- Are you a smart entrepreneur? Do you know the five things that smart entrepreneurs never do? Number one, smart entrepreneurs,
they never micro manage. Now I want you to imagine back then when you are starting your business. Now I remember when I was
starting my first few businesses, I was a control freak where I was the king of micromanagement. I want to know all the details, because in the beginning of your career, your business career you
are doing everything, you're the one-man/one-woman show. You are selling, you are closing, you are doing the invoice,
you're doing the marketing, you're meeting with people,
you are doing the fulfillment, you're taking a phone call, you're dealing with the receipts, right? And you are trying to make sure
everything don't fall apart, you're talking to everybody, and you have to micromanage, because that's what you need to do. But after a certain point that behavior, even as you grow, stay. Because that's how you know, that's what it takes to grow a business. I gotta know everything,
I've gotta micromanage, but then what happens is
as your revenue grows, you will hit a glass ceiling. And that behavior as a
rugged individualist, that's a control freak does not serve you if you want to go to the next level. You have to let go. Now you can no longer manage
in a small details kind of way. You cannot micromanage anymore. So smart entrepreneurs you have to learn and we know we are macro thinkers. What we need to do as
a smart entrepreneur is we need to figure exactly
where we are going, what's our vision, that's your job. You figure out the vision, number one, and number two you now
recruit and hire talents to help you that you know
they have the capabilities and right attitudes, the right culture, to help you to execute that vision. That's number two and number
three, you as a leader, very important, allocate the resources, the capital to execute that vision, to help your team execute that vision. That is it, that is it. When you are micromanaging
you cannot do that, because you're too close to your business. You got to step back and
think about the big picture. What is the vision? Who do I need to have on my
team to execute this vision? And how do I allocate my resources that will help them prioritize, they will help my team
to execute that vision, and that is it. So small entrepreneurs,
we don't micromanage. Number two, small entrepreneurs
don't say yes to everything. In the beginning of your
entrepreneurial career you have to say yes to everything. You have to say yes to that meeting. You have to say yes to every single client that comes through the door. You just say yes to every single email, because you are still
growing and building, but when you get to a certain
size and certain point you have to learn how to say no. As an entrepreneur you must realize that you have a finite
amount of time, resources, capital, whatever that it
is, it is not infinite. So as a CEO, as a founder,
you must learn to prioritize. One of the most important
lessons that I have learned in my own career is this,
that in the beginning I have to say yes to everything, then I only say yes to something, then now almost say yes to nothing. Everything that comes
across my table investment, joint venture opportunity, opportunity to do this deal and that deal I have to look at it and say hey, does this fit my overall vision or is this just a distraction? It is okay when someone
sends you an investment, a picture, a joint venture
proposal, and whatever, it's okay to ignore. Some you do reply, some you could ignore, because as an entrepreneur
you have to know when to say no and when to say yes. Number three, smart entrepreneurs never stop listening
to the ideal customers. As entrepreneurs what do we do? What it boils down to is we
solve other people's problems and fulfill other people's needs and make a profit in the process and we cannot fulfill other people's needs if we don't understand what
our ideal customers needs are. You see you don't have to
be the marketing genius. Your customer is the marketing genius. They will tell you what they want. They will tell you what they like. And they would also tell
you what they don't like and what are they willing to pay for. They vote with their wallets. That's the best bet. You see most entrepreneurs
they spend so much time working on the thing or
making their thing better, but they don't spend enough
time listening to the customers. Is this even what they want? Did they tell you that
that's what they want? Are they giving you feedback or are you building
something that nobody wants and that's how most entrepreneurs fail. Now you might say well Dan, what about Henry Ford
when he invented the car, Ford Motors, right? What about back then, you know, he said if I was to ask
what my customers want then everyone would say faster horses. Well that's exception. If you are selling and you offering some kind of disruption technology, that's a different story, because then you're anticipating the
needs of the marketplace and you are essentially
creating your own market. I'm not talking about that, that's a very small percentage
of the entrepreneurs. For most entrepreneurs, we are more tapping
into the existing needs, the existing desires
that people already have and we're tapping in to that. That's how we make most of our money. So small entrepreneurs
we never stop listening, paying attention to what
our ideal customers want and what they need. Number four, small
entrepreneurs focus on profits not just revenue. One of the biggest mistakes
that I've made in my career is in the early years I was
focusing so much on revenue and I thought, you know what, revenue would solve all problems. I just need to generate more revenue, bring in more sales, it's always about bringing more sales and if I bring enough sales
all my problems will go away. That is simply not true, because you don't go to the
bank and deposit revenue. The bank is not looking at oh, how much revenue you've generated. So sometimes when you
read from a magazine, when you read from one of these posts, and saying oh, this company's
doing 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, 500 million dollars in revenue. That's good, but how much profit are
you actually making? What's your take-home pay? How much cash do you have in reserve? So profit, if you think about it, it is not an event, it is a habit. So if you're not making a lot of profit when you're growing, so let's say you're making
five million dollars in revenue and you don't have a lot of profit, by growing it, scaling it to 10 million, are you sure... are you sure that you
will make more profits? Are you sure that your profit
would exponentially grow, because a profit has to a lot
to do with your profit margin. It also has a lot to do with
your overhead and your expense. As an entrepreneur sometimes it's easier that we are overly optimistic. Okay, we just spend money,
let's bring in more revenue, and you could have a
great month of revenue and then you're looking
at profit, oh my god. We're actually making less money, because maybe we did more marketing, it costs us more to
bring in those customers or maybe now we need more infrastructure. We've hired a lot of new people or we've just invest in
this piece of equipment, but if you don't look at profit it's a very, very dangerous habit. So small entrepreneurs we focus
on profit, not just revenue. Number five, small entrepreneurs
we never stop learning. You see till this day I still read two to three books a week. I'm still a very dedicated student. I'm just as dedicated to
learning as I was many years ago when I had no money. When I'm driving, when I'm working out, I'm always listening
to some kind of podcast with successful entrepreneurs. When I'm working, when
I am replying emails, checking on social media, I
have some kind of programs, educational programs
playing in the background, because I know it's not
just how much I know, it's how fast I learn. In order to compete today,
today, you need to learn, you need to grow, you cannot stop. That's what smart entrepreneurs do and that's what you need to do as well. Remember ignorance is not a bliss. Ignorance is poverty. Ignorance is an illness. Ignorance is devastation. What you don't know, will cost you, so keep learning and keep growing, keep reinventing yourself. What you have accomplished in the past, it does not matter, it doesn't count. What comes, what matters,
is today, the present moment and where you're going in the future. So if you want to get smarter, faster, without all the costly mistakes I'm gonna have my team put a link somewhere around this page. Click on that link. I'd invite you to join my
global community Dan On Demand where every single month you're gonna get training from me that will help you to become better entrepreneur. It will help you to
think like a millionaire and on top of that I'm gonna give you a three day free trial. Three day free trial so you can test drive to see what is it like to
learn from me personally and also I'm gonna give you thousands and thousands of dollars worth of bonuses. So go ahead, click on the link right now and I'll see you in class.
