These are important questions someone who wants to start a business must ask him/herself.
“What are the things I need to know as a small business owner?” “What are the things I need to learn now?” “What helpful habits need I start honing now?” “What are the habits successful business owners have that would be beneficial to me in order to keep my business growing?”
These are important questions someone who wants to start a business must ask him/herself.
John Jantsch in his blogpost “7 essential habits of successful business owners” listed them thus:
1. Get up early:
Most of us know this, right? A lot of people are up early anyway, even though it is to prepare and then rush off to meet the company’s bus at 4am or to rush off so as to beat the traffic and all. So, it is not much of a problem. For a business owner who doesn’t have to rush off to work early, you might find waking up early an inconvenience, especially if you don’t wake up early on a normal day. A lot of successful business owners get a lot of work done between 5am and 7am–clients’ work, journaling, planning for the new week, meditating, thinking up ways of improving the business or getting out of a tough rut. You accomplish more in the wee hours of the morning.
2. Focus on the important first:
Hmmnnn, for non-business owners, there are distractions, not to talk of business owners. You want to get a lot of work done, but you keep getting emails, BBM pings, Whatsapp messages and even Facebook messages which you aren’t sure you want to ignore or keep till later. Why? Because they could be from important clients or potential ones. You need to look for a way to get your work done and on time too. Focus on what you feel, think and know is important first.
3. Obsess over value
Make this your priority and your clientele would eat out of the palm of your hand. Excellence should be your watchword. Once people realise that what you offer them is of premium quality, they will patronise you in droves and spread good word about your product or service
4. Take care of the plant (which is you):
You wouldn’t want to keel over in a faint one day, would you? High blood pressure, over-exertion, talking in your sleep, etc. owning and running a business is fun but stressful and demanding both physically and mentally. You need to take things easy, if you don’t, you would have stress written over you. Do you wake up with work as the first thought on your mind? Or has your partner told you that you were talking in your sleep…” count the amount of soft drinks in the fridge”, or “make sure you double check that Mr. Tamuno would still join us for lunch to discuss the details of the contract”. All said with a very serious attitude. If yes, you need a holiday. You will not accomplish much in this state of mind. You need to reenergize and revitalize yourself. Believe you me, you need it. Exercise, rest, eat healthy and don’t skip meals if possible
5. Fill the gaps:
Find out from your workers and clients what it is you are not doing well or at all, what else is expected you, your product or your service. Ask your customers questions. What is it they need? How can you serve them better? Etc, you need to understand your clients, their world and how they get their information about your products or services.
6. Get out of the office:
Some days you just feel like holing up in the office and not seeing anyone at all. Yes, this is actually normal. But if it occurs all the time, it will tell on you as no man can live in isolation. You need to get out of the office, mingle. In doing this, you might get new contacts, learn, grow, gain key partners, new ideas/perspectives about your product/service or anything.
7. Love to learn, learn to teach:
Most business owners love to learn but they aren’t particularly good teachers. They don’t know how to pass the knowledge across per se. They feel they don’t have the time to teach their employees a few things. If as a business owner, you love to learn and you can teach/pass knowledge across to your employees, you would have your employees working without you having to look over the shoulders or having to watch out for the ever-present mistakes.
Do you agree? Let us have your take and what other habits you think/know would help other business owners become more successful.
