As the New Year approaches it is common to look back on the past year and recognize ways in which you can improve both personally and professionally. For entrepreneurs, identifying these resolutions is often a difficult task because it takes a bit of self-reflection. As an entrepreneur myself, and after my own self-reflection, I have identified 5 New Year’s resolutions that every entrepreneur can benefit from:
1-Focus on being a leader in your company (and not just a manager).
It sounds easy enough, but this is one of the trickiest parts of owning your own company for many entrepreneurs. Being a leader means doing more than just keeping the company running and keeping people happy. While it’s of course still important to play the manager role and keep things running smoothly, being a leader means coming up with new and innovative ideas to get your team inspired, finding creative ways to foster collaboration, and being able to maintain a view of where you want the company to be in the future.
2-Learn to encourage employees to become leaders.
As an entrepreneur and the so-called head honcho, sometimes performing a task can be easier if you do it on your own. It might get done in a shorter amount of time or more to your liking so this can be a tough one to break, but the idea here is to think about the future of your company. You’re not always going to have the time to do everything yourself, and in fact you probably don’t have the time now (as much as you’d maybe like to). This is why you have employees and staff, and this is where encouragement comes into play.
It doesn’t help your team grow and learn how they can do things on their own if you are constantly doing the work yourself. Going even further, delegating work with specifications about exactly how something should be done puts you in the same boat. You want your employees to be productive, and for many that starts with feeling productive. Let go of the reigns a little bit this year and focus on encouragement for your employees.
3-Don’t lose sight as to why you became an entrepreneur.
This is a great resolution because this is something that will happen time and time again as your company continues to grow. It’s easy to lose sight of why you started your business as more money and time gets involved, so you have to constantly remind yourself why you do what you do. If you’ve made it this far and you’re already thinking about resolutions for next year, chances are you started your business for the right reasons. Use that momentum to push you forward, and take it seriously. That person full of hope and ideas so many years ago knew what they were talking about.
4-Value your time.
They say that time is money, and this is especially true when it comes to business. Stop attending meetings or going to conferences that have nothing to offer you, and stop offering your own expertise and knowledge if you’re getting nothing in return. Whenever you make a commitment to do something, ask yourself a simple question: Is the potential reward going to bring your company something more than you could bring if you only had more time?
Zach Davis from Tech Cocktail wrote an article that explained, “Spending your time on less-important projects devalues your offerings and cheats your existing clients and customers who are paying for such a benefit.” It’s a great outlook that is so often missed.
Extra Tip: If you have the funds, I would also recommend entrepreneurs hire an office manager to help sort all the little odds and ends so that you can have more time to focus on what’s truly important–your business.
5-Hire Smarter.
Hiring the right talent is going to be crucial to the long-term success of your business, and as you’ve most likely already encountered, hiring the right team members isn’t easy. It’s easy to like a candidate and decide to take a chance, but this year try to make it a point to really focus on your immediate objectives and whether or not that candidate is going to help you succeed. Be strict with yourself on this one because it’s easy to get sidetracked.
The Takeaway
The thing about New Year’s resolutions is that you’re always going to have a few slip-ups. Many of the tips above are things that you probably worked on this past year and will continue to work on as your company grows. With some of these more fundamental lessons, it’s going to be easy to fall back into your old ways, but continuing to actively work on them, even if it means just a little bit at a time, will go a long way to helping shape you into a successful entrepreneur.
Written by: Adam Heintzman Source: www.Inc.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE MARK CONSULTING & MARKETING
Website: https://themarkconsulting.com
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/TheMarkConsulting
Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/TheMarkCompany
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/TheMarkConsulting1
HashTag: #TheMarkConsulting #LeaveYourMark #ReMarkableResults