Are you interested in achieving business success ?  If so, read on ?

Wonder no more! Today, I will discuss the three essential steps you need to take in order to achieve success.

These three steps are summed up in the 3 As

• Firstly, Attitude
• Second, Approach, and
• Thirdly, Activity.

Let's explore each one in detail so that you can start using them today!

Anyone who's ever started their own business knows that it can be a daunting task. You're responsible for every aspect of your company, from marketing and sales to finances and production.

Running a business is not easy, being decent and kind to others in business and life is easy.  However with hard work and a bit of know-how, you can make your business a success.

And the best way to learn is to look at what works for others. By following these simple guidelines, you'll be on your way to making your company thrive. Let's get started!

Conclusion

So what are the things that you need to do in order to increase your chances of achieving business success? There is no one-size-fits-all answer.  However I can give you a few pieces of advice based on my own personal experience and the experiences of others.

First and foremost, work hard. Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get- Ray Kroc . Don't be afraid to ask for help or take advice from those who have been successful. Finally, stay positive and keep your head up – remember that failure is not final!

I hope this podcast episode has helped clear some things up for you and given you a better understanding of how to achieve your own success.

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My book, I Hate Numbers will change your relationship with numbers, in a good way.  Click to find our more.  You can join our Financial Planning Story Community at Numbers Know How.  Planning tools, knowledge learning and development and so much more we are adding.  Click to discover more

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Let me ask you a question. Do you run your business with the sole purpose of not being successful? Is failure what you look forward to? I don't think so. No right thinking person would actually be looking at running the business with the objective of failing, with the objective of not succeeding. Whatever that idea of success looks like, whatever your vision of success is, all of us want to be successful.

But is there a magic formula? Is there a secret source? What's the way? What do we need to do to help us get to our Northern Star, to be successful. In over 27 years of helping thousands of businesses achieve their idea of success, applying that into my own businesses, I've distilled that down into what I call the three A's. And in this week's podcast on I Hate Numbers, I'm going to expand what those three eight actually are.

You're 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 about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

Hi, folks. My name is Mahmood. I'm a proud accountant, educator, mentor, and also author of the book I Hate Numbers. In this podcast, my aim and my mission is to improve your financial wellness, help you win more battles than you lose for what goes on between your ears, improve your financial storytelling, help you and your business make more money, and save time. What a wonderful combination we have there. Remember to subscribe to the podcast so every week you can have updates, episodes going on in the world of business walk straight to your earbuds.

Let's crack on with the podcast. And the first A in our list is attitude. The attitude that we adopt when we go down and pursue our business path, our business objectives. Now, attitude. All of us as human beings, we have a wide variety of ways that we view the outside world, what goes on around us, what goes on internally. Having the right stuff, having the right attitude, is a real vital ingredient. Now, running a business is not easy. Anybody who says it is easy has clearly not had any experience of running a business.

Because it is not easy. It can be made easier. And let's not forget, there are many things we can do in life which are easy. How we conduct ourselves, how we interact with human beings, being nice, being loving, being kind. And kindness, by the way, is a superpower. Check out previous podcasts that I've done on kindness being that superpower. Check out the show notes. Looking after your family, being respectful, being mindful of others, those things are easy. Being a decent human being overall is not a difficult thing to do.

Running a business, however, is not on the same plain. One of the things that we need to remember about our business is how we behave and how we react and the attitude that we adopt. The attitude can either be one of a fixed mindset, we're going to be very dogmatic, we're not going to change to adapt to circumstances or we have a growth mindset, which means that on certain things we think outside the box. We embrace innovation, we have a comfortable relationship with risk. All of us will experience at some point in our business lives procrastination, will experience imposter syndrome. That's something that 70% of all individuals

from famous like Opera Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Tom Hanks have all experienced in their life. It's going to happen. We need to adopt the right attitude in terms of how we think about money, what that means to us. And money is there to actually deliver our why, to give us that lifestyle, to invest in the business and take a way forward. The attitude is going to have to be that we are going to have to embrace the idea that there are occasions where it's going to be a very difficult isolating thing running your business. You are the one who's the ultimate decision maker. And when all said and done, the buck stops with you. The buck stops with me.

That biggest transition that's normally experienced by many people is when they go from the world of work where they're working for somebody else and they start working for themselves. They are their own boss. And that transition is a difficult one to broker, a difficult one to go through. It's not impossible. My experience it typically takes somebody, anything up to about 18 months to two years to be truly adapting and adopting that mindset of a business owner. So make sure your mindset is attuned to that. Make sure you've got the right attitude. You need resilience.

You've got to have a good positive approach to how you see the world. It doesn't mean you have to be happy clappy all the time, but it means that your business life will be a roller coaster. You need to embrace the idea of how you sit with risk, whether you're risk averse, risk neutral or risk seeking. Get your attitude tuned in and you're halfway there. Now, having talked about attitude, the next A in our list is about the approach that we adopt to our business. Now, if your business is merely a hobby, something to occupy your time, making money is not really a big concern of yours.

Your trust fund will keep you going. Then you can have a very lax approach to running your business. If, however, you want your business to be sustainable, to help deliver your why, you need it to power forward and to be sustainable, to generate wealth as well as be good for your health, then your approach to your business is key. And what that means is you cannot run, in my experience, a business as a conventional nine to five. Even if you have a lifestyle business, you will set parameters perhaps for the time that you spend. And nobody is suggesting that you work 24/7, 7 days a week.

But there are things that you're going to have to sacrifice at any stage of your business cycle. There's things about how to make those decisions. You need to take your business seriously. And for me that means you need to have a good healthy relationship with your numbers. Your numbers are your best friend in business. You have to learn to accommodate them, become familiar with them. They are very powerful allies for you. They're not your enemies, they're your friends. They will give you insight, they will tell you the truth when all others around you may not be necessarily doing that. It also means you've got to take the approach where you plan. You look forward in your business and less so in the rear view mirror, more so through the windscreen.

You don't need to be a financial expert to actually have a relationship with numbers, but you need to actually embrace them. You need to get comfortable with them. Obviously. I will say though, my book I Hate Numbers could be a great addition to your library and a great read through as well. The approach you have to make is to be a business owner to step into that and there will be times where you'll need to develop your own skill sets. You need to bring on resources when you need them if your ambition is to move your business forward and standing still by those folks is not an option these days. Even if you stand still, you effectively go backwards.

Prices will suffer, customers are going to become very difficult to retain. And if you keep doing the same thing all the time and not improving, not looking to take lessons, then you'll find it very difficult and challenging to progress your business. Running a business is not just about your own competence. That's taken as read, but it's about having all the other skills that you need. You need to surround yourself by good people, knowledgeable people. It also requires you to adopt your thinking to thinking that growing it isn't always free. There are times you have to invest.

Don't always look at things as costs. If you don't invest the money in resources, in skill set development, in access to opportunities, in infrastructure, professional advisors and the like, don't be reckless with it, but don't be a miser either. Then you have the wrong attitude. Your business is not a hobby. Your business is there to sustain you, support you and to help deliver your why. Take it seriously? You don't have to be po faced, but you need to take your business seriously. So we've talked about attitude, we've talked about approach. The last thing for me is application.

If you don't put in that sweat, you will not get that equity. Now, application means just that. We can plan, we can take lots of courses, we can listen to so called experts and gurus, but ultimately you've got to get up and you've got to apply yourself. And when you apply yourself and it doesn't mean that success will be achieved overnight. Often is the phrase said, that overnight success is several years in the making. In my last 27 plus years, I know that from the early stages of my business life, when I was working for my back bedroom,

working in a whole variety of jobs, from polishing to cleaning and the light to keep the business going, it was tough. It doesn't evaporate. There are different challenges that you face as your business develops. But for me, it's about applying that knowledge and getting stuck in. If you do not put in the effort, if you do not actually apply yourself, if you do not actually exert that time and invest that energy, then you will not move forward. Anybody that you can see, that you admire, whether it's in the world of music, whether it's in the world of acting, performing, art, sport, whatever discipline, whatever thing that you particularly admire and like,

if you've got an icon, some of you admire that person is not on the top of their tree because it's by luck or by judgement, but they've actually put in the effort. They put in the hours, down the gym, touring, performing, rehearsing until they improve what they're doing and they don't become complacent. Folks, let's summarise where we are. So the three A's that we need to think about and that we need to blend in the right measures is the right attitude. And again, it's not being uniform is having the right attitude towards your business. It's the approach.

You are not running a hobby. Certainly if you've got a trust fund, you got money to spare and you don't really care about the money that's being generated, then fine, you can run actual approach. But for most of us, the approach is how we see our business is really critical. But finally, it's the application. Attitude and approach is no good unless you actually apply yourself and actually work and put in the time and the effort and the energy. Folks, I hope you found this podcast useful. Obviously, I'd love to hear your feedback.

You may not agree with what I've said, you may disagree if you do. I'd love to hear what your comments are. If you like what I've said, if you like the podcast, which I hope you do, then I'd love it if you can leave a comment, leave a thumbs up. And again, check the show notes for the suggestions of where that might be. If there's friends of yours who you feel might benefit, then let them know about the I Hate Numbers podcast. Finally now folks, embrace your three A's and good luck with reaching your Northern Star.

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 eight numbers episode.