Becoming a Proactive Entrepreneur

Hi, I'm Dr. Tali, and today we are talking about being proactive for entrepreneurs. I feel like entrepreneurs. This is not something that is news to you, Bambi. As an entrepreneur, you are always being proactive. You always have to think ahead. You always have to make decisions. You're always doing research. If you're not, you should be. So being proactive, I would say, is a very important skill for an entrepreneur. And more than a skill, it's more than. It's more like a mindset, right? So if you're always thinking about the future or the company or what is possible, the big dreams, what you can do, what's next. It's your job, if it's your business, to always be thinking about that. So I feel like this is just to polish it up a bit or maybe to think of, like, my top three things that really helped me as an entrepreneur to grow my businesses and to make sure that things are running smoothly in the companies. So the first one is something from Seven Effective Habits. Stephen Covey. Love that book. Begin with the end in mind. So this is why I say dream big and why that's important. You want to have the vision. As an entrepreneur, your job is to have the vision as the boss, as the last person. You know the expression the backstops with you. That is super negative. And everyone is always putting the responsibility on you, whether it's good or bad. I. As an entrepreneur, you don't have a boss to fall back on. There's no supervisor to ask for help. Like, every problem is your problem, but the upside is the vision is yours. This is where you get to have fun. Dream big, have all these wild ideas, see all these examples, be inspired, you know, inspire your team, paint the office how you want, have the products what you want, try all the marketing ideas. It's an important thing. But now when I say that you have to begin with the end in mind, what that means is you have this big dream, right? And then you're gonna break it down into teeny, teeny, tiny tasks that you can do every single day that you can break into instructions that you can break into, the quarterly targets that you can break into. This is the map of what we're gonna be doing for the next two years, you know, so you have to think that way. Then you can effectively get to the dream as efficiently and effectively as possible. So begin with the end in mind. This is going to help you to be proactive, because if you know where you're trying to go, you're always thinking about that Des, when you're making decisions, you're like, is this going to help us get there or not? Is this a distraction? When you're hiring people, when you're deciding on marketing, on budgets, on projects, on where you're going to expand to or how you're going to take the customer feedback, you're thinking about that big goal, the big vision, the end. Begin with that end in mind. And then when you have a minute to yourself, you start to think, what else am I not doing? How can we do better? I feel so bad telling entrepreneurs this, but it's the cold truth. And so in that quiet, quiet time, that's when you can be proactive. That's when you can be like, you know what? This is what's going to take us to the next step. I need to start to train my CEO so that they're doing better. I need to start to make sure everyone is getting the planning that they need, the information that they need. We need to roll out to this district. We need to launch this new product. We need to give this to our customers for Christmas bonus. Let's have this experience or this promotion. That's what you're always thinking as an entrepreneur, in my experience and from the entrepreneurs I've been around and those that have asked, they're always thinking about these things. You will find the busiest people who you're like, oh, my God, I don't know how they do it. And if you sit and have coffee with them for 20 minutes, they'll be telling you about the 10 other things that they want to do in the next six months. And you're just like, wow, that's what I want to be like. I don't know if you really want to be like that. It's exhausting. It's exhausting. But I'm one of those people. I'm always thinking about, like, what else can we do? And that's why when I say begin with the end in mind, it's so easy to get distracted, because the reason you have a business is because you have the ability to have that business. It means you have the ability to start something. And a lot of entrepreneurs get slowed down because they start too many things. And you can't drive everything at the same time. So you have to think about, where are you going as a person as well. Are you trying to get this company big? Are you trying to get this project or trying to launch 10 companies? Are you trying to sell these companies? Are you trying to grow all of them to be huge corporations? What Is the goal? What is the vision? You have to know that because that helps guide you. It's like your compass. And then you break that down into tasks and targets, and that's how you make sure that you're making progress, because that's something you can measure and you can see where you're going. So when I'm saying, be proactive as an entrepreneur, don't just wait for customers to suggest things to you. Don't just wait for the government to change the law, how the license comes, or what you're allowed to do. Be proactive. What is happening in your sector? What are your competitors doing? What. What is possible? What are they doing in America or in China or in Thailand or in South Africa? In your same sector in your field, how can that be translated? Would that work in your market? Is that something you want to do? Does that sound exciting to you? So that's what you need to, like, think about and focus on and think, how are we going to get there? And also, it helps to hold onto that vision because there are very dark times as an entrepreneur. They're very tough times when you're demoralized and exhausted and broke and. And you're like, what are we doing? How are we ever gonna get there? You need to remember that big vision and that big dream and be like, that's the end. That's where we're going. And that's why I'm determined to go there. This is why. This is how it makes me feel. This is how it's going to affect my life and my friends and my family and my staff and my customers and the country. Dream big and think of that dream and hold onto it and let that motivate you in the dark times. So after you've dreamt big and you're thinking about the end in mind, you want to learn from experience. This one I have to emphasize, because you cut so much time out of the way when you learn from other people, honestly, learn from your own experience and learn from other people's experience. Why? I love reading memoirs, like books about people's lives. They've lived a whole life, and they're here telling you about it. So read the book. You will learn so much about someone else's path and how they walked it and how they made the decisions and the challenges they had and how they overcame them. And because you can learn from other people's experience, this is why you need to have mentors. This is why you need to go to conferences. This is why you need to ask people Questions? This is why you need to network, because you can live vicariously through other people and their stories and to help your business. I can't tell you how often I'm watching a documentary about someone's life and I have to press pause because I'm like, we have to do this at the company. We have to do this in the office. This team can learn from this. You should see my poor team and my WhatsApps. At like 3am I'm sending them, watch this video. Check this guy on Twitter. See this on YouTube. Because I'm just so inspired, because I'm living through other people's experiences. This could work for us. What if we change it this way? What do you guys think? How could this happen? Can we try this? Can we test this? And when you start to do things like that, if you experiment 10 things in a year, for sure, at least one of them will be great and will work. It helps, and it helps to improve your quality. One of our companies, the marketing, our posters get copied so much, and sometimes the team complains, but we're always flattered. And I'm like, it just shows that you're leading in your industry. They're like, yeah, that's true. And it's because they push themselves. They're always looking at other countries, other people, other competitors. They're always trying to be inspired, trying to do things differently. And they're lucky to have a boss like me who approves all these experiments. So I'm like, you know what? Try it. Yes, I'll approve this budget. Go do the photo shoot. Let's see what happens. Some of them fail, and I'm like, wow, spent all that money. There were models, absolutely no business. But others are great and they work out and they're busy and there's regular revenue and customers and feedback. So you want to always be trying out these different kinds of things. You want to be making sure that you give yourself that room and you push yourself because you can live through other people. You can learn through these things. If you're out of your comfort zone. That's why I say push yourself. Because other people's experience, they didn't have the same thinking as you. They didn't have the same background. They didn't have the same goals most of the time. So there's a different reason why they did it. But you can always learn something if you're on the lookout for that and your own experience. And when it's your own experience, what helps I find, is you should document stuff. If you're someone who has a practice of journaling. It's useful if you don't. I suggest you get systems in place, take notes in your meetings, have files of stuff. I find it better to do these things digitally because it's easier to search. Send emails, you guys, emails are so useful. Email. At the end of the meeting, send an email to everyone who was in the meeting. Here are the minutes of the meeting. These are the action points of the meeting. In six months or in five years, you're going to wonder what happened in that meeting or how you got to a certain decision or how you reach a certain point. Just type it into your search in your email. You will find it so useful. If you don't want to use email, there's so many apps. Use Evernote, use Upnote. There's so many different things. Even just the to do list in your phone, in your notes, you can always search for things. And that's helpful through your own experience because it will remind you next time. Sometimes I'll be sitting somewhere in a meeting and I'm like, I feel like I refused to approve this last time, but I don't remember why. I feel like this idea has come up before. Did we try, did we not try it? I can't remember. It's been five years. So if you have everything written down, it helps. Also because there's turnover of people. In the first few years I worked, I realized there's so much institutional knowledge in the human beings who work with us now. If that person goes, or if you fire them, or if they move on to a better job or if they retire, you're stuck. I don't know. I feel like all my assistants that I've ever had are friends because they always have to call the one before them. Where is this document? When she says this, what does this mean? What happened to this? Where is the keys for that? Who has the checkbooks for this? They all know each other in like a chain. Because I don't have good systems of institutional knowledge now I'm learning from my own experience because I didn't value that. I have to have better systems where I write things down, where I file things so that I can always find what I need. And I can always remind myself, why didn't we do this before? What did this cost last time? That decor budget is high. I swear, the other day Herta was lower. Can someone check that invoice? You have to be able to check. You have to be able to go back through your records. So make sure you Write everything down. It seems time consuming, but it's a habit that's worth it. Because remember, you have this big dream, right? That dream might take 30 years to achieve. So you want to have all this institutional knowledge so that you can always go back and check. You can compare things. You. You can make sure that you're making the best decision in that moment with all the information that you have. It's useful. The last thing I would say for entrepreneurs, as we are thinking big and we are being proactive and we are trying to get ahead of things and not be passive in our businesses, Feel the fear and do it anyway. That is a quote by Susan Jefferies. I love that quote. I have that quote stuck in my bedroom, stuck in my office. It's always in my head. Cause we are scared. I understand. It's very scary. Being an entrepreneur is the truth. You have no safety net. You have no boss to fall back on. 5 o' clock comes and goes. Every problem is your problem. So there's just so much that you have to think about. You have all these people's lives who depend on you. The company needs to succeed, otherwise someone won't have a salary. Your customers depend on you, otherwise they're going to complain. I can't tell you how many times we've changed something. And a customer is like, I used to eat this thing at your restaurant all the time. Where is it? My friend? It had been seven years. We had to change the menu. So there's always like all this responsibility and fear. Because any kind of change, any kind of disruption, any kind of difference is going to have consequences. There are going to be people who are not happy that you change the menu. And then there'll be a hundred elsewhere like, wow, this new menu is great. So feel that fear. I'm not saying don't be scared. Everyone gets scared. Even the most successful big giant companies and CEOs have fear. But you have to learn to push through the fear. You have to learn how to do it scared. Even if you're scared, even if you're shaking, still do it. Because then you come out the other side. You'll do it. And you realize you didn't die. You didn't turn to dust. The company's still there. You took a risk and you survived. It is the first step. Whether it works out or it doesn't is secondary. My point is learn how to push through that fear. Because if you're scared, you'll never grow. Growth and comfort do not live together. So now, even as a company, if you're scared to expand, you're scared to get a new shop, you're scared to have more customers who add these products. Products or increase the price or to change something, you'll never grow. It's impossible. And as a business, you need to keep growing. Because you're either growing or you're dying like people. Because every day that you're not growing, your competitors are growing. Yo. There's always new things. There's new ideas, there's new shops, there's new products, there's new services. You have to keep growing. So feel the fear and do it anyway. I promise you'll survive. If you don't, please don't blame me. I don't mean like I'm taking liability for this, but most of the time you won't. You'll be fine. I'm not saying gamble the entire company on one decision. I mean make small decisions that grow you, that push you. Like how I'm saying do 10 experiments in a year. Try different marketing campaigns, try different flavors, try different colors, try different products, try different suppliers. You never know. You'll see the results. But the only way to get those results is if you take the risk. If it fails, you've learned something. If it succeeds, wonderful. Keep doing it. But the point is, you have to do it. Feel that fear. And don't let that fear overcome you. Don't let it suffocate you or stifle you. Because remember the big dream. The fear is here in the middle. The fear is the obstacle. And it's only you that can get through that. And as the entrepreneur, as the founder of the business or the CEO or the MD or the person who opens the shop every day, it's your responsibility to keep the business growing. So you have to make sure you're fighting your fear every day. And the more you do it, the good thing is your fear becomes more manageable. Because, you know, last time I was scared, but I still did it and I managed. We worked it out, you know, we survived. The more you do that, the more your whole system knows fear will not defeat me. And then that's what helps you to make better judgment better calls more experience. So that when you're taking risks, you better assess what's going to work, what's not going to work, what do I do in one situation? So don't let fear slow you down. There's no successful person that doesn't know how to go through their fear, to fight through it, to go above it, around it, through it. However, you get through it. Just get through it. Don't let fear stop you. Fear should not be a closed door. Never think about it that way. And don't make decisions from a place of fear. So that's why you need to feel that fear. Acknowledge. Yes, I'm scared. But you know what? I'm gonna do it. I wish you the best while you do it. 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