13 Tips for Small Business Owners on Friday the 13th

Here are 13 things we ALL can do today, Friday the 13th, tomorrow and every day thereafter to ensure success in our life and work as small business owners, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs.

I am not superstitious – I believe you have the opportunity every day to make decisions that will impact you, your life and business either negatively or positively.

I wake up and choose to make a positive difference everyday!

1. Be genuine. Be who you are and don’t worry about who others are and what they think of you. This isn’t a free pass to be rude or not concerned with hurting others. I mean don’t put out false pretenses about who you are / what you can or can’t accomplishment. Be yourself and let your true self shine through to make a positive impact in your life and others’ lives.
2. Don’t focus on others’ successes. Instead of being jealous and worrying about what others are doing and their successes, spend your energy generating positive thoughts and strategies to further your success.
3. Avoid gossip about others. It is very easy to fall into this trap (I have been trapped myself). When you find other individuals or in groups talking negatively about others focus on turning the conversation into a positive one by sharing positive examples of things done well.
4. Thinking about group projects. When you collaborate on a project with others, if something doesn’t work right or get you the results you expected instead of spending your energy pointing out what others did wrong or could have done better, point back to yourself and learn the things you can do differently next time to ensure success.
5. Plan for your future – short term and long term. Write out your goals that you would like to accomplish. Leave space to write underneath each goal later a list of actions you can take to work toward this goal. As you complete each action mark it off your list. The sense of accomplishment will inspire you to keep moving forward.
6. Time for reflection. Schedule time at the end of each day to reflect upon your accomplishments. Be proud of what you completed and are proud of doing.
7. More reflection. Now reflect on the things you are not so proud of, things you wanted to accomplish and didn’t. This isn’t to beat yourself up, but to acknowledge the reason you didn’t accomplish it, maybe you need to get rid of it as a goal. Forgive yourself and move on.
8. Give yourself permission. This could permission to let go of something you have on your to do list, permission to give a task to someone else you hate doing or permission to lay on the couch and work instead of at your desk, (like I am right now typing this blog post).
9. Eat and rest. As Small business owners and employees we spend our days and nights hurrying, working, and running in all different directions. We skip meals, eat unhealthy and work when we should be relaxing and sleeping. Your body needs food and rest to give you energy and regenerate.
10. Connect with others. Business owners support each other in success by giving referrals, hiring each other, and making recommendations. Get out of the office and go mingle with others at networking events, conferences, cocktail parties and dinners. Do your part to meet and help others. Their success with be your success.
11. Make commitments and be loyal. This can be a commitment to yourself, someone else or even a group. Don’t be one of those wishy-washy people that can’t say yes and doesn’t follow through – “Do what you say and say what you do”. Dogs are one of the most loyal animals, we need to have loyalty to others. A little bit of loyalty toward someone else goes a long way in his or her loyalty to you.
12. Collaborate with others. Develop a core team that you can depend on, collaborate with, share ideas and hold each other accountable. As a solopreneur, I don’t have a business partner to say “this idea is good or bad, or even have you considered this,” but I do have a team that is my sounding board when I am developing a project or concept, and each member fills an important role. Find others to connect with, then support, trust and help each other. Celebrate your successes together.
    

    (Shout out to John Nosal, Robin Moss, Renee Groskreutz and Patty Farmer. They have been an awesome sounding board. There are others too, but I don’t want to bore you with naming all of them. Follow them.)

13. Have FUN. To me this is the most important piece of advice I can give you. Life and business has its up and downs. You have to have fun, be able to laugh at yourself and a joke every now and again. Being a small business owner isn’t easy and you will have your trials and tribulations. The fun times is what makes the hard times bearable

Ok … that was my 13 tips on Friday, the 13th that will help you, today, tomorrow and every other day to succeed in life and business.

Comment below your thoughts feedback and your tips. I know you have some awesome tips to add to this post!

P.S. My SEO guy would kick my tail if I don’t end this post by driving you to another page of my website – gotta keep the bounce rate low. I do offer private social media coaching services, group training and speaking as part of my work, am a published author, plus have a social media coaching membership website. Hire Me … Book Me … Refer Me. … End of pitch, pick a link and “Click it”. Life is good!