Entrepreneur Motivation Series – How To Be a Successful Entrepreneur When You’re Busy

How To Be a Successful Entrepreneur

If you dream of being a successful entrepreneur with the freedom to live life on your own terms but feel the timing might not be right, you’re not alone.

Launching a new business or running a startup can be scary. It may feel like there is too much to do and there is never a good time to take the leap. But, don’t fret. Most of the time, it’s not timing or resources that prevents us from taking action. It’s our own mind placing limitations on ourselves.

To better understand how to calibrate our minds for success and remove timing as a barrier for pursuing our entrepreneurial dreams, the Natfluence team drew upon insights from world-class founders, CEOs, and serial entrepreneurs. Our goal was to identify proven and actionable tips for how to be a successful entrepreneur when you’re busy.

In this article, we explore 5 (five) of the most effective strategies and productivity habits of successful entrepreneurs that anyone can begin today.

You can practice incorporating these actions into your day-to-day life to expedite your journey as an entrepreneur — not to mention make it more enjoyable.

Here is a glimpse of the Natfluence interviews featured in this guide:

• Joan Hornig — Renowned Jewelry Designer, Founder of Philanthropy Is Beautiful
• Jen Sincero — New York Times bestselling author of “You Are a Badass”
• Claire Babineaux-Fontenot — CEO of Feeding America
• Tim Westergren— Founder of Pandora Radio
• Adam Braun — 3X entrepreneur, Founder of Pencils of Promise
• Dr. Greg Wells — Performance Physiologist, 4x Bestselling Author and Ironman

Short on time? You can skip straight to our “How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur” FAQ Guide to see the highlights or you can watch our video instead:

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HERE’S WHAT WE COVER IN THIS ARTICLE:

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1. Break Down Tasks & Embrace Small Wins

Joan Hornig, an industry-leading jewelry designer, and philanthropist utilizes daily checklists to help her keep track of small wins. Hornig explains that being able to see milestones being reached is a terrific motivator – both for yourself and when working with others. The use of checklists often results in getting more done because you can visualize and feel your productivity.

The effectiveness of breaking down tasks can be better understood by looking at the work of American organizational theorist, Karl Weick.

Weik introduced the idea of “Small Wins” when he set about redefining the scale of social problems in the 1980s. He theorized that effectively scaling down problems to a more manageable size made them easier to comprehend, control, and improve.

Why?

Because small wins build confidence. They are more pleasurable to experience, and they can snowball into efficient and productive action. Especially when starting a small business or trying to find new business ideas.

Getting organized and prioritizing your activities is even more important when setting out to conquer big endeavors – particularly when short on time. Don’t let time be a barrier. Rather use these time constraints to help you define your goals and take action. Before you know it, all the little wins will lead to a bigger success.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR CHALLENGE 1:

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When it comes to time management and kickstarting your To-Do list, it’s essential to break down your tasks into manageable and actionable steps. This helps you narrow your target and hit a bullseye more often.

Take, for example, putting a pitch deck together for investors.

Instead of one giant To-Do item on your list, i.e., “make pitch deck,” you can create a list of smaller more achievable goals. This might be: “Assemble images for pitch deck, choose a template, choose fonts, finalize footer, outline slides,” etc.

As you break down your tasks into smaller items on a checklist, you’ll be able to celebrate achievements more often and find that this gives you the confidence and momentum to finish bigger project.

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2. Create Time by Waking Up Early & Showing Respect

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Want to know whom you’ll find in the gym working out at 6:00 AM? Movement makers like Terri Broussard, an industry leading lobbyist and social impact strategist!

When asked about her typical daily schedule, Broussard shared that an early morning helps her get the most out of her day. It’s evident that her dedication to waking up early has given her a leg up on her career as she leads multiple significant organizations and serves on several boards.

How does she do it?

Surprisingly, there is no caffeine involved! Instead, Broussard says she finds the energy in her mission to begin each day with an open heart, an open mind, a strong work ethic, and good intentions.

When you do these things, she explains, the universe will take care of you on your journey. Broussard is not alone in being an early bird. You would be hard-pressed to find many successful business leaders who don’t rise before dawn to either exercise or get a head start on their work for the day.

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Jen Sincero, a New York Times bestselling author and success coach, whole-heartedly backs this up with the view that you should RESPECT time.

Yes, you heard this correctly. Treat time like a person! Sincero explains in her book, “You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life,” that “[w]hen we’re forced to do something, suddenly the time is there. Which means that it’s there all the time, but we’ve chosen to limit ourselves by believing that it isn’t.”

In other words, it comes down to perception. People spend a considerable amount of time “worrying” about the lack of time! This is time that could have been spent doing something.

Sincero takes the position that you can make time work for you instead of being its slave. But, Sincero explains, it starts with sending the right message:

“If you want more time in your life, show time some respect. If you’re constantly late, if you blow things off or if you’re a flake, you’re not sending a message to The Universe-or others, or yourself-that you value this precious time that you crave and are trying to create more of for yourself.”

Sincero’s point is that a mindset shift is in order. Instead of focusing on what you can’t do; focus on what you can do. And, use your time wisely. Get in alignment with what you want by acting like time is important.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR CHALLENGE 2:

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Start small: Try waking up 30 minutes earlier each day for the next seven days. Make sure you have a specific and important task or goal that can be achieved within those first 30 minutes. It doesn’t have to be work-related; you can use the time to exercise, journal, or work on a creative project.

Use this goal as your motivation each day to wake up earlier, and at the end of the week, see how you feel. Think you can go another week?

Step it up a notch: Next time you really want to do something, but the voice in your head tells you there isn’t enough time, STOP. Don’t be a slave to time.

Take control. Identify some less important things that you can cut out, and replace them with activities that will get you on the path to achieving what you really want. Along the way, make sure you maintain a good relationship with time by being courteous.

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3. Learn How to Set Priorities & Be Your Most Productive Self

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There is validity to setting yourself up for small, frequent successes throughout your day, but if you’re tackling lots of little tasks that aren’t true priorities, you may not be doing your business any favors in the long run.

Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America, sums it up nicely when she shared with Natfluence how she sets her daily priorities: “Move the needle on something that matters.”

A typical day for Babineaux-Fontenot who heads up the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the U.S. might include key meetings with Feeding America team members, press interviews, strategic planning sessions, and Facetiming with her daughter.

Through it all, she says one of the most important actions you can take as a business leader is to decide everything that you can that day.

So how do you navigate what is and isn’t a top priority on a seemingly never-ending To-Do list?

Career success experts at ThriveYard recommend ranking your tasks as high, medium, or low priorities based on their urgency, highest returns, and significant consequences.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR CHALLENGE 3:

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Try these quick steps (courtesy of LiquidPlanner®) to start ranking your priorities and moving the needle on something that matters:

Step 1 – collect a recorded list of all your tasks at hand (don’t worry about the number or order of them at first – just write everything down you want to get done).

Step 2 – identify which items require immediate attention; that is, they are more urgent, not necessarily more important. Urgent tasks are those that will incur negative consequences if they are not completed as soon as possible, i.e., impending deadlines, critical outreach, etc.

Step 3 – identify which items, while not necessarily urgent, carry high value for your business and are therefore important. Assess value by noting whether other team members can move forward with a project or not depending on you finishing a specific task. Also, make sure your degrees of importance mirror your brand’s mission. For example, if your business is all about client service, you will want to tend to client projects before seeing to internal needs.

Step 4 – start with the lengthiest task first (and the rest of your day will feel like a breeze!).

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4. Embrace Failure & Stop Procrastinating

Procrastination may seem like a variation on laziness; however, it is more often related to a fear of failure. Like many things, a fear of failure only looms larger the longer you put something off. 

Tim Westergren, Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world and the founder of Pandora Radio, the largest ad-supported audio entertainment streaming service in the U.S., did not let fear of failure stand in his way when it came to launching a business.

Westergren’s advice for startup success?

Do it. And when you do, don’t do it alone.

Westergren explains:

“Most people opt out of striking out on their own because they fear failure, and the regret they imagine from that. For me, the fear I carry is the regret of not trying something and wishing I had. That would haunt me.”

Tim Westergren reversed his fear, and used fear as motivation to propel him forward. His fear was not trying.

Therefore, instead of procrastinating by worrying that there isn’t enough time, just take action. Know that it is OK to fail. Failure means you are challenging yourself, taking risks, and making the important decisions that will help grow your business.

In fact, failure serves a meaningful purpose, and can be used to help you achieve your goals faster.

Need more convincing?

Let’s have a look at what Adam Braun, New York Times bestselling author, speaker and entrepreneur, has to say about failure.

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In a Natfluence interview with Adam Braun, 3X entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist, Braun tells us that “[t]he biggest opportunities for growth are not found in the midst of success, but in the methods through which we address failure.”

Braun explains that “[i]n reality, there are thousands of small, medium, and large wins that add up to the point they have gotten to.

There were times when I was launching Pencils of Promise where I felt that one thing was going to put us in a different sphere, but the reality is that we have had a lot of success and a fair amount of setbacks over the years, and the significance of the failures is just as important as the successes. There is not one thing that leads to where we are, which is why relentless conviction and an unshakable work ethic are necessary for young entrepreneurs because there is no one big break.”

The lesson here is to release the valve. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to always win – or to chase one big success. This approach increases both the risk and the fear of failure. Instead, use fear of failure to your advantage.

This means using failure as your impetus for action. Fail fast and early. Failures that result in positive learning experiences and smarter decisions are merely experiments — not to be feared.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR CHALLENGE 4:

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Next time you feel that tingling in your spine, recognize it. Acknowledge that you are experiencing a feeling of fear, and use it to propel you forward. Practice by starting small. This week, identify your most daunting (but important) task and tackle it first. If you make some mistakes, so be it. Remember, getting something done is better than getting it perfect.

The reward is often greater than the risk. Once you complete the task (even if only decently), you have eliminated the stress and disappointment that comes with delaying an important action or failing to meet a deadline. This then helps with getting everything else done.

You can also devote time to building your confidence to face your fears more, well, fearlessly by regularly celebrating your successes, however small they may seem. Check-in at the end of each day and make a mental (or physical note) of decisions you made that successfully benefited your business or your team that day.

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5. Dream Big & Act Now

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From writing four best-selling books to consulting on performance physiology with national Olympic teams to starting his own global consulting firm, Dr. Greg Wells knows you don’t need to have superpowers To-Do amazing things. You just have to dream big and start doing!

In high school, when Dr. Wells was told he would never perform as an athlete again after he broke his neck in a freak accident, he defied the odds and went on to tackle some of the hardest endurance races in the world including the Nanisivik Marathon 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle and one of the longest bike races in the world (11,000 km!), the Tour D’Afrique.

Dr. Wells now dedicates his life to proving just how powerful human beings are.

The lesson?

Don’t stand in your own way. Don’t be afraid to dream big. The only thing that should be scary is the thought of not pursuing your dream because you didn’t believe in yourself.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR CHALLENGE 5:

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Write down your top three long-term goals for yourself and your company and do one thing each day that helps you get closer to those goals. Perhaps it is networking with an industry leader on LinkedIn, writing a guest article for a partner organization, or even simply exercising more.

Not quite sure how to go about defining your ultimate goals?

Behavioral investigator and best-selling author, Vanessa Van Edwards, recommends trying her trusted goal wheel worksheet.

By rating your current satisfaction with key areas of your life, including your business, family, social, health, spiritual, and personal areas, you can form a clearer understanding of your “emotional temperature.” From there, you can define intentions for each area of your life and think through both the outcome you desire and the process of how you will achieve it.

Takeaway: What to Remember about How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur

Although it may be rare to start off as a successful entrepreneur from day one, you can position yourself to be more productive through a conscious effort.

This involves organization, implementing productivity habits into your day-to-day life and maintaining the right mindset. Taking small targeted steps can get you there faster.

Here are some key things to remember:

How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur FAQ Guide