Dear Diary: I will be a better entrepreneur

A ‘book of actions’ could be a handy guide to boost your business, writes Rick Spence.

Statistics show that entrepreneurs generally earn less than salaried executives. And, let’s face it, the hours are killer. But I’ve always thought that, on the whole, entrepreneurs have the harder job.

Corporate executives can focus on just a few key performance indicators, while those above and below make them look good. The classic entrepreneur, on the other hand, is responsible for everything, from sales to HR to lease agreements — even as they are starved for resources and expertise. Few entrepreneurs are ever prepared for the pressures and uncertainties that come with their job.

But now there’s a resource to help stressed-out business owners. It’s a new book called The Entrepreneur’s Book of Actions, by South Carolina entrepreneur Rhett Power. A former Peace Corps volunteer and businessdevelopment consultant, Power co-founded Wild Creations in 2007, a Myrtle Beach-based toy company specializing in self-contained aquariums. Wild Creations endured the ups and downs of any small business, compounded by the complexities of dealing with live African dwarf frogs. After two years, Power admits in the book’s introduction, “I was almost bankrupt, I was exhausted, and I was about to call it quits.” What he calls “a huge break from a national retailer” compelled him and his partner, Peter Gasca, to rethink what they were doing and correct their bad habits just in time. By 2011 Wild Creations was named one of Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing U.S. companies. The founders sold the business in 2013, giving Power more time to think, write and speak about the multi-faceted burdens of entrepreneurship. His book breaks down entrepreneurship into more than 365 orderly actions. It’s like having a coach put you through daily goalsetting and strength workouts, but one who never yells, guilts you out or sends you a bill.

“Chances are if you are an entrepreneur, you’ve found yourself feeling overwhelmed, and not knowing which direction you should be headed in,” Power writes. He calls his new book a “daily devotional,” which will teach you week by week to better manage your life, business and relationships, plus create more motivated employees and loyal customers.

The final chapter, Changing Your Own Reflection, is a victory lap, bidding you to look back to Week 1 and see how far you’ve come in terms of finding out what makes you happy and achieving your true purpose in life. He says it’s okay if you haven’t succeeded in everything: “The difference between a successful entrepreneur and someone who feels like a failure in life is how we reflect on those events.” So he asks you to write in your journal about your biggest business failure to date, to recognize your mistakes and to move on with confidence. For Day 5 of Week 53, he urges you to take the regret out of failure by taking that page on which you wrote the other day about your biggest failure, and rip it out of your notebook.

Between Weeks 1 and 53, Power offers some tremendous tips and insights into what makes stronger leaders and great businesses. Here are some of the best of his daily devotionals.

Week 4: “Relationships are important to my success. I will spend time today working on at least one of my relationships. I will find a mentor and follow the advice of those who care about me.”

Week 8: “Eliminate or minimize as many daily irritations as possible, and your staff will genuinely respect you for bringing the office together. So today, write down one way that you can remove an irritation from your workplace.”

Week 10: A Forbes study found that 83 per cent of organizations suffer from a “recognition” deficit. “Even on the tightest budget you should recognize and reward great work.”

Week 16: Always show enthusiasm. “If you aren’t enthusiastic, your team won’t be. The keys to inspiration are intense and eager enjoyment, showing interest, and putting your stamp of approval on ideas that excite you.”

Week 22: “You can create the most ingenious strategy and have a group of people with incredible skill sets, but it won’t matter unless they fit your culture … Communicate your values clearly and often.”

Week 26: “There will be drama. Human beings are not perfect. However, when there is conflict within my company, I will not ignore it. I will deal with it and move on.”

Week 28: “I will avoid multitasking at all costs ... I will focus on focusing today.”

Week 31: “I don’t need to be right about everything. It’s okay to let others speak their minds, too.”

Week 35: “Speak confidently about your pricing, since your products and services are worth the expense … To help build your confidence, write in your journal today about why your pricing is actually a value to your customers.”

Week 40: Say no more often. “Say “NO” to customer requests that don’t benefit you. Say “NO” to overspending. Say “NO” to doing it all. Say no to rushed decision-making.”

Week 43: “I will share my love of innovation with others. In order to become successful, I need to successfully train other people to be innovative like me.”

No one said that becoming a great leader is easy. But examples such as these make the journey a lot smoother.