3 Tips for the Entrepreneur / Workhorse

When we have dinner parties or the neighbor makes small talk, the topic of what I do for a living always comes up. I mean, it’s par for the course when you’re getting to know some one. Most times you can equate what a person does to what their daily routine and what their responsibilities might be. That said, the only thing more enjoyable than trying to explain to the 9-5 person what I do for a living, is watching my wife try to explain it!

Our lives, as either the entrepreneur or the workhorse (trying to move up or retire as fast as possible) is quite different from what most people experience in their work lives. We don’t clock in, cause we never clock out. We aren’t happy with a salary, that’s just a limit on how much we can make and we hate working for people who we think are dumber than us. The last one isn’t ego, very few people think they work for  the elite of the world, but they stick around, cause you know, its a job.

When we decided (you and I, the risk takers) to ditch the corporate gig and make our dreams a reality (here’s hoping), we had to immediately deal with the certain reality that life would never be the same. To say you can’t approach entrepreneurship (and often true sales) the same way you take on the 9-5 job is obvious and yet, sometimes, we do just that.

So here are three tips for those making (or have made) the jump from 9-5 to 24-7.

1. Lose the Traditional Sleep Patterns

Notice I didn’t say lose sleep. Often we take our long hours and simply sleep less. Ironically, most times, it isn’t because we burning the mid night oil, but because we are incapable of turning off our mind! You lay there in bed, mind racing, praying you’ll fall asleep.

About  a year ago, after reading a couple biographies (Einstein etc.) I started to notice a pattern. Some of the most prolific thinkers and contributors in human history did not get a consistent eight hours of sleep. So, I took their tendencies and adapted them to myself. Over time my sleep patterns evolved and I got to where I am today.

Most nights I go to sleep between 8PM and 9PM. Then, naturally, between 12AM and 1AM I’ll wake up. I keep my laptop and books by my bed, turn on the lamp and go to work. I work between two to three hours, then close up and go back to sleep for a couple hours.

The reason this works for me is two fold:

A – Because I know I’ll be up in a few hours working again, I view my sleep as “naps” and for whatever reason, my mind stops racing long enough for naps.

B – If you’re like me, your email, twitter, facebook, linkedin and phone chirp at you all day long. Not to mention team members, friends and family. But at 2AM, the world is asleep. I find that I get more done in that three hour block of time than I do ALL DAY LONG!

When I go back to sleep for my last couple (sometimes few) hours of sleep, there is nothing else to think about and I slip off to dream land. Even if my day gets high-jacked by meetings or client issues (which is a guarantee), I know I can catch up when the world sleeps.

This exact routine may not work for you, but the point is that we don’t have to force our minds and bodies to fit into the conventional patterns. This should seem obvious to those of us who do not have conventional lives, yet we try to put that square peg into the round hole, don’t we?

So find your new routine.

2. Set Non-Negotiables

Our lives are filled with trying to stuff as much as we can in 24 hours. So, thanks to a business mentor of mine, I learned long ago to set some non-negotiables in my business life that have worked well for me. Some are obvious, some are not, but I’ll share some with you.

But first, the heart of why we do this.

We have to find the value of our time and give it a dollar figure. We, as entrepreneurs, will be pulled in so many directions, with so many opportunities, that our time seems to slip away. When you work for a corporation, you know how much you’re going to make year to year. So if you are not a fine tuned machine, who cares… not your dime, right?

But what if it is your dime?

So it’s a good rule of thumb to know what you are worth (be realistic) and view your time in that monetary value.

Now, if you set rules or guidelines… whatever you want to call them; if you set them “up front,” then they are your “policies.” It isn’t that you are trying to be hard to work with or stick it to anyone, these are simply your company policies.

Here are my non-negotiable (company policies):

• When I tell my wife/kid I’m going to take time off or make it to an event, I do it, no matter what.

Our families often pay the price for us chasing our dreams. We work ungodly hours, miss dinner more than we make it and can’t seem to “turn it off.” So when I do promise a trip to Florida, fishing in the gulf or skipping the office to play at the park with the kid, I don’t let anything, for any amount of money, change my calendar.

• I don’t discount – EVER.

It’s not that I’m egotistic or that I’m greedy. I simply believe that when you start a relationship based on discounting (i.e. monetary value alone), that is what the business relationship becomes about. These kinds of business relationships never hit that special groove we try to find, the true win – win. The thing is, with a win – win, you both actually have to win.

I give an honest product / service to my clients and the fiscal amount I charge covers it. It isn’t fabricated or ficticous. Anyone who has worked with me knows, I have a calculator for everything. The price is the price cause that is the price to produce the end result. When we discount, we are saying, “That isn’t really the price. I padded it and if you ask for more off, you may get it.”

This is a horrible way to start a relationship and even if it’s simply on a sub-conscience level, instills a lack of trust.

• I Don’t Work for Family or Friends for Free

So now I must REALLY sound greedy! It’s funny, that we are willing to pay a stranger a premium, but we want to pay our brother nothing. This is because, as the Bible says, “a prophet in his hometown is not accepted.”

Our friends and family view us as the kid they played with growing up, not the business genius that you are. So they don’t mind your help, they just don’t want to pay for it.

I added this to my non-negotiables a year ago, because working for free was a sure fire way to stress myself out, see my family less and make no money, thus killing my company and marriage.

I offer a number of way for my services to paid for and they are fair for everyone

3. Mix Up Your Income Streams

Often, we run into clients who can’t afford us, so we either discount our work, do it for free or pass on the job. However, if I believe in the client and they can’t afford my hourly fee’s or a retainer, I offer for them to pay me in equity, percentage of business or percentage of savings.

See, our family and friends CAN afford us!

I do this, not only to “get” the job, but because I like multiple types of income streams. Retainers are the “guaranteed” money each month, like a base. Our hourly or project fee’s are the biggest percentage of income by volume, but come to an end and you have to have something else lined up. The equity or percentage revenue streams are a nice hybrid of retainer clients and fixed fee clients.

The percentage client is ongoing and is a great win – win. If you do a great job, you make very good money off the deal. If you struggle in reaching your goals, the client doesn’t pay as much and so there is grace and the ability to regroup and try something new.

At any rate, if you have a good mix of these clients, you can actually achieve stability early in your entrepreneurial journey.

In closing:

I’m a business consultant and that is where much of this information is derived from, but I am also an owner in two companies; my own start up and a merger. In this blog, I tried to touch on strategies I use in different areas of my entrepreneurial life. I feel as though I jumped around a bit, but I wanted to offer something to people in different places. If you have any specific questions, toss me them through the comment section.

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