12
11 New Year’s Resolutions for Entrepreneurs, from Entrepreneurs

11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

11 New Year’sResolutions for Entrepreneurs, from Entrepreneurs

Page 2: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

My resolution: I realize this may sound harsh, but my resolution is to FINALLY stop taking meetings where I share my expertise and ideas and am not compensated for doing so.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: There are several reasons why this is a must including that it devalues your offerings, cheats your existing clients and customers who are paying for such a benefit and takes up valuable time that could have been spent on more pressing activities.- 

1) Put a higher value on your time

Page 3: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

2) Be more customer-centric

My resolution:  Spend more time talking to customers.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: we often get too focused on building cool products, but that doesn’t matter if we don’t build what customers want. The only way to ensure we are building truly valuable products is to talk with our target customers and learn what problems they’d pay to have solved.

Page 4: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

3) Seek inspiration abroad

My resolution: To travel to a new place/country in hopes to be inspired by a different way of life and new individuals.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: People outside of our routine help inspire entrepreneurs. It’s important to always think outside of the box but also to give yourself some time to recharge and take a moment to yourself. This will help further your work and your business.

Page 5: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

4) Find healthy alternatives to manage stressMy resolution:  Don’t use stress as an excuse for developing unhealthy habits.Why it is important:  From my experience, eating clean and working out led to one of the most productive times of my life. After choosing to go crazy working day and night I got pretty unhealthy, to the point where it affected my performance at work.  We can all make excuses for a quick meal at BK or skipping on physical activity while building a company but at the end it comes with a price.

Page 6: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

5) Set realistic goals and milestones

My resolution: Instead of setting my ultimate goal on something I am working toward (like taking over the world, muhahahah), my resolution is to break my goal down into achievable milestones.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: Every step forward becomes another small victory and helps entrepreneurs keep going.

Page 7: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

6) Spend more time with loved ones

My resolution: My girlfriend has negotiated one weeknight and one weekend day per week that we are doing something together with me not on my computer. As much as I love to work, she is way more cute and charming than I am so I’ve got no choice but to comply.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: That time away from direct work is important to maintain relationships with the folks who matter the most. And actually almost every time we step away for the day, something awesome happens with the company, so there’s some sort of karmic balancing going on.

Page 8: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

7) Measure Success

My resolution: I resolve to follow the lean startup principle of build, measure, learn.Why this is important for entrepreneurs:  As entrepreneurs, it’s easy for us to feel too busy to build proper feedback loops into our products, but without ways to measure our success, we are doing little more than shooting in the dark.

Page 9: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

8) Optimize, not maximizeMy resolution: My new year’s resolution is to remember that sometimes it is best to optimize, not maximize.Why is this important for entrepreneurs: We get caught up in “more, more, more” mentality as entrepreneurs and its important to remember that there are some areas in life where maximization is the wrong tactic. From our personal lives to our health sometimes we should remember that less is more.

Page 10: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

9) Connect with your team

My resolution:  Spending a day a week where I don’t touch my computer in the office. I will spend time with my team instead.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: When I became an entrepreneur I realized my inbox went up to hundreds of messages daily. It is easy to be absorbed by these and ignore your most important asset – your team.

Page 11: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

My resolution:  I will do more of what I do best, while supporting and encouraging my teammates to do what they do best. And I’ll stay out of their way when they’re doing it.Why this is important for entrepreneurs:  People will always be much more productive — and much happier — when they feel they are making a meaningful contribution. From a teaming perspective, ‘fixing’ weaknesses has a very low ROI when compared to teammates blending their strengths. This is especially important for entrepreneurs because consistent high performance can be a matter of life or death to a startup.

10) Delegate and encourage

Page 12: 11 New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

My resolutions:  Fly a plane. Go Paleo.  Write 1,000 words per day.  Move to San Francisco.  Define my belief system.  Read 52 books.  Give away $3,000,000 in value.Why this is important for entrepreneurs: Don’t waste 2015. We put off fun and adventure for security and comfort, but success finds you when you find yourself.

11) Dominate 2015