1. Be Clear About What Exactly You Want To Be Done

When delegating tasks, it is essential that your team members can easily understand what you want to be done and in a way that they feel confident about completing the assignment successfully. It may be in your best interest to write down a list of clear instructions to avoid any confusion or contradictions from being made. You should also provide detailed information on how long the task should take so that no false presumptions are made, leading to wasted time and effort.

2. Give Them Room To Grow

A common mistake amongst leaders is giving their direct reports only small tasks, ones that they have already proven themselves capable of doing well with little to no prior guidance. With this mentality, employees may not expand their skillset and are bored with what they’re doing because they know they can handle it. It’s essential to try and push your team members by giving them new tasks that may be slightly out of their comfort zone. If they can complete the job successfully, you should acknowledge their effort and encourage them to keep up the good work.

3. Be Supportive

A key part of delegating is providing your team with constant support whenever necessary. This doesn’t necessarily mean hand-holding or doing all of their work for them but rather being there as a resource when questions arise about the task at hand. As long as you don’t take over everything, encouraging words from their superiors will motivate employees to do an even better job because they feel like they have more room to grow! So make sure you are available when they need you and try to give them as much assistance as possible.

4. Don’t Micromanage

The most important thing about delegating effectively is how you deal with the outcome of their work. Micromanaging your team can do more harm than good because it makes them feel like they aren’t capable of doing a good job without you there holding their hand all the time. Try not to hover over them during the process to have enough room to learn from their mistakes and grow from the experience. If this means allowing them to make a few errors along the way, then so be it! You will know what areas they struggle in and guide them appropriately, but only if you give them some space first.

Conclusion

Remember that delegating is taking on more responsibility to help your company grow. A big part of being a good leader knows when and how to delegate effectively to make sure all projects are executed efficiently.

The post How to Delegate Effectively first appeared on Jack Nourafshan | Entrepreneurship.

1. Provide Clear Expectations and Vision

One of the most frustrating things for employees is not knowing what exactly is expected of them, and what goal the organization is working towards. It is the responsibility of the team leader to clearly lay out expectations and goals so that everyone can effectively collaborate and work towards them. This will help reduce the amount of time spent working on extraneous activities and center your team’s focus on the most important objectives.

2. Communicate Frequently and Clearly

Many larger problems in organizations start with a failure of communication. One thing that leaders can do to help maximize their efficiency is make sure that all of their communications are brief, specific, and clear. Check in with your direct reports at least once a week to ensure that you are understanding one another. Keeping lines of communication open and frequent will allow your team to alert you to any issues as soon as they happen and help you deal with them before they become more serious.

3. Stay Focused on Your Intent

Many organizations pursue a broad spectrum of initiatives in a bid to make as much money as possible. While it is obviously important to have a profitable business, it’s vital to stay focused on your core mission and what your company does exceptionally well. Adding extraneous work will exhaust your employees and take energy away from what your business should be focusing on. As a leader, it’s important for you to reject proposals that don’t further your goals, which will help free up your time and energy for things that directly contribute to your mission.

Leaders are the people who determine the ethos of their team and move their business in the right direction. It is vital that anyone in a leadership position be able to maximize their efficiency and productivity so that they can do the necessary work of steering their team in the right direction.

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Research Your Idea and Move Slowly

You need to start by taking your idea and researching it. Look at what other people are doing and determine how you will do it better. You should decide on your purpose and what will make your brand unique. If you are going to open a coffee shop, why will people choose it over what is already out there? Move slowly, take the time to research it, and move slowly forward.

Shadow Another Entrepreneur

You should also find an entrepreneur to shadow for a period of time so that you can get a deeper understanding of what it entails. This will help you gain perspective on the types of issues that come up each day and how your time will be used. It is a great way to get a taste of your journey before you embark on it.

Run the Numbers

Before you get started, you need to create a business plan. Part of this plan will be your financial projections. You should consider all of your costs, and estimate your expenses and your revenues. You need to research this information, and you can use it to determine how much money you can make and how hard you will need to work to make it.

Secure Your Advisors

You need advisors to run your own business, including accountants, attorneys, tech experts, sales and marketing, and more. Make sure that you determine who these people will be before you get started. You should put together a team of the advisors you will use and have it in place.

Stay Flexible

When you are an entrepreneur, things don’t always go as planned. You need to be flexible to deal with a number of situations from the Internet going down to employees not showing up to a customer being dissatisfied. You have to stay flexible and be prepared to handle any and all of these obstacles, which can be stressful. This is a critical aspect of becoming an entrepreneur.

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This is what makes the role of a leader so important in both company culture and overall long-term success. In order to ensure that you are finding the right balance between showing employees the answer and encouraging them to find the solution themselves. Here are some of the most important tips from professional coaching that leaders can utilize in their own careers.

Facilitating is Better than Micromanaging 
In recent years, the workforce has started to see more shifts in how it functions, which includes the approach that both leadership and management take with their employees. While micromanaging has common for many years, professionals are concerned that employees never really learn how to operate independently as a result.

The Harvard Business Review found that the best leaders and managers acted more like coaches in that they were less concerned with micromanaging and prescribing rules to follow. Instead of closely managing employees, it was found that facilitating employees to arrive at the solutions led to overall better outcomes.

Share Constructive Feedback Compassionately 
Professional coaches are trained to provide constructive feedback and communicate with others without putting them down, or making them feel unwelcome among their team. This skill is also important for anyone working in a leadership role. Leaders should understand how to communicate both positive and negative feedback without putting employees down or making them unwelcome. When a leader can present constructive feedback compassionately, other employees are encouraged to speak up if they see a problem.

Provide a Solutions-oriented Mindset
Like professional coaches, leaders typically have a larger goal in mind and think in terms of solutions, rather than problems. Thinking in terms of problems runs the risk of breeding a defeatist mentality among your employees, which can have devastating long-term consequences. Leaders should take a solutions-oriented approach to their role, to ensure that your team feels confident in your larger long-term goals for the company.

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Do Your Research 

A lot of people thrive on the predictability of a 9-5 job and the knowledge that their paychecks are all but assured every two weeks. Other people find that kind of workplace environment extremely stifling. 

Entrepreneurship has become something of a trend of late, and entrepreneurship has been viewed by some as a cure-all for all kinds of workplace malaise. It isn’t that. Entrepreneurship is also distinct from becoming a freelance. 

A freelancer works on his or her own whereas an entrepreneur usually seeks to realize a new business idea, which entails a lot of personal and financial planning. It could also mean much more independence than you’re currently experiencing in your office job. 

Being an entrepreneur isn’t a two-days-a-week job that you can squeeze in between rounds of golf and poker with the boys. It’s a serious time commitment, especially in the first couple of years. 

Pick a Single Business Idea 

Many would-be entrepreneurs get intoxicated with the idea of being their own boss and try to do a million things at once without focusing on any one thing. That’s not the way to go about entrepreneurship. 

Find one thing that you’re really passionate about and channel all of your resources into making your new business as strong as you can from the start. If you have five or six different business ideas bouncing around in your head, then ask family and friends for their input. Ask professionals in the field. 

Make sure that your business idea is actually solving a current problem that people are having in a field that you’re passionate about. 

Start Building Your Network 

Entrepreneurs who wind up making it usually have a robust network from the start and at least one mentor. A business mentor can provide expert, timely advice and provide a virtuous circle in terms of opening up more networking possibilities. 

These days Rolodex have fallen out of fashion, but success will take networking with advisors, investors, and professionals in the field.

The post Becoming an Entrepreneur first appeared on Jack Nourafshan | Entrepreneurship.

The Discovery Phase

Some entrepreneurs have an almost innate proclivity to become their own bosses. Perhaps their fathers own businesses and they simply follow in their footsteps. Of course, they’ll need to learn the ropes to become proficient at a particular trade or business. Other times, individuals have sudden epiphanies that make them realize they have real potential profit-makers. Whatever the case, the entrepreneur must eventually decide if the idea or concept is worth investing in and whether it is sustainable, according to Entrepreneur.

Starting Out

After the idea is conceived, the next step of the savvy entrepreneur is to create a business plan. The business plan is a person’s blueprint in turning a concept into an actual business. A solid business plan should include everything from the description of the company and products to an analysis of the market and how the products will be advertised, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Finding Financial Resources

An entrepreneur cannot start a business without money. Thus, he must decide if he’s going to finance his own venture, borrow from a wealthy relative or get a loan from a bank. In some cases, entrepreneurs may even create S corporations or limited liability companies so they can get financing from shareholders. While an entrepreneur can raise a significant amount of funds by establishing an S corporation, he will lose some control over the business. This tradeoff is something an individual really needs to mull over when financing his business.

Managing the Company

Companies don’t stay the same size forever. If business owners want to grow their businesses, they’ll eventually have to hire people. In the interim, however, it may be more advantageous to outsource certain functions like accounts payable or marketing research. This is generally a cheaper option as the entrepreneur won’t have to pay salaries or health benefits when he outsources specific jobs. Another consideration is deciding how to structure a company when employees are eventually hired. Entrepreneurs who sell a large variety of products may decide a product organizational structure will work best for operational purposes.

Adapting and Changing

An entrepreneur must continually monitor the market and garner continual feedback from customers. This is to better ensure customers’ needs and wants are met. And monitoring the competition and marketplace enables a business owner to know when to upgrade his products so he can continue to maximize his profits, according to Entrepreneur.

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As an entrepreneur, things can go from good to bad to excellent all within the same day. This will send your emotions on a roller coaster ride as well. You may feel on top of the world in one moment, but feel like you’ve hit rock bottom in just a few more minutes. Try to take these mood changes in stride, because letting them influence you will only hurt your business.

It’s easy to get swept up in the high of knowing you just made a big sale. It’s just as easy to let a loss destroy your mood, and leave you feeling inadequate. However, in either instance, it’s best to look at your achievements overall. You may find that the one loss doesn’t stack up against your successes, or that your recent win is just one step in improving the overall performance of your business.

No matter what kind of business you operate, rejection is going to be a part of the game. If you don’t have a system in place for dealing with it, each rejection will be a hard blow to your emotional state and your self-confidence. However, if you use each rejection to improve your pitch, or to adjust how you market your brand, you can get something of value from rejections. Over time, this will result in fewer rejections and disappointments.

Even if your family is supportive of you, they don’t understand what you’re going through as an entrepreneur. However, if you make an effort to network with other entrepreneurs, you may be able to build up a stronger support structure. In addition to offering moral support, other entrepreneurs may be able to offer constructive criticism that will help you resolve issues, or avoid similar problems in the future.

As you will soon learn, your emotional state can affect your business and vice versa. However, if you learn to temper your emotional responses, you can get better control over how your emotions affect you and your business. This will help you make better decisions that are based on logical and rational thought.

The post Dealing With The Ups and Downs of Entrepreneurship first appeared on Jack Nourafshan | Entrepreneurship.

1. I will become my own boss

It is a common misconception that by investing in entrepreneurial businesses, one becomes his or her own boss, with no one to answer to. Unfortunately, the reality is that business owners must answer to various persons, even their subordinates. For example, a business owner must be accountable to his or her employees, shareholders, customers, board members, and other investors involved in running the business.

2. I will get rich quickly

The fact that one runs his or her own business does not imply that all the proceeds will go into his or her pockets. The ‘get rich quickly’ misconception is so advanced that people rush into investing in businesses while expecting quick returns. On the contrary, success in entrepreneurship may take time, up to 10 years, before good returns are actualized.

3. I will become flexible

Most people have been duped into thinking that running their own businesses give them much flexibility as compared to working as an employee in a company. As an entrepreneur, your flexibility is greatly restricted, especially since you have to commit every bit of your available time to ensure that you run your business just right. There as various sacrifices expected from every entrepreneur, such as spending a few sleepless nights, no weekends, and have a hectic day at work.

4. I am walking into freedom

Starting a new business does not mean that you will become free to do anything you want. It does not give you the license to arrive at the workplace late and leave early, especially since your workers will be looking up to you. Being a business owner, therefore, does not give you the freedom to make whatever decision you desire as that may ruin all your investments.

5. I was born a great entrepreneur

People often think that they were born as great natural entrepreneurs and business persons. This is overly false as great entrepreneurs are made by evolving from one level of confidence and competency to another. As an entrepreneur, one has to invest in skill acquisition and allow room for change and growth.

The post Entrepreneurial Myths first appeared on Jack Nourafshan | Entrepreneurship.

Set Aside Enough Money

A lack of capital is one of the primary reasons businesses fail, according to Business Know-How. In reality, it can take you a year or two to turn a profit. So when you’re starting out, make sure you have enough money to cover your living expenses and funds you’ll need to stay in business.

Know the Law

Make sure you understand the regulations in your industry, taxes you need to pay and the licenses required, according to Forbes. Hire an attorney and accountant to ensure your understanding of all legalities and to help you structure your organization.

Expect Long Hours

You’ll likely be working 60 to 80 hours per week your first couple of years in business, according to Forbes. That’s why it’s imperative that you do something you enjoy or have in interest in.

Listen to Your Customers

Customers are the lifeblood of your business. If you don’t keep track of their needs, you won’t be in business long. Learn the sizes, scents, styles, and dimensions they want in your products. One of the best ways to stay in tune with your customers is to conduct market research surveys.

Create a Business Plan

A business plan is a blueprint of who you are and how you will conduct business. It should include everything from the products you sell to your marketing strategy and financial projections.

Be Flexible

Technology changes and so do customers’ tastes. So if you want to stay in business, you must remain flexible. That’s why you don’t want to create a too tall of an organizational structure early on. It stymies progress because there are too many people required to approve certain strategies or policies. Moreover, avoid heavy overhead, according to Entrepreneur. Find ways to make cash quickly and demand payment upfront.

If you follow these strategies, you’ll dramatically improve your chances of staying in business. It also pays to hire people.

The post Things To Know Before Starting A Business first appeared on Jack Nourafshan | Entrepreneurship.