Entries by Ben

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Stop making excuses

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey

  • I can’t tell you how many times I hear excuses of why someone isn’t achieving what they desire.
  • “No one is buying at the moment”
  • “The economy is bad”
    “online ads doesn’t work anymore”
  • “People just don’t have the money at present”
  • “I just don’t know what to do”

Enough of making excuses in your life. You MUST take full 100% responsibility for the results you are gaining and for the circumstances that you’re in.

  • Too many times we let a list of excuses stop us from executing on a plan to achieve our dreams. The biggest challenge I see for many entrepreneurs is overcoming the voice in their head holding them back.

Self awareness is certainly the first step and what I challenge you to do is to write down all the reasons why you aren’t currently where you want to be.

This is a great first step that clarifies some of the limiting beliefs that more often than not has been holding you back for years or even decades!

I remember speaking to a client of mine called Dan, who had challenges that were unresolved around his relationship with money for almost his entire life which is almost 5 decades!

I challenge you to step up in your life and eradicate the excuses.

  • Tired? Sleep more!
  • Stressed out? Hire some help!
  • Overwhelmed? Become more organised!
  • Don’t have the time? Quit watching Netflix!
  • Don’t have the money? Stop wasting it & start investing it!

Take 100% responsibility for where you are. Only then can you take full control to pursue & shape your future.

I hope this gives you some inspiration to STEP UP in your life and make the changes necessary to life the life you desire. I’ll leave you with one last quote to consider:

“hell on earth would be to meet the man you could have been, don’t let today be that day, choose to live today to the fullest”

Make it happen and I’ll see you on the other side!

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July 9, 2021 by
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6 steps to deal with overwhelming tasks

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey

1. CLARIFY YOUR OUTCOME

outcome

The first step is to clarify what is the outcome of the project you are working on. Very often as entrepreneurs we can easily focus on completing a project but lose track as to why it is so important.

We want to clarify in this first step the outcome you want to achieve. Make sure to be specific, the more specific you make this outcome the easier it is to measure progress towards completing it.

2. EXTERNALISE YOUR MIND

The second thing you need to do is to externalise your mind. This is a very important step for you to do. It will enable you to clearly see all the tasks that are involved.

By moving the series of tasks out of your head and onto paper or a system, you can more easily tackle the project. Make sure you keep writing down ideas until you feel that you have more than enough options.

3. CHUNK TASKS INTO DIFFERENT GROUPS

Our brains aren’t very good at remembering more than 7 things at any one time. It is much easier to approach groups of tasks than it is a list of 30 different items.

You want to group similar tasks together so that you can easily see all the different steps that are involved. This also allows you to effectively outsource all parts of tasks to someone else as opposed to going back and forth.

4. PRIORITISE & PLAN TASKS

When moving through the tasks that we need to complete, planning is of paramount importance. You want to prioritise which tasks to do first and in which order to help you achieve the outcome you desire.

Very often entrepreneurs become stuck on a task because they are waiting on other people to complete certain elements. Stay on track by effectively planning and prioritising accordingly.

5. ESTIMATE TIME NEEDED

You need to have an estimate on how long you think each task will take. Be as realistic as possible and give yourself a little bit more time than you need.

As you start to do this more, you will estimate the time of tasks even more efficiently. It’s important to estimate the time so that you can more effectively schedule the tasks you want to complete.

6. CREATE MUST TIME

The Pareto principle was created by Vilfredo Pareto, he noticed 20% of pea pods created 80% of the beans. In life and in business very often 20% of what we do creates 80% of the result. We will apply this to our tasks so that we can be more efficient in completing them.

You’ll notice to begin with we focused on the outcome we want to achieve. The truth is that you won’t need to do all the tasks to complete the outcome you desire. In this step you’re looking at the most important tasks that lead to 80% of the outcome being completed.

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June 25, 2021 by
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8 biggest challenges to overcome to create a sustainable business

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey

1. Too comfortable

When things are going right in business it’s easy to put your foot off the gas and relax. When clients are coming in, your cash flow reserves are increasing you may think: “Why reinvest in the business?” Yet what I’ve found especially over the past 2 years, is that many businesses that were too comfortable became complacent. They didn’t innovate fast enough and stuck to what they knew which meant their business struggled even more to adapt. You must be able to innovate quickly and not settle in being comfortable where you are.

2. No Focus

It’s easy when you’re building a business to focus on too many things. This can cause you to be unproductive and waste time doing activities that don’t directly impact your business growth. Too many target markets, too many offers and too many market channels can cause you to spread yourself far too thin. It’s very important when you start out to have a clear focus to help you build sustainably.

Solution: You must learn to let go of people pleasing

There are many struggles of being a people pleaser and some exact steps to take to overcome it. Learn about these steps in the 8 lifestyle blocks, preventing your business success.

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June 2, 2021 by

Which of these biggest time wasters do you struggle with most?

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey

1. Saying YES

SAYING YES

There are many people that would class themselves as people pleasers constantly saying yes to everyone in their life. Although it’s important to help others, you have to bare in mind one thing:

Remember that saying yes to others means you are saying no to yourself and your business. Saying NO more in your life will help safeguard your time so you can build your business.

2. Perfectionism

Many of my clients struggled with wanting everything to be perfect, the challenge here is that it is the root cause to why their business and life isn’t progressing at the rate at which they would want it.

Did you know that perfectionists have the lowest of all standards? Because it’s something that you can never reach. So don’t allow perfectionism to stop you but instead embrace being imperfect and making progress in your life.

3. Worrying

Too many entrepreneurs worry about the past (which you can’t change) or what could, would, may happen. What often causes this worry is asking the wrong types of questions.

I actually recently had a conversation with a client who would have downward spirals all from asking negative questions which result in negative answers. This would then snowball to more stress, anxiety and ultimately not doing anything in his day.

Focus on the NOW and build your future.

4. Multi-tasking

Did you know it takes 14 minutes after being distracted to get 100% focused on the task you were doing? How many times do you get distracted by your phone or other notifications during the day?

You MUST focus on one task at a time and you’ll get much more done! Use time blocking and uninterrupted segments of time so that you can fully focus on the tasks at hand.

5. No prioritisation

Do you ever just look at a list and have no idea where to start? You aren’t alone, many entrepreneurs struggle with prioritisation, I even had a mentor call the other day where one of my mentees said that everything is important!

Yet the truth is, we MUST prioritise in order to get things done properly rather than half heartedly doing a bunch of tasks. Make sure to focus on the 20% of your business that will help bring 80% of results!

6. Hesitation

Do you ever over analyse decisions in your business? You find that you hesitate and are unsure what is the right step for you to take, in order to move your business to higher levels of success.

The truth is that leaders must make decisions fast and change them slow. If you want to take your life and business to a different level, take charge and start making decisions now! Only when you do this can you start to really shift the results you are gaining at present.

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May 8, 2021 by

Don’t quit the 9-5 until

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey

mindset

The following list are some of the most common suggestions that I have found really help entrepreneurs to create a flying start to their business after leaving their job. I hope you find it useful!

1. Have an emergency fund

emergency fund

This emergency fund should be at least 6 months of your expenses. Now some people want to have 12 months, I’ve even heard of 2 years!

However you must know what you feel comfortable enough with so that you can take the risks necessary to build your business. Having this financial cushion is of vital importance so that you aren’t living in scarcity struggling to get by.

2. Have a side business to transition into

Some people just quit and go straight into business. (This is actually what I did but I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone.)

For most people being able to transition slowly into business especially when you have responsibilities and a family makes much more sense.

One of the best ways to do this transition is to build up your side business whilst you are working until it matches or exceeds your current income. This then gives you the certainty you need to make the transition without sacrificing your lifestyle or responsibilities.

3. Hire a coach or mentor

Starting a business and going on the entrepreneurial journey will be filled with peaks and troughs. Having someone who has been there and knows what it’s like can be incredibly helpful so that you can start to build up the business without burning out in the process.

Avoiding overwhelm, creating your own schedule, managing your health are a few of many challenges that you’ll have as you start to venture out on your own.

4. Be ready to WORK HARD

Your mindset going into entrepreneurship is incredibly important. you must be willing to put in the hours and the hard work necessary so that you can build up a business that is sustainable and gives you the lifestyle, freedom or financial goals that you desire.

If you are looking to do less work and think that being your own boss is easy, you’re in for a big surprise! It takes hard work and dedication, but on the other side is something that most people can only dream of.

5. Decide it’s time

No one can decide for you that now is the time to be an entrepreneur. I remember hearing the saying, jump out the plane and build the parachute on the way down.

Now personally given that I’ve skydived and gone out of a plane, this probably isn’t the best analogy for me as I was petrified throughout the process, however, making the decision and making the leap is incredibly important.

Set a deadline, make a decision and stick to it, and it may be the best decision you have ever made.

Share this with anyone you think will benefit who is also setting out on their own entrepreneurial journey!

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May 5, 2021 by
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The 6 biggest challenges entrepreneurs face in creating a 6 figure business

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey

1. No Focus

It’s easy when you’re building a business to focus on too many things. This can cause you to be unproductive and waste time doing activities that don’t directly impact your business growth. Too many target markets, too many offers and too many market channels causes you to spread yourself far too thin. It’s very important when you start out to have a clear focus to help you build sustainably.

2. Lack of Marketing

lack of marketing

Perhaps you’re spending too much time on your product and not enough time marketing. It’s an easy mistake to make yet what I see is too many people building their amazing business in the middle of nowhere where people don’t know about it. Now more than ever, you must create an online presence and have a brand that stands out from the crowd.

3. Analysis paralysis

With so much going on when you’re building your business, it’s easy to become stuck in analysis paralysis. Where you spend so much time planning and not enough time implementing what you need to move the business forward. You must make sure that you’re a leader, making key decisions that really move the business forward.

4. Lack of or No Delegation

Many entrepreneurs spend far too much time doing things that they aren’t skilled to do. Whether this is website design, accounting, sales pages, copywriting … the list is endless. Make sure that you hire people to fill in your weaknesses. The jack of all trades is not something that can help your business scale. You want to make sure that you’re working on the business expansion and not getting bogged down with day to day admin.

5. Non Scalable Business Model

non scalable business

You want to make sure that you have a business model that is scalable. Many entrepreneurs especially in the consulting training industry only have themselves as the product. If you’re only doing 1 to 1 coaching or training there is a limit on how much you can scale. If you don’t have a business model that works alongside yourself or without you, it will be very challenging to scale the business to a point where you can create the income that you desire.

6. No Mentor/Coach

No one is self made. Everyone has people that help them on their journey to success. Yet one of the biggest mistakes I see are entrepreneurs looking to reinvent the wheel and not having guidance to help them on their journey. It’s important to have a coach and/or mentor, on your entrepreneur journey so that you can build your business efficiently long term.

Do you want some support in building your business whilst living a great lifestyle?

Book a FREE Business and Lifestyle Evaluation to find out the 5 biggest factors holding you back and the #1 strategy to help you move forward.

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November 9, 2020 by