CNBC published an article which states that successful entrepreneurs sacrifice four things to grow their business – financial security, a regular schedule, headspace, and control. Sure those things may be true, but according to Natalie Dawson, Co-Founder and President of business consulting firm Cardone Ventures, the biggest sacrifice one can make is with their time.
When you start a business, it’s an exciting period filled with anticipation and hope, but the entrepreneurial journey comes along with plenty of challenges, and it’s not uncommon for there to be mistakes made and crippling self-doubt along the way.
Am I spending my time wisely? Is it worth it to be away from my spouse and children for so many hours of the day? What if this whole thing doesn’t work out in the end?
If you’ve asked yourself these questions before, you’ve thankfully come to the right place to find some answers.
Natalie explains that if you’re willing to make the right sacrifices at the beginning of your journey, it can truly set you up for success later on, and one of the things she helps her clients do to 10x their business is be more proactive in taking the right steps to reach their goals.
As she explains it, your time is a gift and you can use it however you want to. But if you’re going to sacrifice your sleep or miss out on a special event with your family, then it’s important to make sure that you are as productive with your time as possible to get the business results you are looking for.
“Even though it might not feel like it, people do have some level of flexibility with where they’re spending their time. Most of them are just choosing to spend it directly with a client or working directly with a patient instead of working towards actually building a scalable business,” she continues.
On the contrary, if there’s one area that you shouldn’t make a sacrifice in, it is your workplace’s culture. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to uphold a certain standard within your company that sets the tone for the quality of work you expect your team to achieve.
If your employees are coming to work late, not showing up, or competing with each other in unhealthy ways, those may be signs that your workplace culture needs some TLC.
This begs the question: if something were to happen to you tomorrow, could your business still function? If your answer is no, perhaps it’s time you take a step back and reassess your workplace culture.
“Would you have to, within 30 days, fire everybody? How about 45 days? What’s the time frame that you think your business would go south? Knowing that, what would you do differently? How would you operate your business proactively? Because if you operate from that standpoint, you’re going to start paying more attention to the things that matter,” Natalie continues.
Sharing a quote by author and businesswoman Sharon Lechter, Natalie believes that “you either build your work culture by design or you build it by default.” If you’re not spending time figuring out what your organization’s culture is, a culture will be created regardless, because when you bring people together in an organization, it gets established whether you like it or not.
“Who’s saying, this is what we believe in, this is what we stand for, this is the direction here’s our office norms, if the business owner doesn’t take that responsibility?” she adds.
Natalie recently worked with a business owner who partnered with Cardone Ventures, and over the course of the partnership, got brain cancer and had to be away from his company for two months.
Before working with Natalie and her team, his business’s revenue tanked, but, with her mentorship, he and his team was able to grow within those two months because they were realigned on their goals, and were focused on what needed to be focused on.
“Your business won’t grow unless you grow,” she explains. “If you, as the business owner, are not communicating in a consistent manner, and are not organized, the business is never going to grow outside of that, or your lack of discipline and accountability to yourself,” she continues.
As much as there are challenges and sacrifices made, growth is also a huge part of your entrepreneurial journey, and not just the type that transforms you into a more productive, disciplined individual, but the type that has the potential to change the trajectory of your life and your lineage.
If you learned something new here today, and would like to dive even further into running your business the right way, be sure to check out Natalie Dawson on Instagram, and click here to get a free copy of her 5 star rated business handbook, TeamWork: How to Build a High-Performance Team.