by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com
One of the key ingredients to starting up your own business is the ability to see a solution to everyday problems you face in your industry. The trouble however is that this ability to come up with solutions does not stop once you set your foot in a business – the ideas just keep coming. And they may all seem like the next big thing that you should definitely jump into.
Entrepreneurship is a tough nut where you will have to spend countless days struggling to find buyers. Add to this the constant influx of the new million dollar ideas and you are looking at a scenario where the entrepreneur, instead of working diligently on the business they have set their foot into, is constantly evaluating the potential of the other big ideas they have. This is a massive distraction that has to stop, if you ever have to see success.
The following tips shall help you avoid these distractions and work on the business you are supposed to be focusing on:
Plan Your Schedule In Advance.
Entrepreneurs who are just starting out often create schedules on the fly. What’s worse, there are cases where you may fail to make a sustained effort on any particular marketing channel. It could be social media one day and guest posting the next day. The result is doing everything with little to no result. Create a weekly plan for yourself and be specific in what you do. That means, instead of planning ‘Facebook marketing’ from 10-11 AM, spell out the details and strategy in your plan. This will ensure you really know what you should be doing during those hours. Most importantly, stick to this plan come what may.
Have A Work Place.
It does seem fun to think that as your own boss, you can work from your bed or from the couch. The human mind is conditioned to associate these places with rest or fun. It gives your brain a leeway to get distracted and think of other things. The ideal way to counter this is by finding yourself an office. Co-working spaces are today present in every major city across the world and they come with their own infrastructure in place. Even if they don’t, business phone and internet connections can today be procured for the price of a meal. If you cannot afford the budget to opt for a coworking space, you may, as a last resort, set up your own home office – that you never come to for personal stuff.
Have Strict Working Hours.
When you are your own boss, it may be tempting to schedule your work around other fun stuff. You may want to work through the night and sleep during the day. It may work for some people. But if you are someone who is getting constantly distracted, stick to ‘office timings’, preferably during the day. This means, you HAVE TO check in at work at 9 and must work till 6 in the evening. This is of course boring and not what you asked for. But there is a reason why people working for others are not as distracted as you are at work – when your job is just a job, you will make sure you complete it before getting distracted on other things.
Have Strict & Realistic Goals.
Having strict deadline for specific tasks will keep you from veering off on a distracted path. But a word of caution here – in your zeal to be ambitious, do not set yourself unrealistic goals or deadlines. Since you are setting goals for your business, it may prove detrimental because you may get conditioned to stop worrying about not meeting your goals or deadlines.
Entrepreneurship requires a lot of persistence and focus. To succeed, you will need to keep your other ideas and thoughts away, and the only way to do it is by becoming more disciplined.
In what other ways do you keep yourself away from distractions? Share them with us in the comments below.
Anand Srinivasan is the founder of LeadJoint.com, an online lead generation tool for digital marketing agencies. He is also a part-time marketing consultant and has previously worked with some of the most promising Indian startups.
