4 Monthly Habits Every Entrepreneur Needs For a Successful Business

 

When I opened my marketing and consulting business in 2015 I craved discernment and good decision-making ability. I had an MBA under my belt and I had experience in the corporate world, but I knew there was still a lot I didn’t know about running a business and I set out to figure out what sets the successful apart from the rest:

• What makes them good decision makers?
• What makes them good leaders?
• What makes them effective at their work?
• What makes their businesses profitable?

These questions are questions so often asked by new entrepreneurs and a big part of why I am launching the Initiative Mastermind Community – to help business owners seeking to become more effective in their businesses. But for now, let’s focus on these 4 Habits…

I’m writing this post to share with you insight on four profound habits that serve as drivers when it comes to business success. For each of the four habits listed below, I’ll share with you why the habit is so powerful along with actionable takeaways so you can walk away from this post and apply what you learned here straight to your business or life.

 

Habit #1: Embrace the power of small decisions. 

People wait around for winning lotto ticket types of opportunities and they fail to realize that the small opportunities compound to make a much more probable impact.

The “small opportunities” I’m talking about are the micro-moments that have made up your unique autopilot. Most of your understanding about the world has been shaped through shortcuts whose purpose is to expend the least amount of energy; not necessarily achieve the most effective results. Think about that for a second

But guess what, you have the power to fine tune your thought processes every moment of every day.

What does this have to do with business? 

It has everything to do with business! Your repetitive thoughts form your neurological wiring and if you’re not finding the results you’re looking for in your work, start with your repetitive thoughts… 

• These repetitive thoughts I’m talking about determine how you connect with other people. Do you give them the benefit of the doubt or the benefit of intention? It’s a powerful mindset shift.

• These repetitive thoughts I’m talking about determine how you manage your money. Do you spend everything that comes in for personal gain, or do you wisely invest it back into your business?

• These repetitive thoughts I’m talking about determine the intention behind running your business. Do your habits and behaviors reflect working for a paycheck or building assets?

Successful people are successful because they have built successful thought processes and habits. Not because they got lucky. And because this is true for them, it also works for you and me. 

Change your thoughts to change your world. The seemingly meaningless decisions are actually your keys to success.

Practical Application

Here are are two actionable takeaways you can apply with this information for better results:

1. Each morning, deliberately play forward how you want your day to look. Consider how you want to think, feel, and behave. Only when you challenge the status quo – your unique autopilot that has gotten you to this point – will your brain veer from auto pilot and toward your intended outcomes.
2. Assess how you spend your day. Recognize that you vote with your time. You tell the world what matters to you by what you devote your time to. Are you voting for success, or are you voting for average? I can tell you, if you’re not pushing yourself outside your comfort zone by challenging what you’re comfortable with, you’re probably voting for average.

 

Habit #2: Learn to deliver the right message at the right time

In marketing, we have what’s called The Buying Cycle (also referenced as “The Sales Cycle” and “The Buyer Journey”), which describes the pathway people take to make a purchase. I wrote in detail about it in 3 Sales Secrets to Increase Your Sales Conversions. 

The four simple stages of the Buying Cycle are

1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Purchase
4. Aftersale

Companies that are effective at turning leads into paying customers understand that they must deliver a slightly different message depending on where the lead is in The Buying Cycle. 

See, “Buy my stuff! Buy my stuff! Buy my stuff!” is most effective only when people have traveled through the awareness and consideration phases of the Buying Cycle. 

The awareness and consideration phases, that’s where the magic happens. That’s where we create relationships, connection, and understanding that leads to customers knowing, liking, and trusting – factors that are integral for making a buying decision.

Because leads have then had the opportunity to evaluate your company as a viable solution to their needs but without that know, like, and trust factor, your salesy message only sounds like static on the radio.

The more we know about how customers make buying decisions, the more we can craft a message and position our product or service in a way that aligns with how a customer conceptualizes their own needs, pains, wants, and challenges.

Practical Application

Here are two actionable takeaways you can apply in your business with this information:

1. Clearly identify your target market and figure out their pains, wants, needs, and challenges so that you can develop a message that deeply resonates with them depending on where they are in the buying cycle.
2. Sell the problem you solve, not the product or service. As the saying goes, nobody needs a drill. They buy a drill because they need a hole in the wall. Figure out your business’s equivalent to “the whole in the wall.”

Habit #3: Invest Time and Energy Into Relationships

Success in business is about so much more than financial statements, ROI, and, year over year growth. Your effectiveness very much hinges on your ability to develop community inside and outside your organization.

I’m a big advocate for processes because I’ve seen over and over how leaning up processes is an integral key in scaling profitability. 

However, automating the people side of business can be detrimental to morale.

Your organization is made up of human beings who crave positive experiences with other human beings the same way they crave food and water. If you’re a solopreneur, think in terms of the community surrounding your brand.

Fellow introverts, we’re the biggest offenders here. We’re the door shutters. We’re the “I’ll ride by myself and see you there’s.” 

If you want to be successful in your role, you don’t have the luxury of deciding whether or not you want to become a people person. Want to get serious about nurturing your client relationships? Click for 14 Ways to Nurture Your Client Relationships as an Entrepreneur .

Personally in my business, when I began leaning hard into community is when my book of business filled out 6 months. It’s when clients said, I don’t care what the cost is, I want to work with you because I developed a personal connection that cannot be developed with written text alone.

Leaning into community will make a massive impact on your business. When you commit to becoming better at relationships, you become better at business.

Practical Application

Here are two actionable takeaways you can apply to your business with this information:

1. Look for opportunities to spend time with others where you would normally spend time by yourself. Instead of meeting on location, arrange to ride in the car together to your destination. Or, if you normally eat lunch by yourself, aim to take one day per week and invite someone new to eat lunch with you. There’s power in eye contact and togetherness because it builds familiarity.
2. Why not deem the last hour of the week as “Happy Hour”? Bring a 6-pack of beer (or water) and go around the circle naming wins from that week.

 

Habit #4: Embrace Change

As a young girl, a close family friend of ours, Myron,  said, “Francie, Do you know the only thing that ever stays the same?” 

He replied to me that day, “The only thing that ever stays the same is change.” and he was the first person that keyed me in to the impact of change.

We’re living in an “age of accelerations” where technological advances exponentially impact how we interact, do business, build relationships, and ultimately, exist. Listen to this. Scientists have proved that change that used to take an entire century now only takes a decade. Advances in technology are only accelerating that rate of change. 

There’s no way we could possibly leverage this caliber of change except to embrace it and make it part of our best practices.

What does “embracing change” mean for you and me? It means that we must develop forward-thinking decision making ability, not just building our businesses for what is, but what could be or will be.

Practical Application

Here are four ways to apply this habit in your business for ultimate impact:

1. Look at the operations in your business. If you’re in a business you didn’t start, think about the tasks that were passed on to you from your predecessor. The ones you do because they’ve always been done that way. Finding outdated inefficiencies is a powerful way to impact your bottom line. If you did in fact start your business, identify tasks you perform manually because that was the most logical option in the beginning and look for ways to automate the processes. You’re going to find that automating processes frees up your time to spend on value-added and revenue-producing tasks.
2. Embrace change by getting comfortable with feeling like you don’t know it all:

• Find a podcast you can pour into
• Find a blogger that can teach you how to be better at business
• Watch YouTube videos to learn a new skill
• Listen to audio books from Audible or your local library.

1. Adopt a fail fast and fail forward mentality. Try it, dive into the metrics, but cut your losses and move on if the numbers aren’t backing your hypothesis.
2. Make it a habit of surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you. Create a culture in your business where you reward employees who come to you with new ideas and then clear their path to create an ecosystem where they can run with their idea under big picture objectives.

Take change into your control by continually sharpening how you think about problem solving. Don’t wait for the next continuing ed course where industry trends trickle down. Go out, be the thought leader, and set new trends that we’ll soon be teaching here at Peoria Made.

Closing

To end, you are in control of your success. Lean into the uncomfortable with the following four habits:

• Recognize that the small, seemingly meaningless decisions are actually your keys to success.
• Learn to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time
• Invest precious time and energy into relationships.
• Embrace change.

Don’t miss my free PDF download 4 Smart Habits for Successful Business, so you can save and keep! 

Let’s wrap this up with one of my favorite small business reminders.

“Small business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for the brave, the patient, and the persistent. It’s for the overcomer.”

Cheers completely crushing your business goals in 2020! 

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My goal in every post is to make the most of your precious time and pack these articles with insanely actionable content. Have I done that for you today? I’d love to hear your feedback. Contact me or comment below.

 

And please do me a little favor and share this post with one other person because there’s a good chance it will help them with their business.

 

Your business matters. Now go do something awesome in the world.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR, FRANCIE

Hi there and WELCOME! I’m Francie. There’s something you should know… When my feet hit the floor every morning, my soul is on fire to help people start, grow, and market the profitable and successful business they dream about.

I started this business, Simply Integrated, in 2015 and have fallen madly in love with teaching small business owners how to run their companies more successfully and marketing to impact bottom line profitability.

My knowledge and experience comes from earning an MBA and from coaching small business entrepreneurs while managing and marketing their projects. I focus solely on business strategy and marketing and created this blog to help others run more successful businesses. If you’re interested, you can read more about me on the About page of Simply Integrated’s website.

 

THE SIMPLY INTEGRATED TEAM WOULD LOVE TO DESIGN YOUR COMPANY’S MARKETING STRATEGY

If it turns out we’re a good fit to work together, I’d love to help drive customers to your business and positively impact your bottom line. Get in touch for a free consultation. To get in touch, use this contact form, email us at hello@SimplyIntegratedLLC.com, or call/text us at 309-431-2266.

Check out our list of services below:

Small business consulting

Digital marketing

SEO

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