7. Systems and Delegation.

Solopreneurs suck at this, big time. And why not?! They are doing all the tasks anyway, so why waste their precious time for something obviously unnecessary?

Well, I can tell you from my own experience that preparing a standard operating procedure and checklist can speed up execution of almost any task – especially, if you do it periodically, but not very often. Instead of recalling it every week, you just take out the checklist and breeze through the subtasks.

That’s one benefit, but there is a myriad of others: going consciously over your processes, you can pinpoint inefficiencies in them (and optimize them),
-you can organize your systems, so you will minimize confusion when switching from one task to another,
-you will have all the resources (credentials, links, etc.) in one place, so you will no longer waste precious minutes on looking for them in your chaotic notes or hard drive.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels.

However, the biggest advantage is that as soon as you document any task, you are able to delegate it out.
It’s especially crucial at the very early stages of business, when you are doing everything. Then, each task taken out of your plate creates a space for you to take care of yourself, spend some time with family, take a moment to strategize, move on to more valuable jobs, and so on.

8. Vision, Mission, Values.

It seems like an afterthought, something big corporations write down only to disguise their greedy nature in order to be perceived positively.

That may be the case for big corpo. In case of small business, those elements have two major functions:

a) To motivate; first to motivate you, a business owner. Entrepreneurship is a wild rollercoaster. It can put you down, discourage you, and make you cry. In the times like that, you need a compelling vision that will pull you forward, despite all the obstacles and struggles.

But it works in the same way for your people. Employees want to feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Slogging for the paycheck alone was never attractive. A compelling vision is much better than a hefty salary.

b) To simplify; if you didn’t ever write down the vision mission and values for your business, you have no clue how many headaches it will spare you.

A few months ago, my biggest customer sent me an email full of complaints. Frankly, I got mad at first. But I slept over it, and suddenly the right answer just popped in my mind: This guy doesn’t trust me. Or at least, I didn’t feel like he trusted me. But Trust is the main core value of Resurrecting Books.

Thus, I replied to him that I’m ready to finish our cooperation, if he cannot trust me. Since then, we continued to work much more smoothly.

My mentor, Scott Beebe, told once on his podcast a story of a construction company whose core value was No Debt. They declined a huge job because they couldn’t do it without getting into debt. The man who proposed that deal was so impressed that he made a different deal with them and continued to provide more contracts for them.

Drawing the line in the sand, defining who you are and what you stand for is great for your own sanity, but it is also great marketing. People will quickly get who you are, what you do, and they will bring referrals to you because they will be able to spell out your mission and values. That will not only get you new customers, but the right customers! At no cost, just by being who you are.


Nine Universal Business Principles
Principle #1 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principle #2 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principles #3&4 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principles #5&6 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principles #7&8 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
Principle #9 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business
 


Originally published in Medium.

Principles #7&8 Separating Successful Entrepreneurs from Those Who Went out of Business

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