PRACTICAL TIPS FOR ENTREPRENEURS 33: BY LORNA STEWART FOUNDER/DIRECTOR BLACK 100+ | CEO RENAISSANCE INSPIRED | FOUNDER FIRST CLASS BUSINESS CLUB WHY DO SO MANY BUSINESSES FAIL? HERE IS A HARSH REALITY: THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF YOUR BUSINESS IS ULTIMATELY ABOUT YOU! (PLEASE COMMENT AND SHARE THIS POST – DO NOT KEEP IT TO YOURSELF). Many businesses fail because the entrepreneur behind the business forget to include one essential section in planning their business. This essential section is the Entrepreneurial Sustainability Plan. WHAT IS THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SUSTAINABILITY PLAN? This Plan is a document and a self-analysis which takes a long hard look at how you are going to take care of yourself in the short, medium and long term, while your business grows. It focuses on 7 essential areas. 1. Your Personal Development as an entrepreneur with a focus on developing your mind-set, decision making, confidence etc. 2. Your Professional Development as an entrepreneur with a focus on developing your knowledge, skills, abilities and experience. 3. Your Financial Development as an entrepreneur which is focused on keeping you afloat financially until your business grows sufficiently to be able to pay you a decent salary. 4. Your Personal Life Plan which focuses on how you will juggle your personal life along with the responsibility of running a business. 5. Your Professional Guidance Network which focuses on professionals whose roles are to provide you with specialist services which support you along your entrepreneurial journey. These include among others, Business Mentors and Business Coaches. 6. Your Personal SWOT Analysis. This is an honest assessment of yourself to identify your personal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, as an individual who is on an entrepreneurial journey. 7. Setting SMART targets. These are the Milestone for your progression: You need to map out exactly how and what you should be thinking, doing, learning, gaining, behaving and experiencing in order to sustain yourself as an entrepreneur. This is achieved by identifying specific issues that you need to improve and setting realistic targets/deadlines to improve them. (SMART means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). YOUR EXERCISE FOR TODAY: YOU ARE GOING TO DO YOUR PERSONAL SWOT ANALYSIS (THIS RELATES TO YOU AS A PERSON, YOUR MINDSET, YOUR BELIEF SYSTEMS, YOUR HABITS, YOUR BEHAVIOUR, YOUR CHARACTER AND HOW THIS MOVES YOU FORWARD OR HOLDS YOU BACK. FOR THIS TO BE BENEFICIAL YOU MUST BE COMPLETELY HONEST WITH YOURSELF. Divide a piece of paper into 4 sections. Name each section as follows: 1. Strengths 2. Weaknesses 3. Opportunities 4. Threats Under each heading list all the things that you know to be true about yourself. For example your STRENGTHS could be that you are a good negotiator. Your WEAKNESSES could be that you are lazy or need others to motivate you. Your OPPORTUNITIES could be that you need to attend self-development courses to help you to gain confidence or to learn something essential. Your THREATS are things about you that could be detrimental to you and to your business. This could be that your negative thinking stops you from taking advantage of opportunities, or your personality means that people do not warm to you or want to work with you or that you are extremely inflexible. Once you have done this, you will be in a position to set some SMART targets to enhance yourself in all of the above areas. LESSON: IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO PLAN WELL FOR YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL FUTURE. THIS MEANS PLANNING FOR YOUR BUSINESS AS WELL AS FOR YOURSELF. SO BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR NEEDS. THIS IS THE FIRST STEP TO YOUR SUSTAINABILITY. EACH ONE - TEACH ONE Contact Me: E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 11:45:12 +0000
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