Lately I’ve had conversations with colleagues who are in various stages of their career, practice or business development. The themes center around some of the common attributes and challenges that are integral to entrepreneurship. Those themes are:
- A call to developing confidence;
- mustering and maintaining courage;
- the discipline and consistency involved with building a business; and
- earning money and building positive cash flow.
Building Confidence
It doesn’t matter to me what you are trying to do…one thing is certain: you won’t get better at it if you don’t do it. You must practice and gain experience. The quality of your services improve when you reflect on your experience. You gain confidence when you experience yourself learning from your endeavors.
It is difficult to gain confidence if you are standing on the outside looking in. Whatever it is that is undermining your confidence must be confronted. We tend to avoid things that we don’t feel confident about doing or being.
The problem is that when we avoid, we cannot even learn from the experience. Competency and confidence can only be gained through experience. There is no other way. When you feel competent…your confidence will grow.
Courage is Essential
It almost doesn’t matter what you are trying to achieve or what goal you are working toward…courage is essential.
Even in small doses, fear keeps people from stepping out in faith (in confidence)…to pursue the experiences they want in life.
Fear in and of itself will not hurt you. It is your response to fear that can and does hold you back.
Do not let fear guide your decisions. Make a note of your concerns and what can reasonably be done to address them. Don’t wait until everything is perfect to begin or you will never start.
Be Consistent
Whether you are learning…
- a new skill;
- changing a habit;
- offering a new service;
- building a business, or building anything at all…
chances are the more disciplined and consistent you are, the better. It is also important if you are offering a service or a product for you to develop enough confidence in your product or service to keep up with “the offer.”
In other words, by the time someone decides to take a chance on your service or product, it still needs to be an option for them. Don’t give up on what you are offering before people can participate.
On Cashflow
Those who are building a business or have aspirations to grow their income often have to deal with lag time between their desired earnings and their actual earnings.
There are many factors that influence income. The combination of one’s mindset and narrative/beliefs are important. What we believe either creates opportunities or supports limitations.
Many people want to set off on new ventures and create new opportunities to earn money. But fear as well as lack of confidence in their own ability to generate income and provide for themselves holds them back.
Other challenges, including a lack of knowledge around practices that consistently generate income and grow earned money…can keep us from our desired outcomes.
It is important first and foremost to identify services and/or products that generate positive cash flow. It is stressful when you have more money going out than coming in.
Pick an income generating foundation that will support you while your business grows. That could be a part-time or full-time job. It could be a baseline service or product that is popular at an accessible price point.
You will know when the time has come to let go of that source. You will know because the business you are growing will demand your full attention to thrive. Watch my latest live video on Facebook for more on this topic focusing on common entrepreneurial themes.
Copyright © 2016 Ruby Blow. All rights reserved.
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