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howtobusines · 5 years ago

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Best 10 Business Books of All Time every entrepreneur should read

To be a successful entrepreneur or a successful person in your life, Reading business books is the key to achieve that purpose, Reading business books it gives you knowledge, improves your brain, your skills, saving you money and improves your creativity, reading business books isn't a waste of time, it's gain you time. Here are the extreme reading habits of billionaire entrepreneurs::

Warren Buffett spends five to six hours per day reading five newspapers and 500 pages of

Bill Gates reads over 50 books per year.

Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every two weeks.

Mark Cuban reads more than 3 hours every day.

This list is the best-selling business book ever written.

1. Zero to One

Authors: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Ratings: 133,955 Reviews: 4,833 Page count: 224

Zero To One is an inside look at Peter Thiel’s philosophy and strategy for making your startup going from nothing to something, from nonentity to existence, This book is what every entrepreneur should read and must re-read.

Book chapters:

CHAPTER 1: The Challenge of The Future.

CHAPTER 2: Party Like It's 1999. CHAPTER 3: All Happy Companies Are Different. CHAPTER 4: The Ideology of Competition. CHAPTER 5: Last Mover Advantage. CHAPTER 6: You Are Not a Lottery Ticket. CHAPTER 7: Follow The Money. CHAPTER 8: Secrets.

What you gonna learn : - Don't clone but create. - Don't compete but innovate. - Solve big problems and try different ways. - Create your monopoly and do network meetings. - Follow the money and 80-20 rule. - Plan long term goals. - Take responsibility and define clear rules for team members. - Creating value and do more with less. - Incentive+Invite = Viral strategy.

2.The $100 Startup

Authors: Chris Guillebeau Page count: 304 Ratings: 44,699 Reviews: 1,544

The $100 Startup is Chris Guillebeau’s second book and it’s very likely to be the only book everyone needs to starting and running a successful business with a ridiculously small team (1 to 5 members) with very modest investments (often less than $100).

Book chapters:

CHAPTER 1. Renaissance.

CHAPTER 2. Give them the fish. CHAPTER 3. Follow your passion...Maybe. CHAPTER 4. The rise of the roaming entrepreneur. CHAPTER 5. The new demographics. CHAPTER 6. The one-page business plan. CHAPTER 7. An offer you can't refuse. CHAPTER 8. Launch! CHAPTER 9. Hustling: The gentle art of self-promotion. CHAPTER 10. Show me the money. CHAPTER 11. Moving on up. CHAPTER 12. How to franchise yourself. CHAPTER 13. Going long. CHAPTER 14. But what if I fail. What you gonna learn:

- Listen to your advisors and Follow some passions. - If you're good at one thing, you're probably good at something else. - Be aware of opportunities - Divide your time between work and talk. - Bootstrap and fast-track. - Think like an entrepreneur and Invest in winners. - Focus on organic growth over traditional advertising. - Choose a lifestyle.

3. Start with Why

Author: Simon Sinek Page count: 255 Ratings: 87,319 Reviews: 4,678

START WITH WHY presents the idea that great leaders inspire everyone to take action by putting the purpose before the process and the product, which means putting the WHY before the HOW and the WHAT.

Book chapters:

PART 1: A WORLD THAT DOESN'T START WITH WHY.

1. Assume You Know 2. Carrots and Sticks

PART 2: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE PART 3. The Golden Circle 4. This Is Not Opinion, This Is Biology 5. Clarity, Discipline, and Consistency PART 3: LEADERS NEED A FOLLOWING PART. 6. The Emergence of Trust 7. How a Tipping Point Tips PART 4: HOW TO RALLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE. 8. Start with WHY, but Know HOW 9. Know WHY. Know HOW. Then WHAT? 10. Communication Is Not About Speaking, It's About Listening What you gonna learn: - If you want to inspire others, always communicate with your why first. - What happened when Simon found his why. - The best businesses are built by excited employees. - When you start with why there’s no need for sleazy sales tactics. - Why businesses are more stable if they start with why. - What happens when a company’s why disappears with the founder.

4. The 4-Hour Workweek

Author: Tim Ferriss Rating: 139,137 Reviews: 5,736 Page count: 308 pp

The book is on lifestyle design for anyone that wants to put living before working, not only how to design our ideal lifestyle but also exactly how to get there, the book is so full of practical life-changing advice that is very hard to take in on one reading.

Book chapters:

STEP-I: D IS FOR DEFINITION 1 – Cautions and Comparisons: How to Burn $1,000,000 a Night 2 – Rules That Change the Rules: Everything Popular is Wrong 3 – Dodging Bullets: Fear-setting and Escaping Paralysis 4 – System Reset: Being Unreasonable and Unambiguous STEP-II: E IS FOR ELIMINATION 5 – The End of Time Management: Illusions and Italians 6 – The Low-Information Diet: Cultivating Selective Ignorance 7 – Interrupting Interruption and the Art of Refusal STEP-III: A IS FOR AUTOMATION 8 – Outsourcing Life: Offloading the Rest and a Taste of Geoarbitrage 9 – Income Autopilot I: Finding the Muse 10 – Income Autopilot II: Testing the Muse 11 – Income Autopilot III: MBA—Management By Absence STEP-IV: L IS FOR LIBERATION 12 – Disappearing Act: How to Escape the Office 13 – Beyond Repair: Killing Your Job 14 – Mini-Retirements: Embracing the Mobile Lifestyle 15 – Filling the Void: Adding Life After Subtracting Work 16 – The Top 13 New Rich Mistakes THE LAST CHAPTER: AN EMAIL YOU NEED TO READ What you gonna learn: - What the critical difference is between absolute and relative income. - How to train your boss to value performance over presence, Or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair. - What automated cash-flow ''muses'' are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks. - How to cultivate selective ignorance, And create time with a low information diet. - What the management secrets of remote control CEOs are. - How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50%-80% off. - How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office.

5. The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Author: Ben Horowitz Rating: 42,214 Reviews: 2,272 Page count: 304

is an inside look at the tough decisions and lonely times all CEOs face and shows you what it takes to build a great organization and become a world-class leader. ben focused on the CEO, leadership lessons, particularly the peacetime, wartime CEO thoughts.

The book chapters:

Chapter 1: From Communist to Venture Capitalist Chapter 2: “I Will Survive” Chapter 3: This Time With Feeling Chapter 4: When Things Fall Apart Chapter 5: Take Care of the People, The Products, and the Profits–In That Order Chapter 6: Concerning the Going Concern Chapter 7: How to Lead Even When You Don’t Know Where You Are Going CHAPTER 8: First rule of entrepreneurship: There are no rules. CHAPTER 9: The end of the beginning

What you gonna learn: - Being scared doesn’t mean you are gutless. - an important rule of raising money. - Personal Learnings. - Product Strategy. - Learning as a CEO. - Peacetime vs Wartime CEOs. - Lead Bullets vs Silver Bullets. - Take care of people, products, and profits, in that order.

6. Think and Grow Rich

Author:Napoleon Hill Rating: 173,319 Reviews: 5,454 Page count: 238

Think and grow rich learns the art of changing their minds from failure consciousness to success consciousness, and explores the influence that personal beliefs have on us and our success, This books shows you how to transform your thoughts into tangible trophies of achievement. this book will change everything in your life.

The book chapters:

Chapter 1 – Thoughts Are Things

Chapter 2 – Desire Chapter 3 – Faith Chapter 4 – Autosuggestion Chapter 5 – Specialized Knowledge Chapter 6 – Imagination Chapter 7 – Organized Planning Chapter 8 – Decision Chapter 9 – Persistence Chapter 10 – Power of The Mastermind Chapter 11 – The Mystery of Sex Transmutation Chapter 12 – The Subconscious Mind Chapter 13 – The Brain Chapter 14 – The Sixth Sense Chapter 15 – The Six Ghosts of Fear What you gonna learn:- Everything which is tangible began as a thought - Win or quit, pick a side - Our minds receive ideas from the universe - If you have a burning desire for something, you can achieve it - Failures don't mean that you have failed - Have faith - Implementing your idea is the most important - step of achieving your dreams - The Important Take Away

7. Good to Great

Author: James C. Collins Rating: 112,671 Reviews: 4,017 Page count: 320

Good to great explain how good is the antonym of grat, and shows you how some companies make leap and others don't. it is now widely regarded as a modern classic of management theory.

The book chapters:

Chapter 1: Good is the Enemy of Great Chapter 2: Level 5 Leadership Chapter 3: First Who, Then What Chapter 4: Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith) Chapter 5: The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity Within the Three Circles) Chapter 6: A Culture of Discipline Chapter 7: Technology Accelerators Chapter 8: The Flywheel and the Doom Loop Chapter 9: From Good to Great to Built to Last What you gonna learn: - Get the right people on the bus - Confront the Brutal Facts - The Hedgehog Concept - A Culture of Discipline - Technology Accelerators - The flywheel effect - The Good to Great process

8. The Lean Startup

Author: Eric Ries Rating: 185,384 Reviews: 2,820 Page count: 336

In today’s changing world The Lean Startup shares with us a method to develop and manage startups. also shares a systematic, scientific way for business managers to get the information they need to make fast decisions...

The book chapters:

Chapter 1: VISION Chapter 2: STEER Chapter 3: ACCELERATE What you gonna learn: - What are the key tenets of the approach? - Searching for a viable business model. - Additional Lean Startup Concepts. - Test Frequently and Learn Quickly. - Observe and Measure Real Customer Behaviour. - Focus Exclusively on Capturing Actionable Metrics. - Be Comfortable Pivoting based on Key Learnings. - Embrace New Accounting Methods.

9. Rework

Author: Jason Fried Rating: 128,056 Reviews: 3,714 Page count: 288

Rework shows a faster, easier way to be a successful entrepreneur. Read it to know why business plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition.

The book chapters:

CHAPTER 1.First CHAPTER 2.Takedowns CHAPTER 3. Go CHAPTER 4.Progress CHAPTER 5.Productivity CHAPTER 6.Competitors CHAPTER 7.Evolution CHAPTER 8. Promotion CHAPTER 9.Hiring CHAPTER 10.Damage control CHAPTER 11.Culture CHAPTER 12.Conclusion What you gonna learn : - Take a stand for something you believe in and then pick a fight with an incumbent. - Screw big corporate marketing, stay honest, personal and nimble. - Don’t let long hours and meetings prevail, they actually hurt productivity.

10. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Author: Stephen Covey Rating: 444,559 Reviews: 8,923 Page count: 381

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is to help you lead your life in a truly effective way. and defines effectiveness as the balance of obtaining desirable results with caring for that which produces those results.

The book chapters:

HABIT 1 – BE PROACTIVE HABIT 2 – BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND HABIT 2 – PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST HABIT 4 – SEEK TO UNDERSTAND, THEN BE UNDERSTOOD HABIT 5 – THINK “WIN/WIN” HABIT 6 – SYNERGIZE HABIT 7 – SHARPEN THE SAW What you gonna learn: - Self-mastery and moving from dependence to independence. - Developing teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills. - Moving from independence to interdependence. - Continuous growth and improvement and embodies all the other habits.

conclusion:

A book enables you to think and then rethink, you can go deeper in a book than you can in any other medium, reading is more effective. youtube+online learning platform + podcast = one valuable book it's a thinking smart equation, it's a saving big and gets valuable content from the most experienced persons that ever you can find.

youtube: absolutely you will learn something but miss a lot of things. online learning platform: expensive but valuable but not that much.

A book: from inspiration to creativity, not expensive, valuable and beneficial content. This article was written with love and care

source https://www.howtobusines.com/2019/12/business-books-for-entrepreneurs-and-business-owners.html

#business #businessplan #businessidea

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samuelfields · 6 years ago

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If I Could Retire All Over Again These Are The Things I’d Do Differently

I can’t believe I’ve been writing about early retirement since 2009. The first three years of Financial Samurai was me mainly trying to figure out how to retire early. The subsequent years has been me touching upon various aspects of post-retirement life.

For the most part, early retirement has been everything I hoped for. Freedom is priceless. But I’ve also highlighted a lot of negatives that I could not have expected until living as an early retiree for several years.

We can pontificate all we want about what it’s like to do something or be in a particular scenario. But until you experience it for yourself, there’s no amount of planning that can prepare you for some of life’s big moments.

Now that I’m deep into early retirement, I’d like to share what I’d do differently if I could rewind time and go back to when I first left work in 2012.

Things I’d Change If I Could Do My Retirement Differently

1) Work at least one more year. In 2013, I wrote about the trap of the one more year syndrome where people can’t leave their jobs due to the money and security it provides. It’s always one more year to see if you can get a promotion or one more bonus to feel more secure financially that locks people in.

I left work at 34 years old. Now that I’m almost 42 years old, I look back and think how absurdly young that was to retire. Leaving a good job at that age now seems irresponsible and reckless.

I left because I was sick of office politics, bored with my job, and wanted to do something new. These reasons all sound like I was an entitled, impatient brat. Suck it up already, I may have told my younger self. But in my defense, I had already been with my firm for 11 consecutive years.

Working for one more year would have given me more time to prepare for my post-work future.

I would have lived like a pauper my final year and saved another $100,000+ for retirement. On my firm’s dime, I would have gone on more international business trips, taken out for lunch or drinks all my colleagues, competitors, and clients I had gotten to know over my 13 years in the business, and generally savor my final year at work.

Instead, I now feel like I rushed my departure. I only came up with the concept of negotiating a severance in November 2011, five months before I ultimately did. Therefore, I made some mistakes like taking a week of vacation the year I left. This action ultimately resulted in me receiving a week’s worth of pay less in my severance.

If I had stayed at least one more year, I would have aggressively tried to find a new role within the firm in a different office. It was always a dream of mine to work overseas since I grew up overseas for 13 years.

If I had been able to find a new job within the firm in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing, or London, I think my interest in work would have been rejuvenated and I could have worked for at least another three years.

If you already know a year from now you’re going to negotiate a severance, your work life could become much less stressful and much more interesting. Think back to when you were a senior in high school when you already knew where you were going to college or work. By leaving so quickly, I failed to uncover more opportunities.

Today, I encourage folks to try and gut it out until age 40 or for at least one more year once you’ve decided to engineer your layoff. If you’re burning out, take a sabbatical or an extended vacation more often to recharge. Not only will your finances be stronger, but you’ll also be able to eliminate more completely any potential work regret and maximize your chances of never returning.

Related: The Ideal Age To Retire To Minimize Regret And Maximize Happiness

2) I would have tried to have children while working. One of my regrets was waiting until 37, or three years after I left work, to try having children. My wife was 34 at the time and had just negotiated her severance.

We waited so long mainly because I was overly focused on my career. I didn’t think I was mentally ready to be a dad without first having an enormous financial buffer. Logically, I felt that having children would delay my permanent escape from work.

Friends kept telling me that once their children were born, they felt they had to work until they graduated college. Working for another 21-23 more years sounded like a prison sentence! Therefore, I decided to avoid prison altogether and selfishly focus on me.

But there’s no escaping biology. The chances of conceiving declines every year one waits. For the average couple, it takes about 7-8 months to get pregnant. Staying pregnant is another challenge. A prayer to all the unborn children who never made it. For us, it took almost three years to have our son.

I would have preferred to be a first-time dad in my early 30s than at 39 years old. Yes, I wouldn’t have been able to spend as much time with him as I do now since I’d be thick into work. But being able to spend a greater percentage of my overall life with him would be priceless.

Having our son while I was still working would have likely made me better appreciate work and all its benefits more. My wife could have taken three months of paid maternity leave. I could have also taken one month of paid paternity leave spread throughout the first three months of our son’s life. When you’re working to take care of the person you love most, you can’t help but cherish your job more.

If your finances are not bulletproof, having a kid when both you and your partner don’t have jobs will likely make you feel extremely stressed. Going from a dual income to single income is also very stressful. I definitely felt more financial pressure after our son was born in 2017, regardless of our retirement income.

Although work is a luxurious safety net for parents, I’m sure I would have eventually started resenting work for keeping me away from our son. Therefore, if I negotiated a severance at least a year after my son was born, I think I would appreciate my early retirement even more.

In retrospect, I would have ideally liked to have my first at age 33, have another little one by age 36, and like my job enough to retire at age 40 after 19 years with my firm. A severance package after 19 years would have been so sweet!

Related: The Ideal Age To Have Children Based On Wealth And Biology

3) I would have worked on my side hustles sooner and more aggressively. The key to maintaining a steady state of happiness is being able to consistently forecast your potential misery and taking steps beforehand to counteract that misery. Ideally, we can all consistently plan 3-5 years ahead. But it’s not a natural act.

I didn’t start seriously forecasting my misery until 2008 after the financial crisis hit. Before then, I was just a super motivated guy who wanted to climb a never-ending corporate ladder for bigger titles and more money. Until then, the correlation between effort and reward had been strong.

After the stock market started melting down, I realized that no matter how well I performed, I was no longer going to get paid and ascend at the rate I was used to. Instead, I would stall out in my career and actually get paid less the more I did because the industry was in a structural decline.

The good times up until 2008 had made me too lazy to start Financial Samurai until 2009. If I had started Financial Samurai in 2006 when I first came up with the idea, perhaps I would have felt much more settled than I did when I left work in 2012.

With more financial certainty, more confidence, and a clearer purpose, I may have had the guts to try having children three years sooner as well. But the desire for money and the necessity to live in an expensive city for this money got me.

Some of you might think I’m being too hard on myself for not foreseeing the recession and starting to work on my side hustle sooner. But ever since I started in the finance industry in 1999, I’ve always felt my years were numbered because of the accompanying long hours and great stress.

Today, Financial Samurai is an established site. But goodness knows how much work and luck it took to get here. Without some lucky breaks, Financial Samurai could have easily died.

Related: 10 Reasons Why You Need To Start An Online Business Today

4) I should have bought more real estate in 2012. Because I was so focused on engineering my layoff in 2012, the last thing on my mind was leveraging up to buy more property. In fact, I tried to sell my primary residence in 2012 but couldn’t because the market was so soft.

If I planned on working until 40 years old, I would have had greater financial confidence to buy at the bottom of the existing cycle. A $900K rental property I would have bought in 2012 would be worth roughly $1.6 million today.

The failure to buy in 2012 was partially offset with a property home purchase in 2014 and continued contributions to my tax-advantageous retirement accounts. But boy could I have supercharged our net worth if I not only bought more investments back then but also worked five more years through a breathtaking bull market!

5) I didn’t fully capitalize on my position as an early retiree. Although I’ve been writing about early retirement since 2009, Financial Samurai is often left out of the mainstream FIRE conversation because I write about so many topics in addition to early retirement.

I’m more focused on wealth maximization through equity investing, entrepreneurship, career strategies, and real estate. Over the past couple of years, I’ve discovered new joy talking about family finances and estate planning.

Once I retired early, I felt like there was no need to talk incessantly about early retirement. Instead, I just got on with my life because my goal of financial independence had been met.

Further, I didn’t want to rub it in people’s faces that I was done with work. Offline, after a year of telling folks who asked what I did that I was retired, I started changing my response to I’m a writer or a tennis coach to feel more comfortable.

But if I had had the foresight and the chutzpah, I would have written more about early retirement life to better brand this site and boost its traffic. I should have been more proactively self-promoting, but I didn’t because it felt unseemly.

I also naively believed more people would give Financial Samurai more credit for being one of the pioneers of the modern-day FIRE movement. But just like at work, those who self-promote the loudest, tend to get the most attention. While those who stay silent and believe their good work will get them recognized usually get left behind.

Despite half the U.S. population living on the coasts, I don’t know many if any early retirement bloggers or people living off investment income in areas like San Francisco, LA, Boston or NYC. As a result, I sometimes feel like I’m on an island. It’s more fun to have a tribe.

As a father now with rising costs to cover and a spouse who is an amazing full-time mom, I need to focus more on monetizing this site going forward. I’ve been way too lackadaisical about generating revenue due to our sufficient retirement income and my desire to only write about things that interest me.

All told, I’m sure I’ve left at least $1 million on the table by being so carefree with this site. It’s time to be more selfish for my family.

Live In The Present, Plan For The Future

Why is it that when we’re younger, we always seem to feel like we’re in a rush to get things done? We’ve got to retire as early as possible, or else! Maybe it’s because we lack patience and feel that we might all die an early death. I certainly felt like retiring early was a hedge against an untimely demise.

As I look forward, one of the main things I can do to mitigate my retirement mistakes is to live as long and as healthy a life as possible. If I can find some way to extend my life by five years, then everything will have worked out. Too bad I’ll never know for sure whether I made a difference in my longevity.

On the positive side, maybe leaving work six years earlier than ideal helped extend my life after all. When I was 33, I started sprouting grey hairs. My hairline was also receding. But by age 36, all my grey hairs went away and my forehead stopped growing bigger probably because my stress level went way down.

The older you get, the more you will feel the race against time. The good thing is that money and status gradually fade away in your personal hierarchy of importance. Desiring to spend more time with family and enjoying more free time is a natural part of life.

If you’re looking to retire early, please ask yourself the following questions:

1) Why am I rushing to retire early? Am I running away from something?

2) What will I do after I retire early? Am I running towards something?

3) How will retiring early change my life for better or worse?

4) Am I sacrificing too much to retire early?

5) Have I gained enough perspective from those who’ve already retired?

When it comes to retiring, there are no perfect answers nor is there perfect timing. You can only do your best with the information you know at the time. It’s only after several years of living an early retirement lifestyle that you will know what you could have done differently to make it an even better one.

Stay optimistic. Live in the present. And consistently spend time planning for the future. Chances are high you’ll live to see another great day.

Related: What Does Early Retirement Feel Like? The Pros And Cons Of Not Having To Work For A Living

Any other early retirees wish they did their retirement a little differently? If so, what would you change? A lot of people have told me they wished they didn’t quit their job, but negotiated a severance instead.

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sarahburness · 7 years ago

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Kaizen: A Simple Way to Supercharge Your Freelance Career

Do you have the level of flexibility, freedom and fulfillment that you crave in your career?

Are you managing every aspect of your life with the deftness that you wish for?

It is quite possible that this is not the case. Maybe you are feeling satisfaction in some areas of your life, but lacking a feeling of contentment in others.

Let’s face it.

An average day in a freelancer’s life is marked by relentless hustling, doubts and exhaustion. The journey is often lonely. At one point, you’ll even feel the urge to say goodbye to some of your most cherished dreams– a six-figure income, a vacation with the family in exotic destinations and so on.

This is where the Kaizen approach fits. It will help you to improve certain areas of your life.

Kaizen: Overview

In English, Kaizen means “positive change” or “change for better.” It is comprised of a series of small, simple steps.

As a business philosophy, it has been popularized by Toyota in the middle of the last century. Since then, it has been successfully implemented by thousands of corporations, small businesses and individuals.

The uncomplicated nature of this technique makes it a preferred choice by many. With continuous commitment, it helps you to get to the root of the problem and resolve it for life.

Because of its impact, Kaizen is now used even in Psychotherapy. In other words, it not only affects business processes but your entire life, too. However, remember, it is no silver bullet and shouldn’t be treated as such.

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” Plutarch

What are the benefits of using Kaizen?

You have turned your passion into a career, but you don’t want to stop at just that. You want to taste steady success. The aim of Kaizen is to help you to do exactly that. In the process you will:

Improve the quality of your work

Develop new skills

Fuel creativity

Increase productivity

Ensure customer satisfaction

Reduce waste

Maintain an organized workplace

Lower the operational costs of your freelance business

Derive immediate benefits from your initiatives

Blogger and entrepreneur, Yaro Starak, recommends using Kaizen to boost your blogging income

Enjoy a better work-life balance

See Also: 5 Ways to Balance Work and Family Time Even if You’re a Workaholic

Try to make Kaizen a part of your daily life. Until that happens, make sure to use this technique every time you score a big win. It will then help you to carry on the momentum. You should also use the power of Kaizen every time a major decision backfires. It will offset the negative effects of the transition, if there are any.

How to apply Kaizen in your career?

Identify the area to work on. This is a pre-requisite to making any kind of improvement. Think of the most gnawing question that you have at the moment.

Here are a couple of examples to help you start:

Sheila: How can I reduce my working hours and still accomplish all of my tasks?

Eric: How can I earn a more stable income from my freelance business?

Try to recognize the underlying problem.

In Sheila’s case, the concern is with time management and overworking. For Eric, it is a lack of stable and sustainable income. His question reveals an intention to halt the “feast and famine cycle” and improve his living conditions.

There could be other reasons behind these wishes, such as freeing up time to learn new skills, experimenting with a side hustle, spending more time with the family or globetrotting etc. We will know shortly.

“It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do and then do your best.” Dr. Edwards Deming

Write down your goal. For Sheila, it would be how many hours she prefers to be working per week. Like Eric, if you are yearning for a more “stable income”, define how much per month would satisfy you and your needs. Don’t bother about making mistakes in your calculations. You will get to revise these further down the road.

The 5 Whys

Let us begin with root cause analysis using a very simple technique known as ‘5 Whys’ or the ‘5 Why Analysis’. Question the problem statement with “Why?” and make sure that your question has a specific answer.

It may not always be possible to identify the root cause in 5 steps only, but continue to ask “why” until you get to the root of the problem. To prevent wandering off from the topic, especially in the beginning, conclude your answer with “therefore” and see if it logically links back to the previous statement.

This was the 5 Why analysis done by Sheila.

Problem Statement: I am working for over 60 hours between Monday and Friday. I don’t even have the weekends free for me.

Why am I forced to work for more than 60 hours a week? Ans: I’m juggling between multiple projects.

Why am I working on multiple projects at once? Ans: My income is low. I need to work on as many of them as possible to make the ends meet.

Why is my pricing low? Ans: There’s far too much competition.

Why am I failing to rise above others? Ans: I’m unable to differentiate my offering from the rest.

Why am I unable to do so? Ans: I’m yet to gain specialized knowledge in any particular field.

Identified: Skill issue

This was Eric’s 5 Why Analysis.

Problem Statement: I’m unable to earn a stable income.

Why am I failing to earn a stable income? I never seem to have long-term projects.

Why don’t I have long-term projects? Ans: I’m not able to find clients who can offer high value and long-term projects.

Why am I unable to attract such clients? Ans: Where are they? I don’t know a possible place where I can meet them.

Identified: Issue with marketing and communication

Try not to jump to any conclusions at this stage. Do not cut the analytical phase short. This will ultimately lead you to the right path.

The Ishikawa Diagram

The Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram is another very effective tool for root cause analysis. It was pioneered by the organizational theorist, Kaoru Ishikawa.

The Ishikawa Diagram is generally used in combination with 5 Whys. Any concerns faced by you are divided into 6 to 8 broad categories: machine, method, people, materials, measurement and environment.

Via pmstudycircle

Now, brace for some action!

You have gained an insight into the actual nature of your most pressing concerns. Let us try to improve the situation one step at a time.

What has been taught in The Art of War all those years ago holds true even today.

“In warfare, first lay plans which will ensure victory and then lead your army to battle; if you will not begin with stratagem but rely on brute strength alone, victory will no longer be assured.”

This is a war for you. It’s a war to root out any inefficient processes from the system and to refine them to your liking.

Plan

Brainstorm the steps that will help you to move closer to your goal. In case you are facing a skill issue, identify what skills you need to develop. How much time do you need for that? How much time can you dedicate each day to practice? Do you need outside help? What’s the investment (financial) needed to acquire that skill?

Like Eric with his problem on marketing and communication, you need to decide on how much time each day you need to dedicate to solving the issues. How can you manage your routine without any additional stress? Can you automate some of your repetitive tasks? Do you need external help like referrals, membership to professional associations etc, to fuel your marketing activities?

It is normal not to find every step in the planning stage to your liking. Mark out those that seem to be particularly problematic or scary. Differentiate your to-do items into ‘to-be-done-immediately’ and ‘to-be-done-in-30 days’ time.

Eric was apprehensive about face-to-face meetings. Cold calls also scared him. He needed some time to mentally prepare for those steps. He created his itinerary accordingly.

Plan your actions for a short period of time but make sure it doesn’t exceed a week to 10 days.

Start putting your plans into action. Note down the results of your experiments. Keep logs of the problems that you’ve faced when performing these tasks.

Check

Study the results and issues faced after 7 or 10 days. Compare them with your anticipated results and make adjustments where necessary.

At the end of the first stage, Sheila found it extremely difficult to set aside some time every day to study. She decided to dedicate two hours every Friday afternoon for this purpose. This modified schedule suited her better.

Eric found his initial efforts to be rather disheartening. He was using email to reach out to potential customers. However, he received zero responses in the first week. He, therefore, requested a friend’s help.

Act

Begin acting on the revised plan. Once again, set a small target.

Sheila was trying to venture into medical writing. Her time constraints, as well as her financial condition, at the time prevented her from getting the necessary certifications. She decided to brush up on her industry knowledge and enter the commercial arena of the healthcare industry for the time being.

On the other hand, together with his friend, Eric went to meet a few business owners in his area to have an informal chat. They were well-prepared for the interviews and took detailed notes of all of the business issues discussed during their conversation.

He repeated the process over the following few weeks. Eventually, one of them connected Eric with the owner of a top real estate development firm in the city. He was impressed by Eric’s industry knowledge and offered him a three-year contract.

Both of them stayed committed to the process and made Kaizen a part of their lives. They understood that:

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” Henri Bergson

How to develop a Kaizen mindset?

To get the best results, try to develop a Kaizen mindset actively. Dedicate 10 to 15 seconds every day to do so. The success of this philosophy depends on it.

Here’s how:

Be willing to believe that everything can be and should be changed for better.

Strive for improvement in every day of your life.

Focus on how-to-improve rather than why-can’t-something-be-improved.

Don’t criticize anyone.

Spare yourself from self-pity.

Why Kaizen fails or may fail?

Kaizen isn’t about producing sudden or dramatic results. It is based on the philosophy of sustained improvement, the sum of which may be greater than any sudden gain.

Staying dedicated to the process can sometimes be difficult. This makes it important for you to take a time-out and to celebrate any small successes on the way. If you find yourself stuck, don’t hesitate to discuss it with someone you trust. Kaizen encourages a collaborative approach.

Any system is only effective when you take it and modify it into your own. Kaizen is not meant to be a set of rigid guidelines. Don’t be afraid to revise the steps to suit your needs.

Now that you are aware of the basics of this philosophy, you can go through the process of constant review and adjustment. Eventually, you will know what to leave behind and what to carry forward with.

So, which aspect of your creative life have you decided to improve today?

The post Kaizen: A Simple Way to Supercharge Your Freelance Career appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

from Dumb Little Man https://www.dumblittleman.com/kaizen/

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