Five Tips for Women Launching Their Dream Business
So you’ve taken the leap! You’ve made the decision to start and launch a new business. Oftentimes simply making the decision can be as daunting as preparing for success in your venture. While the fear of failure may always lurk in your mind, it is the energizing anticipation of success that will play a key role in the forward momentum and prosperity of your business. To help you along this trajectory there are many factors to bear in mind. Here are five tips to position you for success as you launch your business:
1. Dream and Do
You’re an entrepreneur now! You’re going to dream of many great ideas you’ll want to implement into your blooming business, so many that you may feel them constantly swirling in your mind. But you must also remain alert and disciplined about the daily logistics of your business venture. This means you have to project your mind forward, thinking about potential pitfalls and opportunities that lie around the corner and making decisions based on uncertainty. Thinking ahead in this way on a constant basis can feel challenging. But you must become the long-term visionary while simultaneously keeping the day-to-day tasks under control.
2. Be Reliable. Be Honest.
It doesn’t matter what stage your business is in, whether you’re just now starting or you’ve been a successful entrepreneur for some time, it is absolutely necessary to be honest and reliable. Always remember that you are your word. Staying true, being sincere, and giving a sense of reliability and honesty will go a long way towards showing that you and your business have integrity and dependability.
3. Get Comfortable with being Uncomfortable
If you’ve been an employee then you’ve already experienced the safety net that comes with being part of a big employment machine. You most likely had coworkers to support you if you dropped the ball or made a mistake. There were checks and balances all the way to the finish line to make sure things didn’t go wrong. But as an entrepreneur, there is no safety net. You will be taking risks, you’ll see what others don’t, you’ll be testing new ideas, and the buck will always stop with you. All of this will require you to be courageous, have a thick skin, and be able to continue moving forward despite any rejection and skepticism you may receive, sometimes even on a daily basis. It’s an uncomfortable position to find yourself in, but if you can become comfortable with it then you’re ready to venture out on our entrepreneurial journey.
4. Become a Sponge!
When you recall being an employee you may remember that training was often delivered to you, your company lined up continuing education, which was part of HR’s job. Now that you’re on your way to being a successful entrepreneur you’ll have to find information on your own via online courses, books, magazines, or mentors. This can include setting up an accounting system, getting investors on board, marketing your ideas, crafting your perfect pitch, or using familiar technology. Sure it will feel overwhelming at times to decide where to go to find the most relevant, actionable information, and maybe becoming a part of the network of fellow entrepreneurs in a co-working space can help to weed through the barrage of information. However you choose to about determining your self-education course, you MUST love to learn, you MUST seek and soak up as much knowledge as you can….you MUST become a sponge.
5. Be Determined
Business is hard. Being an entrepreneur is hard. There will be long hours of frustration. There will be many highs and many lows. But you must always remind yourself that you started your own business because you were deeply passionate about what you have to offer. So learn to accept the challenges and frustration you will inevitably encounter and allow your passion to pull you through. When you hit a rough patch (and you will hit many) and perhaps feel overwhelmed, feel free to pull up this quote by Calvin Coolidge to get you over the rough territory: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On!” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”