I’ve always dreamed of owning my own business since I was a child, but I never thought I would own a business that would encompass my passion. I am an artist and teach other creative people how to become successful, so I thought it would be a natural transition to start a business that taught others how to be entrepreneurs. Boy, did I realize quickly that owning a business required more than creative talent. Below are the 10 things I learned:
1. Success comes from working with others.
I am not an island. I need others to assist me in growing my business. Assistance for me comes to me from my Master Mind Group and from the countless books and videos I read and watched daily. The Master Mind Group serves as my sounding board and support. The books and videos are my tutorials- teaching me how to become a better entrepreneur.
2. Have an Action Plan.
Not enough time was killer for my business at the beginning. There wasn’t enough time in the day to get things done. So I had to learn to maximize my time. I canceled my cable, and I reduced the time I surf the internet looking for cute shoes. I had to put an action plan together. Now I work by a time slotted schedule. There are certain parts of the day that are blocked off for writing blog post, creating videos, making phone calls, teaching and maintaining the home.
3. Hire the Right People.
I am a jack of all trades and a master of none. But this way of running my business wasn’t efficient or cost-effective. I needed to hire the right people to take away the things I hated doing. I needed a virtual assistance. I got one just a few months ago and it has been wonderful. She does the things I don’t like to do which frees me up to do the things I love doing, which is teaching and creating content and art.
4. Build Red Flag Procedures.
I had to confront the brutal facts that I had a business in theory but not in action. I had a web presence, business cards, business account and P.O. Box but I didn’t have a full operating business. I was spending a majority of my time sharing stories of what I wanted to do with my Master Mind Group, but I wasn’t actually doing what I needed to do to grow my business. So what I had to do was to condition myself to actually show what I had accomplished to my group instead sharing stories of what I wanted the do. The results of this conditioning turn out to be great- I finished my website, I started two more sites, taught a beginner blogging workshop and created a free report for one of my sites.
5. Keep the Faith.
Although I consider myself a successful creative entrepreneur, my bank account is saying something totally different. I’m making enough money to just break even. But I know in my heart and mind my bank account will soon reflect the success I hold in my mind. Jim Collins , author of Good to Great calls this the Stockdale Paradox, “ Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties.”
6. Be the best at what you do.
Earlier I mentioned that was a jack of all trades, A master of none, but as the months passed I’ve realized that I’ve learned and tried a lot of business ventures, but I can only be really good at a few. And better yet, my business concept could only be the best in one niche. So now I’m focusing my time and energy on what I do best. When I see others doing something I like- I have to say no – work only on what you know you can succeed at, leave the hoopla to the other folks.
7. Create a “Stop Doing” List.
I am the queen of to-do lists. I have a list for my other to-do-lists. My all time most important list is my STOP Doing List. On this list I place things I hate doing, things I shouldn’t be doing and things that I want ever do again. This list has helped me organize my time and establish the right people to hire.
Editor’s Note: This is brilliant. Everyone should adopt this right away!
8. Systematically decide on the right technology.
Along with the love of all things shiny- I too love gadgets. I want all the new cool adds-on and software. I’ve quickly realized that many of these gadgets are just shiny objects with no real value toward growing my business. The newest and greatest gadgets are not always needed, the Return of Investment (ROI) often sucked. I now choose only software or technology that has multi-functions. It has to work for 2 out of 3 of personal values – business, personal and spiritual life. Once I established these criteria then my gadget/ technology purchases became more meaningful and a better ROI.
9. Persistent Pushing.
I’m learning to forge ahead with living my purposeful dream. No matter how small the victory – I got to keep going. There are no quick get rich schemes; there are only persistence, diligence and faith. With all three of these actions at play- I can expect a million dollar break through any day now.
10. Give Back
Some call this tithing- I call it giving back what you were given. Many times I didn’t actually have the money to make weekly or monthly donations, but the one thing I learned was I have more than enough time and advice to share with others. Weekly I offer 2 to 3 hours of my time to anyone who wants to pick my brain. Believe me weekly my appointment times were filled with takers. I’m planting a seed and I get the joy of watching it grow.
10 of My Favorite Posts in 2010
- Who Am I Really?
- Learn How to Maximize Your Time
- Must Haves for a Creative Business Website
- 5 ways to Show Appreciation
- 7 Habits of Effective Creative Entrepreneurs
- The 4 Top Secrets to Creative Success
- 7 Helpful Tips for the New and Seasoned Art Blogger
- Help! I am all Over the Place
- How to Talk About what You do
- 10 Tips to Staying Happy and Positive
About the 10 Things I Learned Series
From Tia: This is a guest blogging series on BizChickBlogs on 10 Things Learned in 2010. I’ve invited a handful of people to submit guest posts on this topic, and I would love to have more! If you have something you can write about, whether it be about what you learned about social media, having a blog network, taking time off, investing in premium plugins, starting another blog, closing a blog, whatever – contact me and let me know or read the guest blogging guidelines and send your guest post that way. Everyone is invited. Thanks!
Image credit: Shutterstock
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One of the most inspiring things I ever heard concerning being persistent in a job is the following:
“Success is getting up one more time than you fall”.
Becoming an entrepreneur is like learning to walk…. falling is part of the learning process.
Just avoid major ditches…
I guess this fits perfectly in the part of being persistent.
Ines, I done it all fell and got back up. And I tell you this- I’ve llearned how to walk a little straighter, but I still stumble over a few things. That is what I call life. They only make your stronger!
Thanks,
Alease
Great post! Keeping the faith is definitely one of my foundations. If you don’t believe in who you are and what you offer, it’s easy to get discouraged. Thanks for the the insight!
Donina,
Keep the faith- has been super important to my personal and business life. When I was having a real hard time at work- having a strong sense of me and God helped me through it all. So when I tell others- keep the faith- I mean it and it works when times are the hardest.
Thanks for your comment.
Alease
What a timely article highly educative and informative. The ten tips you provided will no doubt help me to be a successful entrepreneur. This great piece of article can be applied in some other spheres of life, shared this with my friend who has been struggling with his career choices and he says you molded him! Keep it up and write more articles on the same.
OMG – Thanks Joe! I that means a lot. You encouragement will surely keep me writing. Thank you, Thank you.
Alease
The Golden nugget I picked out from this list is the not-to-do list. I learned a similar approach to procrastination in Neil Foire’s The Now Habit. In it he shares a technique called the “Unschedule”. This simply means scheduling your day/week around non-work activities or the things that you want to do. And then scheduling your work day around your pleasure activities. Works for me.
Hey Bret, I am glad you liked the stop doing list. It has been the best thing ever for me. Just today – I added one more thing. My trade I am a graphic designer, but when I start designing something it takes me hours or sometime days. I add to my list – stop doing your own designs and hire someone to do it.
This was very liberating (did I spell that right?). Already have the right person to hire for the job.
I know how tempting it is to do the highly technical and specialized stuff as a business owner instead of delegating it; to work IN your business rather than working ON it.
Kudos to you Alease and happy holidays
Great post. Thank you so much for sharing. I am working, too, in the list of NOt To Do things or the things that are taking mt time and my breath away. For sure I will be reading more on your posts!
Have a lovely week! and Enjoy the Ride!
Hey Elizabeth.
I checked out your website. Great work and it looks like you are doing very well as an artist. Being an artist and entrepreneur sometimes gets in the way of being an artist. I love sharing information, but I also love creating art. My “Stop doing” list has really help balance out what I should be doing and I shouldn’t be doing.
Thanks for the comment- Alease
I really enjoyed reading about what you have learned. The most important one is not to give up. I wanted to do just that but I kept reading pages like this one and took the advice that I learned and put them into actions. I love what I am doing now but it was and still is hard work. The old saying is true…You can’t get something for nothing. You have to keep working at it until you get it right.
Excellent post, I’m enjoying this series so far. I wish I would have thought of doing it.
Hiring the right people is where it’s at, over the last 15 years and 10+ of those being an entrepreneur I’ve learned the importance of hiring the right people.
John,
You are the right- hiring the right people is very important. It was the best thing I could have ever done. Along with hiring the right people- I have also learn that when you hire the right people you also have to allow those people to do their jobs. No micro-managing here.
Alease
Wonderful list of ways to help you improve your business. Personally, I really liked your ‘not to do’ list. I think one of the biggest things that gets in the way of making progress is wasting time surfing the web and chatting when there are much more important tasks at hand.
Ever since I’ve heard the concept about creating a mastermind group, I’ve wanted to start putting one together. How did you find the people to be on your mastermind? Do you guys all act as a sounding board for each other? BTW, great article. Not recycled content – original and practical.
Hey TJ,
My Master Mind Group are liked minded friends that I’ve come across in my many years of working as a college professor. We just really happened to find each other. We had the same goals in mind – starting a business. My suggestion would be- just people a group of friends together- what will happen those who are really connected will continue to meet and they will bring others- those not interested will just fall off.
Let me know what happens.
Alease
“Create a ‘Stop Doing’ List.” Michelle, you’re the first person I’ve ever heard say that! I love it. Very nice post. I hope you guest blog for Tia again!
Thanks Sherryl. I hope Tia ask me to guest post again also (hint- hint) lol.
Open invitation! Especially in the new year. You are more than welcome!
Love the idea of the “not to-do list” – I have two whiteboards (one large one for major projects and the other for daily tasks) but what I should probably include are small things that always remind me the essential “is this productive?” – sometimes you have to remind yourself to snap back into doing the most valuable thing; can be easy to get distracted sometimes.
Great stuff you’ve learned this year, I hope you will learn more next year.
To-do lists are great as long as you don’t get swamp in them and reading the todo’s list is taking longer then just doing what you want to do.
But having a not-to-do list handy, is great to avoid those mistakes you already did in the past.
Be the best at what you do.
You must strive to be the best, I don’t think the are natural born “besters”
Great list and I am definitely going to write a “stop doing” list. I thought of 5 things right off the top of my head. Whew. That feels good.
#9 is really important. I am trying to find the balance in that arena. Thanks for some great tips.
Michelle the stop doing list is my favorite also. The write things on that list is the highlight of my day. I am really glad it has help and well as #9.
Alease
I can’t get the links to work. Anyone else having trouble?
Which links?
The bottom few weren’t working.
Tia do I need to resend them to you?
Its all about being happy and taken those steps toward happiness..Just like the movie Will Smith made..”The Pursuit of happiness” Never give up on your dreams..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
The Pursuit of Happiness was a great movie and I learned a lot about myself and the meaning of pushing forward. I think if most of us keep that type of thought we all would be a lot further in life. For sure- I will never give-up on my dreams.
Alease
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