Being an entrepreneur means that you are captain of the ship. There is no one telling you which port you are headed for and how to get there. This means you have to see a clear vision of who you are and what your business needs to accomplish.
Writing a mission statement for your company is essential. With that in hand, you and any employees you may have, fully understand what the purpose of the business is and why hard work is essential to the success of fulfilling that mission statement. As an entrepreneur you need to have total self-confidence and self-esteem.
Setting and achieving goals will help build your overall positive feeling about yourself.
Each year in business goes by and you are creating and achieving goals, your self-growth will skyrocket. This also goes for your employees. Not every employee will be confident from day one. As you show them the goals and how to reach them, they start to grow more and more self-confidence. Employees with who feel great about themselves and the work that they do, are an amazing asset to your business.
Having clear goals with an end in mind, keeps everyone on track. It is very motivating to see the goals and the progress as they are being worked towards. This is a main reason why your goals as an entrepreneur need to be measurable. You need to have goals that can be tracked easily. For instance if you need operating capital, then your goals should state exactly how much you need, when you need it and how it will be obtained. Just writing out that you need $25,000 to operate your own business for the next six months, will not give you the internal motivation to go get it now. All your numbers should be specific. Write your goals for how many customers you need per day, week and month. How much income you need per day, to cover costs and employee salaries. Make sure to cover all financial goals and have rewards for meeting those goals.
Every goal should have a deadline, even the simple ones. It may even be helpful to put the deadlines in a different color to make them stand out. As goals are reviewed daily, your employees can see the deadlines and know this is super important and must be done with care and quality. Depending on your schedule, you may want to appoint a reliable person in your company the job of making sure each employee is on schedule with their tasks towards making the goal a reality.
Accountability for entrepreneurs is essential. This is your dream and holding yourself and your employee’s accountable means you won’t give up on your goals. Reviewing and assessing your goals daily with your team, means that everyone will be ready and willing to go the extra mile to get the job done.
What rewards do you have in place for meeting your goals?
Rewarding yourself during the aggressive pursuit of your goals, makes the journey sweeter. After reaching the milestone goals you should have a big reward planned for yourself. Your employees will also appreciate the reward system. The days of everyone gets a free turkey for the holidays or a cash bonus are pretty much gone in the business world.
As an entrepreneur you are responsible for keeping moral high. Just don’t overdo the rewards so that it affects your bottom line. Pick rewards that are going to be appreciated as something special and thought out. Your employees will respond much better to this type of reward, rather than a lump sum of cash. Think in terms of a special dinner or getting to know your employees so well that you can contribute to their hobbies.