The common mindset of an entrepreneur for their business how they can accomplish goals and maximize business growth. It is important for every entrepreneur to remember that the ways they can accomplish their business goals and achieve the targets.
Sell dreams, not products
What is the first reaction of people when they see you trying to sell you something? Most would reject you but that’s okay – it’s part of sales process.
But what if you come to a person with an idea or a dream of how you can fix his or her life. What if you tell her that you have a solution to our everyday lives?
Your chances of grabbing people’s attention are much higher isn’t it?
People are tired of sales people. Quite frankly, sales often get the bad rep despite of its importance to every company.
But, if you come with a solution, people might perceive you differently and become more accepting of what you have to say.
So, stop selling your products. Sell a dream.
Planning
What is the important equipment or technology that is important to manage the information? Efficient business can always qualify to give better results. Make sure to manage CRM, communication, data, inventory, and more in an automated way, minimizing the mistakes and maximizing efficiency.
Advertisements
Expense
Before moving ahead you need to be clear in your budget and what are the important financial planning. Make sure the budget and technology have a good balance. Deploying the technology can be one time investment for your business and using it a efficient way can give long term benefits.
Implementation
Implementation of the techniques or plan for your business. The implementation of technology efficiently can help to improve your business performance. This stage you check how your business is performing, this way can calculate the changes before and after implementation.
Advertisements
Manage your business with good Ideas
Now you can manage your business, and apply ideas to get better results. Keep doing quality work and get quality results with upgrade technology.
Upgrading your business e.g retail business, hotel management, Restaurants operation, eCommerce and more with technology is always the best idea to grow your business ahead
Hi! We keep getting emails and messages to be interviewed and featured on our platform. In response, we have listed down 10 basic questions below for you to record yourself and send it to us to be featured on our website, Youtube & Facebook pages! That simple!
Here are the 10 basic questions:
Tell us briefly who are you and what you do?
What made you to start your business first place?
What was the biggest challenge your business faced and how did you overcome it?
What’s your target for the company within the next 5 to 10 years?
Name 3 traits every person needs to become an entrepreneur
What’s your biggest regret in life? And how did you overcome it?
What is your greatest strength as an entrepreneur?
If you had to share one life advice, what would it be?
Being an entrepreneur, many suffer from demotivation or lack of self discipline to work, do you have any tips to share to overcome the problems?
Where can people find out more about you? Website, social media pages?
Something different I have for you guys this time. I’ve finally compiled 20 strategies to grow your Instagram followers in form of list. Here it goes:
Promote your own hashtag(s) on your other social profiles, on your website, business cards and your email blast.
Get creative with your hashtags. Be relatable. Be memorable.
Pay attention to relevant and trending hashtags. Join these conversations to get in front of more people.
Use your bio link to drive traffic to your newest or most popular content.
Write descriptive captions. Storytelling will help generate engagement and potentially more sharing.
Have conversations with top influencers in your space and become one of their favorite people or brands.
Don’t want a tagged photo of you or your brand on your profile? Edit Tags to hide images from your profile.
Change settings if you do not want to be tagged by embarrassing photos.
Develop your own unique, recognizable visual style. Make sure people know your brand the moment they see your posts.
Visit the Places tab to see what’s happening locally – your neighborhood, a city you’re targeting in ads, or an event in a certain location.
Use a call to action to tell people what you want them to do with your posts. Be creative to get people share your content.
Post videos on your feed with subtitles. This enables your audience to watch the videos without fearing of loud or annoying sounds.
Post multiple clips on Instagram Stories & add locations near your business to attract people from outside your city.
Create two accounts for your business; Account 1 promotes your product, Account 2 displays behind the scenes. Each account support one another to extend your reach in market.
Add polls on your Instagram Stories; ask them what they’d like to see next, or what do they think about latest post – the opportunities to open up conversations are endless!
Create Q&A session on your Instagram Stories! Let your fans get to know you more by answering questions about you (the owner) and the business. These sessions can seriously catapult your engagement.
If you travel frequently (even domestic destinations), make full use of Instagram Location each time your post on feed, or your Stories. This allows your business to extend its reach in the market.
Request a shoutout for a shoutout to important figures in the industry. Don’t approach the big players yet if your account is small. It won’t make sense for them to exchange shoutouts with a small Instagram account.
Create 3 Highlights that best describe what you or your business does; I’d recommend to create ‘Website’, ‘Testimony’ & ‘Behind the Scene’ Highlights. These can help translate your business somewhat relatable to people – which is a big plus for your business.
Link your Instagram account with other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc.
You feel you have the right idea. You know your company can make the difference in the market. Somewhow, you just can’t make that journey to success. You lack the productivity due to little to no motivation.
In today’s article, I’m sharing with you the 15 ways that can help to boost you productivity level.
This is the ‘early bird gets the worm’ saying. Many successful people swear by it. My personal favorite would be Mark Wahlberg’s schedule. He wakes up around 2 to 3am and start his day with workouts, and work afterwards. In a nutshell, he gets a lot of things done as people just about to get off bed.
There are numerous studies that point out how your work rate improves tremendously since your brain is fresh in the morning able to perform tasks at optimal level – making it the most ideal time to get many important things done early on.
However, I do also know successful people who get up later. If you’re a night owl, then trying to wake up early means you’re going against your body’s natural rhythm. Some even shared that night time is perfect as most inspiration comes around the hour. No one can argue if it’s the truth. Do whatever that works best for you.
However, I don’t recommend this since it causes a lot of setbacks to your body as multiple clinical researches have found that lack of ‘night’ sleep could potentially lead to a number of chronic diseases.
Advertisements
2. Stay away from distractions when you first wake-up.
You open your eyes first thing in the morning and instinctively grab your phone. This is a mistake according to brain performance expert Jim Kwik, you shouldn’t look at your phone for the first hour of the day.
The main reason is that your brain is highly suggestible during this time. As a result, this trains our minds to become distracted because of the release of dopamine we get from our electronic devices. Your productivity also takes a hit for the rest of the day because we want to keep experiencing those good feelings. So, instead of getting to work, we stay glued to our phones.
No surprise here. You need fuel to give you the energy to power through the day. Of course, you shouldn’t devour a doughnut and wash it down with a sugary drink.
Think healthier options that involve high protein like eggs or protein shakes. Add in berries, raisins, avocados into green smoothies too and not to forget a boring cup of coffee.
On top of the energy you’ll receive, these types of foods are good for your brain by improving your concentration and memory.
If breakfast is not your thing, like Elon Musk, be sure to take a heavy brunch or lunch like he does when you get the chance to help fuel you to work for the rest of the day.
Advertisements
4. Exercise
If you exercise when you first wake-up, even before eating breakfast, you can overcome your grogginess. This will make it so much easier to start your day early rather than taking things slowly – which is a big ‘no’.
Remember, physical activity doesn’t just improve your overall health. Any manner of exercise will help you de-stress and clear your head.
5. Meditation and stillness.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve struggled with anxiety. If you’ve ever dealt with this, then you know it can sometimes be almost impossible to be present. It can also make falling asleep a chore or start your day with dread.
Meditating hasn’t wholly erased my anxiety. But it has made an enormous difference. It has helped calm me down and return my focus to what’s going on right now. Best of all? You can meditate whenever and wherever you like, whether if that’s right before bed, first thing when you wake, or when taking a break at work.
Practice meditating with good breathing techniques – it helps.
Advertisements
6. Make your bed.
I think my mom would love this entry, even though I don’t believe that I was a messy kid growing up. Anyway, making your bed is a great way to begin your day productively.
Frankly, I wasn’t really an achiever in making my bed. It was until I found I have sensitive skin that forced me to make it a habit. Turns out, bacteria are accummulated in bed if not care for it. I started making bed after knowing this and went the extra mile to spray the bed sheet and pillows with special antiseptic to kill bacteria that irritated my skin.
The importance of making bed is crucial as it sets your mindset to a winning mentality. During his 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas, US Admiral William H. McRaven said:
“If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”
7. Recite affirmations.
Initially, I was someone can be seen as reserved. I don’t talk much back then. I just had own priorities to work on. This was something I knew had to work on since building a great business requires you to network with people.
This was where I found out about affirmations. Simple affirmations like “Today will be the best day” can make all the difference in the world. They help you focus on what you want to achieve. These affirmations release ‘positive thought’ neurons’ that can help you build you winning mindset.
Except for taking care of your health, reading is the best thing you can do for yourself. It helps you develop new ideas and perspectives. It helps reduce stress, expands your knowledge, and improves brain function such as memory, focus, and concentration.
If you’ve done enough research about Warren Buffett, or the late Steve Jobs, you’d know how much these people love to read. Truth is, no matter how smart or successful you are, you should never stop learning.
When I started running my businesses, reading got me to stay up to date with latest development in my industry. The business I was in changes frequently, so there was a lot of adapting to do from time to time. This is where reading helped me to remain competitive.
9. Schedule your time.
Mark Cuban once said how he’s not bothered much by ROI (Return On Investment) but more concerned about his ROT (Return On Time). This is an indication of how important time is. It is obvious that unlike, money, you can’t make back the time invested – unless it’s worth the effort. This is why scheduling your time is essential.
If you don’t schedule your time, then you’re going to wander aimlessly and having no direction is the last thing you want whilst running your business. Sure. You know that certain things need to get done. But, which ones are your priorities?
When exactly are you going to cross them off your to-do-list? Are there deadlines that you must adhere to? Creating a schedule helps you answer these questions and plan accordingly.
10. Pare down your decisions.
We all have a limited amount of brainpower. If you spend too much energy making low-level decisions, then you’ll experience decision fatigue. You won’t be as productive when you’re mentally drained.
Look at Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, Bill Gates and so many successful people – what do they have in common other than great work ethics? They don’t get bogged down with looking rich. As long as they have proper attire on, they are good to go. Their priorities are ‘parked’ elsewhere.
I suggest that every night, you layout your wardrobe and prep your meals for tomorrow. Or, you could do this for the entire week on a Sunday. The idea here is to reserve your energy and willpower for what truly matters.
Advertisements
11. Put pen to paper.
There’s a routine called Morning Pages practiced by people ranging from journalist Oliver Burkeman and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss.
The idea is that when you first wake, write 750 words to clear your head. For me, this is the time I’d normally write down (or go through) my to-do list for the day. It will keep me focused on getting those tasks done for the day.
And science has also found that handwriting can spark creativity and help us learn.
12. Focus on yourself.
With so much going on in your life, it’s easy to neglect your own self-care and priorities. Over time, you’ll get burned out. No matter how amazing of a person you are, everyone needs time to rest, play, and learn. If you don’t put yourself in your schedule, then it will get filled with other time requests.
13. Practice gratitude.
It’s been found that those who spend five minutes writing down what they’re grateful for have increased their sense of well-being by 10 percent.
And, as you know, when you’re a better mood, you’re more productive.
You can also pray – thanking everything you have and have accomplished if you’re the religious type.
Socializing with people have been found to have positive effects to your general happiness, and healthier lifestyle.
This certainly does not mean you should be socializing with people all the time – that’s time wasting.
Instead, schedule your time to allow yourself to kick back, relax and meet people to socialize.
Try working in a coworking space or catching up with a friend or colleague for lunch. And, worst-case scenario, schedule a conference call with your team.
15. Set hard time limits on certain activities.
This idea is similar to ‘Shooting for the moon. If you missed it, you’ll at least land on one of the stars.’ If you need a grade B, work like you’re an A student. If you need $1 million, work like you’re worth $10 million.
This may sound overwhelmingly difficult at first. However, by constantly setting up tough tasks – your mind and body will get attuned to such conditions. At the end of it, what you thought was impossible, was actually do-able.
If you’ve experienced long enough time as an entrepreneur, you’ve learned that there is no one cure for every disease.
In this case, some methods work perfectly for you while others don’t. Every entrepreneur and his or her business is different. So you need to mix and match what works best for you.
When you hate being an average person, then, the only way is to go ‘up’. This mentality sets yourself to higher standards in terms of the way you look at life.
It shapes the way you think when faced with adversity. You start to enjoy what life throws at you because you know,
While most would succumb to difficult challenges – like every average person does, you don’t.
Instead,
2. You practice discipline and self control
No matter how smart or brilliant your ideas are, if there is no self-discipline, nothing can be gained.
Discipline is important, but to become a successful entrepreneur, discipline becomes essential to ‘survival’.
Once you’re the owner of a business, there will be no one to tell you what to do, or what you need to get done.
You have to constantly find that motivation and eagerness to get things done; and without discipline, you’ll end up a failure.
It’s all on you now.
3. Failure doesn’t scare you
Let’s be honest, the fear of failure gets to you as an entrepreneur. There’s no denying.
What you do instead is, to manage that fear.
Elon Musk has a great strategy when managing fear. He always create a contingency plan in case things go bad.
When he started SpaceX, Musk set a target of $100 million for the rocket launch. If he fails, he’ll bail out of the space venture.
What’s so great about this move? It sets Musk’s mind that failure is a viable option. This helps managing that fear.
He also knows when to quite, which is also important for every entrepreneur so not to get dragged into much higher debt.
4. You wake up early
Most successful people love to start their days early.
This is because, they find mornings are the best time to get as many difficult tasks done as the brain is fresh and able to perform at higher degree.
If you start in the morning, you’ll also find that you get to get things done earlier – so you can spend the rest of the day doing other activities.
5. You surround yourself with great people
You are who you surround yourself with.
I believe this makes sense just by reading the title.
If your friends like to talk or do things that waste time; you’ll end up like one.
If your friends like to talk about ideas, opportunities, or investment; you’ll end up like one.
Start networking with people who are better than you today to get started.
6. You don’t complain
Complaining or whining is a waste of time and breath.
And yet, people still do it – because some supposedly experts on mental health issues say that it’s actually a good thing to vent your anger or frustration.
Guess what? This makes people who listen to them more of a whiner.
By the way, if these mental health experts are correct, then, how come we’re seeing increase in chronic mental health problems – whereas the mental health experts are at its most advanced stage in human history.
My advise? Stop complaining and carry on with life. You need to do something to take your mind off your worldly problems. Everyone’s got problems – deal with it like every other human being in mankind’s history.
There’s a saying “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”
Stay single. Let’s be honest, you can can get more things done without getting distracted from being in a relationship. Relationships can be emotionally and physically tiring – an energy which you could save and be invested into learning instead. I know this is not for everyone – move on if feel so!
Start your day early. I always find the most productive time to get most things done are in the mornings. Our brains (and body) are fresh from hours of sleep raring to start the day. If you had a good deep sleep, your performance in the morning is going to be much better.
Put your mobile phones on silent mode when working. How often do you check your phone during work? Often. Remove the distraction by putting it on silent mode while at work and you’ll see the level of productivity will improve.
A nice trick I’d use to stay focus is to simply have a pen or pencil in your hand – ready to take notes of what you’re reading. The pen acts as a focus point for you to not easily get distracted by your surroundings. It sounds trivial, but it’s not. Try to give it a shot.
I used to think that I’m able to work well with accompanying music. I was wrong. It started off well, at first. But as years go by, I began to realize some of the things I read did not really materialized. As it turns out, our brain is only able to process limited amount of info at a time. In short, try to minimize the distractions around you to ensure your brain processes what you’re reading or studying.
Don’t rely on video lectures or tutorials completely. Don’t get me wrong. Videos are great – for introductory levelled people. To become a learned person, you still need to go the old fashion way – which is to read books or e-books. In fact, audio books are great too if you prefer it that way. I know I do.
Again, who you associate yourself with plays important part here. Try to avoid or minimize contact with people who you feel demotivate you from studying or working. Peer pressure or their influence can be very dangerous. It’s infectious.
Don’t be discouraged when a person is able to read 30 pages in an hour. Most of these people are able to do so due to constant training of reading. So, start spending more time reading – give it some time.
Visit Quora.com to enhance your knowledge further. Quite frankly, it’s one of the best sites to keep your knowledge up to date. Most people there prefer discussions – not argument which I find very rare these days.
Structure Playlists to Drive a Linear Viewing Experience
Create playlists for your Youtube videos in order to guide future viewers toward more viewings and longer watch time.
Organize your playlists to covers topics of your niche.
First, create a playlist that demonstrates all your top-performing videos. By focusing all your best videos in one playlist, audience retention is more likely to occur and eventually, they will subscribe.
You should also create more playlists that fit well with more specific topics in your niche. For example, let’s say you own a channel that focuses on online marketing. Create playlists that focus on subtopics of ‘online marketing’ such as ‘youtube marketing’, ‘instagram marketing’, ‘twitter marketing’ and so on.
Don’t forget to fully customize each playlist that fit the subtopics; add suitable thumbnail, edit the description focused on keywords etc.
When you organize the videos in such sequences, viewers will more likely to watch other videos to find out what more you have to say. Ultimately, this will boost your watch time, which helps elevate your ranking on Youtube.
Choose Titles and Thumbnails That Accurately Reflect Your Content
The combination of titles and thumbnails can potentially impact your views and rankings on Youtube. Both act as the main trigger for people to click on your videos.
YouTube’s Creator Academy offers these suggestions for creating clickable thumbnails:
Choose an image that accurately reflects the content of your video so viewers know what to expect when they click. It’s important not to mislead viewers, because they’ll be more likely to be disappointed and stop watching.
Design an image that will compel viewers to click and see more.
Use both the thumbnail and title to tell an intriguing story.
Make sure your thumbnails will work effectively on both mobile and desktop.
Look at the Audience Retention reports for your videos to measure the effectiveness of your thumbnails. If you see a sharp drop off in the first 10-15 seconds, your video may not be delivering on the expectations suggested by the title and thumbnail.
Your thumbnail, title, and description should give potential viewers a good reason to watch your video over others in your niche.
Use Cards Throughout Your Videos
Cards are useful to keep viewers engaged by linking to other videos on your Youtube channel that they might be interested in.
For example, you can add cards exactly before the time in the video when viewers are most likely to drop off. You can figure out when exactly viewers drop off using Analytics.
Create Content Based on Long-Tail YouTube Keywords
Focusing on long-tail Youtube keywords can help you gain more viewers to watch your videos.
Initially, you can start researching for keywords by using Youtube’s suggestions feature in their search box. All you need to do is to type in a word your audience is interested, and a list of dropdown suggesting related keywords come up.
Then, take down these keywords so you can add later in your video tags when you upload content.
You can also visit your competitors’ channels and pay attention to their top performing videos. Take note of the keywords and replicate the videos that fit to your audience.
Entrepreneurial quotes are often overlooked these days. We always become at awe whenever we hear a quote but never take it to heart, eventually. Back in my early days, I often use some business quotes from my favorite entrepreneurs as mantras to continue my momentum of working hard to achieve success.
So, without much time wasting, let’s have a look at some of my favorite quotes:
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
Its pretty straightforward. You have to be chasing success like you need air to breathe. Your life depends on it. That is how a lot of successful entrepreneurs succeed. They don’t work 9-5pm. They work whenever and wherever. They are constantly hustling. Take billionaire Mark Cuban for example. At the age of 12, he started selling garbage bags. Then, he started bar-tending
“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” — Ray Goforth
This is especially true. How often do you hear the naysayers whenever someone tries to create or make a living? How often do you always hear people telling you that you’re not going to make it? Ignore them! These people are just noises. Truth is, they simply envy you. They are afraid that you’re gonna make it. And they are afraid that you’re going to succeed. Nuff said.
“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”— Albert Einstein
Einstein is brilliant for saying this. It’s true, success does come in many forms – some from good business, some from bad business. I’m not saying it’s ideal, but it’s just the way the world is. However, Einstein did believe in adding value to society. This benefits not only civilizations but also his or her good name for a long time. On the other hand, people who make ‘bad’ money (or ‘blood’ money), well, their success is often shortlived. Just look at the break up of Standard Oil when they monopolized oil industry in US, or the Sackler family during Opioid crisis. They were considered as successful people, but lacked the standard values and went down with it.
Advertisements
“Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.”— Tony Hsieh
Mr Hsieh wasn’t the first one to come up with this. I’m probably wrong about this but the point is, while chasing money is good, it rarely lasts very long. You ever heard the expression ‘quick buck’, ‘get rich quick scheme’ and so on? Well, the majority of people who say these are the ones who chase money at all cost – no matter what. They lack the moral values in running business. It’s a short term kind of thing.
However, when you chase your passion, you’ll start to do great things. Your product becomes an ace. Your service is top-notch. People love your business/service. This happens simply because you fell in love with your business. You are passionate about it.
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”— Winston Churchill
Elon Musk struggles with SpaceX can be perfectly summed up using this quote by the popular former British Prime Minister. SpaceX failed several launches in its early days. In fact, at one point, Elon Musk was thinking of selling Tesla to fund his rocket projects. Each crash taught his team what flaws needed correcting. They kept learning from the mistakes, and eventually, they succeeded. Now, Space X is one of the largest, if not the biggest private rocket company in the world. They continue receiving project from government space agencies to launch satellites and even resupply the ISS.
“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”– Jim Rohn
This is about similar to the infamous line “Fortune favors the bold.”
Most people give up on their dreams because they don’t want to risk getting out of comfort zone. If you look at successful people (the self-made ones), you’d rarely hear how often they sacrifices in order to become a success. In fact, some even became homeless before they strike gold. It’s all about risking. Are you all in?
Advertisements
“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.”– Anonymous
I love this quote. It completely separates the real entrepreneurs than the rest of the society.
Successful people tend to look at things differently. They often look at opportunities behind every problem they see unlike the general populace.
Just look at people like Steve Jobs. While most so-called experts of the early days of Apple claim there is no need for a smartphone (people already have computers), Jobs wasn’t bothered by it. He knows his idea is revolutionary – and he was right. He became successful because he saw something that no one else could. He was crazy enough to change the world.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”– Anonymous
If you’re looking for the first step to becoming an entrepreneur, this quote fits in well.
Entrepreneurs face challenges every day. They solve problems all the time. If you’re looking to become one, you need to start train yourself by doing things that scare you more often.
By constantly facing things that scare you, you’ll start to transition yourself
“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.”– Michael John Bobak
The people who take the ‘road less traveled’ are the ones who succeed.
Innovation occurs not by working hard in and out – but to also challenge everything we know through experimenting with different ideas. Failure is a possibility but without pushing yourself beyond the limit, you’ll never be able to see the other part of that struggle.
Yes, the success rate is very low – but if you take the easy way out, there is no way you’re going to succeed at all.
Nobody said it’s easy. If it was, everyone would already be doing it.
Advertisements
“I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.”– Estee Lauder
This is where so called entrepreneurs fail to realize before quitting their 9-5 jobs. Running a business requires your utmost attention, not lesser.
This means, it requires more work, responsibilities and stakes are higher. If you feel entrepreneurship is a way to get out of the 9-5pm job, you’re mistaken.
It’s about hard work and much more. What’s worse, most times, it does not even pay off.
Unlike working for a job, your business might still not make any money despite long hours of work. On top of all that, you are also under the pressure of still having to pay everyone in the supply chain.
HONEST 