After the initial furor over launching your startup is over and done with, it’s time for the hard work to begin. The problem is that after a while it’s not uncommon for startup owners to become unmotivated and hesitant. The most attention-grabbing Tweets always talk about procrastination and achieving growth in the world of startups.
This guide is going to show you the four steps you need to follow in order to stay motivated and push your way through startup growth.
Revisit Your Original Purpose
The best B2B sales reps are master storytellers and the core of their story is their purpose for starting their company in the first place. This is engaging and it pivots according to what’s going on in their market niche right now. If things aren’t going well, it may be time to revisit this purpose and to think about why you started your company in the first place.
It’s easier than you think to forget about why you opened your doors. How do you expect to generate leads through trust when you don’t even know why you’re selling your product or service?
Control Your Thoughts
How you use your mind will influence how you feel that day. Not enough people are concentrating on how they happen to feel. Negative thoughts can release chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline. These two chemicals are responsible for generating the fight or flight response.
While this response is necessary on occasion, it can also cause a complete mental breakdown if it happens too often. One skill that all successful entrepreneurs have is the ability to be optimistic. 80 percent of the population are optimists and they can banish negativity and ensure that they always stay positive.
To help control your thoughts, you should surround yourself with positive people. Control your thoughts through cutting toxic people from your life and associating with those who can inspire you to greater things. There are no prizes for doing business with poisonous people.
Set Goals and Achieve Them
Getting to startup growth starts with a motivated self and a motivated team. To motivate yourself to grow your startup, you need a clear line between success and failure. Nothing motivates more than a clear goal. You need to know where you are going and how you are going to get there. Too many entrepreneurs try to go into this blind, or they set a generalized goal with nothing specific in mind.
So, how do you set goals that are going to contribute to your efforts, rather than take away from them?
First, you need to set an attainable goal that fits in with the long-term targets of your company. You then have to create a roadmap for how you are going to accomplish these goals. Once they have done this, the hard work starts and they go about following their plans and achieving their goals.
When you accomplish a goal there’s nothing like that feeling of success. This creates momentum that you can use to build on new goals for the future. Just make sure that you are taking some time out to reflect on your progress and what you could have done better.
Take a Break
Entrepreneurs are known for running at a million miles per hour. This is sustainable in the short-term because you are so caught up in the passion surrounding your company. The problem is that this is only going to last for so long. Once you have burned through that initial startup energy you are going to suffer from fatigue.
You should go out of your way to take regular breaks. Sometimes this can just involve taking a ten-minute break. Occasionally, you should go out of your way to have a longer break where you disconnect from your business entirely and leave your usual work environment.
You have to treat yourself like an athlete. If you don’t take some time away from the business, you are going to struggle to keep up.
