Entrepreneurs who have achieved outstanding success in their business or career have established a set of habits and daily routines that significantly increase their odds of success. While these behavior patterns (i.e., habits) can shift as their life, career, or business evolves, a few things remain constant.
So whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just getting started on your entrepreneurial journey, there’s always room to grow and lessons to learn.
Prioritize your health and wellness. You absolutely must prioritize your mental and physical health if you want to achieve any level of success and be able to actually enjoy it. Health and wellness haven’t always come first for me, but after many years of not taking care of this area, I have to say it’s probably the most important. The habits I’ve developed here have trickled down to other locations in my life and career, resulting in some incredible improvements. While I am not where I want to be yet, I credit much of my success to this practice. I am no longer addicted to ‘the chase’ when it comes to business. I refuse to work until I run myself into the ground. Instead, I focus my energy on my vision, and I work to inspire my team to help me execute that with passion. This keeps me grounded and focused on what’s most important.
An incredible work ethic. It takes a lot of time, effort, dedication, and consistency to grow a company. It’s necessary at first to be a jack-of-all-trades. Until you can grow enough to hire others to cover all the required skills your company needs to thrive, you’re going to have to carry a lot of weight.
Start small. You can always scale a business once things start to take off, but it’s hard to rescue a company that’s over-extended from the start. I’ve learned that creating small and being strategic allows for the most success and, dare I say, happiness long term. Now, I do what I know, keep it simple, and don’t try to branch out too much or too soon.
Use time wisely. Time will always be a limited resource. How you use your time dictates how successful your company ultimately becomes. That means having the knowledge and experience to make wise decisions and the mental toughness to avoid distractions.
Surround yourself with experts. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT avoid aspects of your business if you’re not good at them, don’t like them, or don’t understand them. & I hope this goes without saying, but in case it doesn’t, there is seriously NOTHING wrong with admitting to yourself that you don’t like or know how to do something. Investing in learning always pays off. Think of it this way – if you pay someone to do something, you’ll be reliant on them, but if you pay someone to teach you, you’ll be able to use those skills again going forward.
Maintain creative control and outsource what you aren’t good at. You are the creative director in your business! With that being said, you never want to give up total control when you outsource things like design, content creation, and social media. These elements are essential to keep constant to keep the brand voice consistent.
Have a plan each day. One of the keys to using your time successfully is to plan for each day ahead of time. Avoid going to bed without having a clear idea of what you’re going to do the following day. As soon as your feet hit the bedroom floor, you should already know what needs to be done for the day.
Wake up early. There are very few successful entrepreneurs that don’t get up very early. Some get up even before 4 a.m. How early you get up is up to you, but if you’re not beating the average person out of bed, you’re behind.
Set goals. It’s not enough to work hard and work smart. You also must know where you’re going. Plans help you make wise decisions. Know what you’re trying to accomplish today, this week, this month, this year, and 10 years from now.
Deal with stress effectively. Entrepreneurs have plenty of pressure to deal with regularly, so it’s essential to learn how to manage it. Have a process for dealing with stress and anxiety. Learn to recognize what you can control and what you cannot. If you don’t deal with this on the front end, this will always come back to bite you somehow.
Look ahead for obstacles. Avoid being blindsided by obstacles and setbacks. Be aware of your future. Look ahead for the challenges you’re likely to face and have solutions in mind. Think of all the significant challenges in your life and notice that there were plenty of warning signs for all of them. The same is true with your business. Avoid putting your head in the sand and hoping for the best. Deal with challenges now while they’re still manageable.
What are your current habits? & maybe a better question to ask, are your current habits allowing your vision to come to life? Can you see why your current practices have either helped you or harmed you on your path to business success? Think about what you want to accomplish to be successful and build habits that will support those activities, and continue to iterate on them over time.
The person with the best habits usually wins. How far will you go with your patterns?
