I’ve been thinking on what and how I will motivate you to start your business and I thought about comparing it to losing weight. Dang! Losing weight is so hard. Just this year, I was talking to a friend from the States (*Hi Kat!*) and she was telling me how bad she wanted to lose that extra layer of fat that remained after she gave birth. Man, I remember the time two years ago when I had my daughter and I really wanted to get back to my weight fast. It was definitely a struggle. So anyway, I gave her a copy of this book by my idol Timothy Ferris, which was the 4 Hour Body. And I really swear by this book! It changed the way I viewed losing extra fat. He talks about simple steps that you can take to lose weight, and believe me I did! After I gave birth, that was the “chubby-est” I have ever been and after I read and followed his book, I am at the LEAST chubby-est state that I have ever been… haha!
Anyway, here is the link to the book in Amazon.
So after sharing the book, and after my friend read the book, she was seriously determined to do the simple steps. After two days, she messages me on Facebook and tells me she can’t do it, because she has to eat fruits. My poor friend loves fruits, but in the book, it really states that you should give up fruits since it contains sugar. So, bottom of the story is I know that it’s really hard to start going into something that will obviously change everything about your life. That’s the same with business.
Once you have thought and decided to go into business, here are some things that you can do to finally get you in the groove to start that business that you want.
1) Create some visual motivation.
In my case, I create a vision board and pin it to the corkboard in my room. This vision board are split into short term goals and long term goals. Another thing that I do is print out the business canvas of my business and the projections. These are the things that I consider to be my maps in my business / startup journey! Always have these things accessible so that you can always go back to them and check if you are still on track.
*BTW, watch out for the announcement for a visual business plan workshop this January. These are perfect for people who love to see beautiful things or colorful things. Business plans can be colorful, cute and fun to make, too! Subscribe to ManilaWorkshops.com Newsletter to get updates.
2) Designate a planner, journal or notebook that you will use for your business, and write one main objective that you need to accomplish everyday.
These objectives may seem menial, like writing an email to this person or messaging a business partner, but each task will take you a step closer to the goal.
3) Block off one full day at the end of every month, starting this January to assess how far you are from your goals and to see if you really are moving towards that dream.
This really helps me a lot, since at the end of the month, I really get to review and have a conversation with myself (just like a crazy person!) as to whether I did enough or I still lack in being pro-active.
It’s really hard to get the ball rolling when it comes to creating a business, but take these little steps and you’ll go a long way. Before you know it, your business will be up and running in no time!
Do you have other tips that you want to share? I would love to hear them! Just leave a comment below!
