Tag Archive for: Buisness Advice

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Seven Things Smart Entrepreneurs Do Daily

If you pay attention to entrepreneurial culture, you may start to notice a few daily trends among successful entrepreneurs. You may not be the ‘waking up at 4 a.m.’ type of entrepreneur but you may learn a thing or two from them. Below are some things smart entrepreneurs do on a daily basis.

1. They Plan Their Day

When you venture into the entrepreneurial life after working a 9 to 5, you will have so much time on your hands that you will not know what to do with it, literally. Instead of spending your newfound free time on Netflix, you should be growing your business. Successful entrepreneurs plan their days out so they know what needs to be done at what time to optimize their time. This is considered as the top thing smart entrepreneurs do on a daily basis.

2. They Take Time Off To Recharge

You may think that as an entrepreneur, there is no time to waste on rest but you need to know when to take a break. There is a difference between working effectively and working. Successful entrepreneurs usually have a strict work schedule, but they also have time off from their work and it does not eat into their work. You can switch off from work to help you find happiness in other things aside from work. Also, ensure you get enough rest or take time from work so you can recharge and get a new perspective on things. 

3. Smart Entrepreneurs Focus On Self-Development

Successful, smart entrepreneurs also use methods like coaching, mentoring, workshops, courses, audiobooks, and podcasts to enhance self-development. You need to keep learning in order to continue growing. Once you become an entrepreneur, invest in self-development and your own education. It helps you learn more about business and become more self-aware so you can grow professionally and personally. 

The fastest way to learn is to connect with other entrepreneurs who have already done what you are trying to achieve. Join a network of like-minded business owners to connect with and learn from others.

3. Smart Entrepreneurs Outsource 

You will get to a point in your business where you will feel the need to start outsourcing tasks because you are tired and cannot grow, but worried about making enough money to cover outsourcing. This is the ideal time to start. Successful entrepreneurs have admitted that outsourcing to experts was a turning point for their business allowing faster growth and bringing in more income than before.

4. They Have A Way Of Keeping Up with Their Inbox 

Outsource your inbox or schedule time to check emails and respond to them to avoid becoming a slave to it. Smart entrepreneurs turn off email notifications to resist the urge to keep checking each one as it comes in. 

5. Healthy Entrepreneurs Maintain Proper Nutrition

You can easily slip in this department as an entrepreneur because you may become caught up in your daily activities and end up eating a couple of snacks throughout the day. This also boils down to planning your day; schedule eating times and go as far as planning your meals and preparing them in advance.

6. They Take Time for Themselves

Everyone needs to take time for themselves regardless of how many hours he or she works or sleeps. Successful entrepreneurs schedule time for themselves for quiet time to meditate or read a book. You may also need to be away physically once in a while for a holiday; make sure you schedule it in so it does not clash with your business activities. 

7. They Use Time Chunking To Be More Productive

The idea here is that a task can take as long as the amount of time you have allocated to complete it. Schedule a specific amount of time to complete a specific task and you will be able to complete multiple tasks without procrastinating and with laser focus. Successful entrepreneurs have attributed this method to their increased productivity.

What’s something that you do regularly to stay on track and up your productivity? Let me know in the comments below!

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3 Things You Can Do Now To Get Your Marketing Right (And Your Time Back)

Unless you are drowning in new customers, getting your marketing right should always be a priority. As business owners, we face many challenges and have to be able to react and adapt to the constantly changing market, customer behaviour and other aspects of our particular industries.

Certain things, however, remain the same, like the importance of great customer service and building trust with your customers. In fact, they are becoming increasingly important in order to maintain a viable business. What has changed completely though is how we deliver customer experiences. Using clever software, it has become easier than ever before to design and deploy personalised customer experiences that build trust through consistent touchpoints. Moreover, it is now possible to automate your entire marketing strategy, from first contact with your brand to after-sale care. Thus, we have now reached a stage where we are able to develop digital marketing ecosystems that can deliver results 24/7.

A digital marketing ecosystem can help your business move from a reactive way of marketing (only marketing when business is down) to a proactive approach that is more predictable and fully automated. A well-designed marketing strategy produces a steady stream of qualified leads, builds trust through nurturing, helps to make sales and even provides guidance to your customers after they have made a purchase. By automating this entire cycle, we can move our focus towards delivering amazing customer experiences, identify exactly which strategies work and which don’t, and dedicate more of our time to producing amazing products and services.

Here are 3 things you can do now to take your marketing and business to the next level

The result of implementing these strategies is a healthier business, happier customers and more time for business owners to focus on what truly matters to them.

1. Map out your customer experience

What happens after a customer opts in for an offer? Design a series of emails that will guide your customer. Communicate the benefits of what you do in a non-salesy way. Try to connect on a deeper level, tell stories your customers relate to and encourage them to join the conversation. E-mail is a two-way medium. Recognise the fact that it’s not about your brand or product. It’s about your customers. Consider the emotional journey they go through, from not knowing you to increased brand awareness, over considering to buy to actually making the purchase. Help them with their decisions during each of these stages by delivering relevant content.

2. Automate, automate, automate

Use software, such as Ontraport, Infusionsoft or Mailchimp, to automate the delivery of your content. This set-and-forget approach will save you many hours of manual communication each week while creating consistency in the way you communicate with your customers. This, and the fact that you deliver relevant content at each stage of their emotional journey, results in increased trust levels and sales.

3. Consider ditching print advertising

The amount of money I see still being invested in print ads that don’t work is staggering. Moving your advertising budget to online ads (if done right) can result in higher returns and allows you to test and measure results faster and more efficiently. You can launch your ads the day you decide on a campaign and start seeing results in a matter of hours, not weeks. Print advertising certainly still has its place and might work well for certain industries. Just make sure that everything you spend money on can be measured and brings tangible results. If you don’t know your return on investment, it’s probably not a great strategy. Being able to measure the right metrics is key of a good marketing strategy.

Need help with your marketing? Let’s work together!

I help business owners develop and implement the right strategy for their business. In 3 months I will help you automate your marketing activities, including lead generation, social media content, email marketing and so much more – so you can focus on running your business.

Click here to learn more and book a free strategy call today.

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6 Common Business Mistakes You Want To Avoid When First Starting Out

When I started my first business at the age of 21, I had all the right reasons for why I would be different and succeed. Well, guess what? I lost thousands of dollars because I really had no idea of what I was doing at that time.

In Australia, more than 60 percent of small businesses fail and cease operating within the first three years of starting.[1] This fact is too often ignored by young entrepreneurs who are just as naive as I once was.

I now know that the main reason I failed was because of my lack of marketing skills at the time. I had a good product that people were actually buying, however, I wasn’t able to reach enough of the right people and turn them into buyers. Here’s your chance to learn from my mistakes.

6 common mistakes you want to avoid when first starting out

1. Giving up too quickly

It’s all exciting when starting out as an entrepreneur. Until you hit a brick wall. There will be many obstacles along the way and sadly most people simply give up as soon as the first challenge arises. It’s all too hard and staying in your job is just too comfortable.

2. Not having clear goals

A shiny new product in a pretty box is not a very good goal. After all, you didn’t go into business because you wanted to sell pretty boxes. You went into business to live your passion, make money, and to enjoy the freedoms of a successful entrepreneur. Be very specific and clear about what freedom means to you personally. Then work on those things that truly make an impact and help you achieve your goals faster. Read this post about the principle of leverage and how you can use it to grow your business twice as fast by doing half the work.

3. Not testing the market

It’s easy to assume that your product will sell and that everyone is going to love it. All your friends and family are probably telling you how great your idea is. What would they say though, if you asked them to pre-purchase your product and actually hand their cash over? Test it out. If out of 10 people no-one buys it, it’s probably a bad idea.

4. Ignoring the numbers

Chances are, the profit margins for your awesome product are just not high enough. Did you really think if you bought these cool t-shirts for $10 and resell them for $20 you made $10 profit? If you are serious about building a business, here are just a few things to consider: Taxes, accounting & bookkeeping fees, advertising cost, Marketing and promotional budget, rent, utility bills, shipping & returns, plus all the time required to build a profitable business.

5. Lack of focus

It takes focus to get a new business off the ground. Lots of focus. You need to have a plan of what your business is going to look like in a few months, as well as in a few years. Then, break your plan into smaller chunks and focus on staying on track. If you are like most young entrepreneurs you are probably working on the next project, even before you’ve seen any results. Stay focused. Also, instead of focusing on money, focus on adding value to your customers’ lives. If you can add enough value, the sales will come naturally.

 

6. Working on the wrong things

Yeah, no. Your logo and letterhead can wait. Start selling first. If it works you can start worrying about the cosmetics. You don’t need to spend hundreds or thousands on a fancy website either. Keep it simple and prove that your idea works on a small scale before you start going global.

 

 

 

Why do you think your business will be different? Have you experienced other challenges in your business or seen a new business fail? What’s the biggest lesson you have learned thus far? Leave me a comment below!

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1. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: http://www.abs.gov.au/
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Grow Your Business Twice As Fast By Doing Half The Work – The Principle Of Leverage

Let’s face it. We are all too busy.

Ask any friend or colleague how they are and chances are you’ll hear “I’m just so busy…”.

To cope with our never ending to-do lists, at work and in our personal lives, we look for ways, apps and tools to get even more done and in less time. We attend time management seminars to learn how to be more productive and take our smart phones and laptops to bed, so we can squeeze every minute out of our day. Despite the fact that we’re getting so much done, we aren’t feeling any happier. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

It’s a vicious cycle and for many of us there seems to be no way out.

I must confess, this is pretty much a description of the life that I was living for quite some time.

Until I learned about a simple principle. The principle of leverage.

 

The Principle of Leverage

By applying the principle of leverage, or the law of the lever, we are able to move heavy objects with a lot less effort. This simple technique has been known for thousands of years. The earliest remaining writings regarding levers and the principle of leverage date from the 3rd century BC and were provided by my old friend Archimedes (kidding, we never actually met).

So, since growing a business has little to do with lifting large rocks, how can we apply this to our everyday life and our to-do list?

Simple. The key is not to get more done, but to focus on getting the right things done.

We all have tasks that we need to perform on a regular basis.

Let’s say you have a particular task that takes you an hour to finish and you had to do it three times per week. This task then would take you three hours every week, or 156 hours per year.

To make better use of your time you could instead take one hour to write a system for this task. A step-by-step guide that you can pass on to someone else to perform the task for you.

 

What would you do with an extra 156 hours per year?

Now you might think, hang on David, that would mean I have to pay someone to do it? That money is coming out of my bank account!

Correct. But let’s assume you paid someone $20 an hour to perform this task. That would cost you $3,120 for 156 hours.

Wouldn’t you agree that, with 156 extra hours per year, you could easily recoup this expense and so much more?

Exactly. I’m glad you agree.

Do this for all repetitive tasks (unless you REALLY love doing them) and you will literally transform your life – and your business.

If you have employees or work with a team, you might even want to take it one step further.

Instead of writing a system for each task, write a system on how to write a system and let your team help you with developing your systems.

Having systems in place will not only help you and your team to be more productive, but will also add a significant amount of value to your business, should you ever consider selling it.

Good systems are the reason why large companies pay millions of dollars to buy out smaller businesses. They understand the value of having these systems in place and how much time and money it will save them.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE 1-PAGE BUSINESS SYSTEM TEMPLATE

Start your own business systems library to leverage your time and potentially save you hundreds of hours of work every year.

I have got my systems ready. Now, where do I put them?

A while ago, Tracey, whom I’ve been working with over the past two years, shared one of her biggest frustrations with me.

“David, my staff keep asking me the same questions, over and over again. It’s driving me crazy, having to answer those exact same questions EVERY day! I wish I could have my own ‘Google’, where my staff could simply enter a question and receive an answer instantly, without me having to be there!”

Two weeks later I got back to her with a system I had designed for her. We simply called it ASK. She now has all her systems in one place, stored securely in the cloud, which can be easily accessed by all her staff. Every system outlines exactly how to follow a procedure and where to find things. After a little over a year, she now has over 200 of her business systems documented. Even checklists now reside in that same system to ensure processes are followed correctly.

Staff members can simply grab one of the iPads provided and find anything they would ever need to help Tracey keep her business running, even when she’s away for a week or two, without having to call or email her.

I have since helped a number of business owners implement that same system, which saves them not only time and money, but more importantly, there sanity.

What’s your approach to increased productivity? Do you have systems in place that help you make the best use of your time? Or do you still do most of your tasks on your own? Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts, what your challenges are and any tips you’d like to share.

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7 Reasons Why Your Business Is Going To Fail Within Your First Year

In Australia, more than 60 per cent of small businesses fail and cease operating within the first three years of starting out.[1]

This fact is too often ignored by enthusiastic entrepreneurs who all believe they have what it takes to build a successful business.

When I started my first business at the age of 21, I had all the right reasons for why I would succeed. Well, guess what? I lost thousands of dollars because I was overly confident and naive.

In other words, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Looking back, I now know that the main reason I failed was because of a lack of marketing skills at the time. I had a good product that people were actually buying, however, I wasn’t able to reach enough of the right audience to make it profitable.

7 reasons why your business is (probably) going to fail within your first year

In this article, I’m sharing common mistakes in the hope that you can learn from them.

1. You are not testing the market

It’s easy to assume that your product will sell and that everyone is going to love it. All your friends and family are probably telling you how great your idea is. What would they say though, if you asked them to pre-purchase your product and actually hand their cash over? Test it out. If out of 10 people no one buys it, it’s probably a bad idea.

2. Your numbers simply don’t add up

Chances are, the profit margins for your awesome product are just not high enough. Did you really think if you bought these cool t-shirts for $10 and resell them for $20 you made a $10 profit? If you are serious about building a business, here are just a few things to consider: Taxes, accounting & bookkeeping fees, advertising costs, Marketing and promotional budget, rent, utility bills, shipping & returns, plus all the time required to build a profitable business.

3. You give up too early

It’s all exciting when starting out as an entrepreneur. Until you hit a brick wall. There will be many obstacles along the way and sadly most people simply give up as soon as the first challenge arises. It’s all too hard and staying in your job is just too comfortable.

4. You waste your time working on the wrong things

Yeah, no. Your logo and letterhead can wait. Start selling first. If it works you can start worrying about the cosmetics. You don’t need to spend hundreds or thousands on a fancy website either. Keep it simple and prove that your idea works on a small scale before you start going global.

5. You are lacking focus or simply focus on the wrong things

It takes focus to get a new business off the ground. Lots of focus. You need to have a plan of what your business is going to look like in a few months, as well as in a few years from now. Then, break your plan into smaller chunks and focus on staying on track. If you are like most young entrepreneurs you are probably working on the next project, even before you’ve seen any results. Stay focused. Also, instead of focusing on money, focus on adding value to your customers’ lives. If you can add enough value, the sales will come naturally. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was a genius at creating things that people want. The sales were a by-product of Apple’s early success.

6. You don’t have the right toolbox (or no toolbox at all)

If you are a mechanic and want to build a car from scratch, you are going to require some serious tools. You’ll also need to know exactly what tools you require to get the job done. Your toolbox as an entrepreneur might look a little different, but there is no doubt that you will need one. Do your research on what you really need in order to achieve your goals work hard on getting smart.

7. Did someone say goals?

A shiny new product in a pretty box is not a very good goal. After all, you didn’t go into business because you wanted to sell pretty boxes. You went into business to live your passion, make money, and enjoy the freedoms of a successful entrepreneur. Be very specific and clear about what freedom means to you personally. Then work on those things that truly make an impact and help you achieve your goals faster. Read this post about the principle of leverage and how you can use it to grow your business twice as fast by doing half the work.

Why do you think your business will be different? Have you experienced other challenges in your business or seen new businesses fail? What’s the biggest lesson you have learned thus far? Leave me a comment below!

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1. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: http://www.abs.gov.au/
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