12 Key Steps to Become a Real Entrepreneur
1. Find your passion
It all starts with this – having and knowing your passion. Without this, you’ll wander around in circles and most likely experience a set of failures. Knowing your passion will be your core to staying strong, and this usually goes together with your own personal story. I have worked with many entrepreneurs just starting out who are creating a business on their own solely because they are tired of only following what others are doing. It’s of course okay to have a vision and be inspired by others, but ignoring your story, your background and your experience that’s connected with what you truly love will disconnect you from being able to pursue something great. Our passion is aligned with our story, and our personal stories will help us serve others better. In doing so, we’re able to better connect with others, meaning that positive results and success will happen more organically. Knowing your “why” and “who” you are serving should be the main reasons why you choose to become an entrepreneur.
I’ve asked some people what kind of business they’re doing, and can immediately see that they’re creating something only because they want to own a business rather than because they have a real vision. Within seconds, I feel disconnected – and guess what? Most others, including potential clients, will feel the same. Having passion and a good reason for why you are sacrificing other things in order to run a business means being transparent and authentic. In other words, if you’re going to do this, do it because you truly love it. Otherwise, I recommend working on finding your purpose first.
2. Stick with your current job while you can
People often ask me if they should quit their job because they feel that once they’re under the stress of having no income, they will be less distracted and get truly serious about their dedication. However, this is not always the case. Our minds are programmed to seek some sort of protection, and most likely this will mean being constantly worried about money. Your creativity will be compromised, especially if pursuing entrepreneurship is something new for you, as you will have a lot to learn the experimental way. This means you have not yet had the opportunity to fully work on your mindset and build that resilience that will be needed to stay strong during challenges, particularly financial challenges.
If you have a job, hold on into it. This way, it’s easier to put your creative and positive energy into sharing your mission. There will be a lot of additional expenses you won’t be fully prepared for, so it’s best to handle these knowing you are still financially covered and won’t be compromising your stability or that of your family. Even if you’re the exception and have the support of family, a spouse or at least two years worth of savings, don’t leave your job until you’re completely ready to transition.
3. Work on yourself first
I see many people becoming entrepreneurs and creating a brand for themselves, yet there is no substance to what they’re selling. Some are simply selling the same mumbo jumbo that others are selling. Don’t do this. If you’re going to do something, do something you truly believe in and develop your skills first. If this means going back to school to take some classes, do it. Read plenty of self-help and self-development materials, practice speaking in public, create your own products and content. Do whatever it takes to thoroughly research and master your topic so that you genuinely have something to offer. Don’t just repeat what others are doing simply because you want to free up your schedule and be able to work from home.
4. Work on your mindset
Here, I’m not talking about attracting the life you desire by sitting and meditating for hours on end, visualizing the life you want instead of actually putting in the work required to make it happen. Rather, I’m talking about your own personal development. To be a leader, there is always a lot of work to do on ourselves. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will either. On the other hand, by learning to believe in yourself and in what you’re serving, you will inevitably gain results. Develop your self awareness, inner-knowing and knowledge, become a master in your area and services, and shift your mindset with regard to money.
5. Change your environment and your circle
This step is critical. If you want to create greatness in your life in any aspect, you’ll have to elevate your standards of the people you allow to have in your circle. I learned this the hard way, but deep down we know that if we’re seeking to be a CEO or any other strong leader, hanging out during happy hour with coworkers who only talk corporate gossip, or hanging with friends who only ever seem to get drunk at bars won’t get you there. If you want greatness, you’ll have to be selective about whom you spend your time with because you want to learn from others, understand their experiences, absorb their wisdom, connect with their circle, and build positive and genuine relationships. For the most part, people are more willing to help or respect working relationships, but there is an invisible pact between entrepreneurs that others are not part of. So connect with the right people and put yourself within a circle of leaders with whom you want to belong. You’ll have to earn your place, but once you do you will change your environment completely.
6. Know what kind of success you are seeking
Aim to be successful and write down what this means to you, whether it’s a monetary goal, being able to sell your company or simply being able to replace your salary so you can work for yourself. Knowing where you want to be will prepare you for when things change direction so you can stay on track or find a way to successfully face your challenges. Having this kind of clarity is very important. Some people become very successful but are actually miserable, wondering how they got into this, so be clear about what sort of success you’re seeking and why.
7. Learn discipline skills
If you can’t lead yourself with the discipline that’s needed to succeed, how are you going to lead a team? Remember, leadership starts with the habits we create for ourselves, the sacrifices we make and the consistency of our dedication. This is also what creates trust in the people who work alongside us. Imagine if you were a leader who was often drunk, never worked out, or was always late to work or meetings. How could such a person keep a business under control? This would affect the company culture and dedication of your team – and without dedication, surpassing any meaningful goals simply wouldn’t be possible.
8. Set a budget for your marketing partnerships
When you launch a business, you’ll find a lot of companies or people who’ll want to partner with you. However, you’ll also find that a lot of these are just opportunities for them to make money out of you in exchange for ‘promotion’. This is okay as long as it’s a partnership that you’re truly interested in and believe will be good for your business. Nonetheless, I suggest avoiding the rush to accept a lot of these deals until you’re certain they have the traffic and followers needed to give you brand recognition. A lot of media channels do not and are startups just like you, so most likely your money won’t go very far. Be modest about your spending when starting out.
9. Readjust your branding positioning
I consistently tell my clients that this step is the most natural and almost always needs to happen. For every brand, there’s inevitably going to be rebranding, repositioning, redefining your place in the market, finding your niche market, rethinking your message, etc. A lot of clients are overly preoccupied with their message not being clear but are still too new for their business to really know what that message should be. Trusting the journey is critical because as you make progress, you’ll find that your business model may need to evolve. For example, what you envisioned being able to handle doesn’t always work, or you don’t want to deal with certain types of production or even certain clients. This is why it’s so important to pace yourself, learn as you go and trust that rebranding will eventually be a necessary step of the process no matter what. All companies and brands go through this, especially when first starting out. It is only when they grow into an established brand with a proven model of success that their branding positioning remains completely stable.
10. Hire a team and learn to delegate
It’s very tempting to want to save some money by learning to do it all yourself – the accounting, branding, website design, photography, content copywriting, social media, business plans, pitches… you get it, the list goes on and on. The problem is, you’ll eventually burn out. It also won’t create the mindset of leadership and transformation you need to achieve in order to find true success, including your relationship with money. Starting entrepreneurs tend to do all the required tasks and have a dependent relationship with money, spending more time on controlling how much is being saved as opposed to how much more they’ll be gaining. I’ll touch more on this topic shortly.
At the beginning, it’s good to learn about all aspects of the business so that you can later delegate and know exactly who to hire for that job. You need to know all the processes so that vendors are able to produce what is needed later on. This will also prevent team players from taking advantage since you’ll know how to do the work yourself. A vendor will see that you already know how much it should cost to do the work and you won’t be fooled. However, you must still plan your exit from these tasks and start building a team. Even if you’re a small entrepreneur, you’ll still need people under you in the following roles:
An assistant, someone who is resourceful, has good writing skills, can manage creative and marketing work, knows a variety of computer software, has some technical business knowledge, and is very proactive, with strong communication abilities and is someone definitely you can trust.
A writer. I’ll be the first to admit that writing was not in my top list of set tasks, but I still needed to learn how to find my own voice and branding style. In order to compete and seriously grow, having a dedicated writer on board is one of the most important roles of any team, as nearly all of your marketing will depend on this, and as a leader you will have to share your mission constantly.
A designer. Quite simply, not everyone is an artist or talented in the design sphere, and your brand absolutely must stand out in order to compete and inspire. Do not cut corners on this. Just like a luxury brand can afford to charge a high price tag, it’s mostly because of their level of excellence that they deliver with their brand. Again, raise your standards.
A developer. There are of course tons of developers out there, but nothing is more amazing that having someone who you can trust and does good work. This person will have access to all the secret codes of your website business which must be protected, and as you expand and need to improve your technology, having a developer in your team could save you a lot of money. Agencies tend to charge top dollar and for a lot of unnecessary things that you could save on if you have someone actually trustworthy on your team. Get a couple if you can to build your team, since they get busy!
A business strategist. It’s important to find this person when you’re starting out – someone you can hire as a consultant to set a plan on how to grow. You don’t want to work and work and not make any money, so make sure to find out early what your goals are and how you’re going to reach them. This person can help you find or become a partner, discover the best investments, or even help you sell your company so that you can earn a big paycheck and get the freedom to work on other things you dream of.
A social media manager. These days this one is hard to ignore. We must be on social media posting, sharing and connecting, and this can very easily be a full-time job. You can start small and hire someone part-time to post daily. This will help you gradually create brand awareness, and as you scale up you can expand on this role.
A financial advisor. You will need someone to remind you about your expenses, keep track of all transactions and help you see the big picture of how much you’re investing. It’s a role that’s easy to ignore by simply paying for everything that’s needed for your business later, but profit margins will likely remain low while the expenses will quickly clear out your bank account. Make sure to revise your expenses and financial plan at least twice a year, although I recommend every quarter.
I also recommend being very careful about which roles you outsource to overseas. Due to quality control, standards and work ethics, and privacy concerns, not all roles should be taken outside your country.
Now that have a team, delegating will make you a leader – a real CEO.
11. Learn and grow to become a leader
We become entrepreneurs so that we can do something big with our lives. We want to be challenged, enrich our potential and perhaps one day sell our company. But everyone needs to start somewhere. Making that shift from employee to CEO doesn’t happen overnight – it’s a title that must be earned, no matter how easily we can put that same title on our LinkedIn profile. People don’t want to do business or believe in a company whose leader has little firsthand knowledge or experience. In other words, it’s a journey that must be earned.
To pace the growth of your company, you need to be able to afford a team, manage money properly, deal with problems and challenges, step out of comfort zones as needed and be the spokesperson of the business. Leadership is earned and it takes time to build that confidence. The reality is, being a boss is easy. Being a leader is hard. In fact, it’s one of the toughest jobs in the world. So have the needed conversations to plan and address issues. Otherwise, you might just find yourself going out of business yourself.
12. Find the right partners to succeed
Last but not least, most entrepreneurs want to work on their own visions and ideas, but it’s great to build partnerships on certain projects or incentives that may have a similar or same joint goal. Join forces, because unity can really move things faster for you and your partner especially if you share the same vision. More specifically, opt to form partnerships with companies that have similar goals to you. You shouldn’t partner with just anyone, but the organizations you do partner with will matter. Instead of trying to figure everything out on your own, lean into your partners who specialize in what they do best. Good partnerships enable you to win when we otherwise wouldn’t, so don’t underestimate how valuable a partnership could be to you and your company.
Now go and pursue your passion and keep inspiring!