Every month I teach a "Starting a Small Business" workshop here
at Volunteer State Community College. I
usually get a dozen or so wide eyed optimists wanting to pursue their dream of
entrepreneurship. They tell me they want
to start a business so they can immediately call their own shots, spend more
time with family, come and go as they please, and do what they want, when they
want.
Their priorities are faith,
family, and friends and no
amount of success will change that!
Then I chuckle a little.
Not out loud. That would be rude.
We then spend the next couple of hours discussing what it
takes to start a business successfully.
I also see the same for businesses that have plateaued or
never really taken off. They want to do the same things that the
startups are aspiring to, without doing the hard part first.
Of course their priorities should be faith, family, and
friends. Most successful people have
those priorities. But they can’t be your
excuse to not building your business, i.e. my business won't take off, because I won't sacrifice my faith, family, and friends. The truth is, YOU can have both!
It’s more about what you are willing to do, to truly make
those priority matter.
You may have to do some things you don’t want to do, in order to get the things you want.
Doing the following in your business will help you in
making your faith, family, and friends your real priority.
- Don’t wait on the economy to take off. I think we are there.
- Create your goals. Then create steps to reach those goals. Then create the team and time to reach those goals.
- Turn off the TV
- Back off golf or “insert-hobby-you-have-justified-here”.
- Exercise
- Read books
- Turn off email, text, and Facebook alerts
- Step outside of your comfort zone, knowing that making an omelet involves breaking a few eggs, i.e. put yourself out there to make sales.
And once your business has a strong foundation, you will then
be able to call your own shots, spend more time with family, come and go
as you please, and do what you want, when you want, without sacrificing, faith, family, and friends.
