As you read the title of this blog post, which focuses on success habits for female entrepreneurs, you may wonder why I specified “female entrepreneurs.”
Contents:
Success Habits – Making Conscious Decisions
For one thing, I am a female entrepreneur and work with women of all ages who want to grow a sustainable, enjoyable, and lucrative online business from wherever they are in the world. I specialize in working with mature female entrepreneurs who have been in business for about two years, or who are transitioning from professional life to becoming an entrepreneur and want to grow their business by building strong customer relationships and creating memorable customer experiences.
These are generally the clients and customers I attract, and as you read this article, everything I write is what I believe and strive to apply in my life and business. Do I do them perfectly? Not at all; but they’re top of mind and continue to be works in progress.
My belief is that there is always room for improvement. Making a conscious decision to focus on specific areas in our lives can improve our personal life and business.
Are you ready to explore these three success habits with me?
Give Your Best Ever Day
Every day that we wake up, we can make the decision to give our best to whatever we have to do for the day.
There is, however, a difference between giving our best—that is, not being satisfied with mediocrity and aspiring for excellence—and wanting things to be perfect.
Striving for perfection in an imperfect world will only lead to frustration and rob you of your self-esteem and self-worth.
I started my corporate life in banking at the age of 16, right after graduation from High School. I gave 110% to everything I did. This earned me promotions, awards, and accolades, starting at 18 years old when I was promoted to Manager’s Secretary at a large branch of a commercial bank. Giving my best continued as I transitioned from my home country, Jamaica, to the United States.
All of those accolades and confirmation of my work came to a halt when I walked away from corporate America and started my entrepreneurial journey. I felt like a kid who started attending a new High School in 11th Grade. Everyone knew each other and I knew no one. I didn’t even know where to find my locker.
As a result, my confidence plummeted. People loved what I shared verbally, and I created products but did not release them because I was not sure if they were good enough. Thankfully, I was helped to identify that I was stopping my progress by my desire for everything to be perfect. Now I focus on getting things done knowing that adjustments can always be made later.
Do you always want everything to be perfect? I implore you to avoid falling into that trap and aim for excellence instead.
You always want to be fully present in everything you do and refuse to allow yourself to function on autopilot, where you’re doing things that bring you no joy or satisfaction.
Giving your best also includes avoiding the myth of multitasking. Focus on doing just one thing at a time. One conversation, one task or project, one meal at a time.
When you approach the events and activities in your day in this way, you’ll maximize your efforts and achieve better results.
Dress for Success Every Day
“I work from home. No one sees me unless I go on a Zoom call. Why should I have to ‘dress for success’?”
Are you saying or thinking thoughts like these? If so, you’re not alone. Quite often I see comments from women who work from home about being grateful that they can work in their pajamas and not have to get dressed.
Make no mistake about it, the way you dress can affect your self-confidence and self-esteem.
If you find that you’ve got into the habit of staying in your pajamas all day when you work, I invite you to accept this challenge.
For the next 5 working days, imagine you were working in an office and you had to leave home every day and drive across town. It’s a business casual atmosphere so no suits are required. Get up, do your morning bathroom routine, put on some makeup, even just lip gloss, comb your hair, get dressed, and walk to your desk.
As you turn on your computer, how do you feel? Do you feel more energized? Do you feel more creative?
What about when you go out? No one expects you to be dressed up all the time. However, pay attention to how you walk and how you feel the next time you leave your home in a pair of worn-out sweatpants and a baggy shirt. Pay attention to how others appear to view you.
Next, do the same, this time wearing a pair of heels or even just a nice pair of shoes, a nice skirt and top or slacks and top, or a dress. Notice that there is a difference in your walk. Do you feel more confident? Do you feel more energized? Do people look at you directly?
When you present or attend events on Zoom, dressing for success can help you to present a more professional appearance. Do not minimize the importance of showing up as a professional on Zoom. This will allow people to want to get to know you and trust you more. In turn, your confidence will increase, as well as you’ll be happier knowing that you’re standing in your own power and showing up with confidence and authority.
Project the person you are becoming, even if you feel you’re not quite there yet.
Remember that as an entrepreneur, you must become a leader. Leaders are decision-makers, and you will be responsible for the decisions you make that affect your life and business.
Prioritize Exercise and Eating Right
Creating a daily exercise habit can enhance your happiness. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins or feel-good hormones, which have a positive effect on your mood.
When you prioritize exercise, even if it’s just taking a walk around the block, you help your organs to do their job more effectively. This includes your brain. As an entrepreneur, your brain is the source of working through ideas and concepts, processing decisions, and getting your tasks done on a daily basis.
Eating right means that you must be selective in your choices of what you put in your body. This is something that most of us have to continually remind ourselves of. The foods we crave or lean towards are not always the best choice. Many of them may satisfy our taste buds for the moment, but they zap us off our energy and make us feel sluggish and fatigued, and find it more difficult to concentrate.
You will make healthier choices more consistently when you think of food as the fuel for your body to propel you through the day so you’re able to focus on your priorities—personal and business—and get the most out of your day.
In conclusion, it’s important to keep in mind that you are your personal brand, therefore, you want to make sure that your brand is packaged in the way that you want others to perceive you.
“Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records…” ~ Tim Ferris
Knowing this makes it important to –
- Give your best every day
- Dress for success every day
- Prioritize exercise and eat right… every day!
The relationships you build with your network and clients are also part of your success as an entrepreneur. Claim your free Customer Experience Checklist so you can focus on building customer relationships to grow your business.
