Archive for July, 2010

A major reason it’s important to keep track of and be familiar with history is so that we don’t repeat it. Every entrepreneur should take full advantage of the experiences of others so they don’t make the same mistakes, giving them a head start in business.

Here are some ways to learn from others’ experiences:

• Do Your Research Check out businesses similar to yours and see what changes they’ve made. Newspapers may have archives of recent businesses – maybe even some that are now out of business – which you can reference to help you understand what they did right and what they did wrong. Do similar research for other types of businesses for more general ideas.
• Talk To Those With Experience Seeking out someone who has seen success – or perhaps they’ve retired – is a great way to learn from their experience. They will be able to discuss what parts of their business were the most successful, what didn’t do so well, and what they might have done differently. If they’re willing to be an ongoing resource for you – where you can agree to some sort of consulting or mentoring fee – that would be even better.
• Get Educated This may mean checking out a book in the library or taking an evening class, but there are plenty of authors and professors who have been through the rigors of business and will be able to pass on valuable knowledge to you. And again, don’t just look for those who’ve found unparalleled success; you can also learn from the mistakes of others.
• Learn From Customers Customers have an experience each time they visit a business, purchase something online, or deal with customer service. Their experiences are too often underutilized in business. Seek out your customers, and make it easy for them to contact you with question, concerns, comments, or compliments. They may be the best way to learn how you can improve your business.

While you will continually learn from your own experiences and mistakes, there’s no need to make the same errors others have made or to always have to go through what others have gone through. Make the most of the world of information already available and you’ll be able to bypass some of the hardship of making tough decisions.

In business, you’re going to make mistakes. Even with the many resources provided by PMI Coaching, your approach to each project and your choices for each decision won’t be perfect. But it’s important to be able to forgive yourself when those mistakes do happen.

• Share Your Mistakes A great way to come to terms with a mistake you may have made is to share it with others. This may be friends or family, but it will likely be most effective if you share it with employees, management, or other coworkers. This will help create an open and honest work environment.
• Don’t Judge Yourself Not to be too cliché, but everyone makes mistakes. You doing something wrong doesn’t automatically make you a bad person or mean you have nothing to contribute.
• One Bad Doesn’t Outweigh the Good Just because you made a mistake, it doesn’t negate all the good and correct things you’ve done in the past. Focus on the positive contributions you have made and will continue to make.
• Take Responsibility for Your Choices Shifting the blame to someone else won’t do anyone any good. Deceiving yourself and others won’t help you, your coworkers, or the business.
• Things Probably Aren’t As Bad As They Seem It’s easy to get really frustrated and worried and distraught about a current crisis. In reality, it’s likely not a crisis, but just a rough patch. Keep that in mind.
• Encourage Yourself to Move On There comes a point where you just have to move on. What’s past is past; move forward when it’s time.
• Worrying Doesn’t Change Anything Things are how they are; complaining and worrying doesn’t help.
• Most Importantly, Learn From Your Mistakes If you need to, write down the decisions you’ve made that you’ve considered “mistakes.” Next to it, write down what you might have done differently. Use it for future reference in case similar situations arise.

Mistakes happen, but if we forgive ourselves and learn from them, then we’re better off than when we started.

A key part of finding success as an entrepreneur is being resourceful. By learning to make the most out of the assets and opportunities available to you, you’ll be better able to help your business succeed. So here are some ways to be resourceful:

• Break the Rules This doesn’t mean you should stop caring about protocol or other good systems that are in place. But occasionally, you’ll want to try something new, maybe something a little risky, and see what happens.
• See Things Through to the End One of the most valuable resources any of us have is time. If you give up on a project or an idea halfway through, not only have you wasted the time you’ve already spent, but you’re also not utilizing the time necessary to make the idea work.
• Learn to Assess Any Situation A resourceful entrepreneur is able to take a step back from a situation in order to inventory what resources are already available and what other resources may become available.
• Discover What Tools are Available This could be people, money, time, supplies, networks, or any other resources. Perhaps there’s an under-utilized employee who has insight into a particular issue, or a software program that does something you didn’t know it could do.
• Improvise Sometimes you just have to fly by the seat of your pants and experiment. Whether because of time restraints or something else, every once in a while you’re going to have to just make a decision. Move forward with confidence.
• Be Proactive Inspiration often comes when we’re on our feet, not our butts. Sitting in meetings and brainstorming has its place, but by proactively working, a solution is likely to present itself.
• Be Persistent Giving up doesn’t do anybody any good (except your competitors).
• Act Quickly While some issues take some time to address, tabling the topic for the next meeting or saying “I’ll deal with it later,” isn’t being resourceful.
• Learn From Your Mistakes One resource you cannot put too much emphasis on is experience. You will make mistakes and that’s okay; just learn from them and move forward.

Encourage resourcefulness within your company and you’ll see efficiency increase, problems solved without your direct involvement, and a better-run business.

If you’re trying to find good examples of personal accountability, the current news cycle may not be the best place to look. The blame game surrounding the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has gone back and forth – between CEOs, government officials and agencies, and others. The same sort of shenanigans take place every day in politics, business, and elsewhere.

As an entrepreneur, at the end of the day you are ultimately responsible for what goes on in your business. And while that means you can take credit for the successes, it also means you have to take the blame for the failures. An entrepreneur with integrity holds themselves personally accountable at all times.

Playing the blame game is easy to do. It’s simple to think of all the things that should have happened or could have happened. Many of us are quick to play out in our minds a million different scenarios of what happened, and then imagine alternate universes where it didn’t happen.

Even if you’re a business of one, you may want to blame your customers, the Internet, natural disasters, or any other number of faultless things. In reality, there’s an issue with your product, your customer service, your website, or something else.

When dealing with a crisis, and trying to establish your own personal accountability, take some time to answer these questions:

• If this situation were to arise again, what would your responsibilities be? What role would you play?
• What is or isn’t being done to deal with the current situation?
• Is there anything about this situation that is outside of your control? What about this situation is within your control?
• How does your mission statement or vision statement address this issue? If it doesn’t, is there a change/addition to me made?
• What can you do right now to influence the outcome of this situation?
• What needs to be done differently in the future to prevent similar results?

Once you take some time to analyze the situation, you’ll be better prepared to solve the current problem and prevent future ones.

Again, the upside of this is the ability to take credit for the good things that happen (although you need to be sure to give credit where credit is due, or else your relationships will suffer.) But holding personal accountability in high regard will benefit you and your company for years to come.