Are you an Entrepreneur? These tactics will help you 10x your growth.
Being an entrepreneur in today’s fast paced and competitive environment can get daunting to say the least. I have been there and have been an event management entrepreneur for the past 19 years now.
I was one of the always switched on guys constantly hustling and I soon hit a realisation. A very tangible realisation that made me introspect and observe what I was on about.
Through this realisation there were a few things I learned that I implemented and I have actually managed to become far more productive than I ever was, and I hope to share those with you today.
Here we go…
Being successful is more about unlearning than learning.
Hear me out, I needed to unlearn a large plethora of notions and beliefs that had shaped my career. The way the world works has evolved and we need to evolve with it. Unlearning things frees up space to learn what matters, which is the whole point really isn’t it.
It is critical to keep learning.
This might sound like a paradox to my earlier point, but what I mean is it is important to learn that which matters. When we consume content, we overload our system with more information than we can process. Even our browser cant handle it, imagine our brains.
Stop comparing yourself to others.
One of the biggest handicaps for an entrepreneur. Comparing themselves to others and getting frustrated at not being where they are.
2 Things to note here:
It is a proven fact that 99.99% of what you see on social media about success stories and inspirational posts is cosmetic.
You are at a different chapter in your journey. Don’t get frustrated about someone being on chapter 20 when you are still at chapter 5. Rather focus on writing chapter 5 better?
Stop living in the distant past or the hopeful future.
When I started my journey, the money was rolling in and it was all success. We used to work hard and party harder. I got to a certain level of respect within the industry. Then catastrophe struck, I lost everything, on account of a bad decision. I pledged I am going to work like a machine to get it back. I spent a few years being hard on myself for what I had lost, not accepting I had messed up and working like a madman for a hopeful future.
I can’t remember those years. You want to know why? Because I wasn’t present, and I wasn’t doing what was needed to be done at that time. Being more present has made every minute I spend working more productive, because I do it intentionally, there is a beginning, a middle and an end and it isn’t a blur.
Stop listening to Productivity Gurus who can help you make a million in a month.
You know why they tell you they can help you do that? Because you are the product, they exploit your aspirations and they make money by teaching you imagined stuff that messes up what actually matters and start wasting time doing what they say online so that you keep on going back.
You do not need to wake up at 3, you do not need to have a productivity smoothie ( who knows what that is), you do not need to strain your mind and journal things you are grateful for and you do not need to eat quinoa to think more productively.
That is all nonsense. Each individual, from the CEO to the most junior person on the team have their own process.
It is far more productive for you to look inward and find what makes you tick.
Compete with yourself first.
Rather than others, compete with yourself first, ask yourself if you are better than you were yesterday.
The more you look inward, the better you will get at what you do. And that process never ends.
The collateral effect of that is you automatically end up competing in a healthy manner with other entrepreneurs.
Patience is indeed a virtue.
Be in it for the long game. Virality is a sham. Stop seeking instant gratification, do things now that will serve you when they mature. It all ties in, living in the present and doing things now that set you up for the future.
Don’t ruin your present chasing stupid shit that has a one in a gazillion chance of working and then getting frustrated about it.
Every drop makes an ocean.
You can tilt the nose of the aircraft 3 degrees and end up somewhere completely different from where you had initially intended.
This works for business as well.
A small change or addition leads to massive gains.
To give you an example, we used to never manage RSVP for the events that we do. Employing resources in-house to help us manage that has not only helped increase our Per Event Invoice Value, but has given us a lot more control over the event than we usually had.
That over the course of a year has made our revenues jump by almost 20% more than what we would have been at, spend has increased too, but there is always a margin that we operate at.
To add to that, our clients now allow us more responsibility leading to an even bigger involvement.
That is a rough example, you do you. Find that thing.
Stop being busy.
This is the most important point, hence it is last. We all have 24 hours in a day.
A defined 8 hours is working is what we have always heard.
As an entrepreneur you might be inclined to put in 12 hours.
You know how long you are actually productive for in a day?
4 Hours.
That is when your brain is functioning at its most optimal level and that is the only time that you are capable of building a banger of a business.
Spend that time working on your business and whatever you have left working in it.
Stop trying to keep busy by doing things that do not serve you, but eat into your brain.
Instead, give yourself the liberty to indulge in something creative or a hobby, or just to sit, I can promise you from experience you will get a lot more done.
What I have stated above is what I have learned often times the hard way, over the past 19 years I have been doing this.
I still call myself an entrepreneur because I reached what one could call the top, then fell and started a couple of dumb ventures that failed and have finally been able to build a consistently growing business in my current agency.
Give yourself liberties that matter and come out swinging. I am rooting for you.
