Three Entrepreneurial Truths

1. It's not the idea; it's the execution. It really doesn't matter how great your idea is. What really matters is how well you can focus it and follow through on its promise and opportunity.

2. Nobody can sell your idea for you. Even the best marketer is at best providing you with tools for success; the truth is that when you are building your business, you need to pound some pavement and sell your idea yourself. Not only is it the only way to get started; it will also give you critical feedback and ideas for how to grow your business.

3. This is not a sprint. Many entrepreneurs think they need to be sprinters, and they take off so quickly that when they realize they still have miles and miles to go, they are winded and quickly hit the wall. Building a viable business is a long-distance affair. Even if you are thinking you will sell the company in two years, you still need a lot of endurance and discipline to make it that far. Avoid the drive to sprint. Do not operate on brief spurts of entrepreneurial passion. Try to bring discipline and practice to building your business whenever possible.

4-Hour Work Week

A few months ago I read The Four Hour Workweek. Awesome book, but pretty unrealistic in terms of the specifics (i.e. 4 hours per week) for most of us. As with most books though, it had some interesting gems. Most important, I think, is the concept that our businesses can really benefit from more operational systems. In fact, I think the author based most of his how-to-run-a-business recommendations on one of my favorite books of all time, The E-Myth Revisited.

The most important take-away from this book, and what has been most helpful to me, is that most entrepreneurs do not create systems for their businesses. Rather, we just kind of wake up each morning and put out fires as needed throughout the day.

While this works for a while, it can't help but get exhausting for us. Worse, when we consider when and how to hire someone to help us to put out the fires, we have no idea where to begin because we really don't know exactly what we do each day.

The concept of putting together operational systems, even (perhaps especially!) for a solo-preneur who doesn't have anyone working for her, is really breakthrough for me and for most entrepreneurs who I know, as it helps us manage our fires more effectively and, more importantly, allows us to hire a team of people who can help us avoid them altogether.

First Blog Post!

For the past ten months, I have been on a quest to balance my life. What I discovered is that I take really good care of my daughter, and pretty good care of my husband and business, but when things get crazy (which they always do) I fail to take good care of myself. As a result, I was run-down, out of shape, carrying extra weight, and low on the big ideas that I knew were inside of me.

Sound familiar, anyone???

So, I set out to take better care of myself with the thought that in doing so I would improve all aspects of my life and the lives that I touch. I think it's working, and I'm proud of my progress.

As a business consultant, I can't help but notice the positive impact this has made on my own business and the businesses that I help. As a mother, I find myself able to reach amazing depths of patience that I certainly never expected. As a wife, well, things are great on that front. But, most importantly, I feel stronger and happier than ever before.

This blog is going to track my continued progress (and some non-progress, too!) as I build the strength of my family and my business by building myself.