Category: entrepreneurship

perpetual training

Some skills required for running a business will never go out of fashion. Selling and leadership, to name two. These skills are required at each point throughout a company’s lifecycle, whether you’re just starting or are heading a company that has existed for decades.

Some positions or roles within a company facilitate continuous improvement of those skills more than others. Training opportunities might not present themselves. If so, they should be actively sought out. A side business or project could be fertile ground for brushing up those skills.

Always embrace learning opportunities.

how to step by step

How-to guides get under my skin. Follow these seven easy steps, and you, too, will be successful. Especially tip number five surprised me.

The writers of the tv-show Grey’s Anatomy once had one of their characters say this. The problem with all the how-to, step-by-step books is they don’t take into account the exceptions to the rules. They never leave room for the outliers, the geniuses, the miracles.

Following step by step in the footsteps of a flourishing company, one that made it in your field, isn’t likely going to make yours successful.

Don’t optimize for success. Optimize for not failing.

find the dots

Intelligence is (more and more) the ability, and speed, with which you can connect the proverbial dots. However, for one to connect them, one must find the dots first. The more wisdom you acquire, the more patterns you’re able to distinguish and subsequently apply while solving a problem or otherwise confronted with an intellectual challenge.

That’s where a system comes in, a place to gather information. A directory that’s searchable, shared, and up-to-date. The more people collectively share this system within your company, the greater the benefit. However, without proper conventions and discipline, the system quickly loses its value.

With vast amounts of ever-growing knowledge in this world, learning everything by heart is not an option. Knowing exactly where and how to look, now that’s a valid option.

Reward people for documenting processes in your company.

hocus focus

When it comes to focus, there are different kinds that each come with their challenges. Put simply, short-term focus determines the level of concentration we can apply for a task at hand. Long-term focus means keeping track of goals and consequently not losing them out of sight.

Short- and long-term focus aren’t the same. What’s even worse is both often compete for the same resource.

Luckily, focus replenishes automatically, however not entirely. The amount of focus you can muster up depends heavily on how you feel. Your physical and mental health, state of mind, and energy levels all contribute.

Part of our capacity to focus can be trained. The process is simple. How would you prepare for a marathon? Surely by running. Focus can be trained by, you guessed it, focusing.

In this day and age, every internet-capable device is competing for our attention. While focus miracles (apart from medicinally induced ones) are hard to come by, some silent contemplation can work its magic.

Bonus: enjoy hocus focus beats, my carefully, artisanally crafted playlist.

good views ahead

Perspective is all we need. Sorry, Beatles. Whether it’d be an entire population during a pandemic, talent on the verge of signing a contract with a new employer, or a traveler navigating a city for the first time. A clear vision goes a long way.

It’s the reason we get out of bed. Goals. Ones we can move towards while anticipating improved circumstances down the road.

The ability to show a “you are here” roadmap, with the different paths that lead to success, is crucial. Without it, nothing happens.

too diverse

What if, in an attempt to find your niche, it turns out your audience is incredibly diverse? It sure makes it challenging to spot similarities among them. Profiling your ideal customer becomes even more cumbersome.

Below are four reasons why diversity within a target audience makes things complicated.

Sample size too small

Perhaps finding similarities within your audience is just around the corner. When you’re just starting out with a handful of customers, finding similarities between your customers could be complicated. If a pattern doesn’t reveal itself straight away, wait until your sample size increases.

You haven’t found them yet

Maybe the similarities are there, but you’re not seeing them. If what you’re looking for is obscure at first, it’s tough to spot. You won’t know what to look for precisely, which isn’t exactly helping in the process. The upside is that you’ll have clear targeting criteria once you do find it.

Their similarity is their diversity

Maybe diversity is the defining factor. The fact that a limited amount of parameters can’t define your audience, that is precisely what defines them. The way forward, in this case, is to look for like-minded people. People that don’t seem to fit a particular profile. That’s your profile.

Can’t be probed

Your audience’s characteristics are tough to define from a behavioral and analytical point of view. In that case, defer to those parameters that are easy to define. Criteria such as geography and age.

It’s like Aaliyah said: if at first, you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.

Building your ideal customer profile doesn’t happen overnight.

novelty curse

New wears off, sooner or later. Suppose your audience initially flocked towards your product or service for the novelty. In that case, they might leave due to antiquity if things don’t change fast enough.

While part of your thrill-seeking customers may have joined in search of something new, part of your customers may remain on board because they have gotten used to your brand.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. While innovating, make sure to keep what works.

terrible boss

Entrepreneurs often have the worst bosses. Themselves. Even though many entrepreneurs make excellent leaders, all bets are off when it comes down to ourselves.

Why treat ourselves worse than we would treat an employee or a friend? Research shows that dog owners are more serious about buying healthy food for their pets than buying healthy food for themselves. What have we ever done to deserve this?

Consider yourself as a friend. Be nice.

patience paradox

So-called overnight success is the result of ten years of excruciatingly hard work and sacrifice. To achieve it, one must be patient. Very much so.

Loading an e-commerce website, on the other hand, should take but a split second. In this case, one mustn’t be patient. Zero chill allowed. When two e-commerce platforms offer similar services, one ever so slowly, the other super-fast, which one will prevail?

If a process can be done faster — without compromising quality — it should be done faster. None of us have time to witness their frustration barrel overflow.

As a business, it’s fair to demand the fastest possible service from other companies, especially ones that you offer and expose to your end-clients.

In this patience paradox, macro patience on the one hand, and micro patience on the other hand seem to be very far apart, but the line that separates them is a fine one.

debilitation

Discomfort is normal. Nuisances here and there are inherently part of life.

An occasional minor headache that vanishes with some over-the-counter medicine is slightly annoying yet acceptable.

These little problems are part of the game. Deal with them as they arise. Don’t go out of your way to obliterate them. The cost to avoid them would be too high.

A severe migraine attack is a different story altogether. When you’re no longer able to endure light and sound, worse, become unable to move, you become debilitated. There is nothing you can do. It’s literally the only thing you can do. Nothing. Call it a day.

It’s horrendous to be debilitated, especially while operating a business. We like to be in control, but in the end, we can’t control what we can’t control.

There is, however, one more thing we can do, albeit not while debilitated.

Identify and eliminate debilitating risks in your business before they occur the next time. Prevention is better than cure, after all.