I’m always asked about what advice I would tell my younger self or other aspiring entrepreneurs. Here are some helpful tips and words of wisdom to all who have their eyes on building their own business.

An entrepreneur must have drive and passion to succeed. From this drive arises his/her willingness to put in the necessary hours, find solutions faster, and learn from necessary people – to ensure his business achieves the kind of success it deserves.

An entrepreneur must be willing to take intelligent risks. Many businesses get stalled in this as they are so against risk-taking or incurring new costs so as to maintain that security blanket against failure. While many of them may not fail, many also do not get much traction and leverage to grow as well. However, taking risks have to be tempered with sound judgment to know which risks have a higher chances of success, versus which risk is simple fallacy. It is difficult to differentiate these risks, and sometimes you just have to learn from failure and mistakes. It’ss all part of the journey.

Also, as an entrepreneur you must be able to nurture talent. No person can afford to be an island and seriously expect to succeed in today’s world. All the top entrepreneurs formed powerful teams around them to get to  where they are now. An entrepreneur must learn how to manage, motivate, and inspire their team to do their best.

Finding The Management Style that Works For You

Just like any new manager, when I first started I wanted to be everybody’s best friend. And that did not work out very well, because it’s hard to be someone’s supervisor and best friend at the same time. I felt very disheartened, and as an effect, I then went to the other spectrum, whereby I drew a clear line that work is work; but that didn’t work out either. The lesson that I learnt is that there needs to be a balance. You need to be firm, but at the same time be able to relate to the people you’re working with. So ever since I found my balance and a management style which I’m comfortable with, things have worked out much better. As a result, I can also see the company grow.

Learn To Delegate

I started to realize that being able to delegate is not an easy thing to do. I was asked this question by some associates: How did you manage to let go and delegate, knowing that you could do it much better and faster if you did it on your own? But what I realized is that we have to start somewhere. As the company grows, I kept thinking that I only have 24 hours in a day and yes, if I did every single thing by myself, I probably would do it faster and better; but the only reason why is because I have experience doing it. If I’m not willing to give other people a chance to get that experience, they will never get there, and the company will never grow because I’m always stuck doing the same thing and other people will not learn.

So I realized that if I gave someone the chance to start in an area where eventually they could excel, then I would be able to do more things and delegate more responsibilities. That’s how we can scale the company. And ever since I’ve been able to do that, I’ve been able to learn more things, challenge myself more, and do more things I otherwise did not have time to do before.

When The Going Gets Tough…

Remind everyone of the company’s vision and mission statement, and that there is a purpose to what you are all doing, and a purpose in what you are creating. In my business, we are helping real people achieve their happiness – something that would impact generations to come. We have a success couple wall in our offices to always look at, to remind us of the good work we have done – and what more we can still do.

Having started my own business, there are still days when I feel beaten and demoralized. There are moments where I wonder if I should maybe throw in the towel. Hence, I very much understand that as leaders – be it of a team, department, or organisation – there will be times that one would feel down and out.

When Jamie and I started our business 13 years ago, one of the first things we did was to create our company vision and mission statement. If you think about it, it is quite comical, two people leading a company of, well, two, sitting down and crafting these lofty statements. The reason why we did it was because we wanted to put down on paper the reasons we started the company in the first place. And when the going got tough, I remembered always revisiting our vision and mission statement; and that kept me going. If you have not already done it, find out your why – why are you doing what you are doing – and let that be your focus.

I hold quarterly town halls in all our branches to share with them our vision, mission, and goals. This is also an opportunity for me to meet up with each and every associate in our organization, and for them to ask me any questions they might have about me or the business.

At the end of the day, it is not realistic to expect leaders to be upbeat, positive, and extremely motivated all the time. It is important to acknowledge that there will be up days, and there will be down days. More importantly, as leaders we have to limit the down days to the minimum, use those times to reflect and sharpen the saw, and come back stronger and better.

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