Current times and technology have forced entrepreneurs to venture (sometimes obligatorily) into the digital world, some projecting their traditional business towards social networks, others directly building a 100% digital business. In this article I will mention the four pillars that we have identified in Xigmad of Digital Entrepreneurship.
What is digital entrepreneurship?
Currently it is almost impossible for a successful company not to rely on information technologies to boost its business, and even if some achieve success, it will be limited. You will not reach the same distance walking, as in an airplane, no matter how much effort you apply.
Although some success factors are similar in the world of traditional entrepreneurship and in the world of digital entrepreneurship such as: sales, finance, emotional intelligence, personal growth and among other areas; in digital entrepreneurship they are applied in a different way. The good news is that you can use all your natural talents to become a digital entrepreneur, no matter if you have a business or are thinking of starting one.
At Xigmad we have identified four pillars on which the success of a digital entrepreneur is sustained.
Four Xigmad Pillars of Digital Entrepreneurship
Pillar 1: Education
Education is essential for business and for life. An entrepreneur without continuing education is destined for stagnation. You may ask yourself: “Why, if this worked for me before and had good sales, now it doesn’t work for me?”
Entrepreneurship is continuous growth, driven by a healthy ambition to achieve. The true entrepreneur is not satisfied with being good, he wants to be the best.
Education also minimizes the possibility of making mistakes. He who has his ears and his open mind has the ability to learn from the successes and mistakes of those who have already walked the path.
At Xigmad we believe that the skills that an entrepreneur has to grow a business must also be acquired by anyone to face their daily life and achieve success in whatever they set out to do.
Our mission with Xigmad Academy is precisely to complement the educational system, incorporating all those knowledge of digital entrepreneurship that can help a person to grow from any point of knowledge, skills or financial situation to grow as much as their wishes and perseverance allow.
Pillar 2: Business digitization
One of the differentiating factors of success is the effective management of technological resources to automate, digitize and optimize company processes.
Some aspects to digitize, which can make a company grow are
- The image of our business, brand or company.
- Media.
- Information management.
- Records.
- Finance.
- Inventory
- Services to the public.
All automated processes and functional digital resources grow the monetary value of a company. As long as your business depends less on the entrepreneur, the value of your company rises.
I challenge you to think of a single world-famous company or brand that doesn’t have at least one website.
Obviously digitization is not a simple process, it requires deep knowledge of information technology. For this we created Xigmad Consulting, to place our systems development talent at the service of entrepreneurs and their growth through digitization.
Pillar 3: Digital Marketing
If sales in a traditional business are important, imagine standing out in the digital environment where you have to compete with all the companies in the world. For this reason, creative strategies have to be created to bring your value proposition to your clients and potential clients.
There are many important factors to creating a strong brand, as well as marketing strategies that work, and the most interesting thing is that there is no standard procedure to do it. A plan must be created for each company and each brand. That is why we created Xigmad Media, to provide entrepreneurs with digital resources to connect their products and services with their potential clients.
Pillar 4: Scalable digital infrastructure
Web systems are supported by a number of servers and services that in many cases have high costs when it comes to professional services, however, many times when we start we do not have enough financial resources to make large investments. For this reason, entrepreneurs need infrastructures that can grow in capacity, that is called scalability.
With Xigmad Hosting we provide secure and scalable infrastructure solutions to entrepreneurs, with prices adjusted to the exact needs of consumption while remaining highly functional, professional and high-performance, always betting on growth.
How to incorporate technology into my business?
You may not have the technical knowledge in relation to these last three pillars, don’t worry, the good news is that there are multiple alternatives for blocks those pieces within your digital endeavor.
- Outsource: When you have a health problem that you cannot treat, what do you do? Consult a doctor (in the best of cases), likewise when you need help to incorporate or improve your technological processes, experts in the area can help you, therefore, we created Xigmad and a brand associated with each of the four pillars of digital entrepreneurship:
- Xigmad Consulting, to help you with the development or incorporation of software technology in your business.
- Xigmad Media, to support you with your digital marketing strategies (including social media marketing), image, brand and multimedia content.
- Xigmad Hosting, with which we support entrepreneurs in the acquisition and maintenance of the hosting and infrastructure services necessary to support business strategies.
- Xigmad Academy to support entrepreneurs from education.
- Hire: You can contract the services of trained personnel for your company that can meet the demands of your business strategy.
- Self-training: This is the option that may take the longest depending on your previous training. You can try to cover on your own all the pillars that you need in your digital venture and even if it is something that may take many years it is something feasible. I also recommend that, even if you opt for one of the two previous options, do not stop learning some things about technology, it is always something that will help you better direct the operations and decisions of your business.
Considerations of digital entrepreneurship
- The market: one of the most important aspects of marketing is the definition of your market, even a lot of bibliography places this aspect above your product. In the digital field it is no different, just keep in mind that you will be in a global environment. Many entrepreneurs are tempted to “sell to everyone”, however, although this is possible, remember that talking to “everyone” is that no one listens to you. It is best to focus on a niche as specific as possible, this will help you a lot when establishing advertising campaigns through social networks.
- Your value proposition: don’t be someone else from the crowd. Your value proposition is the differentiating factor. The reason why they should buy from you and not from someone else.
- Your brand: Never stop working and building your brand online, listen to what is said about you, listen to your audience, talk, be constant and consistent. Your brand may be the most important thing that your business has.
- Quality: now that your client will be in a globalized environment, he will be used to a minimum quality experience, your challenge as a digital entrepreneur is to exceed your client’s expectations and continually improve.
- Get updated: times have definitely changed. Now, the rhythm of the world demands to keep our businesses and our minds constantly updated.
- Go green: concern for the environment and society is paramount for the digital entrepreneur. Do not rule it out in your project. New trends indicate that new generations are more supportive of brands that care about the environment.
The difference between the digital entrepreneur and the traditional one is that the digital entrepreneur has the opportunity to minimize risks, maximize opportunities to attract clients, experiment with new business models and learn more about potential clients.
In short, we have reached a precious historical point, in which the world is becoming smaller and more global. Now we are a true global community thanks to the Internet, we must take advantage of this moment to achieve and exceed all the goals that we set ourselves, never before have we had so many tools at our fingertips…
Are you going to take advantage of them?