How to transform yourself to be an Entrepreneur
Being an entrepreneur is more than just being a Business Owner. It’s a perspective of one’s life. In my view Entrepreneurship is a mindset. You keep exploring things, you start to understand the insights, and you try to turn everything that comes your way into Business. Often you would find entrepreneurial people possess one or more of the following characteristics — a lot of optimism, dedication, hard work and keep trying attitude.
If you’re contemplating to become an entrepreneur, you should first identify which of the above motivators serve as your guiding force. Then, consider if you have the specific character traits and attributes listed above, that will enable you to thrive as an entrepreneur.
I have always been thinking about becoming an entrepreneur for many years now. In this article, I am listing out 6 important steps, that I feel will help you transform yourself to become a successful entrepreneur. Though I am from IT industry, I have put in considerable effort to keep it generic enough to fit all.
1. Prepare yourself, acquire a skill you love
First and foremost, aspect that would thrive you through the entrepreneurial journey is your skillset. This is the foundation of your career and will serve you for the rest of your life. This will be the skill you love, and you are interested to invest your time and money. This will be the asset you will use to help others succeed, by means of your Business.
Educate yourself to acquire the necessary skills at its best. Though you don’t need to have any type of formal education to be an entrepreneur, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore education entirely. You will have to go in search of knowledge that is needed. Maybe you wanted to start a tech company and, experience in business, computer technology and marketing would all be needed. Some of these skills you shall already have, and the rest should be acquired.
2. Innovate, Believe in your Idea
Innovation helps you stand out from competition. Innovation has been the formula of success for many years. You need an IDEA to start with. There will be several ideas that you generate during the ideation / incubation stage.
You may encounter several failures too. It’s important that “You should Learn to Fail” and “Fail” to Learn more. Failure means something completely different for an entrepreneur. “Failure and invention are inseparable twins.” Not only does failure teach you something useful, but it also develops in you a resilience that you will need as an entrepreneur.
“To be a successful entrepreneur, you need perseverance”. Entrepreneurs and they visualize / sense opportunities everywhere.
Once you are ready with your idea, “It’s when you’re confident and strongly believe in your idea”, start creating the Business Plan. The Business plan lays out any objectives you have as well as your strategy for achieving those objectives. If you are planning to seek investors help to raise funds, the Business plan plays a vital role in getting the investors on board, as well as measuring how successful your business is.
3. Be Bold, Think Big
Big asks accelerate your career. As an entrepreneur, you should be bold enough to think big ideas. Big ideas lead to big investments and higher risks. Thus, making it difficult to convince your investor. You should be able substantiate your big idea with data and detailed analysis.
Be cautious when pitching a bold proposal to do something that outsizes your current capacity to do it. It could easily get rejected or ignored. But if it goes through, it could change the course of your career forever. A big, bold ask accelerates your career.
Here are some 6 steps to realistically think big and get it right.
- Spend enough time and perform detailed study.
- Recognize the consumer needs and / or company’s need(s).
- Reach out / build relationships
- Propose how you can fill that need. It should be aligned, specific, and helpful.
- Negotiate the terms. Make sure it works for both you and them.
- Sign the contracts.
Make sure you identify / choose the right people to make the big ask. Unfortunately, not everyone you meet can be appropriate to make the big ask. It is better to directly talk to the decision-maker to give you an answer wherever possible. So how do you get in touch with the right people and reach the decision maker?
4. Build your connections (Network, Network)
Building and managing connections is one of the vital skills for an entrepreneur. Networking is a powerful tool and when you use it the right way. It provides you exponential effect that you can tap into — with access to new opportunities. With networking you will be able to connect with the right group of audience. Your network is what will support your business once you open, helping send new customers your way.
5. Keep selling consistently
As an entrepreneur, you should keep selling your ideas consistently. You should be always “ON.” In a sense you should be able to link your product or idea to any conversation you have and that’s how you shall develop a habit of consistent selling.
Here is the success mantra. Anything you sell should provide genuine value to the buyer, even if it’s your own businesses. You have to be very careful and intentional in how you sell and who you sell to.
6. Plan & scale
Entrepreneurship also involves creating a company/project that doesn’t need you to run. But hold on. Now you’re only one person and your time is limited. There’s only so much you can do. So, it’s important to have your plan ready to scale.
Well, how do you achieve that?
Focus on marketing before, during and after you start your business. Marketing is tricky and should be delivered at the right mix to the right audience at the right time. It is important that an entrepreneur, should also invest his / her time and money into building a product or business to create a cash flow independent of their time.
Stable growth indicates that you’re scaling the right opportunities. If stable growth isn’t happening, you need to return back to stage one of this roadmap and find better opportunities.
Well, that is all I have today to write. See you next time. Bye!
Originally published by me at https://www.mumas.in
