Habits Of Successful Entrepreneurs

Lessons only your peers can teach youWe spoke to Julie Nichols from Handmade Canberra and Heather Lawton from Kinetic Performance Technology (GymAware) to get their views on the role community has played in growing their businesses. Harnessing the power of community in your marketing can bring numerous benefits to your brand. Here are five compelling reasons why you should consider integrating community-driven strategies into your marketing efforts:

FAI women innovation sml'Innovation' is one of those terms that that seem to be the flavour of the month at the moment and you see it used in many different contexts in business, government and education. But is it being used in the true sense of the word? The Oxford dictionary defines innovation as the introduction of new things, ideas or ways of doing something. So it’s not just about tech developments and the next Google or Facebook – it is about doing something (anything!) differently. Women often feel that what they do isn’t innovative because it doesn’t involve cutting edge technology or coding; how wrong they are.

The conversation around innovation is also changing; its no longer just about product and technological innovation, it is also about value innovation. This focuses on using strategies and techniques to make you stand apart from your competition – and its not based on price. That however is the subject of another article. So where do women fit into all of this?

architecture 1569691 1920Telstra survey shows Australian SMBs could save time with technology to work on the business

Small to medium business owners are turning to technology to help improve productivity and free up time to innovate, according to a new Telstra survey of Australia’s leading businesses.

A recent survey of Telstra Business Awards Alumni found nearly three in four (71%) business leaders feel they could improve productivity through better use of technology applications.

calculator workshopOver the years I’ve come across plenty of articles and discussions about what qualities make a good entrepreneur. Equally over 30 years in the financial services industry I’ve also had occasion to watch different money personalities in action.

So, do certain money personalities make better entrepreneurs? Let’s examine this from a few different angles.

microphone 482250 640Pitching is not just about looking for funding or something you see on Dragon's Den or Shark Tank.

Being able to pitch is an important life skill and whether it's landing an account, applying for a job or selling to a customer, at some point you may get called on to 'pitch' or sell your ideas, experience or capability.

Here are five things to keep in mind when preparing to pitch:

Nina Leadership ProductivityIf you're a manager or a leader, you are no doubt interested in the effect your well-intentioned behaviours can have on your team – the very people you hope will deliver outcomes that make you look good.

Hasn't every employee been told at some point that their job is to make their supervisor look good?

We all know this motivation is not enough to achieve great productivity outcomes.

ropes knots1When you start a business you spend a lot of time thinking.

You think about whether the idea is viable, whether you should quit your day job, whether your business model is right and sometimes you can feel like you are going round and round in circles.

Here are 5 mental knots to avoid:

boys garden1A few good habits developed early in life can set you up for greater success later on.

Anyone who has ever invested money in a savings account knows the benefit of compound interest. You earn interest on your deposit and then you earn interest on the interest.

What this means is that by making a few small changes that you barely notice and applying them consistently, over time you will see a radical difference.

This compound effect can be applied to anything from health to savings and also productivity.

Successful entrepreneurs like Apple's Steve Jobs, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos are often thought of as people who are exceptionally creative, innovative and productive.

And while achieving that level of success might not be within reach of everybody, we might be able to learn something about the habits of successful entrepreneurs that could be applied to any area of your life.

At Lighthouse, we see a large number of people who have great ideas. What we have noticed though is that a great idea is not always the best predictor of success. Probably a better measure is what we call 'grit' and by that we mean those daily habits that translate into tenacity and productivity, two of the key ingredients that take you from idea to execution.