Start The Year Strong — Adopt These 9 Money-Making Habits for Entrepreneurial Success in 2024

I am not a billionaire, and I do not run an enormous firm. My ten-person tech consulting agency is small — tiny in comparison with many others. However I have been working it for greater than 20 years, and it is supplied an excellent livelihood for my household. As 2023 ends, I am already preparing for 2024. And I am re-affirming these 9 tried and true habits that I’ve practiced through the years to make sure that I will nonetheless develop and revenue.

1. Begin the day at 5 am

I have been getting up at 5 am since, properly, eternally. The early morning is the time after I’m most productive. Everybody’s asleep in the home. There aren’t any emails or cellphone calls. I can concentrate on writing and different deeper thinking exercises. I do that straight away after I rise up. I get extra completed between 5 am and seven am than most components of the day.

2. Do accounting

Working a enterprise includes ardour and dedication. However in the long run, a very powerful factor is math. Possibly I am too subjective as a result of I am an authorized public accountant, however I’ve discovered that my greatest and most worthwhile shoppers know their numbers. They watch sales day by day. They get cash flow reviews weekly. The observe job prices. They analyze margins. As a result of my enterprise is a service enterprise, I look intently at chargeable and non-chargeable hours every week. Suppose the numbers are nice, then nice. If not, then I’ve to do one thing about them.

3. Go to shoppers

Possibly I am too old fashioned, however I’ve discovered that I all the time shut extra gross sales, and I maintain longer-term relationships after I meet folks face to face. On-line conferences undoubtedly serve a function. However people bodily wish to be with people. So, I am going to proceed to attempt my greatest to get out of my cocoon and meet with shoppers, go to occasions, community and work together with different people in the true world.

4. Learn and pay attention

I am going to proceed to learn fiction and can defend that observe as a result of it isn’t solely an escape, however it helps me study extra about human behavior. However I am going to even be studying just a few selection enterprise, historical past and biography books this yr too. Additionally, as I stroll and drive, I’ll proceed to take heed to my most popular enterprise and expertise podcasts – like Planet Cash, Lex Fridman, WSJ’s Cash Briefing, and Freakonomics – in addition to just a few of my favorites like Smartless simply to maintain me laughing.

5. Play squash

Sure, I play squash about two to 3 instances every week. I have been doing it for years, and it is a aggressive calorie burner. After I’m unable to play, I experience my bike. The purpose is I exercise. I do that in the course of the day generally. It breaks the sample and frees up my head. And it is good for my physique. I stay up for these actions. Train is vital for any entrepreneur. Getting the blood circulating and being energetic are keys to a protracted life and a balanced thoughts.

6. Lean into AI

AI will dominate my expertise technique this yr. I am digging deep into my CRM and accounting software program and researching with my distributors what AI instruments they’re rolling out to save lots of me time and assist my folks be extra productive. I write and converse on the subject, too, so I am going to proceed to dedicate a major period of time researching and staying in control on these very fast-moving developments. AI will probably be as transformative to my enterprise because the cellular machine was fifteen years in the past, and I do not wish to ignore this essential, disruptive pattern.

7. Concentrate on folks

I solely have about ten workers and contractors, so it isn’t that onerous. However these persons are core to my life, my enterprise, my monetary safety. They interface with my shoppers, prospect for brand spanking new work and handle my funds. I would like to verify I am spending time with everybody and listening to their points. I additionally wish to be sure that I am offering them with good compensation and advantages. I have been very fortunate to have a loyal crew through the years as a result of I are inclined to overpay. I wish to maintain doing that.

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8. Meet with my accountant in Might and September

Despite the fact that I am a CPA, I do not do my very own taxes as a result of I am horrible at it. However I do acknowledge — sadly — that my tax chew takes up between 20-30% of my whole earnings when you think about federal, state and metropolis charges. The tax guidelines are shifting this yr, and we’re probably going through vital modifications after 2025, when most of the 2017 Tax and Jobs Act provisions expire. My greatest shoppers are all the time planning forward and devising methods that develop their companies whereas minimizing tax liabilities, and I will be doing the identical.

9. Get pleasure from household

Time goes quick, and everybody’s busy. It is simple to let the day’s duties take precedence. And earlier than you realize it…you are previous, and so is everybody else. I do not know a single profitable enterprise proprietor who does not have the backing of their household, and that household consists of buddies, neighbors and neighborhood. They advise. They criticize. They get on my nerves. However I can not think about working a enterprise with out that assist system.

In case you observe these 9 habits, will that imply you’ll turn into a multi-zillionaire on the quilt of Entrepreneur Journal? Simply take a look at me, and you will have your reply – it is not going. There is not any assure that by doing these stuff you’ll achieve success in 2024. However for no matter it is price, these practices have helped me to develop an excellent enterprise that has supplied for my household over the previous twenty years. They work for me. So the chances are good that they’ll be just right for you, too.