After adopting Agile values, businesses enjoyed 60% growth in revenue and profit on average, Zippia reveals. Agile is a way of working that emphasizes adaptability to changing conditions and replaces inefficient processes with ones that can help you make quick decisions and reach your goals faster. It also goes hand in hand with entrepreneurship. With agile methods, you’ll be able to pivot quickly and become a better entrepreneur. You’ll stay ahead no matter what the market throws at you. By being flexible, using project management tools, and holding daily team stand-ups, you’ll boost productivity, speed, and results, and ultimately become a better entrepreneur.
Adopt a Flexible Mindset
The entrepreneurship journey is chaotic and unpredictable. It’s on you to figure things out as you go. If you have a rigid mindset that can only cope with following static, pre-set plans, you risk being thwarted by the smallest obstacle. However by adopting a flexible mindset, it becomes easier to adapt to changing circumstances and identify new opportunities presented. To become a better entrepreneur, one of the best ways of doing this is setting flexible, realistic goals—ideally, goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). With SMART goals, you can define your vision, track progress, and more easily stay on track. But these goals shouldn’t be set in stone. By regularly reviewing and adjusting your goals based on your performance and market changes, you’ll successfully evolve with disruption and change, rather than be crushed by it.
Use Agile Project Management Tools
In a study of over 10,640 projects, just 2.5% of businesses successfully brought their projects to completion. The remaining 97.5% failed—either because they missed deadlines, went over budget, or were poor quality. Successful projects need strong management to keep them on track, but traditional methods (like lists and spreadsheets) can be inefficient and error-prone. Fortunately, agile project management tools can help. With these tools, you can create custom workflows that boost productivity, and allow for easy team collaboration, testing, and adjustments. So, research the top agile project management tools, and choose the one that best suits your needs. For example, Asana makes it easy for inter-departmental teams to work on projects together. Users can add tasks, prioritize urgent deadlines, and track and update progress in real-time.
Implement Daily Stand-ups
Daily stand-ups are brief team meetings designed to help you further track progress and reach goals faster. They’re an opportunity for your team to touch base at the same time every day, give updates on what they’ve achieved, and explain what they’ll be working on that day. Problems and challenges are also openly discussed, so issues are caught early and productivity doesn’t stall. Daily stand-ups are just 15 minutes long on average, but they’re an effective way to keep everyone on the same page and focused on the task at hand.
Agile values and entrepreneurship go hand in hand. With a flexible mindset, project management tools, and daily stand-ups, you’ll be able to move fast and adapt to market changes, and ultimately become a better entrepreneur.
