Commit.
Entrepreneurship will be the hardest thing you have ever done. You have to commit and prioritize. Set your mind now to understand that you will have to make sacrifices in order to one day work yourself out of a job. You have to commit to grow at a pace, to work early in the mornings or late at night; when others are going out, you are either in front of your computer or in the lab mixing, making or designing. You must keep your goals and what you are striving to accomplish at the top of your priorities and commit to starting over, asking for help, and delegating every chance you get.
Find your peak time, create a routine and then stick to it.
Find what time works best for you and create a routine around that time. If you are not a night person, but you attempt to make yourself a night person, you have to evaluate how much progress you are actually making. If you are not making progress, you should actually take the time to rest. I naturally work better in the mornings, which means my day starts early. When I tried to force myself to work at night, I did not get a lot of work done. I stopped trying and created a routine that worked best for me. I hydrate, mediate and then write my goals for that morning and map my progress to ensure that I am maximizing my time. During my work day, I use my lunchtime to manage small task, check email, check- in with my team, make low impact calls. As you build, you will find that time management is one of the most important life skills you can learn. Be sure to lock-in and stay on track. Check out: Toggl, Trigger or Hubstaff to help you map your progress.
Stay organized and set some goals.
Even if you consider yourself organized, you will still have to get better in this area. If you are not organized, this has to be a priority; if not, you will find yourself juggling too much, missing important deadlines, and you, your 9 to 5 and your business will begin to struggle. What worked for me is creating a daily checklist, delegating what needed to be done and integrating my 9 to 5 work calendar with my business calendar. I highlight the task in two different colors so my brain can easily recognize my commitments for the day and what I need to delegate to my team while I work for my 9 to 5. In my home office, my daily task/ goals are written on a whiteboard. I believe goals should be S.M.A.R.T. Goals keep us on track, enthused, and they challenge us to continuously get better. But, remember, goals and organization should be in a healthy marriage. My goals keep my grounded on what I am working towards, but by making sure my goals are organized and on a time schedule, it keeps me balanced overall. Remember, until you work 100% for yourself, you must commit to performing effectively and efficiently for your 9 to 5 too.
Automate as much as possible and set some goals.
This is the best thing I have learned. Almost every aspect of business can be automated. Accounting processes like Gusto, Quickbooks and Due help with recurring invoices, time tracking, and expense reporting can be automated through accounting.Tools like Hootsuite or Later make it easy to schedule and automate your social media posts, aggregating them and providing tracking tools and insights. Printful actually packages and ships your products and merch for you. Hatchbuck can help turn emails into conversions, as well as handle a variety of tasks to manage contacts, automate follow-ups, and measure success. When it was just me running my companies, automation kept me from burning out, organize my time, and reach my goals.
Be sure to rest and find your tribe.
I wrote once that culturally we are being pushed to devalue sleep and to only celebrate the grind. We glorify being overbooked and underestimate the power of stillness. Balance is key. Block out some days just to be still, clock-out early just to rest. Our superpower is understanding that we are only at our best when we regroup, recharge and rest. Until I realized this, I found myself getting swallowed by both my business and my 9 to 5 with little room to enjoy the process. If you achieve wealth and lose your health, you have not won anything. Remember, be good to your body, create an environment that allows you to replenish, that is nourishing, that gives you room to celebrate your wins. When you have this, you can accomplish, find balance, growth and peace in anything. Your tribe should reflect your goals, be smarter than you in ways, love you enough to teach you some things and humble enough to clap for you when you win.