How Ramadan Helped My Business
I believe faith can guide a person and empower them through anything. A young man or woman in the Midwest that wants to make their idea and turn it into a business, having faith can be their beacon of hope. Being an entrepreneur can be taxing on your heart, confidence, and soul, so faith in something bigger than yourself often fuels your resilience and even your ambition. But with faith, in something bigger than yourself, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.- Jim Rohn
For those that don’t know and to provide some frame of reference, think of Ramadan as spiritual maintenance for Muslims. Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic Calendar and is considered one of the most blessed months in Islam. Muslims all over the world fast during this month, for 30 days from sunrise until sunset. The month of Ramadan culminates with the festive occasion of Eid ul Fitr as Muslims thank Allah (SWT), celebrating the festival with religious fervor. This month is full of celebration and festivity, yes Muslims party too! Fasting the whole month helps to teach the true meaning of perseverance and tolerance. Having faith that this direction from the creator will strengthen your relationship with Allah (SWT). During this month, Muslims are not only supposed to refrain from eating and drinking during the stipulated timing but we are also required to curb all negative emotions like anger and work towards perfection. Moreover, the Quran was also revealed in this month, so one goal of Ramadan is that we should read the Quran in its entirety during the month as well. The idea is to take a break from any “negativity” and “distractions” that the world constantly bombards you with and focus on your relationship with the creator, educate yourself and learn more about your beliefs, and strengthen your relationship with your community.
I have been participating in Ramadan fasting since I was 13, and 21 years later — OMG I’m getting up there — and I am still learning, thank Allah. Last year, in 2018, I really, really planned out how to help my fasting efforts. To keep away from negativity online:
- I scheduled all my social media post for work using Hootsuite 60 days ahead of time
- I removed apps from my phone that would distract me from reading the Quran
To avoid hearing foul language, fictional acts of violence and depictions of sexual situations on TV or film, I did the following:
- Didn’t go to the movies or watch movies at home
- Didn’t listen to music or the radio
- Removed Pandora and iHeart Radio apps from my phone just in case
I prepared myself and my lifestyle to succeed. I wasn’t expecting anything to be easy, I was more focused on success than ease. Sounds like a business plan. You make the plan, pack in the risks, the challenges, and call out how you will face those challenges and still succeed. Then by day 20, I noticed that I had one of the most fulfilling month of Ramadan ever. Then I noticed how thoughtful planning and preparation have always been an input to successfully reach a goal in my life, no matter what as long as I followed the plan the goal was achieved. Anything worth achieving is worth the work to achieve it:
- A fitness plan to help you’ll lose unhealthy fat
- A technical certification that will increase your earning power
This is a principle in the business world, make a plan, chart a course not only because this traditionally leads to a successful project but if you don’t reach your goal, making a plan is the best way to identify where things may have gone wrong and help get back on course.
Which leads us here. The same practice and energy put into planning for a successful Ramadan are exactly what is needed to succeed with a workout plan, diet, financial plan, and of course a business plan.
Creating a plan to succeed
Those that fail to plan, should plan to fail this is a very famous quote for good reason, it’s TRUE. There is a reasonable way in the business and technical world there is so much emphasis on planning. Project management, software development, risk management, financial planning, communications, etc all aspects of business insist that the best way to ensure success is to plan. And Ramadan, one of the holiest times of the year for the Islamic community deserves just as much attention to ensure success and to get the most out of the process.
So as I approached Ramadan 2019 I focused and made a plan like last year, but this time I mixed my business into it. I did the same for my business and it is amazing how a simple, thoughtful plan can help you produce fantastic results. Now that we are in the last 2 days of the month, I felt it best to share this with the world. Here is a high-level outline of maximizing my business time and stay on point during Ramadan:
Preparation to help with fasting:
- Meal preparation
- Grocery shopped every Sunday during the month so no food would get wasted.
- Purchased foods that were quick to prepare so I spent less time cooking late at night or in the early morning. Food such as instant oatmeal, minute rice, frozen dinners, protein powder for quick shakes, lunch meat for sandwiches.
- Put the pack of oatmeal in the bowl at night (easy rip and open in the morning)
- Purchased RTD protein shake for pre-breakfast
- Pack of instant coffee in my gym bag for my pr-workout for when I’m breaking my fast at night
Synced all my calendars, setting reminders, and notifications:
- Used one calendar and made sure all meetings were accounted for but left a 2-hour window around Jumu’ah on Friday.
- Set my alarm clocks, turned off snooze to remove that option
- Only enabled 3 notifications on my phone and laptop
- Business meetings
- Prayer times (For those that don’t know Muslims say 5 obligatory prayers daily)
- School-related (I’m currently in grad school)
Made a schedule in blocks of time. Each day was broken down into blocks of time (1 to 3 hours/block):
- Studying the Quran (reading 1 chapter per day)
- Making sales calls (making 25 to 50 calls to prospects Monday — Thursday)
- Touch base with team members (every Friday for 2 hours, covering all goals from the previous week and the upcoming week
- Studying sessions (2 hours Sunday through Wednesday (3 posts to discussion boards and 3 chapters of the textbook)
- Writing a new blog post (writing a rough draft on Tuesday and then complete the final draft by Thursday. And finally it, publish on Monday)
- Working out (3 nights a week, after breaking fast at night go to the gym between 8:15 pm — 8:30 pm CST).
- Every Monday, review my company’s sales and marketing funnels KPIs and follow up on leads for 2 hours (emails, calls, video-chats, and Messenger)
Charity
- Donate my total daily coffee budget (between $2.75 to $5.00) to a local charity (Greater Chicago Food Depository). Yes, I budget my coffee expense if you don’t you should!
- If I miss the fast, I will feed 1 person
- Every weekend donate either item(s) I no longer use or my time to a charity
And that is it, a simple plan and outline with straightforward measurements. My calendars and schedule synced on my phone through Google account set to keep me honest, holding me accountable, and then May 5th, 2019 kicks off Ramadan 2019…
The results
In business, like most subjects, its results that truly matter. I do not like to beat around the bush so to get right to it here are the fruits of the planning:
Fasting:
- Fasted almost all 30 days without fail ( I was sick for 3 days so I didn’t fast)
- For the few days that I didn’t fast, I fed at least 1 additional person on top of my daily charity
Fitness:
- I lost 17 pounds (5 pounds of fat and 1 inch from around my waist)
Charity:
- Donated 3x more than (monetarily) than I did last year
- Donated 75+ lbs of clothes, books, electronics, toys, etc to local families
Business
- Converted 70% of leads into customers!
- Increased my company’s BBB rating based on customer satisfaction
- Brought on a new team member
- Helped 3 associates gain 15 new clients/customers through direct referrals
By focusing on the goals and making a simple plan to reach these goals I actually achieved more than I had anticipated. Moreover, I was able to help more people than I thought I could because my calendar was always so packed, but it was packed with what I was focused on accomplishing not with nonsense and time wasters. Yes, I devote a lot of this to the fact that I saw the results from last year’s Ramadan, and like any experience where you leave happier than you expected, I wanted to feel that way again and share with as many people as possible.
A few additional tips to leave you with:
Recognize your blessings and opportunities
- Appreciate what you have (glass half full) and look forward to what you will achieve.
- Be very specific in your prayers and what you want to achieve. Be honest with yourself and what you want out of life. This way your road map will lead you where you want to go.
Recognize that time is limited and your only fear should wasting time
- Be patient with the process and urgent in the application, do not be afraid to fail so much that it prevents you from trying. Making those sales calls I put the idea of rejection out of my mind and just went into every call with the idea that “I’m about to help another business owner!” And sure enough, I close more than half of the deals.
So make your plan, work your plan, hold yourself accountable and the best way to do that is by documenting your goals, steps to reach those goals, and target dates. Remember a goal without a plan is just a dream and dreams only happen while you are asleep. SO WAKE UP! Need ideas for creative and unique business plans, one of the business leaders I follow, Larry Kim made this great post right here on Medium. So take some time to do a little planning and see how far it takes you.
I devote my professional life to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners reach their goals. So stay in touch by dropping a comment and connect on IG and Twitter!
I’m Ehren Muhammad, Founder of EMPro, Ltd
Let’s connect!
IG: ChiBrother85
Twitter: ChiBrother85
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