How should entrepreneurs be spending their time? – Part 2

Collaborate – No man is an island and one is too small a number to achieve greatness. The third use of your time as an entrepreneur is for collaboration. Because you cannot do it all by yourself, you must always be on the lookout for worthy vision partners to synergize with. Collaboration is the use of your time for networking and forming of strategic alliances. As an entrepreneur, you cannot afford to be a jack of all trade and master of none. You need others to make ideas happen. Trying to go it all by yourself will only lead you to the deadliest business trap ever. So a good use of your time must be spent looking for other like minds to team up with and make great things happen.

How often should entrepreneurs collaborate? As often as possible.
Always be on the lookout for potential vision partners. That’s what I call them –vision partners. If you have a vision, then you would need some partners for the fulfilment of that vision. I try not to use the term business partner because, it is not just about business, it’s about the dream or vision.
Collaboration is about how you can both promote one another’s causes. If money brought you together, trust me, money will easily drive you apart. But if it’s an idea, vision or dream bigger that what the both of you can achieve individually, then you’ve found yourself a worthy vision partner!

Communicate – The fourth use of your time as an entrepreneur is for communication. Your ideas won’t speak for themselves; your products won’t speak for themselves neither will your vision. The first customer of your business is you the entrepreneur, are you happy with what you’ve created? Do you believe in what you’ve created? Can you bet your life on what you’ve created? If yes, then a good use of your time must be spent spreading that idea, product, service, vision or dream. You must become the chief evangelist of what you’ve created. You must get out there and spread the word. Your time must be spent talking about whatever it is you do and how it is beneficial to the world. If you don’t, no one else will.

How often should entrepreneurs communicate? All of the time.
The world doesn’t care about your ideas, products, services, visions or dreams; they’ve got theirs to worry about. So you’ve got to make them care by showing them how much you care about them. The more of a big deal you make about your ideas, products, services, visions or dreams, the more confidence you give to the world to buy into your ideas, products, services, visions or dreams. And if they are as good as you claim, a trial will convince them.

Control – The fifth use of your time as an entrepreneur is for controlling. After all is said and done, nothing no matter how great can continue to function without adequate attention. Every creation needs to be tended to properly. The whole of your time spent on the four previous highly productive activities would have been a complete waste if you overlook this last one. Entrepreneurs make ideas happen and then build a business or businesses around those ideas. To ensure that what they have built lasts, entrepreneurs would have to spend their time keeping things in order.

How often should entrepreneurs control? All the time.
You should always be on the lookout for lapses in your business and fix them. You should always look for more efficient ways to systemize work such that anyone can perform routine tasks successfully. You must always keep creating better ways of organising work into processes and assigning capable people to supervise their performance. Control is a management function and so it calls for a day-to-day use of your time as an entrepreneur. Tito Philips Jnr. is a young Nigerian that is M.A.D – Making A Difference