10 Effective Habits for the Successful Entrepreneur By: Marla J. Albertie
I started my coaching business in 2013; however, it did not begin as a coaching business. I began reviewing resumes for FREE, and my husband (now ex) said you should get paid for this and voila, my business was born.
I have always had the “entrepreneur bug.”
In 4th and 5th grade, my friend and I would color pictures from any type of coloring book and sell them door to door (this was when it was safe for kids to roam wild in their neighborhoods). We sold the pictures for fifty cents and bought candy with our earnings.
In the 6th grade, I made friendship bracelets (bracelets made from different colors of yarn, for those who don’t know what these are). I would sell the bracelets for a dollar each and save the money for a Barbie doll. I am sure you can imagine I could not wait to turn 16, so I could work, it was something about the feeling of making my own money.
As a child selling pictures I colored and bracelets, I realized this life not for the faint at heart, there was work that had to be done (plus homework and after-school activities).
As a child I learned to build habits to be successful in my career as a 9–5 employee and an entrepreneur (I choose to do both).
If you are just starting your career as an entrepreneur or still thinking about joining a society of over 582 million entrepreneurs in the world, you will need to develop certain habits to achieve the level of success you desire.
I am still perfecting many of these, but I can say they have served me well.
There’s no reason why you can’t have the same habits as some of the most successful people in the world!
Increase your odds for success with these habits:
Ethics
“There is no such thing as “work ethic” it is just ethics; either you have ethics, or you don’t.” — John Maxwell
I agree with John’s quote. Your ethics are embedded in you, or they are not. If you want to run a business, you will have to put in the work, as I learned as a child.
You will need to study, take classes, understand finances, know how to sell, and the list can go on. The mentioned tasks take time and effort.
It’s necessary at first to be a jack-of-all-trades. Until you can grow enough to hire others to cover all the required skills your company needs to thrive; you’re going to have to carry a lot of weight.
Ethics are the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior. Do you have established principles needed to govern your behavior to get the job done?
Conscientiousness
There is no surprise that a part of the Five-Factor Personality Model would be on this list. The acronym for the model is O.C.E.A.N. for Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, which can be discussed in another post.
Conscientiousness is the act of being careful and diligent in your work.
You want to make sure your work is professionally done and with tact, if you wish to have repeat customers.
As a business owner, it’s up to you to ensure that things are done correctly and on time. The responsibilities are significant, and the burden falls on the leader, and that is you.
You don’t have the luxury of putting out sloppy work and why would you want to, it will always come back to haunt you.
Manage yourself wisely
Time will always be a limited resource because time cannot be managed.
You will have to manage your life around the forever moving clock. How you manage your life activities such as what time you wake up, creating a schedule and sticking to it, and what you do in your free time dictates how successful your company ultimately becomes. That means having the knowledge and experience to make wise decisions and the mental toughness to avoid distractions.
Have a plan each day
One of the keys to managing yourself successfully is to plan for each day ahead of time. Each morning, I have a to-do list of items I want to accomplish for the day. I make this possible because I plan for the next day the night before.
Avoid going to bed without having a detailed idea of what you’re going to do the following day.
You need to give your subconscious mind something to work on while you are sleep.
Making a to-do list and reading it aloud will allow you to wake-up ready to tackle the day with a fresh perspective. When your feet hit the bedroom floor, you should already know what needs to be done for the day.
Wake up early
I have to be honest, I struggled with this one for years. I would set my alarm, wake up, hit the snooze on my phone, and go back to sleep.
Recently I read one of Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s posts, which encourages you to wake up at 5 am for 30 days. I am doing it, and I love it! I get so much done, and I have time to do extra activities such as watching a favorite television show.
There are very few successful entrepreneurs that don’t get up very early. Some get up even before 4 am. How early you get up is up to you, but if you’re not beating the average person out of bed, you’re behind.
Have a vision
What is your “why?”
You need to know why you are going into business for yourself. What are you wanting to accomplish?
As an entrepreneur you must create a vision for your business , which is an ultimate reasoning for why you do what you do. Your vision must be so big that you may not even achieve it, but you will damn sure try.
Set goals
I am a goal fanatic.
I have goals for my career, business, writing, school, travel, and many more. It’s not enough to work hard and work smart.
You also must know where you’re going, and goals will help accomplish your vision as goals are a part of the road map.
Goals help you make wise decisions. Know what you’re trying to accomplish today, this week, this month, this year, and ten years from now.
Deal with stress effectively.
You will be stressed, even lonely sometimes.
As an entrepreneurs, you will deal with stress regularly, so it’s essential to learn how to manage it.
I have a close friend who is a business owner as well, so we feed off of each other. It is comforting to have someone there who knows and understands how you feel, and what you are going through.
Have a process for dealing with stress and anxiety. Learn to recognize what you can control and what you cannot. Self-awareness is the key to beginning to deal with stress.
Look ahead for obstacles
Entrepreneurship is not a straight line.
There will be bumps in the road you will have to avoid, go over, or face head-on. To avoid being blindsided by obstacles and setbacks, look ahead for the challenges that you’re likely to face and have solutions in mind.
Look at your competitors and other companies in similar industries, take note on how they handle business.
Lifelong learning
As mentioned earlier, as an entrepreneur, you must study your craft to be the best on the field.
“If you are not first, you are last.” The only way to stay in the race is never to stop learning. — Grant Cardone
Entrepreneurs are leaders, readers, learners, and turners (they know how to make shit happen).
What are your current habits for success?
How do you define success for yourself?
Will your current habits lead to success as an entrepreneur?
Think about what you want to accomplish to be successful and build a set of habits that will support those activities.
The person with the best habits usually wins.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
