Today is all about mindset. We’ve spent this #IntentionalPrep week clearing out everything that had our attention last year, and planning our time for the year ahead. Today we’re going to tie this together with a critical concept:
You are a small business owner.
We’ve all heard that the days of the “company man” are over: no one spends a 40-year career moving up the ladder at the same company anymore. The typical person entering the workforce today will have 8-12 jobs, meaning you’ll be changing positions every 3-5 years.
This is a good thing!
You’ll get a chance to see new problems, new people, new perspectives. If you play your cards right, every move will include a raise that an internal promotion could never compete with. Let’s do that.
My attitude is that I am a small business owner. Tony, Inc. currently has one customer (the university that I am a professor at).
Why is this mindset crucial?
Because the things that successful small businesses do are exactly what you should be doing to win. Here’s how Dan Miller suggests a small business owner spends a 45-hour work week:
- 9 hours reading studying listening gathering new knowledge (getting better at the job, keeping up to date with the market)
- 15 hours creating content (packaging your work in a way that people can understand what you do, presentations, reports, etc.)
- 12 hours working directly with clients (doing the actual job)
- 9 hours marketing building brand and reputation (doing things that gain positive attention, favors for bosses and coworkers, practicing your elevator pitch, resume building, professional networking, social media)
Bottom Line:
You’re not just in the business of completing todo items. Leave out any of these areas and you’ll limit yourself. You’re in the business of growing yourself into success. That takes effort across all of the categories above.
You want to be doing good work, learning how to do even better work, and making sure that your reputation is growing.
Spend some time today online learning about starting a business. Even if you have no interest, you’d be surprised how much you can learn about building a successful life! Finally, map the tasks above to your situation.
Example for a student:
- Reading studying listening gathering new knowledge = learning how to learn, manage time, plan projects, work in groups
- Creating content = doing assignments
- Working directly with clients = finding a way to use what you’re learning to work for someone, internship, tutor, research
- Marketing building brand and reputation = networking, writing cover letters and resumes, blogging, forming meaningful relationships on social media
Need help getting started? Send me a DM and we can chat!
