Being a tech CEO is tough. Especially when you are scaling from $1M to $10M ARR.

Everything you do is either for SCALING or SHREDDING. Scaling means initiatives to grow the business and shredding means hiring folks to do the jobs you currently do. Both are not easy.

This article is about how to be a productive and impactful B2B startup CEO in 2024.

1. Check your emails 1x/day

Email is a great distraction. The more time you spend on email, the less time you spend innovating. We recommend to check email 1x/day. Ideally you should clear your inbox first thing in the morning and be done with it.

2. Audit your time 

You never know how much time you spend on something unless you QUANTIFY it. This is why doing a weekly time audit is so important. You should know where your time is going and adjust accordingly.

3. Have a daily plan

The best way to achieve your monthly goals is by achieving your DAILY goals. This is why you need to have a concrete plan for each day and what to get done/how.

4. Be stingy with your time

Many people will try to get your time (meetings, calls, lunches, etc). You MUST be stingy with your time and only dedicate it towards high impact and high importance activities. Thus, next time somebody randomly asks you to catch up … maybe skip it.

5. Focus on big initiatives

The only way to scale your business is by pursuing big initiatives. You can’t achieve meaningful growth optimizing for 1-5% tweaks. These small changes only work for BIG companies because they have massive scale. 

For example, a company that does $100M ARR can make 5% adjustments and will generate extra $5M. BUT … when your business is doing $3M ARR and you’re pursuing 5% initiatives it will not help you grow (many things will fail and even when succeed the growth will be minimal). Thus, every day ask yourself what you can do to realistically grow your business by 2X and execute.

6. Grow the business

Sales cures all. The most important thing you can do is to actually GROW the business. No matter what, find a way so each month the sales are HIGHER than the month before. 

Track it actively and make it part of your office culture. Write on a big board your sales from last month so everyone can see the progress and company goals. If you can grow your business EVERY month then over time you will be really successful.

We hope you enjoyed.

Never give up.

PS – make sure to check out TestGorilla. It will allow you to screen and identify the best candidates.