“Congratulations on choosing to be an entrepreneur — may your life be filled with success!” is not something you hear when you decide to start your venture. Nope! In fact, what you typically hear is a lot of discouragement from friends, family and even neighbors saying how crazy you are to work for yourself.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. But, those that understand, learn and adapt will have the success they dream about. Oh, and the part about “sanity” I mentioned above plays a big role in how you expand, how you think through your objectives and you manage your time.
As a marketing and performance coach, entrepreneurs come to me when their business is somewhat steady or has experienced a decline. They want to improve momentum. They want additional clients and added sales.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the mental discipline in place to handle the extra volume. Let me explain: These struggling entrepreneurs call me to help them, so I consult with them. A short time goes by and I get an email or a phone call that sounds like this: “OMG Heather, my sales are exploding, I have so many meetings and prospects now.” Which is usually followed by “I’m too busy now to continue our coaching.” So they try to cancel or postpone until they get a better handle on things and clear their plate. Not the correct thing to do!
If I may, let me share with you a little insight on how some entrepreneurs think.
Imagine two business owners are having coffee, and one says to the other, “I’m so overwhelmed with new business.” The other replies, “You’re too stressed. Take some things off your plate.” Now I want you to imagine two other business owners meeting for a beer after a grueling day, and one turns to the other and says, “I’m slammed, new clients are ringing me daily!” And the other responds, “That’s great — maybe it’s time to hire some assistants to do all the little work.”
Two different mentalities. One says to take things off your plate while the other is suggesting ways to leverage time. Which entrepreneur, in your opinion, is going to have a larger business with growing revenue in one…