Here are five tips for staying motivated at a Meetup called Bootstrappers Breakfast, which promotes early morning entrepreneurial discussions. Recently there were ten of us in the Zoom chat: we all participated equally in the discussion led by Sean Murphy.
As stated, the challenge was how to motivate yourself to look for new customers when you are busy serving old customers? It’s like networking for your next job when you’re happily employed. This activity is often abandoned.
Here’s what the participants had to say.
First of all, to stay motivated, stay organized. Create a task list. Someone put theirs in a Trello board. Another swore on his electronic calendar and put all the tasks on it.
The second tip was about networking goals. Set a weekly goal each week, such as five meetings. Besides, try to keep catch-up chats to 20 minutes. Very busy people are more likely to say “Yes” in 20 minutes instead of an hour.
The third advice was to find a working buddy. Set up a Zoom chat and collaborate with your friend. Indicate what you are trying to get done, and they can ask, how is it going?
The fourth tip is to attend a peer responsibility meet. The person who the participant in Bootstrap Breakfast says he visits regularly is for entrepreneurs. It reminded me of my book writing class at Stanford. We reported our progress to the instructors and classmates every week. By the way, I’ve finished the draft of my book.
The fifth tip concerns reading books about developing good habits. The two recommended were Charles Duhigg’s Power of Habit and James Clear’s Atomic Habits. Forming the habit of devoting a certain amount of time each week, creating a new business is formed, then the goal is much more likely to be reached.
In short, find your formula to stay motivated to seek new business even when you have customers. So you will have much less downtime as a consultant or entrepreneur you have much less rest.
