If your conversion rate is five percent, you will get five sales for every 100 people you talk to. So, talk to as many as you can as fast as you can and watch the sales pile up.

That’s hustle. 

Hustle isn’t something that most people are born with. If you are doing that in America, you don’t have much competition. 

What is hustle?

In many places in America and around the world, “hustle” is considered, at best, inappropriate. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has a few definitions for it; most of them negative. They include, but are not limited to, “to crowd or push roughly”, “to convey forcibly or hurriedly”, “to sell something to or obtain something from (someone) by energetic and especially underhanded activity”. However, there is one positive from this definition that applies to top entrepreneurs; “to make strenuous efforts to obtain especially money or business”.

In other words, doing what is necessary to survive.

Great entrepreneurs often come from situations where they were required to do things to survive that more comfortable people have a hard time comprehending. Somewhere in that hustle, they learned to operate at a greater level, and that made them rich. Formal education doesn’t teach that.

In Brazil for example, strangers approach you on beaches and sell you things. In the U.S., this is considered inappropriate, and solicitation is normally banned on beaches and other public areas. Hustlers in Brazil teach you a thing or two in this brief video.

People who hustle will work like they are possessed. They are the most competitive and driven individuals you will meet. They ignore convention and norms, and set out to win.

Break the rules, but not the law!

If you are poor or close to it, you must learn hustle. Hustle can take you from the poorhouse to the palace.

• The hustler is rarely concerned with what is considered “inappropriate” if there is business to be obtained. In fact, he appreciates the norms of society for one reason; they slow down his competition.
• The hustler isn’t satisfied with similarity, nor the comfort that comes from norms.
• A man who has had to juggle bills or been unable to maintain steady employment long ago shed his concern for maintaining a high credit score. This is actually liberating; it frees him to pursue entrepreneurship. However, it also instills a desire to not go hungry again.

“Sales” often gets a bad rap. However, it is necessary. Without it, commerce grinds to a halt. Ignore the social taboos around aggressive selling and do it, until you don’t have to do it anymore.

Ask the right questions

The book 99 Questions to ask BEFORE starting a business in the US gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn from two industry experts about the different aspects of starting, operating, financing, and marketing a new business in the USA. For immigrating entrepreneurs, learn about visa options for those who seek to migrate to the US through a qualifying investment. The book 99 questions is available on Amazon and through Balboa Press. 

And finally…

Welcome to One Click Advisor! We would be remiss if we didn’t give you a brief tour of the site and what it can do for you, as an owner of a startup or small business. Your challenges and opportunities can be sorted into one of three areas.

Marketing, because it brings in the customers. That requires the right combination of price, product, promotion and place. 

Operations, because it keeps your customers. A well-run business pleases customers and generates steady and reliable revenue. But to be well-run, you need reliable providers. 

Finance, because it is the scoreboard, and keeps everybody paid. Change the “score”, find bookkeeping help, and find capital. 

The One Click Advisor Business Builder connects you with all the fundamentals. Skip the hours of research and costly mistakes…we have done the work of locating the best small business services for you.