As a business owner, you have to occasionally stop what you are doing and do a bit of self-reflection to determine if you are on the right track to achieve the kind of success you desire. In this section, we look at some of the aspects to consider when assessing your own performance as an owner.
Every time we choose to pursue anything new, we are paying for it with an opportunity cost. Every business owner should know how to calculate opportunity costs.
A founder’s grit (passion and perseverance) is a better predictor of business success than their social intelligence, looks, health, or IQ.
Habits live in your subconscious mind. We all have good and bad habits and the power to create new ones and eliminate bad ones.
To make the leap from a good company to a great one, find the intersection of what you can be the best at, what drives your economic engine, and your passion.
There are amateurs and professionals. Amateurs are like addicts and live shadow lives. Professionals overcome life’s resistance and achieve their aspirations.
Self-reflection requires proper conditions.
The first question you need to ask yourself when self-reflecting is whether you have the proper motivation to be a business owner in the first place.
Business ownership is often about personal fulfillment. Ikigai is a concept that allows a person to find what makes them fulfilled.
Too many entrepreneurs allow self-doubt to creep into their thinking and start to question if they are a fraud. This is a common problem among many entrepreneurs.
Statistically, mental health issues among entrepreneurs have reached epidemic proportions, but there are things you can do to deal with them.
Often, the skills that allow you to start a business can also limit your growth potential.
Everyone has biases. However, there is one kind of bias that can prevent you from making good decisions.
Business owners need to consider both qualitative and quantitative factors when making business decisions.
How you make decisions can also profoundly affect your business success.
Leaders can blame others for failures and take credit for successes or acknowledge their role in failures and heap credit on others.
Not all entrepreneurs are created equal. Here are a few attributes that can be found in the best entrepreneurs.
The key to a business owner’s success is the alignment of their 3 business personas to meet their business needs and understanding that there are several types of entrepreneurs.
Anatomy of a Business Owner – The 3 Personas
The company that a business owner keeps affects the way they see opportunities and will filter their responses.
As humans, we all have biases. Normally they help us to quickly respond to the outside world without thinking. However, biases can often prevent the small business owner from seeing opportunities.
Entrepreneurs often think differently from the working class.
Small business owners are in complete control of their schedule and often choose to perform tasks that are easy or more rewarding over more important tasks.
A business owner’s time is the most precious asset they have.
Your work style is the way you organize your day-to-day tasks. What type are you?
An out-of-control schedule causes many small business owners to work harder rather than look for a more elegant solution.
The key to working smarter and keeping your motivation high is to have specific goals.
Every business needs to have its own special leverage. Are you clear on your special leverage?
The business path is never a straight line and is influenced by external factors. As a business owner, do you keep up with the changing landscape?
Is your business very price-sensitive? Perhaps asking a few simple questions can uncover a new untapped market.
But a small business should resist the urge to go too far and price itself out of the market. All it needs is to be better than the next guy and not make itself a target.
Many first-time entrepreneurs start a business with the sole purpose of becoming rich. Often such thinking dooms them to fail in the end. Better to embrace financial discipline.
