Personal Business Development:
5 Strategies to Accelerate Your Business

By Arslan Hassan

Would you invest in a company started by Bill Gates without knowing the idea behind it? Of course, yes.

I know, I would. Why? Because his name matters.

When it comes to successful entrepreneurship, reputation is everything. People will invest blindly in the name more than they would do in an idea. It won’t be wrong if I said that personal branding is crucial for becoming a successful entrepreneur. Take Elon Musk’s name, for example, he attracts the best talent, his customers trust him the most and he can raise an immense capital for projects that are not even completely ‘out-of-the-box’ innovative when it comes to the concept.

Now how do you develop personal branding? Not a piece of cake. But it sure is possible.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither can we build a name in such a short time. But remember, that Rome was built eventually and so can we get what we want. It just needs continuous work, time and a lot of effort for personal development.

Why personal development? Because it’s the first step for personal branding. If I say they both go hand in hand, it won’t be wrong. The idea is simple: the only person who can improve your company is you, so you need to start by improving yourself.

At the initial stages when you just have an idea of a product, you get the early-stage funding based on your image or reputation. At that time, all you have to sell is your image. If they trust you, they will give you what you want even if they don’t completely have faith in your product. Investors mostly invest in people, more than they do in companies. The importance of personal branding and development is immense. It’s like if you search a keyword for a successful business through a keyword difficulty tool, you will find personal development at the top.

So, it is all about developing a better business through your own personal development. Now, I’d like to share the five most important strategies that will not only help you grow as a person but will also help you grow your business eventually.

Health is Wealth:

You have probably grown up listening to this sentence. But you haven’t really paid attention to it, have you?

Well, the promotion of healthy habits is crucial to personal well-being. We often neglect the importance of mind-body wellness as we are so indulged in our day-to-day life that we don’t really have time for this. For personal development and a successful business, you need to be healthy.

Stress is the number one reason for deteriorating health specifically in entrepreneurs. Limiting stress is very important. The list of effects of long-term stress is very long. It can lead to an increased risk of mental disorders, heart diseases and the ceased production of new brain cells. It can badly affect our personal and professional relationships because quite often, we cannot name what’s bothering us.

There are many ways to reduce stress such as excising, meditation, counselling, resting and therapy etc. Sometimes, even taking a simple walk can also help you in reducing a large amount of stress. Find your own way of reducing the stress that suits you the best. Burn all the midnight oil that you want but never let business get in the way of a healthy life.

Effective Goal Setting:

It is seen that the more challenging and complicated the goal is, the more likely it will be completed. Incomplete goals keep reminding us about our shortcomings. They hold us accountable for our work ethic and keep challenging us to improve our skills.

People who can accomplish their goals are highly impressive. Remember that not everyone can do that. Setting goals is easy but achieving them is not everyone’s cup of tea. If you can do this, trust me when I say that this personal branding gold.

Setting goals will help you in staying focus on the tasks at hand. You will always find yourself thinking about the ways you can accomplish them.

Beating your own expectations will give you a sense of accomplishment, better confidence and strong motivation.

Better Time Management:

You must become the best of planners to get successful. We understand that things don’t always happen according to our plans, but we still need to make one. If you don’t know what you need to do first, how will you even start?

Begin each day with a clear itinerary. This will keep you completely on track. Each day will come up with different kind of challenges, you need to overcome them while planning for the next step. Keep the curveballs coming and organize your workflow while accommodating them. There is no time to react. Face them and think about the next possible step. It is always better to be proactive than to be reactive.

Keep Learning:

Do not under-estimate the importance of education in personal development. The moment you start thinking that you have learnt it all is the moment you start losing your business.

Education opens new doors to personal development. You get to know new things every day. Understandably, experiencing something is a better learning process, but being educated about it gives you perspectives on everything you knew or are about to learn. Always keep striving for learning new strategies that can help you in growing business or soon you will be forgotten in the business community.

This doesn’t mean you need to go back to school. You can learn by reading and researching every now and then. Keep your muscles active, especially your brain.

Develop Compassion:

That’s right. How are you supposed to sell to people, if you aren’t able to build a connection? Compassion or empathy is arguably the most crucial form of intelligence, even more, important than the conventional intelligence. It requires a lot of mental and emotional effort to develop such emotions.

Your business success largely depends on your ability to positively deal with customer complaints and resolving issues. If you understand your customers better, you can change and innovate your business accordingly which will surely result in success.

Personal development is crucial to business success. If you aren’t trying to improve yourself, are you really trying to improve your business?