Entrepreneur Tips: Refocusing Your Actions to Fulfill Your Aims

We’ve all been raised to believe that you only need to work hard in order to succeed at something.  To a large extent, this is true.  Working hard does bring results.  However, they may not be the exact results that you want.  To gain more focus, try the following entrepreneur tips.

What Are You Working Hard At?

Rather than working hard but blindly, you need to ask yourself what exactly you’re working hard at.  Are you working hard to provide the best services to your customers?  Are you working hard to get more customers?  Are you working hard to become well known in your field?  Or are you working hard to make more money?  If you haven't started your business, make sure you're not working hard climbing the corporate ladder that's leaned against the wrong house.  

Do Your Aims Overlap?

Often, you’ll find that if you work hard at one thing, you’re also working hard at another; there’s an overlap between the two.  For example, if you provide good service, you’re probably going to get more customers and make more money as well.

But sometimes, you’ll find that working hard at one thing doesn’t automatically lead to another.  You can provide good service without getting new customers or making more money.  You can be well known in your field without making more money.  You can say no to many opportunities that aren't aligned with your big aim.

Do Your Aims Correspond to Your Actions?

Every successful entrepreneur wants to provide good service, become well known, make more money, encourage productivity, and keep team members happy.  It just makes sense to stop every once in a while and ask yourself where all your effort is going.  You might find, sometimes, that the aims you have in your mind do not correspond to your actions.  So you might need to refocus your behavior to achieve what you want.  Immediately stop doing tasks that aren't related to your goal.  Today.  It will be sloppy.  Do it.

Understanding Your Aims

The first thing to do is to sit down and think about what you want to achieve in your business.  Know your why.  Do you want to be known as one of those companies that people love to work for?  Do you want to be known as reliable and trustworthy among customers?  Check out one of my favorite Ted Talks, "Start With Why."

Creative Ways to Fulfill Your Aims

Once you understand exactly what you’re going for, you can also make a list of actions that will help to achieve your aims.  It’s a good idea to be as creative as possible while you do this.  Just write down everything that comes to mind, and then take a sharpie to it and brutally narrow it down to 1 or 3 aims.

If possible, keep your lists in a place where you can easily access them and try to do one thing on each list everyday.  This way, you’ll always be doing what’s necessary to achieve your aims.

Are you spread to thin on your business idea?  Or spread to thin on multiple business ideas?  Apply to the Handshakin Startup Pre-accelerator.