Entrepreneurship – a word that is used so abundantly nowadays, and it has become on trend to be able to call oneself an entrepreneur.
Today we touch upon the first stage of an entrepreneur’s journey on the road of entrepreneurship: solopreneurship.
Mindset
The first step to anything is always mindset. No doubt you have heard this word a lot.
Anyone can develop and nurture an entrepreneurial mindset. Having this type of mindset means that whether you have a career, a business, or even in your personal everyday life you are able to see opportunity, take risks and ultimately profit from them (not just financially). You are able to embrace failure and bounce back, and continuously learn, adapt and grow.
When you start out in business you may not necessarily have a permanent in-house team working with you or for you. You may have people that you contract in to complete certain elements or need to use their expertise but they are not actually working for you. Predominantly you are wearing all the ‘hats’ in your business meaning that you are performing all the duties in the business. This is called Solopreneurship.
Solopreneurship
Ideally, after starting out as a solopreneur you want to be working towards being a business owner and then an entrepreneur.
At the beginning, you are riding ‘solo’ and this will be an incredible journey you are embarking on, granted it may seem daunting but it will enable you to understand exactly what is relevant for your business.
Discipline: You need a ‘Plan & Do’ approach, you are not going to figure out everything by sitting and planning and researching. Yes – you need to have a well-formulated plan, but you need to execute this as you go along. It takes trial and error to get things right. When you are a solopreneur you need to have the discipline to do this for yourself. You may not be in a position yet to outsource, so it’s up to you to get things done, or even if you have outsourced you still need to make sure that things are done and be able to bring it all together.
Resilience and Adaptation:
‘Challenging Times are Ahead’ – Be happy about this, challenge equals growth and you need the resilience to see the toughest times through. Resilience comes with time and the more resilient you become the stronger you will be. You need to adapt, there are times when you need to judge whether to stay fixed or change a goal or approach.
Patience:
‘Patience is a Virtue’ – You must be patient with your journey and yourself. Growth takes time, in order to build a strong foundation beneath your business you need to be patient. Building your brand and credibility takes time. Do not confuse this with inaction – your patience is only rewarded when you have been doing the right things for your business.
Steady and Consistent Action:
One step at a time, one day at a time, you need to be doing the right things every day for your business to grow. Success is not gained in a day, it is gained from the sum of actions you have done.
Mentorship:
As a Solopreneur you need to ensure that you surround yourself with the right mentors that can guide your growth. There is a saying, ‘You know what you know, you can know what you don’t know and need to learn, and you don’t know what you don’t know’ The right mentors can guide your performance much like a coach does for an athlete.
Be Hungry and Focused:
No one is going to care more about your business than you do. At this stage especially, you have no one but you that is driving your business forward. If you want to grow it’s down to you, if you want to be successful it’s down to you. Focus on your goals, evaluate them but don’t question your ability to be able to be a success.
Authenticity and Integrity:
Being authentic means when you are being genuine and true to who you and your brand is. Having integrity means you are able to operate honestly and have morals and principles you stand by; in business, you want to deliver on what you promise and manage the expectations of those you deal with. This develops and sustains trust on both sides, it also means that each side knows where they stand at all times.
Emotional Intelligence:
Your emotions are important however you need to develop emotional intelligence for yourself, in business you face some trying times and you can’t let this affect you negatively or take things personally. You need to be able to keep things in context.
So there are some of the fundamentals, enjoy, execute and I would love to hear from you where you are at in your journey.