The Hustle - Innate or Learned?
Any new business owner will need to learn to ‘hustle’. Let me explain.
While occasionally the ‘hustle’ has a negative connotation, the ‘hustle’ is the key to a successful small business. I am not suggesting the negative elements of the definition, where a hustle is a fraud or being misrepresentative, quite the opposite. I am suggesting the positive elements of the ‘hustle’, ‘ a great state of activity’ as defined by the Oxford dictionary.
The hustle, or a great state of activity, can best be described as a collective group of activities that together will support a new business from being left behind or passed over. Being able to hustle as a business owner, is, in my view, one of the keys to success. It is not something that is innate, it can be a learned skill. It is a skill that will set you apart from your peers in similar small businesses that don’t have that skill. It is a skill that like other skills can be learned by observation, training and repetition.
The hustle is hard to define, impossible to teach, and can’t be learned from a book, or even this article. It is something, however, that with a little bit of focus can be developed and honed to be more effective. Some of the tips that might help you are as follows:
A sense of urgency. It probably goes without saying, but the hustle mostly equates with a sense of urgency. A small business owner has a finite period to get up and running and get profitable. That might be weeks, months or years, but there will be a finite period. Except for exceptional circumstances or silliness, there is a finite period for which you need to get self sufficient and profitable. That sense of urgency is at the heart of the hustle. A few tips:
cut deadlines to the tightest and shortest possible or even not possible
cut short meetings and calls to 15 mins or 30 mins max and make it very clear to people that they need to be prepared
be very clear on objectives and stick to them
walk faster, talk while walking
make phones calls not emails
Always market. Advice given to me early on was that we should ‘never stop marketing’. Even if we were busy, had too much work, or were hugely successful. ‘Never stop marketing’ has been with me for years and I am constantly reminding myself of this mantra. A good hustler will always keep marketing. Keep telling your story, keep in view of your customers, keep sharing the successes and the value proposition. Always keep the marketing engine going. If the marketing engine stops and you cease being relevant, there is a time lag between building the engine up again.
Being fluid and malleable. A small business owner needs to be able to be fluid. I am not suggesting that there is a change of direction or strategy all the time, however, what I am suggesting is that if something isn’t working, then you change it. You keep changing it, and keep modifying your stance until you get it right and things fall into place. A good hustler is someone that is fluid enough to make those changes and feels comfortable doing so. It is sometimes annoying to change your approach and try a different tactic, but the focus has to be to try new things and ‘fail fast’.
Tenacity. The hustle is about tenacity and about sticking to it. Most new business owners fail because they don’t have the strength (either financial or otherwise) to continue long enough to see their success come about. Rarely does it come around on the first go at something. It requires tenacity to hang in there long enough, and combined with being fluid and malleable, generally will mean that you will find success. Tenacity means that you will keep going, keep driving hard to find solutions, keep pushing to identify new customers and keep identifying new areas where you can focus.
Confidence. A strong hustler has to have confidence. They have to be positive, forward looking and secure in themselves to show their confidence in themselves and their business. They need to be strong enough to handle the knockbacks, the negativity and the nay-sayers that will do their best to bring you down. There is no doubt that people will try and bring you down as much as they will occasionally try and support you.
For any new small business owner or anyone going into self employment, there will be hurdles that you will need to cross. These hurdles are sometimes challenging, however, a strong sense of hustle will help you navigate success and allow you to develop your business to ultimate success.