“ The world today isn’t dying of hunger, but out of indigestion”
The #1 skill you need to grow your business. (It’s not Sales) Too many of us want to start up today and be successful tomorrow.
In life patience is a virtue but for a business it’s a necessity.
As startup founders we want to hit success as soon as possible, make more sales, grow teams faster and have scale at hand. Then you must know about the #1 skill you need to grow your business. (It’s not Sales).
We want to have everything perfect, like, right now!
However if this urge of having everything faster isn’t guided appropriately, it can crossover into something counterproductive — impatience.
It takes time to build great businesses and long lasting growth is steady growth.
Let’s break down some strategies to realign our impatient energies and kill some of the anxiety related to our startup business.
Also read: [Top Skills] Be the “Muhammad Ali” in your solopreneur journey
The skill you need start and grow your business.
The skills you need to start a great business, Just follow the exercises given below for great business knowledge.
Exercise # 1
Do this as early as possible.
Visualise what does this business look like when successful.
Does that mean you have 1000 users or making x amount of money on sales of your products.
Or does it mean taking out money from your business to support the lifestyle you always wanted.
Define the meaning of success. We are never satisfied because we keep shifting the goal post.
Do you want to run the business, have enough and still lead a nomadic life.
Define what living expenses mean to you.
Define what money would you need to be truly living that lifestyle.
Exercise #2
Look at other business, with a similar business model and find out how much time they took to get to where you intend to be.
For example if you are a blogger and your goal is to have let’s say 30000 USD in affiliate income every month.
Looking at some top guys gives you an idea as to what kind of capital they put in, are they doing full time or part time. What kind of team have they deployed at back end.
It gives you a perspective of what it takes to reach there.
And what if you find out that you are behind, somehow?
It gives time to re-evaluate your strategies , what is it that you are not doing.
You have been doing it for 5 years but the other guy did it in 2.
Do you need coaching, or need to hire a consultant or simply change yourself to make the changes necessary.
Exercise # 3
Read biographies. It gives again perspective as to how the successful built their businesses, spent their whole life focusing on only one thing.
As per “The Everything store” on Jeff Bezos, he took a decade to build Amazon.
It took a decade and more for Dhirubhai to build Reliance.
Ask yourself do you have 10 years to commit to a lifelong journey.
It’s a life and not a project.
Your body of work is what would define you as the person, who is building a legacy.
Exercise # 4
Reflect back on your previous Avatar, your past careers.
Find out how much time it took to feel that you really rocked in your career.
When I started in sales it took me first few years to just get my footing right and post 5 years it felt like I really am doing good and have control over my career.
So the idea is that you have been there before, you know how much time does it take to really produce meaningful work.
Exercise # 5
This is something I really enjoy and the reason for my success.
If I like something, am really immersed, it’s paying my bills and have money spill over what else do we really want?
Lot of people don’t make enough money to pay bills from a job that they hate.
So having some gratitude actually builds some patience.
It gives you the impetus to keep going and have fun along the way.
Reflect back as to how far you have come, stop and think at the work you have done.
Progress is the key, keep pushing for more. This builds more patience to tell you that you are growing.
Exercise # 6
Create a timeline and see your life in front of your eyes.
If you are a blogger start from year 1 note down your subscribers and income numbers.
Go to year 2 and see how you have grown.
In case you don’t have anything in your timeline to report that means you don’t have to worry about patience.
You need to work on your business, get some momentum going and build the business.
Conclusion:
The #1 skill you need to grow your business. (It’s not Sales)
Please remember patience is a skill and it takes time to build this skill as well.
It has to be cultivated and developed like any other habit or skill.
Having staggered and multiple goals helps pushing you to your first milestone. Once you have achieved it ask what’s the next milestone.
Also read: How to growth hack a startup: Do Less
Author bio: Karmesh Ghosh, is Sales professional; has been hustling, and closing deals for the past 1.5 decades. Avid reader and loves foreign language movies. Writes on sales and marketing strategies for small and medium businesses. Currently, lives in Mumbai. Loves food and fast bikes.