Life is full of challenges and running your own business is no exception. Take the time to evaluate how to improve yourself as a business leader. Not only will it improve your business life, but your personal one as well.
Below are my top 25 tips on becoming a more successful boss. They’ll make your company run more smoothly as you become a more effective leader.
1. Spend quality time with yourself and develop your life plan. Discover how you really want to live!
Knowing how you want your life to look 10, 20, or even 40 years down the road is important. It’ll help you frame how your business progresses and fits into your life.
2. Use your attitude and excitement about your new enterprise to attract people to work for you, support you, and do business with you.
Who you surround yourself with, both professionally and personally, is vital to your success.
3. Becoming a chronic workaholic is a great way to ruin your health and your personal life.
The mentality of a lot of business leaders is to go, go, go all of the time. Don’t let workaholics dictate how you structure your workdays. “Clock out” of your business each day to give yourself time to relax and recharge.
4. A ship without a compass will have a tough time navigating.
You have to know where you’re going and what you want your business to achieve. Without a clear path, you won’t accomplish what you set out to do.
5. Don’t share anything on social media you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read.
In this day and age, nothing you post online is ever dead. With each post, think about how you would feel if your grandmother was reading it. If you don’t think she’d approve, you might want to rethink your post.
6. Competing on price is dangerous; focus on the value you will provide.
There’ll always be a business that’s priced lower than yours. Don’t compromise the quality of the product or services you provide by trying to be the lowest price out there.
7. On those hard days when there’s no money and plenty of work to do, your love for your business will be the only thing that keeps you going.
You’ll have super successful months and then periods of time where you’re not bringing in the same amount of profit. Keep those successful months top of mind as you move through the difficult times.
8. Creating ads without defining the target audience is a recipe for disaster.
If you don’t know what target audience you’re trying to reach, there’s no way for you to craft messaging that’ll resonate with them. Do your research ahead of time.
9. We would not know good days if it were not for bad days.
Not every day is perfect. Unfortunately, bad days happen, and keeping a positive outlook will help you get through them.
10. Do not get discouraged in tight economic times. Great inventions and businesses have developed during difficult times in US history.
Just because you’re not economically thriving doesn’t mean your business is failing. Instead, use this as an opportunity to explore additional revenue streams and expand your business.
11. Great ideas and ambition can percolate just about anywhere.
If you’re waiting in the supermarket’s checkout line and have an innovative business idea, write it down. The best ideas tend to pop up when you least expect them to.
12. Isolation is the enemy of entrepreneurship.
Nobody can exist in a vacuum. Join Facebook groups and other communities to connect with other business owners to learn about their business practices and grow your client base.
13. Effective communication is the best and only way to sell.
Communication goes both ways, and it’s an important part of running a business. However, not effectively communicating with your clients will result in you losing sales.
14. If you can’t identify your customer’s problem, you won’t solve it.
The goal of any business is to solve the problem for their customer. If you don’t know what their problem is, you won’t be able to sell your products and services effectively.
15. Learn the trends and make sure you understand how big the potential market is for your product or service.
As part of your customer research, evaluate your competition. See how many other businesses are in the same market as you and how big the customer base is.
16. What you have always done won’t work forever, so be flexible.
Technology and the world are always changing. While we can get stuck in the same practices, it’s important to update those that need to be, so our businesses stay competitive.
17. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can maintain your edge without proper rest.
Resting and taking time to unplug is essential for being an effective business owner. However, you won’t do yourself, your family, or your staff any favors by burning the candle at both ends.
18. If you think you work hard now, just wait until you become your own boss. You will come to know what the word “sacrifice” means.
Being an entrepreneur is wonderful as you bring your visions to fruition, but it’s not easy. You have to put in the work to be successful as you balance your work and personal life.
19. The key to thinking like an entrepreneur is remaining focused.
Keep your eye on the prize and know what you’re working towards. Developing a business and life plan will help make this easier.
20. Offering an excellent customer experience is necessary to even be in the game. Nobody falls in love with just okay.
Your business depends on your customers. Keeping them happy and satisfied is vital to ensuring you have repeat business and developing long-term relationships.
21. There is room for everyone to build a niche audience as long as you have a quality product, a relevant message, and savvy marketing.
Even the most niche product or service has a target audience. Research who needs what you have to offer as it’ll assist you in ensuring you reach them.
22. Every day we make hundreds of choices — they cause the results we experience.
Even the smallest decisions can have an impact on the trajectory of our lives and businesses. Make sure you’re making the right ones but don’t let a few poor choices derail you.
23. The key to being a good business owner is to take good advice and respond immediately.
As you build up your network of contacts, listen to and digest every piece of advice you get. Then, if it’s something good, implement it immediately into your business. If you wait, you may fail to act on it.
24. If your business is a recipe, faith is the key ingredient.
Maintaining faith in yourself and your business will keep you moving forward through the hard times and the good. Celebrate all of your successes as they happen.
25. Faith gives you the confidence to start your business and the courage to push forward.
Don’t let your business idea stay percolating in your head. Instead, have faith that you’ll succeed, and don’t ever stop trying to be the best boss possible.
Discover More Boss Tips in My Upcoming Book
My book “Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works Today” is filled with more tips and tricks on how to become a successful entrepreneur. The book launches on September 14, so preorder your copy today! Take advantage of additional incentives by purchasing multiple copies for you and your team.
Do you have a boss tip or mantra that you love? Drop a comment below and share it!