Over the 30+ years I have been an entrepreneur and business person – I have attended many conferences and conventions. I have listened intently and learned from personally many of the top motivational speakers and business coaches. Tony Robbins, Tom Peters, Denis Waitley, Seth Godin, Don Clifton, Robert Schuler, Gary Hamel, Daniel Goleman, Marshall Goldsmith, David Allen. (These are just some of the ones I have been in one-on-one conversations and private conversations with) They all have different ways of saying things but I have heard a common theme amongst them all. They talk about Focus – in one way or the other.
This is my summary of the common ideas they had that leads to this list of: The Top 5 Things To Focus On As A Successful Entrepreneur! Each one is so important that they are the ones you must focus on “big picture” constantly -literally everyday – to drill down and consistently, build plans and goals to advance and leverage them all.
Successful Entrepreneur Behavior
1) You and Your Personal Development – You are your main asset. You make most of the important decisions and you get to decide how big or how small your want your business to be. You exclusively control how you approach and think about your business and your personal mindset. The size of your business is only limited by you. You must constantly develop yourself, your skills and leverage your talents and strengths. If your goal is to be a person who attracts, keeps, and develops great people, you must first develop yourself!
2) Your Market – In the face of increasing opportunity via a world that is more and more available via the internet to your business – narrow your focus. It’s been called “Developing the skill of overlooking opportunity”. That sounds contrary to what entrepreneurs do – look for opportunities. I think successful entrepreneurs take advantage of and leverage carefully selected opportunities. Leaders don’t follow the herd. They are up front leading the stampede, gathering followers… Stop entertaining every idea that comes your way and jumping from the next great sounding idea to the next. Stop being a jack of all trades and a master of none. Stop being a serial entrepreneur and be a seriously focused one. The masters win out. Stop trying to be all things to all people. It’s an energy draining mindset. Commit and focus. And never lose your focus or you lose. PERIOD. Put your blinders on. Pick a direction and run with it like there is no tomorrow for you. THIS is where the big success starts to add up.
3) Your Marketing – You must create public consciousness and awareness in your marketing efforts. Look for customers who are looking for you. Make sure there is pain relief, deliver results, urgency and even scarcity in your message or an irrational passion. This causes an emotional drive from your prospect or customer and hopefully we know by now that people decide based upon emotion and then later justify their emotional decision with logic. It is human nature. Develop the ability to diagnose what your prospect and your customers unstated pain is – then state it as if you are a mind reader! Start giving away more for FREE. Don’t keep your best ideas to yourself. Share them. Give them away. Lose your scarcity mentality. Give and you will get – it is a law of business.
4) Your People – When you start bringing people into your business to assist you with your growth make sure they are “results driven” focused on results not work. Hire driven people these are people who have a sense of personal responsibility. They will intuitively know and embrace the idea of Owning the results. This type of employee is persistent and determined. They will not need to be told what to do.
This is the beauty of virtual assistants in your enterprise. Because you can give them ownership. You can pick out the best and the driven – you have no obligation to them. You do not pay them a salary. You does not pay their benefits. You pay them for results! Virtual assistants are becoming the secret of the wealthy these days and the growth of this industry has been staggering as of late.
5) Your Systems – Three words here: Implement, automate and improve. Get started today, automate the repetitive tasks, outsource the more complex after you clearly define the results you expect and constantly focus on improving your systems. Do NOT outsource your Core Competencies. Pick what at your core makes you different and become the master/expert. This is your business advantage and no one knows your business like you do – don’t ever pass responsibility for your core advantage to anyone. OWN IT and maintain mastery.