April 13, 2021 4 min read

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Habits and personal growth strategies are what fuel six-figure entrepreneurs. If you want to become a six-, seven- or even an eight-figure entrepreneur, your path to success lies in the habits you’re building and living each day. Here are five habits successful leaders use to build outstanding businesses and create a life of freedom. 

1. They set aside time to make themselves a priority.

It’s not uncommon for an entrepreneur to let the pull of family, responsibilities and pending tasks keep them from making themselves their first priority. You can’t give what you don’t have, and that’s what too many of us try to do. 

Most entrepreneurs start a business to have freedom and a life that’s exciting. If you spend 95% of your time doing things for clients, potential customers, family and friends, life will feel like nonstop work. 

You have to build in plenty of time each day to do some things you enjoy and help you grow as a high-performing human being. Maybe that means scheduling built-in self-care time and a block of your day to work on passion projects or learn new skills. No matter the method, high-achieving entrepreneurs understand that to be the best, they have to feel the best. 

Related: 3 Easy Ways High Performers Maintain Consistent Energy

2. They start each business day with revenue-producing activities.

Let me know if this sounds familiar — the first thing you see when you wake up is a notification on your phone from clients or those in your network that want to connect. Your response tends to be to open the phone and start responding to those messages. You then get up and go about everything else you need to do in the morning. Before you know it, most of the day is gone, and you haven’t done what you wanted to in regards to securing new business.

Instead of this unproductive cycle, start your day with personal priority time, followed by a window in which you focus on revenue-earning tasks. Don’t respond to the urgent requests from others — even clients. Use that time to focus on what will help grow your business. 

Revenue time could be time spent talking to prospects, creating content that nurtures and brings in new clients organically, pitching the media or podcasts or several other tasks that are directly related to revenue.

Don’t let anything else dictate your schedule. Take care of yourself, and then take care of revenue.

Related: The Secret to Prioritizing Your Time

3. They closely guard their time all day long.

Along the lines of focusing on revenue, successful entrepreneurs treat their time as their most valuable resource. They are protective of every minute of their time and say no to most requests that involve a time commitment. 

If you’re going to build a successful business, you’ll need to do the same. As humans, we tend to have people-pleaser tendencies. If you say yes too often, you won’t have the time you need to accomplish your goals and work on building your business. 

4. They work on short-terms goals in coordination with their long-term vision.

It’s common knowledge that you should break your goals down into bite-sized chunks to accomplish them. But along with making your goals bite-sized, you have to focus on the long-term vision of what you’re building. 

It’s easy to get lost in the here and now. Be strategic instead of being reactionary with your goals. When you don’t have a long-term plan, you’ll spend most of your time confused about what to do, how you should do it and in what timeframe. 

5. They leverage modern assets to automate, systemize and grow. 

Six-figure entrepreneurs value their time, so they optimize it through systems and automation. Whether it’s bringing together different software suites or hiring outsourced team members to take over tasks — they do what it takes to get tasks off their plate and into capable hands. They use the available tools and technology in a strategic way to optimize the efforts they’re making.

It’s a great time to build a business if you’re strategic, focused and committed to building healthy habits that support your goals. You’ll need marketing, sales, software and other things to scale a business, but success starts with your self-care and personal optimization. Build the right habits to build your business, and you’ll be closer to six-figure success.

Related: 11 Ways to Automate Your Business and Boost Efficiency