Ten things every entrepreneur should be doing

Putting 20% of all earnings in a separate bank account

You will be amazed at how much money you will save by putting away 20% of everything you earn each time a check comes in and putting it in a separate bank account. This is very easy to do by opening up a new account at another bank and transferring it online each time you get paid.

Have you noticed that you don’t understand where your money is going when you waste it, it’s because you are not paying attention. The same thing when you save it, you won’t even miss it and have to live slightly below your means to see the benefits, and before you know it you’ll have a substantial amount of money for your reserves in the bank. This concept of saving 20% is just like insurance; as long as you have it, you are less likely to need it; it’s when you don’t have it that all hell breaks loose.

Go to bed early at night

The early bird indeed catches the worm. Going to bed late at night and working late at night and then getting up late in the morning, you’re always chasing and running and never able to see the benefits of what you’re doing because you don’t get much rest. Then you will be exhausted and need to take a nap too.

When you go to bed at 8:30 or 930 at night, and you get up at four or five in the morning, you’re already ahead of the curve, especially if you’re on the West Coast and you have East Coast clients, your day is pretty much over by noon, and you have the rest of the day to coast.

Working out

One of the other benefits of going to bed early and getting up early, is that once your day is practically over at noon, you get to go to the gym and work out between noon and 4 PM, which is generally the slowest hours at most gyms.

You get to have most of the gym to yourself and what you decide to do after that is on you, whether you want to catch up on some more work. Still, you’ve already gotten quite a bit in.

If you go to the gym after 4 PM, you’re likely to run into crowds and get frustrated because you can’t work out. After all, all the machines are taken. This is what I mean by chasing and running. It’s better to go in the late afternoon between 12 and 4 PM.

Take small road trips.

Once again, my favorite saying is, ‘you can’t blow up a balloon from the inside.’ You have to get away and see things in perspective. Wherever you live, there’s bound to be a couple of attractions nearby within a couple of hours in other cities. Do yourself a favor and rent a nice hotel room and relax for the weekend or a couple of days out of the week and then come back raring to go. It works, believe me.

Eliminate any and everything negative from your life. First and foremost, anybody sitting around talking about people and gossiping get them out of your life.

Anybody who’s not motivated or not doing things with their life has to go. Snoop Dogg, and I’m actually shocked I’m going to quote him, stated that once you reach a certain level, other people have to meet you at that level; otherwise, you’ll be going down to their level to meet them instead of them coming up to yours. That was an excellent point, you’ve worked hard to get to where you are, and some people expect you to come back down to get them making no effort to have their success.

You can never feel guilty for being successful, but people will try to make you feel guilty if they’re not on your team and in your circles. Sometimes you have to cut people off.

Aim higher

Look at the big picture first and always ask for more than you need. If you sell something and it costs $3000, and it’s a service, ask for $6000. Why? Because you will end up around $4500, that’s still above what you expected if you had asked for $3000, people generally ask for discounts. Put yourself in front of the 8ball.

Donate

The more you help others, the more the universe helps you. I’ve seen it firsthand. It’s true; find a way to donate your services or your products to people in need and watch your returns quadruple. The key is don’t do it expecting in return. It’s something that has to be done from the heart. If you do it expecting something in return, you will not get any returns.

Treat yourself

I used to feel sorry for people who ate in restaurants by themselves: now I admire them.

Sitting back, picking up a magazine to thumb through it, and being served by waiters and waitresses is the ultimate pampering. You control the conversation and the thoughts because it’s just you.

You don’t need to sit around and talk to other people who are probably talking about nothing but you need to spend time quality time with YOU and sit in your feelings there is nothing wrong with treating yourself to a nice lunch or dinner by yourself a lot of the times we work so hard we lose ourselves and this is a great way to get to know yourself again.

Work from another location.

This is a tough one, but it has its benefits. I find hotels are great places because you’re not bombarded by noise, kids and homeless people like Starbucks. There is nothing wrong with kids, noise, and homeless people except when you need to focus and work.

You deserve to have a space as well but if you want to relax and get some work done. Check out hotels in your area, and buy something and hang out in the lobby.

They usually don’t mind if you sit there and work and you can use their electricity and get your business taken care of. Restaurants are also a good place because then you can also have lunch. When was the last time you sat in a restaurant for two or three hours, ate and then got some work done? It’s great to see and be around great connections by the types of people coming in and out.