Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

IntroductionThe U.S has seen a massive increase in the amount of people deciding to leave the corporate world in favour of a self-employed lifestyle.Since 2001, the amount of people who are self-employed has increased by an incredible 1.5 million.Seeing more people taking control of their lives to create something they can be proud of is incredibly inspiring, but it also puts us in a position where competition is fiercer than ever.This isn’t to mention the rise in popularity of the internet, with 50 percent of the world now having access to a global market, making it even harder for businesses to be successful.You might be reading this, acknowledging the difficulties that new entrepreneurs and business owners have, but are you actually doing anything to make yourself stand out?The unfortunate truth is, many business owners just aren’t prepared to put in the effort it takes to be successful.This is especially true since the rise of the millennial dream, which has led people to believe that it is possible to achieve a positive work life balance while building up your business.Dreams and stories of four hour work weeks, and luxurious weekends away from the laptop, have made people blind to the true effort it takes to become successful.This image is praised by internet entrepreneurs who made their success online, and continue to rake in the cash by selling extortionate courses to others.We cannot blame this solely on those who are self-employed and want to maintain a life while building their business, however, as there is some research to support the idea that our productivity levels last only so long.One such study suggested that productivity levels dwindled after 50 hours, and completely tanked when people worked more than 55 hours.Our StoryAs someone who left the corporate world for a life of freelancing before launching a successful startup company with a friend and former colleague, this is something I can’t agree with.From the moment Digital Authority Partners became the idea we were going to put our everything into, we knew this was going to be hard work.Like most startup companies, we didn’t have the financial freedom to spend thousands of pounds on making mistakes, or to keep us afloat as we took things easy.Instead, I would sit at my living room table with a friend and former colleague—and, later, another person I trusted—to continue working on our idea.Initially, we started out by providing content strategy and digital strategy services to our clients.This meant that most of the hours we were putting in, about 16 a day, were dedicated towards acquiring new clients, getting our name out there, and establishing our business for what it was.At the start, we were just a small business, offering limited services to our dedicated clients.

If we had worked no more than 50 hours a week each, there’s no doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t have gotten much further.Instead, by working these long hours, we were able to expand our services to include website development, analytics, and marketing services.These were all measured changes we made based on long, analytical discussions about the appropriate next steps for our business.There were definitely moments where our productivity faltered and we would struggle to continue, but even then, we working more than we would have been had we called it quits are 50 hours.After all, working 80 weeks and logging 70 hours of productivity is better than working 50 hours and logging closer to the actual amount of worked hours.Working hard isn’t something we found beneficial to building our business solely in the beginning stages.

In fact, it’s something we continue to do to this day.Through our hard work, we have been able to build a business that helps healthcare companies with their digital footprint throughout America.Our successes as a small business run by four individuals allowed us to think about sizing up, and we now employee a great team of employees who, we’re sure would agree, love working for us.Finding employees wasn’t something that came easily, however, and it was only through hard work and analysing our hiring process that we discovered hidden talents that have helped us build up our company into what it has become today.The truth is, people often think of the big success stories when they first start out themselves—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It’s good to aspire to be as big as Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs.The problem comes when people start envisioning themselves as these people as they are at the moment, or in the case of Steve Jobs, was at the prime of his career.

With their private jets, big family homes and expensive holiday’s, they are the epitome of success.But they didn’t get there without hard work—and that hard work took more than a few hours a day.They didn’t listen to their lessening productivity, as suggested by the study we have provided.

Instead, they used determination and motivation for a better life to propel themselves forwards during the 16 hour day averages they worked, even when it was hard.This is where our inspiration behind working long hours came from.