Starting out as an entrepreneur can be a stressful process. What separates you from long-time small business owners is their advantage of experience and know-how. Running, operating and growing a small business over the years, naturally gives people the necessary skill set to deal with their objectives efficiently in order to keep growing their businesses. After talking to several entrepreneurs, we wanted to share some of their methods and insights with you.
Below are 8 tips to help you remain focused while generating results:
1. Set Attainable Goals
Learn how to break down your goals. Anywhere from short-term goals; weekly, monthly and yearly, to long-term goals; 3-year, 5-year and 10-year. If you want to make $600k, that’s great, but how are you going to achieve this? How many units would you have to sell? How many clients would you need to acquire? How much time would you spend in lead generation? By having a realistic plan, you can truly set yourself up for success.
2. Keep Away From Distractions
Successful people maintain a positive outlook in life no matter what the circumstances are. Distractions will always exist and it is your job to block them away. Know yourself and know when you are most productive throughout the day. Start with the hardest tasks first so the rest of the day can flow smoothly. Being disciplined and staying on-task is the key to success.
3. Find A Mentor
It is important to have a mentor, someone you can look up to and seek advice from. You may feel lost or purposeless at times, but learn to remove yourself from the situation and gain perspective. A mentor can help you come up with solutions and strategies, while walking you through some hard decisions you have to make regarding your business.
4. Learn How To Network
“You’re only as good as the number of your contacts”. Being a business owner can oftentimes isolate you. When you are drowning in paperwork, the last thing you may want to do is socialize. Do not underestimate the power of networking though. Make sure you stay connected with other business owners, establish a name in your community and nurture relationships. You never know where a relationship you build today may take you in the future.
5. Don’t Quit Your Day Job Just Yet
You have the business idea and the passion, what now? Be patient, don’t quit your day job just yet. Many entrepreneurs, exhaust their funds in the first few months and kill a potentially successful business idea. Keep your day job while still setting up your business, learning, researching, and growing your network and clientele. Once you see your business taking off, it’s time to quit and conquer the world.
6. Stick To Your Market
Simplicity is the key to brilliance. Expanding the range of your products and/or services might not always be the best approach. Find your niche and stick with it at the beginning. Is something working for you? Great, keep growing towards it, build a strong brand around it, and focus on succeeding on that first before your branch out.
7. Keep Your Expenses Low
Learn to be conservative with your costs. You can always find ways to cut down overhead, whether it is a cheaper office space or easing down on your marketing expenses. Be smart with where your money is spent.
8. When your team grows you grow
Know when to hire people to help you. Surely, everyone wants to be in control of their business, but there’s only so much a person can do. Hire qualified individuals to perform tasks much needed for your business to evolve. Identify areas where you may be lacking skills and hire people who would perform certain tasks better than you. You’ll soon come to realize that more heads generate more revenue. Plus, when you have people working on the day-to-day operational tasks, you have time to focus on growing your business.
