The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting

Written by Ben Ivey
Habits can either break or make an entrepreneur’s success.
Productive entrepreneurs have more successful businesses. Note that I didn’t say busy entrepreneurs working very hard..
To help you be more productive, we listed out seven of the best habits to start.

1. Planning

Successful entrepreneurs plan their days in advance. They have a structure to help prioritise, be efficient and get more tasks done.
“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent ROE (return on energy)!” Brian Tracy
Every 10 minutes you spend planning will save you 100 minutes in your day. Think about what you would pay to have an extra 100 minutes everyday!
You may think you don’t have time to plan. You may believe you are so busy that a plan is wasting time.
If this is you, remember the following. We all have 24 hours in the day. Whether you are Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Richard Branson, we all have the same 24 hours.
How you use those hours is of paramount importance. The most successful entrepreneurs are planning and executing on those plans.
If you want to have more success, planning is a MUST.

2. Systemise

Successful business owners must have systems to help their business stay on track. The better systems you have in place, the easier it will be for your business to run without you.
No two businesses are exactly the same, so there is no perfect system template that I can give you. Thus you need to create many systems in your organisation to help you be more efficient.
These include a system for communication with your team. Systems for managing the core functions of your business. A system to manage your own tasks, to name a few.
If we were to use a diet as an example system: generally speaking 95% of diets all work. Yet, the reason people don’t lose weight is because they don’t stick to it. Thus you must learn to be consistent with the systems you create.

3. Outsource

Did you know that entrepreneur’s should only do at most 7 tasks in their business? 7 at the most! Other employees, managers and freelancers should do everything else.
The key to business expansion is not what you should do more of, but instead what you need to stop doing. You mustn’t do anything that you aren’t qualified to do. Hire smart people to do the tasks that you don’t like to do and the tasks you aren’t specialised to do.
When you first start out, this doesn’t apply, as you may need to do everything. But, once you build your business up, you must start to delegate tasks to enable you to expand faster.
Learning to be an effective outsourcer of tasks can help you focus your own efforts. This helps to have a bigger impact on your business as a result.

4. Focus

Entrepreneurs all have a unique way to focus in their lives.

Some have 2-hour blocks with no interruptions. Others dedicate 1 hour to think and some choose to focus using masterminds.

There is no right or wrong way to do this. The key is for you to find a way to focus on one thing.

You will not see productive business owners distracted by messages, interruptions and emails. They will have a set time to do all these things; whilst at the same time dedicating time in the day for specific tasks.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is that they don’t complete tasks 100%.

You may focus on a task and move onto something else before completing it or making a final decision. This is a recipe for disaster.

Make sure that you focus on a task, complete it 100% or dedicate more time elsewhere to completing it.

Only when it is complete, do they move on to something different. Make sure to avoid multi tasking on too many projects at the same time. You will waste time, energy and resources if you work this way.

This habit of focus is one of the best tools entrepreneurs have in their toolbox.

5. Morning routine

All entrepreneurs have a morning routine. This could be a routine setting you up for success in your day, or setting you up for stress.

You want to avoid feeling stressed, overwhelmed and anxious as an entrepreneur. So make sure to create a rock solid morning routine.

The key outcome for a morning routine is to help set you up for a great day.

You may want to focus on yourself in the morning. You may start the day by going to the gym, meditating, running, reading, reflecting, planning …etc.

Whatever it is you choose to do, make sure that it puts you in the right state to deal with the day ahead.
For some examples of morning routines that help set you up for success. Check out: 5 Morning Routines of Successful Entrepreneurs

6. Pareto Principle

Entrepreneur’s almost everyday should apply the 80 – 20 Pareto Principle.

An example of the Pareto Principle in business: 20% of your clients give you 80% of your income. 80% of your leads come from 20% of your marketing. 80% of your stress comes from 20% of your customers … etc.

You may be wondering how to apply this principle each day?

Simply put, you apply this principle to anything and everything.

For example, you want to aim to do the 20% of tasks that brings you 80% of your desired outcome. Spend time marketing to the 20% of clients that bring in the most revenue.

You want to make sure that you use this in you business to help you become more efficient.

What is great about this principle is that it combats perfectionism. You do the tasks that have the biggest impact on your business. In contrast to doing things 100% and wasting time on the last 20%.

It is important to spend time doing the tasks that move your business forward in the most efficient way.

This hand in hand with outsourcing, allows you to create much faster success.

7. Effective goal setting

Entrepreneurs must set goals to maintain a clear direction for their business. This keeps alignment within the organisation prioritising tasks towards a specific end goal.

If you do this, you will make much faster progress in a shorter period of time. Your resources are finally focused on obtaining one specific outcome.

Goal setting can be a challenging tasks for entrepreneurs. Especially when most information out there is not relevant for busy entrepreneurs.

If you want to get more clarity, direction and focus in your organisation. Check out: The Entrepreneur’s ultimate guide to goal setting

BONUS HABIT: Rest

The last and most important habit for entrepreneur’s is counter intuitive.

Rest.

Why is this habit more powerful than all the other habits mentioned above?

It is the habit most entrepreneurs want to avoid. Yet it actually is of paramount importance to recharge to enable you to have more success.

Many business owners come to me when they are burning out and their business is losing money each month. They are working constantly but are burning out in the process.

Perhaps this has happened to you before as well? Where you burn out and do nothing in your business for a few weeks.

Let’s approach rest in a different way.

When you charge your phone do you take it out when it only has 30% battery? You charge it all the way till 100% and if you are anything like my wife, it is painful to take it off charge at 97%!

We do this for many reasons, yet when it comes to ourselves often we don’t fully recharge.

I am sure if your employees were working at 50% capacity you would want them operating at 100% right?

Rest is key for recharging so you are performing at your best. It is also fundamental to allow you to have a more effective business.

By taking time off, you can look at your business issues with fresh eyes. You can think creatively and start to move away from working in your business.

Moreover, it enables you to have boarders as a business owner. This encourages your employees to become more self reliant. This is a necessary step forward to create the freedom you desire.

If you are unhappy with your current lifestyle as an entrepreneur. Check out: The Entrepreneur Lifestyle Accelerator. This will help take you and your business to higher levels of success this year.

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