Make your business your business

There are many ways we can get sidetracked in our side hustle.

It’s easy to lose focus. There are countless distractions everywhere.

If you found yourself looking to re-align yourself and your priorities, this article is for you.

One Word Only, Please

Let me ask you a simple favor.

Please describe your side hustle using one word only?

If that’s too hard, I’ll be generous, I’ll give you two words.

How ‘bout a paragraph?

Hopefully, you see where this is going.

The reason you can’t describe your business in one or two words is simple: your efforts are not focused enough.

The correct one-word answer would ideally be the name of your business, i.e your brand name. A slightly worse answer would be, “my customer”. If you thought of that latter answer, hopefully, at least you have your perfect customer clearly defined.

Why could it be so hard to provide this one-word definition? Because most entrepreneurs are making ends meet. If that wasn’t the case, you’d be out there making your money, not reading this post.

For you to be able to give a one-word definition of your business, you need to understand first just what exactly your business is.

What is your business?

The best thing that you can do for your business is: be perfectly clear on what your business is.

It’s as simple as that.

Once you know what your business is, formulate it in a few words.

For example, I could say this:

My business is CodingExercises.

Short and sweet.

Paste this definition on your toilet mirror. Make it into a bumper sticker. Set it as your computer’s wallpaper. Set it as your cellphone’s background image.

Ingrain it in your head.

Why?

You need to feel bad whenever you’re doing anything else.

Make your business your business

For a very long time, I was hoping to find a partner for my business ideas, for my business ventures.

I’m not sure why I felt the urge to have a business partner.

Maybe I didn’t want to be responsible for the outcome.

Maybe I didn’t think I could do it on my own. Was it a confidence issue?

I don’t know. I also don’t care.

I try not to analyze things that have no practical outcome.

Life works when rules are simple. Think of the rule of driving on the right side of the road. How confusing it would be if we had to negotiate with each car that comes our way, on which side of the road to take? How confusing would it be if there were 7 different rules to apply, depending on, say, the day of the week?

Of course, it would be ridiculous.

Then why in the world would you want to have complicated rules for your business?

In the words of Albert Einstein, “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

Life works when rules are simple.

Business works when rules are simple.

So, do yourself a favor, and focus on your business.

Make your business your business.

Don’t look for partners.

Don’t look for distractions.

Have a clear goal.

Commit to it 100%. Give it all you got.

Make your business your business, and one day you’ll be able to say, I know why I made it.