I always thought hard work and quick thinking were the keys that got me success. But I’ve been watching other successful women entrepreneurs too and have come to realize that it also has something to do with “successful” habits.
So here’s a compilation of the top 12 winning habits that make women entrepreneurs successful.
1. Being involved
When you’re running the show; you need to know what’s happening where, and when in your company. You also need to have information about things that should be happening but are not. Women entrepreneurs, who habitually achieve goals, swear by regular team meetings to stay abreast of where things are in every area of the business. A quick stand-up meet to talk about what everyone’s doing and who needs help is one of the most effective ways to do this. Tracking goals and following up on deadlines is a continuous process and is the only way to get things done. If you want to achieve goals and deadlines, then you can’t just be involved – you need to be 100% involved.
2. Stay the course
One thing you can’t do if you’re the boss is to give up. If you want to succeed, then you need to want to yearn for it without yielding to defeat. No woman got where she is without hard work and determination. Keep going and don’t quit is the motto of women entrepreneurs who succeed. Stick to your vision, focus on the goal, and just stay the course.
3. Count the pennies
Now I’m not trying to sound miserly here, but if you want to grow then you better be careful about expenses. When you’re starting out it is essential that you spend only what you need to. Plan your expenses well and calculate the returns on every penny to be able to spend wisely without wasting valuable resources.
4. Learn to take risks
A good entrepreneur is one who knows when to take a strategic risk and the possible opportunities/pitfalls involved. You can keep running your venture the way it’s been going, or you can do something new and see if it works out. I’m not asking you to take risks that could bankrupt you. But sometimes clients approach you for things you’re not currently doing, or you may need to change your strategy and try something different to get more business. Your decision to take up an opportunity to diversify or change could be the difference between success and failure. If you’re excessively conservative and cautious at times like that, you could just miss one of the biggest breaks of your life. History shows that successful women entrepreneurs are those who like a bit of adventure and are willing to take a chance to make it big. Like J K Rowling recommends, be willing to fail.
5. Focus on the goal and the purpose
Whatever you do, your focus must be on goals and results. Apply your abilities, your effort, and your mind to achieving goals by taking action. Women who have succeeded are women who have complete clarity about what they want to achieve. The best way is to put your long-term goals down on paper or an Excel worksheet, break them down into smaller daily/weekly goals, and then never to lose sight of them. Focus and action will take you to your target.
6. Take time out to plan
If you want to succeed the key is to allocate specific time to plan and track your progress. Put aside time to plan the day and the week and then make sure that it’s going the way you planned it. There will obviously be instances when you need to make changes and adjust to unforeseeable events and situations, but if you’ve planned your time and your goals well and are following up on them, you will most of the time get the results you anticipated.
7. Stay on your toes
Nothing should catch you unawares. It would help if you were on top of things in your industry. Business trends, market fluctuations, and customer preferences – these are things that you need to be in the know of continuously. Read, watch, talk to people, network and mingle, do what it takes to know what’s going on so that when you plan your marketing strategies or make important decisions, you’re not going in blind.
8. Don’t procrastinate
When you plan to act, you need to do precisely that. Entrepreneurs who procrastinate and delay in making decisions are the ones who usually don’t stick around for too long. Yes, you need to seriously consider and discuss your decision before taking them, but once you’ve decided then delaying isn’t going to get you results. Making emphatic and confident decisions in the nick of time is a common habit of successful businesswomen.
9. Be kind and know when to say no
Being inconsiderate can never help you reach your goals, especially when you have to work with a team and keep your customers happy. But that doesn’t mean you have to say yes, all the time. The trick is to know what is possible and will give you substantial returns or goodwill and what will not. Be choosy, be wise, and learn to say no when it is not feasible, or the returns are just going to result in a lot of anxiety and stress. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
10. Don’t forget to schedule
Keeping a personal and a team calendar to schedule tasks, events, meetings, etc. is the only way to succeed if you are an entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur who made it big had and still has a calendar to schedule tasks. Not only will the alerts prevent you from forgetting important stuff, but it will also help in allocating a specific time to complete and achieve goals and make sure you’re not interrupted by other not-so-important tasks. You may not always be able to do things the way they’ve been scheduled, but if you’ve got it down on a calendar, it will at least clear the clutter in your head.
11. Focus on one thing at a time
Multi-tasking is a big thing, but many who succeed swear by the one-big-task-per-day strategy. Scheduling one or two important things to do for every day of the week (and you can include your personal goals for the weekends) helps you arrange and manage all the thousands of tasks that are fighting for your attention daily. It will help you avoid getting overwhelmed, plan well, and take action at the right time.
12. Stay Organized
No, I mean digitally. We’re using so many gadgets to help us work and sometimes like our minds; they get cluttered too. It is an effort to clean up and organize the information and data on your laptop, phone, and tab regularly. But if you can do it every week, the boost in your productivity and efficiency is worth all the trouble. It helps you focus on what’s important and pull out information faster without too much stressful searching.
Apart from being a good leader, a successful woman entrepreneur is smart, thinks on her feet, and has her finger on the business’ pulse. Her willingness to work hard and be a role model for her team is the other factor that makes her win.
Courageous women entrepreneurs like Arianna Huffington take failure in their stride and believe that “……..failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success”.
Estee Lauder says “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.”
Now those are habits for success!
Cheers,
Magbè
