The biggest challenge to your productivity as an entrepreneur is learning which activities to focus your time on. The name of the game is subject and organizing what I call a “system” for success that helps you ascertain high value-add work and eliminates tasks that waste your time.
Easier said than done, right?
For most solopreneurs( entrepreneurs that are in business for themselves and have not yet been employees ), this is most often learned through trial and error. High value-add activities for one person may not be worthwhile struggles for you. Everything is customized to the exact needs of what you do well and how you specifically intend to make money and develop your business.
It’s why I’m such a big proponent of defining success, having a plan, and specifying clear purposes that are in alignment with your values and intent. When you are clear and specific- and motivated to get things done – you are infinitely more likely to use time to your advantage. The real secret from there is using that clarity and specificity to focus on a few things at a time.
Here’s a perfect instance from my working life:
When I first started my coaching business, I was focused on helping any patron. I wasn’t well defined. It wasn’t because I didn’t truly have a niche. I simply hadn’t gotten clearly defined and prioritized around who I would best serve. Sound familiar?
It was what I did next that made a huge difference.
I went back to the drawing board and started to lean on my business suffer of working with executives and helping them improve the way they result key initiatives for their organization. I mixed that with my natural aptitudes and abilities for coaching, as well as my experiment on emotional intellect and leadership. Then, my coaching business actually began to take off.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Hire yourself and start calling the shots.
Get Started Free Time, Money, and People
Most of the mistakes you’ll build early on as a solopreneur involve time and fund. Spending too much time on a undertaking that doesn’t lead to much profit is a very common mistake. Not understanding the value of your time is something you can easily correct. Undervaluing your services is something you learn by connecting with respected professionals and having the guts to rate your services in a way that demonstrates your true-life worth.
You’ll likewise want to avoid burning bridges. Some of the people that will make you the most money in your job are fellow entrepreneurs you may already know. They’re the freelancers that have your back in the beginning, corroborating you through the lean occasions. They’re the first customers that become referrals and share the word of your product. This is a matter of networking with fellow solopreneurs you can learn from and share abilities with.
From relationships come opportunities to grow, learn, and even profit. I’ve gained clients that were previously friends who turning now to me when they had a leadership need for themselves or their organization. Relationships I’ve built have led to referral business and likewise awareness, which has been shared with colleagues and friends in other organizations.
You want to be the top-of-mind service provider or product give when people think of your niche, so maintaining relationships is crucially important.
You’re going to want to focus your vigour on things that add value every day. But don’t forget to avoid the pitfalls that can sink your business. Here are five mistakes to avoid and steps you can take to solve the problem and improve your business in the process.
Indecisiveness
Whether you’re a deliberate philosopher, an impulsive one, or somewhere in the middle, understand this: If you’re indecisive about your direction as an entrepreneur, you will struggle mightily. And the toll won’t just be lost( potential) dollars. It’s much more than that. Mentally, emotionally, even spiritually, after a while. When you won’t make decisions because of fear, anxiety, or skepticism, you begin to lose hope. At its worst, indecision can lead to:
Negative thinking both short- and long-term Closing yourself off to new opportunities Fear of brand-new relationships and fear of commitment Hesitancy and lack of confidence in how you communicate
Think about the new enterprise you’re launching. You’re going to need to make decisions every day about strategy, technology, product, and customer. Small decisions, large-hearted decisions – you have to be prepared to take action. It’s essential for success.
Dr. Thomas H. Davenport writes about the importance of setting time limits on your decision-making in HBR:
“It determines whether you can employ data and analytics, whether you should involve more people, whether you can study the issues exhaustively, and even whether you can sleep on the decision overnight.”
Stop thinking you have to do it all at once. Which leads me to …
Jack of All Trades
Let’s get one thing clear right now: You will not succeed as a solopreneur if you try to be a jack of all trades. It’s not about what you think you can do and what you can’t. It’s about efficiency and quality. When you’re first starting out, the biggest impediment is money. Then, money becomes the be-all and end-all guide for your decision-making. What you learn as a solopreneur is there are so many ways to make money, even in a challenging economy. You can’t live in fear about making money to get by, even while acknowledging its importance.
Diversify the sources from which you earn your income. Leverage websites that informant patrons for you. Offer your services for free and ask for a referral in return. Leverage social media to offer content that shows your vast knowledge and expertise. Before long, you’ll be making money. Even knowing it’s a slow erect, you can make money.
Build a fiscal footing and learn to representatives to experts who cover things you don’t. Marketing is an expense that every solopreneur needs to dedicate resources to. Paying for someone to designing a website( storefront) that tells your story in a way that leads to brand-new clients is critical for success. In some instances, hiring an aide or team to handle administrative duties is important.
The worst crutch you can lean on is feeling because you have restriction financial resources, you need to do everything yourself. You can’t do everything yourself and do it at a level of quality that attracts future business. Thinking you can is myopic and it will comprise you back from opportunity. Get clear on what you can do yourself and what you’re best delegating to experts that will help grow your business.
No “System”
So, what did I mean earlier about having a “system”? I define this as an overall approaching to the management and mastery of your time and work process:
Discipline Planning Schedule and duty handling Motivation mindsetDo the operate
You need the subject to actually sit down and begin your focus. Never underestimate this step! Carve this time onto your docket and keep it sacred. Next, the planning phase takes over where you focus on the most important activities that will move your business forward. Then, you plan these activities onto your docket and determine how you will manage your planned and assignments. Rank these tasks and get greedy with your time. It’s your most valuable asset.
Next, you build a motivation mindset that feeds you the ga you need to move into the execution stage of doing the project. How you rally yourself to focus on the results you want is what will separate success from failing. Then, it’s about doing the work and focusing without distraction on how you solve problems for your customers. All of these attributes comprise the system you need to form the habits you need to succeed.
Take this from James Clear:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there. Spend less day focusing on outcomes and more occasion concentrates on the habits that predate the results.”
All Work and No Creative Imagination Makes You an Unsuccessful Solopreneur
A vitally important part of the life cycle of every successful entrepreneur is using your creative imagination to build the future you crave for your business.
Mike Pena writes in the eCorner publication for Stanford University 😛 TAGEND
“Dr. Tina Seelig of Stanford University, an expert on entrepreneurship, talks about the “invention cycle” in her journal, Insight Out: How to Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World. Based on 16 years of teach as well as hundreds of interviews with entrepreneurs and innovators, her Invention Cycle comprises: imagery, invention, invention and entrepreneurship.”
Turning back to the system, I will tell you that some of my very best planning time overlaps with creative strategy. This is both a boon and a curse! When I’m planning out my week and getting laser-focused on what’s most important and what I can eliminate, I often find myself gravitating toward creative imagination time. This is when powerful theories take flight and I begin to plan around those ideas and turn them into reality. Here’s what I necessitate:
My first book, The Value of You, was born from planning for new sections that I would write for the week. I recognized how much having a foundation of values meant to me in my business and entrepreneurial job. The more I was planning to write a blog post on this, the more I realized I had a lot more thoughts and words on this subject. So, I stopped what I was doing and began to imagine the structure for a journal I genuinely wanted to write. I got lost in the moment.
A few years later, that creative imagination time led to furthering my coaching and speaking vocation and the development of new discover materials for leadership development. When your creative imagination takes over, feeling begins to form. Don’t suppress it- let it ride and visualize where it conducts you.
You Keep Too Much To Yourself
This last-place one may seem a bit counter-intuitive but hear what i just said out: Your dreams begin to take flight when you stop living on your own island, and you bring others along for the go. Share your ideas with others and get things out of your headspace. Put your dreams into words and objectives and begin to take a chance on the things you’ve been thinking about.
Keeping too much to yourself looks like this:
Not established goalsNot communicating your big ideas to people you trustNot practicing positive self-talk and talk to others Not speaking and declaring your dreams and ideologies to the worldNot creating content( of any potpourrus) Not sharing your endowments with the world countries
We’re social creatures meant to share the lighting we have with others. Take this to heart. Put yourself out there and you’ll realize you have a bigger audience of supporters who want to see you succeeded than you may think. The only way to find out is to give it a shot.
Concluding Thoughts
Every great entrepreneur induces mistakes, learns from them, and is moving forward. My hope is you profit from the lessons learned in this article and they empower you to move forward in the direction of your entrepreneurial venture. Being a successful solopreneur involves incredible resolve, devotion, and a willingness to risk. As you think about your next stair, don’t be afraid to establish mistakes. Simply know, there are many you can eschewed on your course to building a business on your terms.
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