The fall is where I get to catch up on some of my podcasts. I was listening to Episode 172 of The Smart Passive Income: Game Changing Business Growth With Peter Voogd, even though the episode title talks about growth, I found it was more on how to be a more successful entrepreneur (hence thte title of this post). Beside the misleading title I still think there was ton of value and lots of good advice in there.
Just thought I’d give you a summary of the good stuff you’ll find in there and add my own two cents.
1. Take Action on Stuff You Read / Listen / Watch / Attend
If you pick one thing to remember from all of this, I would suggest picking this one. TAKE ACTION weather it’s listening, reading or attending something, Once you are done, take a few minutes to summarize what you have learned and where you could apply it. Otherwise you are just wasting time. I took this advice for money and can vouch that it pays off. The trick is you can’t delay taking action, you need to at least include it on your short term to-do list.
2. Read Less Things, Read Things of Value
This is somewhat related to the first item. You probably spend a lot of time reading books, stuff online and attend conferences. Should keep doing these things because they are good tools for your business. You should probably do less of if and be more selective to things that are most likely to bring value. What Peter suggest and it makes a lot of sense, pick a few items to read or attend and make the most out of it. This will give you time to actually test or try out the stuff you read about and become more experience at a few things rather than try to be good at everything.
3. What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur
Peter has been teaching youth to be successful entrepreneur for a while now. He noticed a trend on what made the most successfull people. the one thing that he noticed is people using startup to help fill a deeply rooted cause, such as generating income to help support family or making rent at the end of the month. I think It all comes down to passion and the consequences of your failure. So make sure you are motivated by something that is not supperficial. The other thing he points out is that clarity and focus is also very important. I would say its is a requirement.
4. Give Value to Your Activities
I think this is one is the hardest to achieve. First you have to give value to your activities, know what brings value to your business and work on those first. Delegate the rest. So this might be hard if you’re a running one man/woman show but there are ways to get help. But the hardest things is not letting “emergencies” creep up on you. If you feel time management is a problem, you are not alone…check out our piece on Time Management – Stop Running Like a Headless Chicken.
5. Hire to Complement Your Skills
Don’t try to do everything, it will jut hinder your growth. Know what you are good and get help to do the things you’re not so good at (if you can afford it). As discussed earlier spend your time doing things that bring value to your business. Easier said than done, when things are going a mile a minute. This why a having a routine is important.
6. Hire Slow; Fire Fast
The last tip is just as important, when hiring take your time to choose the right candidate. If you’ve never hired anyone before, this might be daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be. It comes down to know what gaps you need to fill and what kind of person would help you fill those gaps. Then come up with a few question to get the conversation started when interviewing candidates. Okay you think you found the perfect candidate and he’s agreed to come on board. Where most people fail is when that candidate is not bringing in the value you though he would be. Either he’s under performing or it’s doesn’t work out as planned. You have to be quick to firef in that’s the case. Remind yourself you are running a business and keeping staff just because you feel bad about letting them go, doesn’t make sense. Just make sure you set clear expectations and let them know if they are under or over performing and there will be no surprises.
Final thoughts
Really hope you found these tips of value, just remember it’s worth nothing if you don’t take action. So go out there and be a more successful entrepreneur.
flickr photo by trippinlarry http://flickr.com/photos/trippinlarry/5987691227 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license