The proactive entrepreneur is the successful entrepreneur. This is something everyone who has even the loosest connection to any business can see. Oftentimes, though, what they don’t know is how to act proactively. The good news is at Preveer, being proactive is a company value. The business is structured around being efficient, so solutions can be set in place before they are even needed. And as Preveer consistently adapts, the businesses that work with consultants do too. Businesses that are proactive and adaptable are the ones that survive. Preveer has some tips to be proactive as an entrepreneur.
Understand Proactive vs. Reactive Thinking
On the television show Deadliest Catch, legendary Alaskan crab fisherman Captain Phil Harris said, “There are three types of people in this world: ones who make things happen, ones who watch things happen, and the ones who say, ‘Whoa, what just happened?’. Never be the third type.” This is great advice and lends itself to proactive thought. If you find wondering what happened, you are already behind. The successful entrepreneur is spending time thinking about the future, rather than the past. Without a doubt, entrepreneurs need to learn from the past, but not obsess about it. They need to apply the lessons of the past to get ahead of the curve. Reactive thinking misses opportunities. Proactive thinking looks at what’s happening and takes educated guesses about what could happen if certain ideas are applied. The other thing to realize is proactive thinking can be uncomfortable – but success is found in difficulty. Embrace the uncomfortable, and watch a business grow.
Set Achievable Goals
There are many entrepreneurs with their heads in the clouds. This means their feet are not touching the ground, and that lack of awareness can be very problematic. Having ambitious goals is a good thing, but set realistic steps. Achieving these small, but actionable goals springboards to the ambitious goals. Proper goal setting involves looking at what’s possible and how to achieve it. Think about what needs to be done for the business to do more than survive. That’s where your target should be set. Achievable goals mean entrepreneurs are not desperately trying to get to a hard-to-reach place, failing each step of the way. Instead, achievable goals are ticking off boxes on the way to success.
Work in Specific Expertise
The worst thing any business can do is overextend itself with tasks not specifically related to their core competency. The best businesses have a narrow focus, and for entrepreneurs, it can be difficult to keep that focus narrow. There are plenty of reasons for this. The key is to remember the why you opened the business in the first place. What were you trying to achieve or to offer to the world? This is where the success is. A proactive business focuses on the core business and looks for ways to improve the visibility of these services along with improving efficiency of delivery. Instead of expanding into too many different areas, these businesses have the main thing they do well, and they blow it out. Success comes with focus.
Get Reliable Partners
There are many different functions of business. Regardless of if a business works in plumbing or microprocessors, there are many tasks necessary for keeping a business up and running. These tasks include backroom processes like bookkeeping or payroll. Outsourcing is a key method towards accomplishing these tasks. Proactive thinking means making a cost-benefit analysis. The cost of outsourcing tasks not relevant to a business’s core competency makes a business efficient. Efficiency is the lifeblood of a business and it allows a business to be proactive.
Keep it Simple
The biggest issue many reactive folks have is they make alarmingly complex decisions. While deliberation is important, if a decision has many moving parts, it’s impossible to be proactive because all the components required in the decision cause entrepreneurs to miss out on the moment. If something seems like it is unnecessarily complex, avoid it. Instead, go for simple things with easy to see road maps. When that happens, it allows an entrepreneur to be flexible, and flexibility is always a favorite of business.
There are many ways to stay proactive as an entrepreneur. The best thing to do is always maintain a mindset focused on the near future. Preveer is here to help entrepreneurs take proactive steps to grow their businesses. Find out more by visiting www.preveer.com or getting in touch with a local Preveer consultant today.
