同效应型企业
在我的“富人习惯研究”中，许多企业家百万富翁都创建了与其核心业务相关的独立子公司。这帮助他们建立了多条协同增效的收入来源，如同安全网一般，在经济衰退导致某条收入来源受损时，能够保护他们的财富。在我的“富人习惯研究”中，84%的企业家拥有3条协同增效的收入来源，39%拥有4条，27%拥有5条或更多。
致富习惯行动建议：开展与核心业务相关的副业，或者将核心业务的部分利润投资于与核心业务具有协同效应的初创企业。
相关报道：姐妹俩的副业月均收入7000美元：“这是我们在公司工作中感受不到的回报”
9. 推出健康和保健品牌
据《商业内幕》报道，理查德·布兰森旗下的维珍健身（Virgin Active）充分利用了这股健身热潮。根据我的“富人习惯”（Rich Habits）研究数据，95%的白手起家企业家每天都会进行30分钟或以上的有氧运动。这有助于提高大脑功能，增加脑细胞的氧气供应，同时也能提升他们的精力水平，使他们每天能够工作更长时间，注意力更集中。
养成良好习惯的行动建议：随着社会越来越注重健康，可以创立一个健康品牌，例如健身应用程序或有机产品系列，瞄准注重健康的消费者。
10. 新兴和增长型行业领域
在我的“富人习惯研究”中，成功的企业家们会寻找新兴或正在增长的行业领域，并投入时间和金钱来创建服务于这些行业的企业。如今，人工智能和区块链正是新兴和正在增长的行业领域，它们将孕育出众多未来的百万富翁和亿万富翁。
致富习惯行动建议：找到一个你认为会成为领先行业的细分市场。然后，开发产品、服务或应用程序来服务于这个新兴或成长型行业。