Welcome to the latest episode of "I Hate Numbers," where we explore the strategies and Tips for achieving business success. In this episode, we discuss the importance of self-belief, a positive mindset, surrounding yourself with positive, strong, independent people who may question and challenge what you're doing, embracing failure, setting yourself realistic goals, and being adaptable.

Self-belief is essential when it comes to achieving business success. You need to believe in yourself and your abilities, and trust that you have what it takes to succeed. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who believe in you and your vision.

A positive mindset is also critical when it comes to achieving business success. Focus on the positive aspects of your business and your progress, and don't dwell on setbacks or failures. Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, and stay optimistic about the future.

Surrounding yourself with positive, strong, independent people who may question and challenge what you're doing is important when it comes to achieving business success. These people can provide valuable feedback and insights, and can help you stay focused on your goals.

Embracing failure is an inevitable part of the journey towards business success. Use failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, and don't let it discourage you. Instead, use failure as a motivator to keep pushing forward and to improve your business.

Setting yourself realistic goals is also important when it comes to achieving business success. Be honest with yourself about what you can achieve, and set goals that are challenging but attainable. Break your goals down into smaller, manageable steps, and celebrate your progress along the way.

Finally, being adaptable is essential when it comes to achieving business success. Keep an eye on trends and shifts in your industry, and be ready to adjust your business strategy accordingly. Stay agile, and be willing to experiment and try new things.

In conclusion, achieving business success requires a combination of self-belief, a positive mindset, strong relationships, embracing failure, setting realistic goals, and being adaptable. By following these tips and staying focused on your goals, you can turn your business dreams into reality. Remember that success is a journey, not a destination, and it takes time and effort to achieve. So stay motivated, stay focused, and keep pushing forward. Thanks for listening to this episode of "I Hate Numbers."

Conclusion and good to know

Growing a business takes hard work, dedication, and a willingness to invest in yourself and your team. Focus on cash and profit, streamline your operations, and be patient. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to success.

The I Hate Numbers podcast isn’t just about target setting, financial storytelling, and financial performance though.  Other topics are covered, for example, cash flow management, budgeting, forecasting, tax, accounts, and more! Every episode provides actionable advice from me, Business Finance coach, accountant and educator who explains that stuff in an easy and no-nonsense way.

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Whatever your definition of success is, however you view that, however you define that, one thing is undeniable. Your attitude, your mindset, your approach to your business plays a vital and pivotal role. How do I know this? Well, I know this because having been in business for 28 plus years, I've gone through my own sort of rollercoaster ride.

I've experienced some of the highs. I've experienced the lows. I've helped thousands of clients do the same. So from that, I've distilled seven things to take on board to be aware of that's gonna help you refine and focus your mindset and approach.

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers Podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's all about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

The first thing is self-belief. Now, self-belief is about believing in yourself, and that's gonna be key to achieving your success. You need to have confidence in your abilities and belief that you can accomplish your goals. Don't let self-doubt, don't let imposter syndrome hold you back. Instead, focus on your strengths and what you can achieve.

Number two, be open, be receptive to learning. Now, learning is a continuous process and being open to new ideas and knowledge is essential for success. When you get to that stage, you think, you know it all. When you think you can learn no more, that is when complacency will creep in. For myself, I've never stopped learning.

There are always things to learn. You can learn by attending workshops, conferences, training programs, develop your skills and knowledge. Where needed, seek out mentorship feedback from experts in your field. No one knows everything about business, so you need to be receptive to embracing new learnings.

And again, there are loads of ways to consume content and gain that knowledge, but never close your ears and mind to those learning opportunities. Number three, setbacks are inevitable. Setbacks are an inevitable part of business life. When you think things are going well, something will come in as a curve ball

to derail you. If I look back over my 28 plus years, I've had times where I've made catastrophic decisions. People have let me down, things have gone wrong. Things that I was expecting to be positive have turned about not to be so. But it's important that you maintain a positive attitude, embrace challenges, and view setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow.

Now, nobody's saying that you should encourage to have setbacks, but they will be inevitable. Any business owner, any entrepreneur who says they've experienced no setbacks, is probably telling an untruth. Stay focused on your goals and don't let setbacks discourage you. So instead of dwelling on the negative, focus on the positive.

And look for those opportunities and solutions. When you do get setbacks, there's nothing wrong with licking your wounds for a short period of time, but don't let that exacerbate and don't let that dominate your way of thinking. Tip number four, embrace failure. Now that sounds like a ridiculous thing. We're not saying we want failure to happen, but failure like setbacks is not the end of the road.

It's part of that learning process. It's an inevitable part of business. You shouldn't be like the rabbit in the headlights, being afraid to take risks and try new things, even if they don't work out. Thomas Edison, as most people know, went through lots of steps before he finally came out with the light bulb as we know it today.

10,000 learning steps, not 10,000 failures in his case. Failures give us learning opportunities. So we need to use those tap into them to improve our business. Tip number five, it's important within your surroundings, within your network to have people that aren't necessarily an echo chamber for you, but are positive people that challenge and support you. When you're surrounded by negative people, wherever that's family, friends, or business associates, that will effectively seep into your mind and drag you down.

Now, from my perspective, it's not about having people that always endorse everything you do. You want people to challenge you, be constructive to feed back, but ultimately they're there wishing you success and wishing you prosperity along the way. Very much nowadays in the 21st century business is more about collaboration, cooperation.

Yes, competitive behavior still exists and it's a good thing, but we want a network that is with people that support us, challenge us, and wish us well. If you have people in your network that are overtly negative, then free up your headspace and don't have them as part of your network. Tip number six, realism.

It's really important to have goals that aren't only smart, but realistic. Having clear, defined, realistic goals is essential for your success. Set targets that are achievable, that line up with your vision, your mission, your outlook. Don't make them too impossible, make them realistic. Make them stretching. By the same token, you don't want 'em too soft, but you need to task yourself,

to stretch yourself, to take yourself outside of a static position. Those goals, by the way, folks can be broken down into manageable steps and make sure you monitor your progress along the way. I'm a big fan of micro steps, micro goals, so that big hairy goal of achieving a certain profitability will be broken down into perhaps monthly cycles, and that's what you're looking for.

Progress is made up of lots of little individual steps, not one gigantic leap. Lastly, adaptation. You need to be adaptable. Business. If we know anything about change, we know it's constant and we need to be adaptable to achieve our success and to cope with that changing landscape, we need to stay agile and where necessary, be willing to pivot when needed.

We've gotta be receptive to new opportunities and ideas. And where necessary, adjust our strategies when necessary. Now, that doesn't mean getting attracted by shiny baubles being deflected quite easily. We need to have that focus. We need to have that end point we wish to get to, but we've gotta stay with our lane, but also realize when things are changing, we need to be flexible enough

to adapt to those changes. Stay open to new ideas, and as I said, be willing to pivot when necessary. In conclusion, folks achieving business success requires a combination of mindset and strategy, self-belief, being receptive to learning opportunities, maintaining a positive attitude and resilience. When all looks bleak, your attitude is the thing that will get you through those dark times.

Embrace failure. Don't be negative. Don't look at it as a perjorative term. Looking at it as a learning opportunity. And make sure in your network you've got positive people that are challenging you. That are there for you. Don't surround yourself by an echo chamber, but don't surround yourself also by people who are very negative and don't wish you well.

Set goals that are realistic and adaptable, and if you take on all those tips, folks, you'll be well on your way to success. I'd love to hear your thoughts, folks. What do you think? Would you add anything to what I've just said? Do they work for you? How are you actually sort of encompassing those seven tips that I've just shared?

I hope this podcast has been of value to you. I'd love it if you could subscribe and share it with those who you feel will get some value from that. Until next week, folks, happy success. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show. We hope you got some value. If you did,

then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.