Business & Finance

The Right Mindset For Running Your Own Business

Running a business is a big challenge. Even the most modest enterprise takes hard work and dedication to thrive. If you own your own business, approaching it with the right frame of mind is vital to your long-term success. Here’s an overview of where your head needs to be if you want to build your business into something great.

By Waverly J Hanson.

Choose Your Goals And Strive For Them

The best part of being a successful business owner is that you get to define “successful” however you want. Do you want to make a certain amount of money? Serve a certain number of customers? Operate throughout a certain region? Maybe you’d prefer to pursue less traditional definitions of the term. There’s nothing wrong with cutting your profits to provide better benefits to your employees if that’s something you’ve chosen to do. What really matters, in the end, is that you should be reaching for goals you define yourself, not those established by others.

Once you have your goals laid out, the hard work of figuring out how to achieve them begins. In order to do this properly, you have to let go of your fear of failure. Running a business is such a complicated process that the odds of you never making a mistake are virtually zero. Understand that not every step will take you towards your goal. Once you realize you have erred, take your experience as a learning opportunity and refocus on how to achieve your goals again.

Pull Talent Close To Yourself

Exceptionally few businesses succeed based on the efforts of a single individual, no matter how brilliant they might be. Even an artisanal craftsman who works alone relies on good suppliers and toolmakers to provide the raw materials he needs. Recognize that leadership is a key part of running your business and aim to surround yourself with other talented people who will share your goals.

Attracting the sort of talented and hard-working people you need to succeed is not just about paying good salaries. Devote a portion of your working hours to making sure that your employees feel satisfied and successful in their work. Cultivate the skills of your team members and trust them with responsibility when they are ready for it. Pay attention to what your employees have to say and remember that as your business grows, they will end up being more familiar with its inner workings than you are.

Obsess Over Quality, Not Process

Many people would say that obsession is a positive quality when it is turned to constructive ends and this is definitely true when it comes to running a business. You will probably be inspired to put in long hours and lots of thought to nurture your business. Make sure you are spending your attention on the right thing, which is the quality of the products or services your business delivers.

While there is nothing wrong with trying to make your business more efficient, you shouldn’t ever let process improvements come at the expense of quality. Ultimately, what you do for your customers is what defines your business. Make sure you are always producing something you can be proud of and the processes required to produce it will fall into place.

There is no one road map to creating a successful business. Every owner who is satisfied with his or her business probably defines success differently. Despite the diversity of definitions available out there, certain attitudes are common to every successful business owner. Cultivate the right mindset for your work and you make your business a success too.

About the Author: Waverly J. Hanson is a licensed professional counselor, licensed marriage coach, military and family life consultant, professional trainer and author of How to Divorce-Proof Your Marriage. She has more than 25 years of experience helping individuals and couples improve their lives.

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