The Ignite Spot Blog

Profit Coaching Roundup: Hope Alone is Not a Strategy

Written by Meghan Fleury | Jan 16, 2015

As part of our profit coaching efforts, we try to go beyond number crunching and help clients really grow their business. We weed through a lot of junk on the Internet, but we save the good stuff to share with you. Here's the 5 most insightful and inspiring bits we found on the world wide web this week:

What Entrepreneurs Should Know:

01. "Moonlighting: 5 Tips from Entrepreneurs Who've Been There"

Almost every startup founder has been there: working a regular daytime job, followed by late evenings in order to launch a new business. This list, on Mashable.com, provides 5 essential tips from entrepreneurs who've burned the candle on both ends.

  1. Find a free office.
  2. Make your day job work for you.
  3. Change up your environment.
  4. Work anywhere and everywhere.
  5. Network, network, network.
"It turns out changing locations was beneficial for more than just idea generation — it was a great way to meet new people. You never know who may need your services,” -Vanessa Wade, daytime teacher, moonlighting PR specialist

02. "What Young People Must Know About Entrepreneurship"

The rate of young entrepreneurs is currently at a 24 year all-time low. CEO of Recruiter.com, Miles Jennings, offers some words of wisdom for innovative millennials. 

"Young people don’t need to wait for an opportunity or idea to hit them. They need to start building their future now. The sooner you start working toward a goal, the sooner your knowledge, experience and money start compounding. Later on in life, commitments can intrude."

What Leaders Should Know:

01. "5 Reasons You Shouldn't Be Yourself at Work"

Is "authenticity" at work just a buzzword? Herminia Ibarra, author of "Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader", argues that there are risks of being too authentic at work. Instead, Ibarra recommends leading through an adaptive authenticity. 

Here's the first 3 risks of being too authentic. Read the full article here.

  1. Your growth could stagnate.
  2. You may lose your credibility.
  3. You might make bad decisions.

What the Budget-Conscious Should Know:

01. The Fence-It-And-Forget-It Approach to Budgeting.

Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871, proposes starting 2015 with a new budgeting approach for your company. He calls this method the fence-it-and-forget-it approach. Read about it in detail here. We especially like his advice to create a 5% cushion for each category in your budget. 

02. "How to Avoid Falling Short of Your Sales Goal This Year"

We love Jill Konrath. Her simple sales tactics are easy to digest and implement. In this video, she offers easy strategies for maintaining this year's sales goals, breaking it down into two steps: know your "whys" and map out your "hows".

"To know how to achieve your goals, you need to outline specifically which actions you need to take to accomplish those goals. As Rick Page always said, 'Hope is not a strategy'."