- Are you a smart entrepreneur?
Do you know the five things
that smart entrepreneurs never do?
Number one, smart entrepreneurs, they never micro manage.
Now I want you to imagine back then
when you are starting your business.
Now I remember when I was starting my first few businesses,
I was a control freak
where I was the king of micromanagement.
I want to know all the details,
because in the beginning of your career,
your business career you are doing everything,
you're the one-man/one-woman show.
You are selling, you are closing,
you are doing the invoice, you're doing the marketing,
you're meeting with people, you are doing the fulfillment,
you're taking a phone call,
you're dealing with the receipts, right?
And you are trying to make sure everything don't fall apart,
you're talking to everybody,
and you have to micromanage,
because that's what you need to do.
But after a certain point that behavior,
even as you grow, stay.
Because that's how you know,
that's what it takes to grow a business.
I gotta know everything, I've gotta micromanage,
but then what happens is as your revenue grows,
you will hit a glass ceiling.
And that behavior as a rugged individualist,
that's a control freak does not serve you
if you want to go to the next level.
You have to let go.
Now you can no longer manage in a small details kind of way.
You cannot micromanage anymore.
So smart entrepreneurs you have to learn
and we know we are macro thinkers.
What we need to do as a smart entrepreneur is
we need to figure exactly where we are going,
what's our vision, that's your job.
You figure out the vision, number one,
and number two you now recruit and hire talents
to help you that you know they have the capabilities
and right attitudes, the right culture,
to help you to execute that vision.
That's number two and number three, you as a leader,
very important, allocate the resources,
the capital to execute that vision,
to help your team execute that vision.
That is it, that is it.
When you are micromanaging you cannot do that,
because you're too close to your business.
You got to step back and think about the big picture.
What is the vision?
Who do I need to have on my team to execute this vision?
And how do I allocate my resources
that will help them prioritize,
they will help my team to execute that vision,
and that is it.
So small entrepreneurs, we don't micromanage.
Number two, small entrepreneurs don't say yes to everything.
In the beginning of your entrepreneurial career
you have to say yes to everything.
You have to say yes to that meeting.
You have to say yes to every single client
that comes through the door.
You just say yes to every single email,
because you are still growing and building,
but when you get to a certain size and certain point
you have to learn how to say no.
As an entrepreneur you must realize
that you have a finite amount of time, resources,
capital, whatever that it is, it is not infinite.
So as a CEO, as a founder, you must learn to prioritize.
One of the most important lessons that I have learned
in my own career is this, that in the beginning
I have to say yes to everything,
then I only say yes to something,
then now almost say yes to nothing.
Everything that comes across my table investment,
joint venture opportunity,
opportunity to do this deal and that deal
I have to look at it and say hey,
does this fit my overall vision
or is this just a distraction?
It is okay when someone sends you an investment,
a picture, a joint venture proposal, and whatever,
it's okay to ignore.
Some you do reply, some you could ignore,
because as an entrepreneur you have to know
when to say no and when to say yes.
Number three, smart entrepreneurs
never stop listening to the ideal customers.
As entrepreneurs what do we do?
What it boils down to is we solve other people's problems
and fulfill other people's needs
and make a profit in the process
and we cannot fulfill other people's needs
if we don't understand what our ideal customers needs are.
You see you don't have to be the marketing genius.
Your customer is the marketing genius.
They will tell you what they want.
They will tell you what they like.
And they would also tell you what they don't like
and what are they willing to pay for.
They vote with their wallets.
That's the best bet.
You see most entrepreneurs they spend so much time
working on the thing or making their thing better,
but they don't spend enough time listening to the customers.
Is this even what they want?
Did they tell you that that's what they want?
Are they giving you feedback
or are you building something that nobody wants
and that's how most entrepreneurs fail.
Now you might say well Dan,
what about Henry Ford when he invented the car,
Ford Motors, right?
What about back then, you know,
he said if I was to ask what my customers want
then everyone would say faster horses.
Well that's exception.
If you are selling and you offering
some kind of disruption technology,
that's a different story, because then
you're anticipating the needs of the marketplace
and you are essentially creating your own market.
I'm not talking about that,
that's a very small percentage of the entrepreneurs.
For most entrepreneurs,
we are more tapping into the existing needs,
the existing desires that people already have
and we're tapping in to that.
That's how we make most of our money.
So small entrepreneurs we never stop listening,
paying attention to what our ideal customers want
and what they need.
Number four, small entrepreneurs focus on profits
not just revenue.
One of the biggest mistakes that I've made in my career is
in the early years I was focusing so much on revenue
and I thought, you know what,
revenue would solve all problems.
I just need to generate more revenue,
bring in more sales,
it's always about bringing more sales
and if I bring enough sales all my problems will go away.
That is simply not true,
because you don't go to the bank and deposit revenue.
The bank is not looking at oh,
how much revenue you've generated.
So sometimes when you read from a magazine,
when you read from one of these posts,
and saying oh, this company's doing 20, 30, 50, 100, 200,
500 million dollars in revenue.
That's good,
but how much profit are you actually making?
What's your take-home pay?
How much cash do you have in reserve?
So profit, if you think about it,
it is not an event, it is a habit.
So if you're not making a lot of profit
when you're growing,
so let's say you're making five million dollars in revenue
and you don't have a lot of profit,
by growing it, scaling it to 10 million,
are you sure...
are you sure that you will make more profits?
Are you sure that your profit would exponentially grow,
because a profit has to a lot to do with your profit margin.
It also has a lot to do with your overhead and your expense.
As an entrepreneur sometimes it's easier
that we are overly optimistic.
Okay, we just spend money, let's bring in more revenue,
and you could have a great month of revenue
and then you're looking at profit, oh my god.
We're actually making less money,
because maybe we did more marketing,
it costs us more to bring in those customers
or maybe now we need more infrastructure.
We've hired a lot of new people
or we've just invest in this piece of equipment,
but if you don't look at profit
it's a very, very dangerous habit.
So small entrepreneurs we focus on profit, not just revenue.
Number five, small entrepreneurs we never stop learning.
You see till this day I still read
two to three books a week.
I'm still a very dedicated student.
I'm just as dedicated to learning as I was many years ago
when I had no money.
When I'm driving, when I'm working out,
I'm always listening to some kind of podcast
with successful entrepreneurs.
When I'm working, when I am replying emails,
checking on social media, I have some kind of programs,
educational programs playing in the background,
because I know it's not just how much I know,
it's how fast I learn.
In order to compete today, today, you need to learn,
you need to grow, you cannot stop.
That's what smart entrepreneurs do
and that's what you need to do as well.
Remember ignorance is not a bliss.
Ignorance is poverty.
Ignorance is an illness.
Ignorance is devastation.
What you don't know, will cost you,
so keep learning and keep growing,
keep reinventing yourself.
What you have accomplished in the past,
it does not matter, it doesn't count.
What comes, what matters, is today, the present moment
and where you're going in the future.
So if you want to get smarter, faster,
without all the costly mistakes
I'm gonna have my team put a link
somewhere around this page.
Click on that link.
I'd invite you to join my global community Dan On Demand
where every single month you're gonna get
training from me that will help you
to become better entrepreneur.
It will help you to think like a millionaire
and on top of that
I'm gonna give you a three day free trial.
Three day free trial so you can test drive
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and also I'm gonna give you thousands
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So go ahead, click on the link right now
and I'll see you in class.