The first 5 years of business are the most crucial because you are fighting for survival to keep your company alive. As owners and decision makers we often give up our personal time and life to feed our business.
Most of us have chosen our passion/career in order to put ourselves in a position of freedom (financial, time, purpose, and relationships). As you progress throughout your business journey, don’t forget this is your game, which means you get to define the rules, so you win every time. As business owners, sometimes we forget that we get to call the shots and make the rules.
As a business owner of 3 companies, I would like to share 12 tips I learned along my business journey, which will help you operate more effectively and efficiently.
1. Set annual goals (create a vision board) then determine specific goals (monthly or quarterly) on how you are going to get there. This is detailed in my March blog.
2. Most business owners are not organized, focused, and spend too much time on things that don’t matter in the big scheme. Always try to improve in these 3 areas.
3. Have the mindset of positivity, ambition, and motivation. Do NOT let hardships slow you down or stop you. Allow them to make you stronger.
4. Achieve 3 critical results each day. Everything else is a bonus.
5. Work as a simplifier then collaborate with multipliers. Work with people who compliment you. Avoid complicators. Remove the excess stuff and don’t make things too complicated. Operate simple.
6. Choose the type of clients or customers you desire to work with. Create a persona of that client or customer, then form your business model around them.
7. You can’t and won’t be all things to all people. Work in your strengths and hire out your weaknesses (when it’s within your budget).
8. Operate lean as long as you can. An important upfront cost that must be included in your budget is marketing, which includes, advertisements in local papers, business cards, website, social media, marketing hand-outs (pens, t-shirts, thumb drives)
9. Create a mission statement, vision, core values, and a tagline. Make sure the title of your business is very clear on what you do and have your five-minute elevator pitch ready to speak at all times (if you have employees, make sure they know your mission, core values, tag line, and pitch).
10. If you have employees, make sure you have a Policies and Procedures Manual/Employee Handbook.
11. These are the 6 key contracted advisors you need in your business
-Professional liability Insurance Agent
-Business Banker
-CPA
-HR/Payroll Co.
-Business Consultant/Coach
-Attorney
12. Be a strong leader with kind candor. The best leaders think differently. Be consistent. Lead interactions with the other person in mind. Be a good listener.
Be the leader who does one more rep, fuels the fire, shows back up positively when something goes wrong. Be self-aware and always look to improve. Everyone wins when the leader gets better.
