Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, from every conceivable background and with incredibly diverse experiences behind them - they’re very different. The extent to which they succeed is just as varied, from those who fall before the first hurdle to the incredible and inspiring success stories.

The work ethic adopted by entrepreneurs varies just as much, but it’s also one of the few traits shared by the most successful; they’re absolutely relentless in their pursuit of success. It’s true that we all have the capacity to work hard but what does this mean in practice for successful business people?

Well, like it or not the age of the 24/7 entrepreneur is upon us and if you're an entrepreneur with big plans, be prepared for this and more. The expectations of every kind of stakeholder, be they customers, investors or employees are rising all the time: if you're awake, you're online and at work.

Part of the problem is that there aren’t any obvious benchmarks to follow when it comes to work ethic, but those who have achieved great things in business focus their effort carefully - outright effort in itself isn’t the answer, but high standards are imperative. For example, default deadlines must be 24 hours, meetings should be set in 15 minute chunks and anything longer than a one hour meeting is to be avoided. When you’re running a meeting, tasks and actions (don't bother with 'minutes') must typed during the meeting and must be issued exactly zero-minutes after the meeting ends.

Developing a ‘success ethic’

This relentless consistency, instantaneous delivery, and the drive of the entrepreneur always being 'on it' are what will set you apart – ultimately it's an incredibly competitive game and you have to be approach it as that kind of challenge – and if you don't or can't be bothered then the attitude that many of your competitors, partners or customers will take will be: ‘fine - someone else will.’

So, do things quicker than you think possible – this is what impresses people – but this must NOT compromise quality at any cost - deliver that quality quickly. It’s simple in theory but does takes practice. Some commentators advocate an extreme version of smart working, in that you can fashion a '4 hour work week' and achieve everything that a business demands within that time. In reality this simply doesn’t stack up and ultimately there's no replacement for time spent working.

But in doing so, take time to think smarter – if you look at daily communication, it's quality that counts in terms of tweets, blog posts, emails, and networking but always being 'on it' will enable the entrepreneur to do things quicker, but this take a lot of hard work. Quantity of output (of emails written, say) is easily measured but that's not all important - so never mind that you've sent 100 emails this morning to the VCs of the world – how many have you phoned after hours of research and networking your way towards them? What can you offer them? How can you become indispensible?

A ‘success ethic’ means you must multi-task like never before – read tweets, respond to emails, listen to news, study key trends - every second counts. The only time to take proper 'time out' is for deep, strategic thinking, which can be done once a year (if you take a 'holiday' then that's a good time, for example).

Building a quality network takes time, for example, but any successful entrepreneur will tell you that it’s time well spent – the best way to approach it is with the attitude of, "how can I help this person?" So, use the phone as often as possible to network when you’re not doing it in person (and not a crackly mobile). Don’t hide behind email – don't ramble on, intro yourself, explain immediately how the contact knows you, ask if they have time for a brief chat, be confident, wise, polite, respectful and humble (you don't always have to agree though – you can't be all thing to all people and this is a good thing!)

Dips in your energy are a fact of life, but entrepreneurs should be the most extreme advocates for their business and absolutely passionate for what they do - it helps to minimise those moments when you’re not quite 100%. The most determined are ruthless in the application of these ideas, and those that have been there and done it will argue that if you're not prepared for all this, then you shouldn’t necessarily aspire to the highest levels of success.

Author Matthew Stafford is project leader at Gateway2Investment, which has helped raise over £14m in investment for over 40 UK companies. Find us at www.g2i.orgor on Twitter at @g2i.Follow Matthew on twitter at @mstafford.