Guest Post – 5 More Business Lessons I Have Learned
Last month I wrote about 5 Business Lessons I Have Learned and this month I want to share with you five more lessons.
1. Priorities
In any business, you have to know how to prioritize. You can be working in your business or you can be working your business and these are two different things. When you’re working in your business, you’re working on tasks that aren’t earning you money. When you’re working your business, you’re doing things to grow your business and to move it forward.
I know I have said and you have probably too, “I didn’t have time for it” and it really means you didn’t make it a priority. Now think about it, if you made it a priority, it would have been done. So, what do you do? You have three choices:
1. Make it a priority
2. Outsource it
3. Ditch it
It is that simple.
2. Time Management
Time management and priorities go together. In order to get the most out of your day, you have to be working efficiently. If it means you only complete two things on your to-do list between all the other family responsibilities you have, then it should be the two things that are the most important in your business.
I know having multiple streams of income is important to most of us. You don’t want to ever rely on one source so it’s easy to tack on new projects. When you add new projects to your plate, it means you’ll be subtracting time from what you currently have. It’s important to be aware of how much quality time you are spending on each business because it’s easy to push aside and “ignore” one or several businesses.
3. Evaluate Your Business
There isn’t any set time when you should evaluate your business. It’s on a day-to-day basis. If your personal life or other projects you have are negatively impacting your business today, you’re going to fix it now. Focus on your businesses that are profitable and remove anything that doesn’t hold your interest or time.
4. Partnerships
Business partnerships aren’t for everyone. There are a lot of pros and cons when it comes to co-owning a business. A valuable lesson I have learned is to always have a written business agreement, partnering up with a friend is not always a wise choice even though it seems to be the most logical choice and business partnerships shouldn’t be 50/50, but they should be 51/49.
Going into a business partnership shouldn’t be done on a whim. Take your time to evaluate how it’ll affect your current situation, be it in your personal and/or business life.
5. Learn To Say No
You can say no and it doesn’t mean you have failed. It’s knowing what you’re capable of and how much you can handle. Sometimes it may mean you have to decline a potential client, but so what? There’ll be more clients when you’re ready. It’s hard to repair your reputation if you can’t deliver on your services.
Bonus Lesson: Positive People
Keep company with positive people because toxic and negative people suck your energy. There are some people who can’t or don’t know how to turn negatives into positives. When you surround yourself with positive energy, you get more of it and more people that are positive in your life. All of this equals to more happiness and self-fulfillment.
Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource focusing on work at home companies and jobs, home businesses and other work at home related topics.
