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The idea of becoming an entrepreneur has been a memory I’ve cherished since I was seven years old. I have always envisioned myself starting something that will make money and employ lots of people.
But starting out wasn’t a bed of roses. There where lots of stuff I didn’t know and didn’t bother finding out. And due to the ignorance, I closed down up to four startups in five years.
I later found out later the issues were mainly in my business routines. I had to cut down on them and modify new ones. These business routines were generic, nothing new, but they have significantly helped me increase sales and invest more into numerous verticals.
Here are the five business routines that have helped me become the highly effective entrepreneur I am today. The first is:
1. I Worked All The Time I Work.
A long time ago, some business people thought that entrepreneurs who are always busy are naturally the most effective and goal hitting ones. Sadly, that’s quite far from the truth. According to popular research, being busy doesn’t equate you being effective with your day.
When I discovered how important it was to always work when we’re at work, I instantly changed most of my work processes. Especially the time wasting and long procedural routines like chatting and picking up calls when I’m in the middle of an important work.
Of course, they were hard to drop, but I forced it down. Brian Tracy says every time wasting scenarios around our lives are mostly habitual. So I set out to discontinue those time wasting habits.
I started first by looking with my to-do list. You won’t be able to identify where you spend all your time and energy except you track your activities. Where do I spend most of time and where are the time wasters there?
From that analysis, I was able identify my phone was my greatest time waster. When I was done with the analysis, I found numerous other aspects that were causing me to slack behind, and I immediately found solution to them.
For the phone, I decided to always put it on silent or on Pilot Mode whenever I wanted to do real work. This change and others helped me work more and accomplish more than I could have been able to within stipulated work hours.
2. I Made Learning a Commandment.
After reading “No Excuses” by Brian Tracy, a lot of things changed about how I viewed personal development in life and business. There was a line that caught my attention in the book. He said, “To guarantee your lifelong success, make a decision today to invest 3% of your income back into yourself.”
I totally loved that concept. Brian wasn’t talking about buying yourself cloths or cars. He simply meant investing into knowledge. Knowledge compounds like profitable stock. It just keeps growing higher. The more knowledge you discover in an area, the more ideas you’ll be able to apply there.
Knowledge is what makes innovation possible. And this innovation comes from how much you know in your field or a recently discovered vertical.
To make this a routine, I decided I would start using 3% of my every pay check to get more knowledge and buy more books. This has been my routine since and it has helped me tremendously to increase my knowledgebase, both in business and getting more relevant skills.
No matter your profession, you need knowledge because that’s what keeps you and your business relevant in your niche.
3. I Always Experimented.
An entrepreneurial life is all waxed with risks every here and there. And you can’t be a risk taker without first experimenting with different verticals you’re presented with daily.
I made it a daily thing to experiment with new concepts and ideas. Basically, this meant I had to take risks daily. And as I was busy jumping from one risk to the other, I accidentally discovered affiliate marketing and dived into that sector.
Around that time, all prospects pointed to the fact that I didn’t have much money to start up a business in that area. But I still launched out nevertheless.
The decision I took doesn’t mean I knew it would work. In fact, I second-guessed myself all through the beginning period. But I knew the risk was too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.
Presently, that online site is making money, and it earning potential can increase significantly if more effort is added to it.
So basically, the opportunity of seeing passive income from that site all began by me deciding to experiment and delve into anything I saw might be lucrative.
4. I Deliberately Put in the Hours.
Putting in the hours is the only true foundation of any genuinely profitable business. There are no shortcuts. Hard work is a habit I deliberately learnt when I read, “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg.
It was from that book I discovered that hard work is actually a habit. To deliberately put in the hours at all times when you’re at work wasn’t something I knew how to do naturally.
Simply put, I was never really the persevering type. I didn’t always pull through when I set my mind on something. I always found myself giving up easily; until I made that discovery.
All I needed to do, according to The Power of Habit, was to start a daily routine of working hard at my tasks and completing each and every one of them. This meant starting to write To-Do Lists and going out of my way to do the hardest tasks and end with the easiest ones.
I tell you, starting was incredibly hard. But Charles said routines become habits after at least 66 days. All I needed to do was keep on being highly productive by working harder, every single day, and keeping a daily review of each day of work. I wasn’t focusing on the long weeks in a month, or the months in a year.
I was simply trying to make today the best productive day it can ever be. I was simply making sure I chased out distractions that were after my focus for today. I focused just on making the present day highly productive.
And it worked. My business has been on the increase since I’ve embraced this aspect of routine and cling to hard work.
You can also give it a try. The reason people hardly keep to habit formation is because they’re looking at weeks in a row or how long it will take for them to develop the actual habit.
Focus on the daily habit. Learn to put in the hours. Work and make the present day the best. Work with a To-Do List and stay clear of distraction.
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Photo: Getty Images