There is a misconception that entrepreneurship is exciting. It is not. Entrepreneurship is very, very dull.
Bernd Mintjes
My friend and colleague Bernd Mintjes wrote a piece on LinkedIn about the importance of focus. Assuming you have identified a problem, have a unique solution, and after you picked your beachhead market or core market segment, there are only 3 things you need to do.
There are only 3 things you need to
You need focus. Hence the 100-day plan. Which is about picking a metric you want to focus on. It can only be one metric. You then need to three things.
- You need to list all your necessary activities, and you plan them over the 100 days. Remember the word “necessary”. 80% of what you are doing at the moment isn’t.
- You develop a routine of 3 core processes you need to do every day.
- You go and do. For 100 days.
Every day
No deviation. Executing the plan. Where you block at least two hours every day and focus on the three core processes. It could be cold calling, it could be writing and publishing your content, it could be researching potential clients, it could be developing your sales database, it could be the analysis of your network, etc. The critical point is every day, for at least two hours.
Routine
It is about the routine, and it should be the first thing you do every day. Before you check your e-mails. It is a period where you avoid all distraction and focus on the task at hand. No breaks. At a minimum of two hours. And you stick with it. You stick with it for the 100 days. After that, you reflect, review and plan the next 100 days. Repeating the same process.
Entrepreneurship is boring
Bernd and I were talking about this recently at our annual internal tibor.nl retreat in Thailand. About the misconception that entrepreneurship is exciting. It is not. Entrepreneurship is very, very dull. It is 99% hard work, routine and executing of the plan.
Make it dull
The trick is to make it as dull as possible and build a repeatable sales machine. A sales robot. Until you get there, you need to be the robot yourself and do the same things consistently every day. Every 100 days the same. Dull, boring, unsexy.
Double your turnover
We have seen from working with the participant on Operation Digital Breakthrough, that those who stick with their plan for the 100 days, invariably double their turnover.
Reward yourself
And that is the last aspect of 100-day planning, creating rhythm and routine. When you achieve your metric for the 100 days, you reward yourself. That is how we ended up in Thailand. We broke the million euro barrier, and that was our reward.
The excitement is in the result
100-day plan, one metrics, three core processes, focus, execution, routine, rhythm and self-discipline. Extremely boring is good. The excitement is in achieving your target and rewarding yourself for a job well done.
More information
If you want to find out more e-mail me (ron@ronimmink.com) or visit Tibor.nl
