Looking for the best advice on starting a business? 

Good for you.

You've got dreams, you've got ambitions and you've got guts. 

And they are 3 key ingredients to starting a new business.

Sounds like you're ready to take the plunge.

Excited? 

Most businesses owners started with the exact same dreams as you.

But the business most people own never delivers them anything like the lifestyle they imagined. 

They conveniently forget about their dreams as a coping strategy because they've become trapped. 

The business ends up owning them.

They've actually only got a high paying job (or more commonly a low paying one).

No paid holidays, less time off than they'd get in a normal job, always on call, working evenings and weekends. 

That exciting plunge that was full of possibility turns into plunging away at the same old $H!T everyday quicker than anyone ever imagined. 

You must have seen it?

So why does that happen and how can you avoid it?

Well fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom. 

Owning a business IS exciting. 

But it's precisely that excitement which gets the better of people. 

You see, it's really easy to get distracted in business because you've got so much freedom.

Why Most People Ignore This Advice

As a business owner, you've fired your boss.

You're your own master.  

No one can tell you what to do. 

So most people ignore this (opposite of exciting) advice. 

With infinite choices, humans tend to not make decisions. 

And not making a decision is still a decision. It has consequences. 

It's called analysis paralysis. 

And when we have no plan, we can only react to things.

And in business, a lot of things pop up. 

We wear many hats, we fight fires.

So there isn't much time left to make changes. 

To change things, we have to get creative instead of being reactive.

And that takes planning and a mindset change, because the fires will still burn and it's hard to ignore a fire. 

This is where you have to start with a business

You can’t build anything robust without a proper blueprint. 

To get started on the right path and build the business you dream of (which 90% of people never do)...

 you have to get very clear on what you are going to build. 

But you don't even design your business first. 

You design your lifestyle.

You didn't get into business to be in business. You got into it for a better lifestyle. 

You must define your ideal lifestyle down to the smallest detail.

How much free time do you want? How many holidays do you wish to take?

You then design your business around that and make every business decision in accordance with that ideal lifestyle. 

You don’t do anything in your business unless it takes you towards that goal.

This gives you a roadmap to follow because without it, you will either get lost on the way or have to get extremely lucky.

Top entrepreneurs don’t leave anything to chance

They plan the hell out of stuff.

They know exactly what they are doing every minute of every day and only do tasks that deliver big returns.

This is known as being productive.

It's very different to being busy. 

Top entrepreneurs know that businesses only grow and evolve when the owner works ON them, rather than IN them. 

You must keep time aside in your schedule to do this.

You must work ON your business every day, not just IN it. 

If you fail to set aside at least an hour every day to work on your business, rather than in it (and even collecting payments is IN your business, not on it), then you must accept that your business isn't evolving. 

After a period of time, most entrepreneurs have to accept that their business has turned out to be a job in disguise.

The reason for this is because little to no ongoing planning gets carried out and the owner doesn’t prioritise working on their business and on themselves.

Mindset and digital skills training are the key to getting started well.

Start with your mindset because the only way to achieve success in business is to define what success really means to you.

You’ll instantly think of a financial figure, but that isn’t enough.

It will not sustain you. It will also change. 

What you think is really a lofty goal for you now, can easily become child's play in the future. 

But be careful of that excitement like I mentioned earlier.

 Most people significantly over estimate what is achievable in a year (and get disheartened and quit) but...

they often can't even imagine what is achievable for them in 10 years.  

To not quit on your business plans, or any goal for that matter, you have to break goals down into daily activity and then forget about the big picture. 

You have to work in single days. 

You have to master the mundane for business success. 

Missing a daily activity that is critical to your future should be a big deal. 

Hold yourself accountable like the worlds most annoying boss. 

It’s only when you set the time aside to really think about what success is to you...

(and not to your friends or family or the Tik Tok community)...

that you can achieve what you set out to and gain a sense of satisfaction from your business regardless of how far you want to take it.  

That's why any new business (and every new year in business) starts with a note pad and pen, in a quiet room, with no phone or device in sight and some good old fashioned thinking.

Conclusion

If you don't sit down, think and plan your ideal lifestyle, you'll never have an ideal business. 

Get help planning and delivering your ideal lifestyle for free