Congratulations on your decision to start
or grow your business!! To help you maximize
the enjoyment and minimize the difficulties
of this process, I will share 6 key
strategies that I have found by working with
many successful small business owners. These
keys involve: business planning, marketing,
delegation, separating work from personal
life, maximizing energy, and capitalizing on
supports.
1. Create a solid business plan
Many entrepreneurs are wonderfully
creative and innovative people. They are
talented at brainstorming and have fantastic
ideas. They are often not so strong at
planning, organizing, and following through
with plans.
Create a business plan from the beginning
and update your goals and strategies
monthly. Your plan should include: Business
Mission and Vision, Marketing Plan,
Break-Even Analysis and other financial
analysis in the Financial Plan, Plan for
Operations, and Time line for implementation
of the objectives in your plan. Use the
business plan to give you direction and
guidance and to help make decisions more
easily.
2. Become talented at marketing or
hire someone who is
One of the #1 complaints I hear from
entrepreneurs and small business owners is,
“I have this wonderful
business/product/service, but no one knows
about it/me”.
Do not let your hard work go
unrecognized. Learn strategies for
increasing visibility within your market,
and consider hiring a marketing specialist
or business coach, speaking with friends or
colleagues who are well versed in marketing,
or talking to successful small business
owners in your target market and asking them
what strategies worked best for them.
Implement marketing strategies daily.
3. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate.
Many business owners do not know how to
delegate. This is a problem. Do NOT try to
do everything yourself and get burned out.
You will become exhausted, make poor
decisions, and hurt the chances of success
for your company.
“Do what you do best and delegate the
rest.”
Outsource, delegate, and rely on others
when something is not your area of
expertise. Do not try to design your own
website if you are not a web designer. Do
not try to do your own taxes if you are not
an accountant. Delegating will save you
significant $$ in the long run.
4. Separate work from personal life
Many entrepreneurs believe that if they
work VERY hard, their business will be more
successful. As a result, they eat, drink,
sleep, breathe, and talk their business
24-7, and have no work life balance.
Why is this a bad idea? We know from
research that people are most effective and
efficient when they are rested and
stress-free. Living your business every
second will not make you feel rested and
stress-free. Consciously carve out time to
do enjoyable things that are completely
unrelated to your business.
Your enthusiasm and hard work is
extremely important, but it will quickly
fizzle away if you do not create a healthy
balance. Do not create bad work habits that
are hard to fix down the line. Practice
separating your work from family life right
away.
5. Increase your energy and decrease
stress.
One of the most effective ways to
increase energy is through regular exercise.
WE all know this. Yet many business owners
fail to reap the benefits of exercise.
Exercise serves the fantastic purpose of
killing two birds with one stone: decrease
stress and gain energy. Create a feasible
exercise plan that you can actually see
yourself doing several times per week.
Consider: costs, convenience, comfort level,
time, other people who you can exercise
with, and location. For instance, if time is
the most critical factor, get a cardio
machine and free weights and work out for 30
minutes in your house. If cost is the most
important factor, plan a routine to walk or
run outdoors and do push-ups and sit-ups in
your home.
6. Use support systems wisely.
Support systems will help you reduce
business stress. Using support systems, such
as family, friends, and colleagues, is
critically important. You will feel better
and make better business decisions. Be
careful, however, to utilize them
effectively. You do not want to get biased
recommendations or burn out your supports.
If you need more objective opinions or feel
like people are getting tired of hearing
about your business, hire a consultant or
coach, or ask businesspeople in fields
different from your own. Remember to
continue to use your supports for enjoyable
and rewarding activities to help you
separate work and personal life.
Larina Kase, Psy.D., MBA is the
founder of Women Entrepreneurs’ Habitat. She
helps women business owners to grow their
companies faster, increase profitability,
and reduce stress so they can enjoy their
business. Get more resources at
www.wehabitat.com
Keywords:
small business owners, women business
owners, women entrepreneurs, business plan,
marketing strategies, how to delegate, work
life balance, business stress
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