Managing Yourself in Your Business
If you grew up and went to public school in North America, you know that the school system here is far from perfect. Kids have all different experiences, but one common thread is that everybody learns how to be an employee and not a manager. School isn't just designed to teach you math, science and English, there are also lessons contained in the actual structure of school itself.
When you hear the bell and it directs you to class, you're learning to follow directions in a very Pavlovian fashion. You know that you can't get caught in the hallways during class time, so you respond to the bell in order to avoid punishment. When you go into the classroom and sit in your spot in the row of desks and you know you're not permitted to talk to other students and that the teacher has control of the class, you're learning that your place in society is to quietly submit to authority.
Now that you're in IM, you actually need to overcome some of these barriers in order to grow your business - simply acting like an employee isn't going to be enough to get you the results you want, you need to turn into the leader of your own business and start acting like a manager.
When I first started in internet marketing, I actually only knew how to be an employee. Not only was this reflected in my results (they were poor) but it also changed something about my attitude towards the work I was doing. Acting like a manager means understanding the overall goal of what you're trying to do and aligning yourself in that direction.
I stopped doing IM and worked in sales for a pretty huge company for 18 months before coming back and I actually learned some of the critical skills that made me feel like more of a leader in my own business. Here are some of the things I put in place to ensure that my business would be successful:
1. I implemented sales targets for my Freelancing business and stuck to them. Sales targets are crucial for any business with uncapped earning potential. The fact that you can make unlimited amounts of money indicates that you can also make unlimitedly small amounts - you have to hold yourself accountable to results in order to be successful.
2. I created monthly strategy - a calendar sheet compares my daily progress in revenue to my monthly targets and ensures that I'm either staying on track with what I'm trying to achieve or that I'm taking the necessary steps to catch up to my goal. Sometimes it feels almost impossible to hit the target, but the fact that I'm going for something increases productivity by a lot.
3. I started to plan what I wanted to accomplish each day and write it down the night before. This allowed me to start each work day with a clear set of objectives on what I wanted to get done. These objectives were highly specific, measurable and realistic - there was no reason not to accomplish each thing that I needed to.
Simply implementing these three things helped me really take control over my own business - I now had objectives, goal setting and real-time data on how I was performing to I could quickly make adjustments or pivot when necessary. I can honestly say that the most productive part of each day is strategizing for the following day - I know that it increases my productivity by so much that I couldn't possibly live without it now.
Once you understand how to manage your own business and not just be an employee of it, you'll develop great insight into how you can actually manage other people and grow a business, a skill that's guaranteed to help you in the future.
When you hear the bell and it directs you to class, you're learning to follow directions in a very Pavlovian fashion. You know that you can't get caught in the hallways during class time, so you respond to the bell in order to avoid punishment. When you go into the classroom and sit in your spot in the row of desks and you know you're not permitted to talk to other students and that the teacher has control of the class, you're learning that your place in society is to quietly submit to authority.
Now that you're in IM, you actually need to overcome some of these barriers in order to grow your business - simply acting like an employee isn't going to be enough to get you the results you want, you need to turn into the leader of your own business and start acting like a manager.
When I first started in internet marketing, I actually only knew how to be an employee. Not only was this reflected in my results (they were poor) but it also changed something about my attitude towards the work I was doing. Acting like a manager means understanding the overall goal of what you're trying to do and aligning yourself in that direction.
I stopped doing IM and worked in sales for a pretty huge company for 18 months before coming back and I actually learned some of the critical skills that made me feel like more of a leader in my own business. Here are some of the things I put in place to ensure that my business would be successful:
1. I implemented sales targets for my Freelancing business and stuck to them. Sales targets are crucial for any business with uncapped earning potential. The fact that you can make unlimited amounts of money indicates that you can also make unlimitedly small amounts - you have to hold yourself accountable to results in order to be successful.
2. I created monthly strategy - a calendar sheet compares my daily progress in revenue to my monthly targets and ensures that I'm either staying on track with what I'm trying to achieve or that I'm taking the necessary steps to catch up to my goal. Sometimes it feels almost impossible to hit the target, but the fact that I'm going for something increases productivity by a lot.
3. I started to plan what I wanted to accomplish each day and write it down the night before. This allowed me to start each work day with a clear set of objectives on what I wanted to get done. These objectives were highly specific, measurable and realistic - there was no reason not to accomplish each thing that I needed to.
Simply implementing these three things helped me really take control over my own business - I now had objectives, goal setting and real-time data on how I was performing to I could quickly make adjustments or pivot when necessary. I can honestly say that the most productive part of each day is strategizing for the following day - I know that it increases my productivity by so much that I couldn't possibly live without it now.
Once you understand how to manage your own business and not just be an employee of it, you'll develop great insight into how you can actually manage other people and grow a business, a skill that's guaranteed to help you in the future.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison