To reap the greatest rewards in business you must be open to making the greatest changes. To stay the same in this ever changing environment will bring death to any operation. I am constantly making an effort to connect with people in my life that add value to every conversation, that inspire, motivate and bring new ways of thinking to my business model. People who are highly capable, focused and incredibly passionate about the fields that they are in have the greatest lessons to teach and information to share.

From these connections …I have created a list of seven Be’s that will ensure the ongoing life of your business:

Be a risk taker
Life and business are about risk – as risk equals growth. If you don’t try stuff you will never know. I believe that failure is the foundation of success. People and operations need to fail to grow, to try something or do something differently. There is no growth in business without failure.
If it’s not working and you continue to do the same thing, it may never work!

Be passionate
To be truly great at something you must have a burning passion to make it work. If you have fallen out of love with your business/job – make the changes needed to rekindle that flame. We are only put on this earth for a short time, so put effort into doing something that you love. You owe it to yourself, your health as well as your operation. To continue on, when you don’t love what you do, is to promote mediocrity and no one, including yourself, deserves that!

Be accountable
As a business owner, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, author, business mentor or whatever leadership role you take, know that the buck will always stop with you. If a venture doesn’t work, or something goes horribly wrong, step up to the plate and be accountable. Do not make excuses or go looking for scapegoats. Your team is not to blame and let’s face it – they can only be as good as your leadership and the environment that you create. Accept accountability and look at how you can learn from it.

Be a communicator
The people around you are not clairvoyant; you must always communicate. Do not avoid having the tough conversations – talk about your visions and your expectations. If you are challenged by a behaviour, talk to the perpetrator and if someone does a great job, celebrate with them. Have an open door policy, connect with your team regularly and operate a lifestyle where you communicate continually with clarity.

Be efficient
I use the 80/20 rule to combat inefficiency. Only twenty percent of the stuff that happens in a day needs to happen in an immediate time frame. Identify it and action it. Don’t be one of those ‘gonna do’ businesses/people that are always behind and always promising to get back to people. We are all busy; it would be a problem if we weren’t. Introduce discipline into your work/life balance and get on and do the job, with good knowledge as to what needs to be done first.

Be focused
I never stop to worry about what people think, as there will always be a percentage of the people out there that don’t agree with who I am, what I do and where I am heading. But I choose to focus on the percentage that do, and continually move forward. So stop caring about what others think! (Start worrying when they stop talking about you.) It will be debilitating for you. Trust that you can and will – in most instances – make good decisions and as long as they come from the heart they will at least always be made with good integrity.

Be a contributor beyond self
Resolve to help others evolve. Take the focus off yourself and look at how you can take the knowledge and skills that you have acquired and pay it forward to others and your immediate environment. To help others can be simply about giving time, and in doing so there will always be lessons and opportunities that arise. Don’t become so time poor that you stop looking outwards.

Annah Stretton