Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for someone else

Ask any self-employed person about work-life balance, and they’ll likely laugh at you. “Work-life balance?” they’ll say. “What’s that?” The chances are, even if they do take a day or two off, they’re not really absent.&nbsp;This constant need and knowing that there could be a problem happening without your knowledge can be crippling, and is what leads so many entrepreneurs to be glued to their desks or smartphones. It’s what causes stress dreams and often leads entrepreneurs to do nothing but go to work, come home, and sleep.

The Work-Life Balance Myth

<ul><li>From the moment someone first buys your idea, you’re hooked. Knowing that you have made something from nothing and made it a living is what leads entrepreneurs to sell one business and immediately start their next.</li><li>Knowing that you’re at the root of your success and you’ve changed other people’s lives with what you’ve created is something worth all those long hours.</li><li>Of course, your mental health will always fluctuate in how good or bad you feel, but there are a number of things you can do to ensure we don’t feel unable to look away from our businesses, as if we’re awaiting disaster.</li></ul>

The Highs and Lows of Entrepreneurship

<ul><li>Set working hours</li><li>Build in breaks</li><li>Make sure you have a hobby</li><li>Take time for yourself in the mornings</li><li>Keep your workspace and your home space separate.</li></ul>

How to Protect Your Mental Wellness as an Entrepreneur

Inspiration and the excitement of creation are addictive feelings. As a creator and entrepreneur, it’s easy to find yourself chasing them (and the desperate need to see your creations succeed in the…

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Career

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Mental Health

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Entrepreneurship

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Startups

Work-Life Balance: Can it Exist for Entrepreneurs?

Parkinson’s law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.&nbsp;

What is Parkinson’s Law?

Time management described through Parkinson’s Law is comprised of three fundamental truths of human behaviour: to do our best, be happy, and to act only when motivated.

Parkinson’s Law is layered, like an onion

We all strive to be happy. Once happy, happier. According to The Law of Expectations, happiness is equal to reality minus our expectations.Expectations lead to stress, making us less happy. But, although low expectations may leave us contented, they are of no help when scaling a business or writing an article. We need to feel the squeeze of a deadline in order to act.

Being happy

<a href='https://www.healthline.com/health/yerkes-dodson-law#how-the-law-works' class="idea-content-link" target='_blank' rel="noreferrer">Yerkes-Dodson Law tells us that levels of performance peak somewhere in between low and high levels of stress (arousal). Too little and we feel unmotivated to act, too much and we crumble under the pressure. </a> <a href='https://www.healthline.com/health/yerkes-dodson-law#how-the-law-works' class="idea-content-link" target='_blank' rel="noreferrer">Yerkes Law is a bell curve that peaks somewhere near the middle of a deadline</a>

Acting only when motivated

<ol><li>Set your end range.</li><li>List all the steps to get there</li><li>Cut the deadline into 3–5 mini-deadlines.</li><li>Finalize your nuanced deadline</li></ol>

How to use Parkinson’s Law

As entrepreneurs, time management is a double-edged sword.  Learn how to wield it like a pro by understanding Parkinson's Law.

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Productivity

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Personal Development

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Time Management

How to Make Time Management Your Secret Weapon

Finding your leverage is like finding out which parts of the board you control in a chess game: this is the area where it would be prudent to make your play.Find your leverage by asking yourself a couple of questions: <ul><li dir = "auto">What responsibilities do I have at my job that are crucial to the company? </li><li dir = "auto">What are some problems that I am in a unique position to notice?&lt;</li></ul>

Once you define your current leverage position, it’s time to expand it.Ask yourself some further questions:<ul><li>How can I solve the problems relevant to my position?</li><li>How can I scale this solution to apply to other companies, not just my own?</li></ul>

Build your leverage

That rock is somebody with the authority to approve your suggested improvements on behalf of your current company. Not only that but you need this person to recognize your right to do this as a separate entity rather than as an employee of a company.&nbsp;To maximize your chances, do 3 things:&nbsp;<ul><li>Maintain good relationships within the office.&nbsp;</li><li>Build a minimal solution at home before you talk to your company.&nbsp;</li><li>Be extra vigilant in your work during this time so as not to appear to be putting your side project above your job.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Find your rock

Offer a free trial and a free installation. Charge for maintenance and use of your solution later on. If you sign a contract, make sure it is not exclusive. After all, the goal is to sell the solution as a product to other companies. Who knows, you may even expand into other industries later on.Make sure to form a separate entity to handle the invoices, bills, and contracts rather than signing anything as an employee of your current company.

Make your pitch

After a few months, with your product validated and your first customer paying you regularly, it’s time to start pitching other potential customers. Use the months in between to build connections with professionals from other companies within your industry.Whether your new business grows big enough to replace your job entirely or remains a nice side hustle is impossible to tell beforehand.

Make the transition

You drag yourself out of bed in the morning. It’s a rainy day and your commute to the office is hell. The soundtrack you play in your car doesn’t even come close to drowning out the sound of horns…

Discover the world of business and economics.

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Economics

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Business

How to Turn Your Employer Into Your First Customer

To avoid fake engagement steer clear from the following: <ul><li>Buying subscribers. </li><li>Joining New YouTuber Facebook groups hoping that strangers will watch your videos. </li><li>Purchasing an existing channel and pivoting the content. </li><li>Go into debt to purchase expensive gear. </li><li>Quit your day job before being monetized for a few months. </li><li>Commenting wildly on videos asking people to check out your channel. </li><li>Linking your videos in the comment section of other YouTube creators. </li><li>Trying to comment first on a larger channel, again, hoping that other new YouTubers will check out your content. </li></ul>

What not to do

<ul><li>Ultimately, the mistake often new YouTubers make is focusing on gaining subscribers at all costs.</li><li>Watch time, the duration of how much of your video is watched is a metric that is often forgotten.</li><li>YouTube is an incredible platform because it gives creators an opportunity to focus on content. You do not need to deploy direct marketing strategies and aggressively ask for people to stick around.</li></ul>

YouTube is a space where you need to build an audience from scratch.Eventually, people will buy into your personality and stick around because they are drawn to the way that you present content. But to expect people to want to watch a slice of your life straight off the bat is unlikely to assist you in your growth strategy.You need to give people a reason to stick around.

Provide value

<ul><li>Summary of providing value</li><li>Include a search term in your title.</li><li>Write a compelling title with a human in mind.</li><li>Create a thumbnail that you would click on.o the video.</li></ul>

Best practices with thumbnails and titles

<ul><li>If you have a niche that you are happy to participate in, hit it hard with valuable content to increase your overall watch time, becoming the authority for your audience in that space.</li><li>If you want space to explore niches, do it, and if you find a video takes off, double-check that you in fact want to continue creating content about that topic for an extended period of time.</li><li>Create a playlist and guide viewers that enjoyed your video to another video that they may enjoy on your channel.</li></ul>

Finding a niche

<ul><li>There is a lot of quality content on the platform right now.</li><ul><li>Give yourself room to improve your editing skills before setting your hopes on earning the big bucks.</li><li>Master sound first.</li><li>Use copy-right-free music.</li><li>Make a pack with yourself to pitch up consistently.</li></ul></ul>

Equipment

It will however outline practical parts of the new YouTuber journey that is likely to place your videos in front of the right eyes. In order to set your expectations, I would like to start off with a…

YouTube Isn’t Dead: How to Build and Grow Your Channel in 2021

It’s a problem that plagues nearly every entrepreneur, and most never even know itThey spent months or years and tons of money developing their products, then they launched expecting tons of users to organically appear and start using them. But that’s never what happens. Instead, nobody uses their products, and the entrepreneurs can’t figure out what’s gone wrong.

Building your startup backward

While building the product is the logical first step from the perspective of entrepreneurs, when we put ourselves in the shoes of our users, it makes less sense. Users don’t care about our products. From their perspectives, they’re most concerned with solving their problems.Savvy entrepreneurs decouple problems and solutions. This gives them the flexibility to research, understand, and prove a problem exists. Next, once they fully understand the problem without committing themselves to a solution, they’re free to explore any number of potential solutions until they find the best one.

Why entrepreneurs start with products

Once you have an audience, it’s much harder to fail because even if a product fails, you still have direct access to the audience with the problem, and you can keep trying to solve that audience’s problem in different ways until you hit on a solution that works.

Audiences are more valuable than products

An entrepreneur came to see me with a problem. She’d spent 12 months building a phone app to help diabetics track their daily exercise. But, six months after launching the app, she hardly had any…

Are You Building Your Startup Backwards?

For any kind of business to thrive, it needs to have a good marketing plan.&nbsp;While many creators have amazing ideas on how to build a product, they don’t always have a good marketing plan. No matter how good your product or service is, if people don’t know about it, they won’t buy it.

Marketing is difficult but it can still be enjoyable

Do a better job of searching for people who are already looking for your product. Instead of advertising your product to 1 million people who may like your product, advertise it to 100 people who will love your product.&nbsp;This will save you both time and money. If you want your product to continue to sell without you having to talk about it 24x7, think about the long run.

Marketing in a sustainable way

If you have a good product, you won’t have to over-hype it. All you have to do is explain what you’ve created to the right people and it will sell. Before you can shout and ask the world to buy your product, you need to research your audience. Lots and lots of it. Ask yourself these three questions:<ul><li>Who is my product for? </li><li>Where can I find these people? </li><li>How will I tell these people about my product? &nbsp;</li></ul>

How do you do it?

It is easy to keep an old customer buying your products rather than acquiring a new one.&nbsp;It is a good idea to stay in touch with your customers after you’ve sold your product. An engaging newsletter or a social media presence are two common ways of staying in touch with your customers.

Keep your current customers happy

<ul><li>Present your product as something it is not: If you’ve written a fantasy book, present it as a fantasy book that people may enjoy and not as the Best Book Ever Written In The History Of Literature.</li><li>Overcharge your customers: Do proper research before determining the price of your product.&nbsp;</li><li>Undercharge your customers: You may think people will pick your product simply because it is priced less than your competitors’ products but in most cases, customers equate a low price with poor quality.</li><li>Scamming: Don’t sell a bad product. If your product is not ready, spend more time on it to perfect it.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Things you should never do

For any kind of business to thrive, it needs to have a good marketing plan. While many creators have amazing ideas on how to build a product, they don’t always have a good marketing plan. No matter…

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Marketing & Sales

How to Market Your Services without Getting Burnt Out

The sudden and very uncomfortable processes we all go through in an ever-changing global economy demands we rethink our side hustles into flexible tools to achieve a not-so-flexible objective.

Because creating content is an ever-changing gig

As neuro researchers had been warning us for decades now, our&nbsp;<a class="idea-content-link" href="https://news.ubc.ca/2018/09/18/hardwired-for-laziness-tests-show-the-human-brain-must-work-hard-to-avoid-sloth/">brains are hardwired to be lazy. </a><ul><li>We prefer predictability because it reduces our stress levels.&nbsp;</li><li>Stress is terrible for our health; it destroys our social skills and changes the way our brain works.&nbsp;</li><li>The human brain copes with change by entering a state of alertness that “helps” us to escape alive from the problem that’s overwhelming us.&nbsp;</li><li>Therefore, under stress, we don’t respond like our regular selves. </li></ul>

Of course, change is uncomfortable:

The problem is, change is an indispensable condition to develop a side hustle.Even publications being shut down are only an opportunity for other writers, publications, and newcomers to grow in a different, more profitable direction.

The unpredictable nature of side hustles

Wisdom entails learning how to deal with the inevitable pain that comes with having a fulfilling career. The more you dare to accomplish new things and explore your limits, the more exposed you are to learning some painful but extraordinary lessons about business.Make this your daily side hustle mantra: I’m learning today so that I can do better tomorrow.

Let’s keep it real

It doesn’t matter how many years of experience you have as a ghostwriter; writing for the same client, the same publication, or about the same topic; that experience won’t do you any good in terms of building a portfolio.&nbsp;You have to do your best to put yourself out there because your reputation will open more doors than a long list of random sites where your name is nowhere to be found.

Every content creator needs to work on their personal branding

<ul><li>Don’t panic: If you accept that what’s messing up your side hustle could be an opportunity to reinvent your business model, the solution will show up sooner.</li><li>Hope for the better, prepare for the worst: The doom of a side hustle is an excess of optimism that makes us lose grasp of our objective.</li><li>Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: If you’re still in the planning stage or haven’t seen your project take off, take a minute to reconsider. Is this the best moment to quit your job?</li></ul>

The side hustler’s checklist to cope with uncertainty:

Transferred to the world of content creation, we have to focus on one of the following goals: &nbsp;<ul><li>Entertain.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Offer Information.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Give valuable advice.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Analyze facts from a unique perspective.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>

The goals of content creation

Sometimes professional change is an option, but we often find ourselves facing situations beyond our control. The sudden and very uncomfortable processes we all go through in an ever-changing global…

The Side Hustler’s Checklist to Conquer Uncertainty

The creator economy, also known as the passion economy, is where people create jobs and businesses from doing what they love.&nbsp;For the record, the creator economy’s current market size to be $104.2 billion. The creator economy’s market size is $104.2 billion.

Te creator economy

Some questions to start with when it comes to creating valuable content:&nbsp;<ul><li>What do people come for me for advice? Do I like talking about this advice? </li><li>How can I start sharing this advice if more people are asking about it? </li><li>Do I want to write, talk or make videos about this? </li><li>If I have too many interests, how do I cut the things I don’t want to talk about as fast as possible? </li></ul>

Create content that you love

The key to creating content is finding the intersection between what others find helpful and what you love sharing.It doesn't matter what format you use. Whether it's through blogging, video, or podcasting. You learn that by experimenting with your topics.This can take 6 months to a year. This is where you need to get your foundations when it comes to creating content. The hardest part of this is knowing what you like to talk about and what others will enjoy hearing from you.

Experiment with topics

The creator economy implies that you’re the main person on the stage, and you have fans waiting for you to produce your content. If they’re a true fan, they’ll happily pay you for it. When like-minded people surround you, you become much more motivated in your journey.This can take 6 months and beyond. Once you’re comfortable creating content and become good at it, people will start to notice. They will come in your DMs complimenting your work. They might even ask you to hop on calls. Sometimes, you get invited to do a podcast.

Build an audience and a community

You can monetize pretty much anything on the internet. Whatever skill or a problem you’re thinking of solving, someone has already figured it out. Your potential clients are the ones that you can help with your current skills and knowledge. Most of the time, it’s more than enough. People will ask the same questions or even ask you for help. When that happens, you start to become their source of information. That’s another signal that you can start offering services. Because you now know something that they don’t know.

Monetize with the help of your audience

The creator economy, also known as the passion economy, is where people create jobs and businesses from doing what they love. When I started my online journey, I jumped straight into having an online…

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Creativity

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Society, Arts & Culture

Three Key Stages Creators Need to Know When Building an Online Business

Our exposure to digital marketing is constant. We walk around with a marketing device in our pockets every single minute of the day. Emails, social media, and online advertising, the banners on websites or through articles.&nbsp;In this digital age, we don’t expect powerful or evocative mail marketing. This is where the traditional paper drop can shine. Where digital is prominent, traditional methods can make the greatest comeback. And work too because it’s such a significant point of difference.

The letter drop can get in front of location-based customers better than digital marketing. This method removes doubt. There is no questioning whether you have the location wrong. You’ve removed all the variables that can derail your digital advertising.The traditional letter drop offers the most targeted location marketing. Aside from knocking on your customer’s door and handing them the brochure, the mailbox drop is the next best thing.

You can’t get any more local

As digital saturation continues to dominate, we’re in a time where we’re obsessed with nostalgia.The fashion industry is seeing an increased resurgence in the nineties and seventies aesthetic. Design, media and architecture following quickly behind. Pop culture is also aligning with the revival culture. The success of Friend’s reunion is a testament to how we cherish the culture that once defined us.There’s an opportunity for businesses to capitalize on this nostalgia trend. That’s where the maildrop, a traditional marketing method, comes into its own.&nbsp;

We’re in a retro revolution

Digital marketing is a time-consuming beast. The traditional letter drop will never be as time-consuming as digital creation. Delivery of the flyers is the most time demanding component. Yet this can be easily and affordably outsourced. Flyer creation doesn’t take as much time either. This is true if your handouts aren’t a weekly magazine and the content only needs periodic updating.

Saving time is worth our consideration

The old school methods still have validity in this changing world. We can’t throw away everything because something ‘better’ has come along. We must remember that better isn’t better for everyone.Marketing techniques will come and go. But the idea of standing apart from the rest is a trend that will never die.

Making a comeback or thinking different? It’s all the same

My routine concludes with the endless deletion of marketing emails. It’s a lengthy culling. For most, the subject title is enough to know what the email entails. ‘Twenty percent off this weekend’…

Why the Traditional Letter Drop Is Due For a Comeback

Netflix’s company values are laid bare for all to see thanks to its famous culture deck, which explains in no uncertain terms that the company demands the best from its employees.“Succeeding on a dream team is about being effective, not about working hard,” it says. “Sustained ‘B’ performance, despite an ‘A’ for effort, gets a respectful severance package. Sustained ‘A’ performance, even with a modest level of effort, gets rewarded.”It takes constant vigilance for a company to stick to its values, and that means practicing them every day, whether it’s convenient or not.

Your Company Values Are More Than Just Wall-Hangings

90 percent of corporations identify “ethical conduct” and “integrity” among their principles; 88 percent include “commitment to customers,” and 76 percent preach “teamwork and trust.”A good way to see whether a core value is unique is to ask yourself whether another company could claim the same value and execute it the same way.

Get Rid Of Meaningless Platitudes

To a large extent, a company’s values are reflected in its employees. That means an employer can’t claim to prioritize collaboration and teamwork, but then routinely hire and promote people who are only out for themselves.But hiring good people is hard, and false positives are inevitable. The problem is that even companies with a “No Asshole Rule” in place rarely practice it, and&nbsp;

Hire In Line With Your Values

It can be easy to lose sight of your company’s values, especially when they seem costly or inconvenient. But failing to do so has a variety of toxic implications, from dispirited employees to loss of public trust.To make sure you’re living your core values, don’t just tack them on the wall and forget about them. Talk about them. Integrate them into your daily communications, and acknowledge when people are living them, or breaking them. And, of course, practice them yourself

Stick To Your Guns

Do you value stability in your workplace? Do you expect to settle into a comfortable routine, and climb the ranks of seniority on a predictable upward trajectory? If so, you should not work at…

Work-Life Balance: Can it Exist for Entrepreneurs?

How to Make Time Management Your Secret Weapon

How to Turn Your Employer Into Your First Customer

YouTube Isn’t Dead: How to Build and Grow Your Channel in 2021

Are You Building Your Startup Backwards?

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