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Andrew is a self-educated business concern owner and entrepreneur with plenty of gratuitous advice (which is worth exactly what you lot pay for it!).

Tough Lessons

I've been on the roller coaster of running my own business for a long time now, and I've ever had the entrepreneurial bug. Still, it's but in the final ten years or then that I've been able to start quantifying what makes a business more or less successful. After a swell deal of self-education (I've read about 50 business books, met with countless mastermind groups, and fabricated plenty of mistakes over the years!), I've distilled what I've learned into 10 key concepts or "commandments" that volition hopefully make your life a niggling bit easier.

Commandment Overview

Without using the overly kitschy "grand shalt" or "one thousand shalt not," permit's get correct to the x most important guiding business concepts:

1. Run your business concern; don't let it run y'all.
2. Automate and delegate properly. This means a lot of initial preparation and set up, but it pays off.
3. Make long-term plans (five-twelvemonth program, i year slice, 1 month slice, weekly, and daily planning).
4. Create SMART goals.
5. Start every day working on daily goals.
6. Become into a routine.
7. Get rid of distractions.
8. Do tasks in batches.
9. Pay your business first.
10. Learn.

Commandment 1: Run Your Business; Don't Let It Run You

This really could be the merely commandment, as everything else tends to fall in line if you are able to follow this ane to a tee. Well-nigh folks aren't able to completely actualize this (myself included), so it'southward useful to accept a look at what'southward realistic. The master concept is that yous don't want to spend so much time on the technical work, even though that might be the chief affair that drew you into running a business in the showtime place. Instead, your goal should exist to spend the king of beasts's share of your fourth dimension improving the way things work.

The difference betwixt spending eight hours doing menial tasks and, say, spending four hours on menial tasks and 4 hours on improving the business itself will be like night and day. While at that place are likely dozens of folks who can practice the technical work at your business, there is only one person who can bulldoze the business in the right management, ultimately making sure that everything is happening according to a plan that leads yous to having a much meliorate business v years down the route. That person is you lot.

Imagine that you are on a huge late 19th-century transatlantic ship. There are three main jobs that go this ship across the Atlantic body of water from London to New York. The first is the coal shoveler. Without this technical work, the send just won't go anywhere. The second job is the manager, who makes sure the coal is actually being shoveled properly and consistently. Without this person, the coal shovelers won't necessarily practise their jobs correctly (or at all). The third chore is the captain.

The captain makes certain the send actually goes to New York (and, equally chiefly, makes sure that the transport avoids obstacles similar icebergs). You are the captain of your business concern. Without y'all, at that place is no mode to be sure that the business volition be heading in the correct management. This unabridged article is really most this: how to make sure you're heading in the right direction, and how to become in that location.

Commandment 2: Automate and Delegate Properly

You can't do everything yourself if you lot have a grand vision (more on that below), but with the proper aid, and by leveraging applied science, many more things tin can be taken out of your hands. The dominion hither is to automate and consul properly, with accent on properly. It isn't enough to simply automate everything and let the system run on its own or to pawn off odd jobs on whoever is bachelor. Instead, yous demand to lay the groundwork in the outset, and stick to your guns, making certain everyone understands why things need to happen.

Utilise autoresponders to answer initial emails, but follow up with real homo interaction every bit shortly as you have a conversation going, for instance. Set subscriptions on Amazon Prime for goods you use on a anticipated ground. Just don't forget to check any automations from time to time!

Revolution BJJ, a martial arts gym I run in Richmond, Virginia

Commandment iii: Make Long-Term Plans

Y'all're in this for the long haul, or else you're in business organisation for all the wrong reasons. Instead of what'southward going to happen tomorrow or adjacent week, you need to kickoff thinking virtually where you lot'd like to exist in five, ten, or even 20 years. While this isn't so like shooting fish in a barrel to start doing, once y'all course a addiction, it's near addictive. Beginning with where y'all'd like to be in the truly long term (twenty years is a pretty proficient ceiling).

Some of the concepts tin be abstract, but try to see yourself where you desire to exist in two decades. Side by side, try to figure out where y'all need to be in 10 years. Write all of this downwardly equally you become. Piece the 10-twelvemonth goal into where yous need to be in five years, and then take the 5-year program and slice it into individual years. Y'all now know what your annual goals are going to be for the next v years, give or accept.

I personally adopt a spreadsheet for long-term goal tracking (more than on setting goals properly below).

Commandment iv: Create SMART Goals

SMART:

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• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-leap

Dearest it. Live information technology. Focus mainly on the "attainable" attribute.

Commandment 5: Kickoff Every Day Working on Goals

For the first half-hr of every twenty-four hours, start by making a list of your daily goals (if it works better for you to do this the night earlier, become for it). Don't start whatever tasks for the balance of the twenty-four hours until you have these daily goals done. The daily goals should exist derived from your weekly goals, which y'all should make every Sunday or Monday forenoon, and, in turn, the weekly goals should be derived from your monthly goals, which are derived from your yearly goals, and and then on.

You've already taken the goal-setting process seriously and given it enough fourth dimension; now, it's time to focus on execution. Don't respond email or cheque Facebook earlier you lot accomplish today'southward goals, and make certain in that location are no exceptions to this.

Commandment 6: Become Into a Routine

To that stop, information technology's really important that you go into a routine. I run a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym, and and then my routine looks something like this:

• x a.1000.: Set your daily goals.
• 10:10 a.one thousand.: Accomplish goals for the day.
• 11:00 a.m.: Answer emails (in batches, of course).
• 11:xxx a.m.: Social media (promoting events, interacting, and personal time).
• 12:00–2:00 p.m.: Personal time (walk dogs, play games, goof off, etc., but more often than not away from a computer).
• 2:00–iv:00 p.m.: BJJ training time (if I'm not training that 24-hour interval, I volition exercise something active, like prep meals or run an errand).
• 4:00–v:30 p.thou.: Arrive at the gym; interact with office admin and forepart desk receptionist. Answer emails that have accumulated since 12 p.m. or so (and address any social media updates) during this fourth dimension.
• 5:30–ix:00 PM: Teach and railroad train.
• 9–x PM: Clean up and go dwelling.

This blazon of routine is actually important, whether or not you utilize a similar pattern structure (I prefer intense, quiet work spaced out betwixt periods of inactivity or relaxing). If yous're in the addiction of doing these things, you're going to do them every day. If you lot're not, well . . . you're non going to practice these things every day.

Commandment seven: Get Rid of Distractions

Although this concept follows naturally from the in a higher place sequence (the idea is to get everything done in a given day, including—no, especially—your daily goals), it however takes a lot of conditioning to master. Tim Ferris has said that there really isn't such a matter as multitasking for human beings, and I tend to agree with him, with very few exceptions. Instead, the way to become "super productive" is simply to get rid of everything that distracts you from your intent.

I notice that I piece of work best in one to two-hour bursts with little to no distractions, although I can go quite a lot washed in 15 minutes of solitude in front end of a calculator. Obviously, I'm not opening a bunch of recreational tabs when I practice this, and I'g not working with the Tv on in the background.

I practise observe music to be helpful, and even useful in measuring time if I listen to a full album and know all the songs on information technology, merely you'll need to determine if you lot work better in absolute placidity or with music. No thing what, though, become your phone out of the picture (out of sight), and become rid of whatsoever other opportunities to cease yous from getting your one hr of diligence in.

Commandment 8: Do Tasks in Batches

Batching tasks was something I got correct away from my work in the restaurant business. Near larger restaurants operate with the paramount goal of maximizing efficiency, and this frequently means doing the same thing 20 or 30 (or 100) times before jumping to a different task. For instance, if you have a dish that includes v different vegetables, all of which demand to be peeled and sliced, it probably makes a lot more than sense to peel and piece all 20 onions that you're going to demand for the mean solar day ahead, so movement on to peeling all 50 or then carrots, and and so on; equally opposed to peeling half a carrot and a quarter of an onion that you need for the dish right in front end of you lot.

Similarly, use the batch concept for answering emails: Don't answer ii or three emails, then head over to Facebook for a few minutes, then come back to answer one or two more than. Instead, use your newly establish discipline (removing distractions) and answer all emails at once. Then, close your email tab so you aren't tempted to peek back over at that place to reply them! This is very difficult for someone who is used to being connected all the time, simply the end upshot is an amazing boost in productivity. If you lot need to check email more in one case a mean solar day, just reopen your tab when you lot need to . . . much, much later on.

Commandment 9: Pay Your Business First

I know what you're thinking—I've been there. It's really, really tough to run a business without bringing any income home from the concern. I'm non necessarily advocating aught salary if that isn't something you can beget, but I am definitely suggesting that y'all calculate whatever it is that your business would need to survive for six months with absolutely no income, and so make sure your bank account residue reflects that.

Be sure that you take a separate checking and savings account for your concern, and exist absolutely sure that y'all accept the completely split nature of these accounts seriously. Now, build your capital up until y'all tin can reliably bring habitation a paycheck. I've certainly made the mistake of paying myself likewise much as well soon, and it is non a lesson that I want you to have to acquire the difficult fashion. Instead, build your business organization up to where it needs to be before taking home any income from it. Bonus: If you're more diligent well-nigh this, or if you have more than starting capital than I had (zero), shoot for a yr's worth of expenses in checking and a year's worth of expenses in savings.

Commandment x: Larn

Never cease being a pupil of the game. I accept personally read about 50 business books, some of which are genuine game-changers. If you haven't read, starting time there. If yous take a hard time sitting down to read a volume on how to run a business, effort audiobooks. What a game changer this has been for me over the years! Whatever time I'm driving, I'm learning, and I drive quite a lot.

Whatsoever time I'thousand walking my dog, or washing the dishes, or even cutting the grass, I'm learning how to run my business ameliorate. I know this 1 might be hard for yous to get into if you're not already a huge fan of reading nonfiction, only merely one business book tin requite you a concept that utterly changes the way yous market, administer, or lead at your business concern, giving you a tremendous edge, and potentially doubling your turn a profit in as little every bit a year. Seriously, read.

Patience

I'm sure that these x tips can seem daunting to implement, but if you effort to use ane of them at a time, I'one thousand confident that you'll see results over fourth dimension. All of these lessons are conclusions I've drawn over the terminal decade and a half, and several of them cost me quite a chip of money and fourth dimension. They don't have to cost you nearly every bit much, though, because y'all tin can start doing things the right way, right now. Permit me know if you've been helped by any of these concepts, and if yous have your own "tough love" lessons, please share them with me!

This article is accurate and true to the best of the writer's knowledge. Content is for advisory or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional person advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

Andrew Smith (writer) from Richmond, VA on June 30, 2018:

Thanks, John! Best of luck. Feel free to reach out some time if you take general business questions!

Ray from Philippines on June 28, 2018:

This is a nice article, Andrew. I am looking forward to establishing my own business organisation in the futurity and this is very helpful and informative. Thank you, have a great mean solar day!

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Source: https://toughnickel.com/self-employment/The-Ten-Commandments-of-Running-a-Business

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