Keep Your Dreams When the World Changes
by Case Lane
When the New Year’s celebrations lit up the world on January 1, 2020, most people were bracing for an exciting year. The Olympics, elections, a growing economy, lots of travel, weddings, graduations – all round celebrations and good times…just like normal.
As an aspiring entrepreneur you may have been planning your big breakthrough – the changes that would take you to the next level.
You could have guessed a financial or operational issue might have thrown you off for a day or two, but you had no reason to believe you would end up living in a completely different world.
For the first few months of 2020, as a global pandemic spread around the world, and governments made the unprecedented decision to shutdown all movement – you found yourself stuck, literally – with the greatest question of your life so far – what are you going to do next?
Lessons from 1890
Unless you are over 102 years old and remember the last global plague, you are living in a world you never knew could exist. Unlike during a war when commerce and socializing continues, this disruption has forced fundamental changes in how we live, and how we view the world.
Suddenly when all the sports activities were canceled, you could feel sorry for the athletes losing their income, but also recognize the insignificance of the game in the face of thousands dying.
When the schools were closed, you could be challenged by the idea of trying to help your kids at home, but not really aware of those who would not have your resources.
As conferences were postponed, hotels shuttered, and restaurants operating only through the delivery window, you could develop an entirely new perspective on the idea of an economy. The people you debated tipping became your lifeline.
Those with professional positions mostly went to their now at-home offices to wait out the shutdown with their families, worried only about getting enough toilet paper to last for a few weeks. But those in non-essential, non-professional positions stared at bills to pay, and promises that could not be kept, and wondered what they could do.
For the first time, the people who always work, always find a job somewhere, had nowhere to go to stay independent, self-sufficient and free.
And those deemed essential – from doctors and nurses, police and fire, to delivery drivers, mail sorters, grocery store cashiers and customer service operators – found themselves with extended hours, no breaks, no vacations, and the daily threat to their lives.
The air is cleaner, you can clearly hear birds chirping, you can ride your bicycle down Las Vegas Boulevard or the Champ d’Elysee. And yet behind closed doors, an unimaginable level of suffering has been unleashed on a population that may never recover.
The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
So where does that leave you, the aspiring entrepreneur?
If your bold pronouncements of going your own way and starting your own business fell on skeptical ears before the pandemic, how are you sounding now? Are you afraid to face the scorn of those who told you to stop being selfish, and get a real job – if you can find one?
Are you considering making yourself essential by offering to work at a warehouse, fast food restaurant or security desk – just to participate in the greatest economic upheaval of our time? Are you afraid to mention an interest in making money, adding a new product or service to the marketplace or delivering value?
If you’re saying yes, yes, yes…ask yourself once again why you want to be an entrepreneur.
Your Dream is Alive
Your life dream to be one of the risk takers who fills a gap in the economy by working day and night to deliver value for those who want or need your product or service has not ended because of the shutdown.
Your dream cannot end. In fact, it’s the opposite. People need the ambition, drive, vision, innovation and penchant for risk that entrepreneurs deliver more than they ever have before. Can you just not feel the ringing desire for someone – anyone – to come up with better solutions to our current problems?
Who but the entrepreneur can even think about what needs to be done. The failure of government in many countries has never been more acute. And the indomitable spirit of ingenious individuals has never been more pronounced.
It is not too outrageous to claim that the global visionary thinking of entrepreneurs may just get us out of this mess. From the labs that are racing to a cure, to the retooling of factories for essential goods, to the rapid adaptation of businesses from offices to home-based, entrepreneurs the world over are looking for new and innovative ways to make this world, as it exists right now, work.
Your dream to be among the entrepreneurs actually has to be stronger than ever before, and your determination to be a person who takes risks and delivers value must be galvanized at this moment.
Your Next Act
What you need to be doing is not lamenting loss, but thinking about opportunity. And not exploitive opportunity, but real value ,and real possibilities that move the world forward.
If you are that person who has always had business ideas in your head, and you wanted others to respect your vision and plans, then show now that your desire to be an entrepreneur is not just a passing fancy where you plan on earning a million bucks, living in a mansion and driving a Rolls-Royce.
Use this time – this tough economic, social and personal time – to show that your commitment to entrepreneurship is about who you are as a person.
A person who delivers value.
A person of ideas.
A contributor.
And someone who is ready to adapt and to lead.
Use this time to improve on every level, read more, research your ideas, learn new skills, enhance your business knowledge, and be part of the solution.
This is not the time for you – the forward thinking participant in the economy – to bail out in despair. You can set the example for others by doubling down on the situation you see around you to come out stronger on the other side.
How do you keep your entrepreneurial dreams when the world changes around you?
You take action. You keep moving through your plan to create your own business. And you make it happen.
The nature of being an entrepreneur and thinking as an entrepreneur means you hang on and move forward through turbulent times.
Your vision, your ideas, your perseverance are all needed more than ever.
Find a way to contribute.
Bring your value forward.
And make your impact.
by Case Lane
When you are first starting as an entrepreneur and manage to put away 15 minutes a day to work on your business, you will likely start by researching more about your business idea.
The purpose of your research should be to find sufficient information to move on to the next step in launching your business. But many aspiring entrepreneurs get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly researching similar products or services in an effort to understand the competition. But there are more productive ways to spend your time.
When researching:
Investigate your Business Idea
Once you have a business idea, you have to find the information to fill in the gaps in your knowledge.
Most business ideas come from the entrepreneur’s own questions around their likes, dislikes, hobbies, experiences, work and education. Some people have also asked others to contribute to an idea. The origin of the idea is the foundation for going forward and doing your research.
Research Leads to Action
All research should be leading to action. The research provides the details about how you can bring your product or service to your community, then you can begin to take the action steps necessary to make it happen.
Research helps you realize what you need to do. The information can help you decide how to determine what you like or do not like that is already available, to identify best practices and good ideas, and to put together an action plan for yourself.
You want to see what’s going on in the marketplace – if anything – related to your product or service. And this exercise exists even if you have an idea of a product or service that does not exist in the marketplace.
Look at the context and functions for your idea
Looking at the broader market will help you determine the context for your product or service.
For example, there is a saying that if Henry Ford had listened to his customers, they would have said they want a faster horse. The statement is supposed to be profound because Ford of course brought the car to the masses. The masses could not have envisioned a car, they could only envision a faster horse.
But if you look at the context of this example, you see a different story. Consider the functional not literal product Ford delivered.
The customers were saying they want to get around faster. And Ford responded by giving them away to get around faster than a horse. He even emulated the infrastructure needed to manage his new product.
The car needs care and feeding, just like a horse, but this time with hay not gasoline. The product needs to be stored, not in a stable but in a garage. And it must be maintained, not with horse shoes but with tires. Ford actually gave people the functionality of a faster horse – that’s just not what we ended up calling it.
So when you are looking at your product or service, you are looking at the context for how you will introduce the product, and the functions it will perform.
Even if you have invented a new product or service, you still need to research the other products or services that try to address the same or a similar problem.
Go Offline
After all the online research, it’s important to remember there is a world outside where potential customers could be demonstrating the literal or functional use of your product or service.
If you look and touch the real world, you might learn more about what you intend to offer. Go out to see your product or service in live action. You can go to a store and see people shop or ask questions about the product, or maybe just walk down the street to see if your idea evolves based on your real world interactions.
Even if your product is completely digital, consider if the problem you are trying to solve also plays out in the physical world.
Limit Your Research Time
When starting research, Now I mentioned earlier that you do not need to do endless research. You can decide how much time you really want to spend. Part of the decision rests on how your life is currently organized. If you are only taking 15 mins a day to research because you are slowly working up to your available time then it make take you several weeks to put together sufficient information.
Generally if you have one or two hours a day, start with one week, and see how much information you can gather. If you still feel you need more information, go one more week. But do not keep procrastinating or delaying the work.
You are much better off getting started than just trying to keep researching forever.
You will know you are finished when you have enough information to move forward. For example, if you are starting a podcast and you’ve researched equipment and learned how you can do the recording, and where to host the completed file, at that point it’s time to create content.
You don’t need to keep looking at microphones. You can go with the most recommended one and if you don’t like it you can upgrade later. The same is true for the hosting platform or recording software. You can always change your mind after you get started and receive initial feedback on how the process is working.
In general, you are doing research to give you enough information to move your business along, not to have an excuse to delay starting your business.
Summary for How to Research Your Business Idea
- After you have selected your business idea, research is used to determine what you need to do next to take action on getting your business started
- Think about the functional use for your product or service and the context that people will use it, not just the literal use of similar products or services
- Go out into the real world with your research, not just online. Look up how similar products and services are presented in the marketplace
- Keep going until you have enough information to move on to the next step of your plan. A week of 1-2 hour days is a good start. Make sure you stop and move on. You can always change your mind after you have started and tested the results of your decision.
- It’s better to start the business with a little research, than to not start at all while you continue to spend time endlessly looking things up
The key to researching your business idea is to get enough information to move you along to the next step.
The idea as always is to just get started.
How to Get Started with No Audience or Market
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with no friends, family or colleagues who support your idea of becoming an entrepreneur; or you have tons of friends, but all of them are only interested in partying, celebrities, sports or other things, and nobody ever wants to talk about business, how do you get your business idea out into the global marketplace?.
You may have a business idea in your head, but when you try and share your plans, you get the cold shoulder. No one is going to give you any feedback about whether or not your idea is any good. But you are ready to launch. You have a product or service you want to put out into the global marketplace, but you have no idea how to make sure your potential customers know about you.
How do you get started?
Product Launch
When you start a business you often do something called a product launch. One of the best ways to think of it, is it’s like a movie premiere. The final official launch of a new movie is a big party announcing the ‘product’ is now available for everyone to see.
If you are a billion-dollar Hollywood studio, you throw a huge bash, invite all the stars, roll out the red carpet, tell the press, and bam! your product is launched, and gets mountains of free publicity.
Publicity that comes months after – trailers, bus side posters, interviews in the press, and many other promotional activities have already taken place. If you are a Hollywood studio, you spend money to launch a product and you’re done.
How can your business idea get the red carpet treatment?
But if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur and you don’t have the multi-million dollar budget, how do you get started?
If you would like to hear these strategies, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 063: How to Get Started with No Audience or Market on Apple Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts
Friends and Family
Many entrepreneur how-to gurus will tell you to start your promotion with friends and family. If you can get the people around you to try your product or service, and maybe even review it, you can easily get started with immediate feedback and ‘social proof.’
The early support is helpful and inspiring, but really only works best when friends and family are your potential community. If they’re not, the support your receive may not be genuine, as they may not be interested in contributing to your idea, or might provide a half-baked response.
Using friends and family works best for those who have strong, supportive and active friends and family. If you belong to religious groups or organizations that support individual endeavors, you can leverage those connections.
If you don’t have a supportive immediate circle, you have to think like a Hollywood studio.
Publicity
When launching a new product or service, an entrepreneur needs publicity. And you get publicity by creating a compelling story about your product or service, and then telling people who are, or can connect you with, media influencers.
There are many ways to start telling people about your product or service. Start with social media. Develop the message of your product or service and post about it on social media. Different platforms perform differently for this approach.
If you use Instagram and your product or service can be displayed in pretty pictures, then go ahead and post attractive photos. You can also use hashtags to highlight your product or service for people who are looking for something similar. Instagram works best for this because it gives you the popularity of hashtags.
Twitter works in a similar way. Sometimes people search for an idea, or phrase ,and you can lead them to your product or service if you are using a hashtag that is associated with your product or service.
If you use Facebook, you can write a detailed post, with links to your site. However, you may have a more challenging time circulating your posts to others.
If you have some friends or family who you know are not interested in your business, try and get them to circulate your message others by encouraging them to repost or pass it on to someone who may be interested.
Social media allows you to move forward if you have no other resources, and you just want to see what kind of an organic response your idea may receive from the marketplace.
Giveaways
Before a Hollywood studio releases a movie, they let a lot of people see it for free. They hope those people enjoy the movie, write reviews and spread the word to others. You can do the same with your product or service.
You can offer the product or service for free, or offer a portion of it or a companion product that prompts people to just pick up and try your idea.
Free promos have been part of the marketing playbook for years. You may already be familiar with the practice inside your local Costco. There is a reason they are giving out free samples. The store is trying to prompt the customer to buy the whole product. You can use the same tactic.
Depending on your product or service, you have to find the best place to provide your free offer. The aisles at Costco are controlled. But you may be able to find a local event or product fair that suits your style and business intent.
Online you can use tools like webinars, YouTube videos or Internet calls to provide free services that allow people to sample what you have to offer and how you deliver it.
Once you are able to obtain a potential customer’s attention through a free offer, then you have an opportunity to retain them by collecting an e-mail address, and continuing to communicate and follow-up.
Blog, Podcast or Video posts
You can also build your audience through blogging, podcasting and online videos. These platforms can be free to use, and provide you with an opportunity to present a more detailed and thoughtful message about your product or service.
Plan your ‘message’ from the perspective of the customer. What would you want to hear about a new product or service that would peak your interest and stop you in your tracks? You can write a story about your product, or the reason you decided to start your service, or a testimonial from someone else. And if you come up with a compelling idea, you may even be able to leverage other people’s audiences.
Other people’s audiences
If your idea resonates with the audience of another blogger, podcaster or vlogger, you can ask to appear on their established platform. These influencers are often looking for great new ideas for their audience. If you can present your product or service in a way that appeals to them, you may be able to ‘launch’ to an established audience.
But make sure you do your research. Do not approach influencers who have nothing to do with your product or service, or whose audiences would be completely different from your intended community. When you reach out, make sure you have something to offer that’s compelling and interesting enough for the influencer to want to present you to their community.
Most businesses began with no visible market. In fact, many aspiring entrepreneurs were told their idea would not work, and their business will not be successful.
The founding entrepreneur had to reach the people who would be interested in the product or service they had to offer. Ben and Jerry drove around selling ice-cream out of the back of their van. They took the product to the potential customers, and let them spread the word.
Summary:
- You can start your own publicity machine with family and friends if they are supportive
- If the people around you are not your intended community, reach out to social media with your messages, photos and hashtags that appeal to the people you are trying to reach
- You can giveaway your product or service in the arena that is most appropriate, whether that be at a physical event or online. Let people give your product or service a test run, and then become the testimonials for your future promotions
- Use online tools like blogging, podcasting or vlogging to create a compelling message about your product or service, and deliver it to a larger audience
- Reach out to people who have established blogs, podcasts or vlogs and let them know if you have a product or service that may be beneficial to their community. You have to show them how you provide value.
A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship
Many aspiring entrepreneurs want to start an online business. The idea of low or no start-up costs, running an empire from your laptop, and being able to use all the latest technology in your day-to-day operations is appealing and romantic.
Many believe online entrepreneurs move faster, get things done easier, and reap immediate rewards by keeping their entire business infrastructure online.
The Internet is full of success stories from people doing what you want to do. But what, if anything, makes their process different from any other type of entrepreneur?
To listen to these tips, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 062: A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship at Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen to your podcast
What does it mean to be an online entrepreneur?
Being an online entrepreneur is the same as being an entrepreneur in general.
Entrepreneurs identify value to deliver to the global marketplace. If you have a product or service that people want or need, and you want to bring that product or service to a potential community, then you are already thinking like an entrepreneur.
You become an entrepreneur when you get the business started and reach out your potential customers.
What is different for an online entrepreneur?
To understand any potential differences between online entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs start with the definition of an online business.
An online business means a business enterprise that delivers products or services only over the Internet, and you earn your revenue the same way. You take advantage of online tools and resources to get your idea in front of your community.
Some of the most popular online businesses include blogger, vlogger, podcaster, author, teacher, software designer, artist, editor, copywriter, marketer…and the list goes on and on. These are all businesses that can be started and function only online.
For the purposes of this article, online businesses are those that were created through the rise of the Internet, and its applications.
Old vs. New
Traditional businesses that are now conducted online are different from new economy businesses that were invented online. If you are a licensed professional in a traditional business like healthcare, and you start providing medical advice online, you are governed by a different set of rules than a blogger who starts providing opinion about a healthcare issue online.
An aspiring entrepreneur starting an online business must decide: what business you are in. If you are in a regulated industry, you must follow that industry’s rules even online. If you are in a new economy industry, the rules are still murky and somewhat free. However, the environment of online law is changing rapidly, by the day, and all entrepreneurs must be aware of how these changes may effect their business.
A Website or Landing Page vs. Social Media presence
When starting an online business, an aspiring entrepreneur must know if there are potential customers. And the potential customers must know where to find the entrepreneur.
Many online businesses start with a website, but some avoid even that early expense by focusing on a social media presence.
If you have only social media, your biggest challenge will be in knowing who your audience is, and finding a way to keep them as part of your business. Setting up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram provides you with a free forum for posting about your product or service offering. You may even be able to communicate directly with your community using services like Messenger. This may set up your initial business, and even provide you with a few customers.
But you also have to think of the customer experience. With a website, you can set-up and organize all your information in an easy-to-navigate format. Most importantly, you can host a permanent location for new and interested customers to sign-up with you and learn more about your product or service.
Own your audience
From the first day you begin an online business, you want to be able to own the potential customers who come looking for you by maintaining a relationship with them. You start by giving them a place to sign up for more information. When they sign up you get their e-mail address, and you can ethically continue to communicate with them about your product, service or related issues.
If your audience is only located on a third party platform like Facebook, then that company owns the audience. You can be kicked off of Facebook at any minute, and at that point you lose the audience and all the comments and connections you may have made.
If you own your audience, you control the relationship.
To own your audience, you can sign-up for an e-mail management service like ConvertKit that provides both forms and landing pages for you to collect e-mails, and back end organization for the e-mail lists you have. You can learn to use the service’s features which automatically upgrade your plan as your email list grows.
New Rules
Aspiring entrepreneurs should be aware of the regulations that are being implemented to protect people’s personal information, children, and commerce in general.
Taking possession of someone’s email information means you are subject to privacy regulations. Most legitimate entrepreneurs state upfront that they never sell or share an e-mail with a third party. This type of transparency helps build trust with your audience, and positions you as a business that does not need to run scams to attract people for only their e-mail address.
If the content you provide is not suitable for children, you must also be aware of the appropriate warnings that you need to include to warn parents and others.
Even with the focus on issue like privacy, other Internet practices are not diligently governed, and you must police yourself using common ethical standards and practices.
The Internet is global, anyone, anywhere in the world can put up any type of online front page and be in business. The governance for this behavior is not universal, nor recognized by everyone.
The reality is both an opportunity and a trap. If you are doing business with the public, you are subject to certain rules and ethical practices. If you abuse people’s trust, they will find a way to bring down your business. The same forces that allow you to successfully join the global business community in a matter of minutes can end your business just as quickly if you prove to be unworthy of their trust.
The best practice for an aspiring entrepreneur is to be prepared to behave online as if you are facing your customer directly in the face, and not as if you are anonymous and unaccountable for your actions.
Which Online Business should you select?
The criteria for deciding which business idea is best for you to start is another article. In general, you should consider:
- A thoughtful, truthful personal brainstorm on your strengths
- Issues or problems that come up in every day life
- Products or services you would use to make your life better
- Align the above with your education, experience, knowledge and hobbies
When you have your idea, you decide which platform is best for delivering it to the global marketplace. Here are some useful links depending on the type of person you identified with above:
For personalities – Start Video-blogging
For Teaching Others – Start an Online courses
For techy types and gamers – Create an App
For software designers – Create Software as a Service (saas)
Online entrepreneurship is the same as all entrepreneurship. You identify value you can deliver to the global marketplace through a product or service that will solve a problem, or deliver a solution.
Summary of The Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship:
- As you are getting started, decide if you are moving a traditional physical world business online, or starting with a new economy purely online business like blogging
- If you cannot decide, check out the resources just above this section for how to get started in the new economy areas
- Once you have an idea of what you want to do, decide if you want to have a website or strictly social media presence as the place where your potential community can connect with you. If you have a website or landing page, you can begin immediately to collect e-mail addresses and communicate directly with people who are interested in your product or service. If you only use social media, you can get started right away, but you do not own your audience
- Be aware that just because you are online does not mean you are above the law. You must still recognize laws, regulations and ethical practices when dealing with the public and operating online
Disclosure: links to ConvertKit on my site are affiliate links which means I earn revenue for eligible purchases that helps support this website and other resources for aspiring entrepreneurs.
How Entrepreneurial Wealth is Achieved
by Case Lane
Getting rich is part of the entrepreneurial story. Successful entrepreneurs start out focused on the product or service they will bring to the marketplace, but when their idea takes off, they become even more defined for having achieved wealth.
To learn how the wealth emerges, the biographies and autobiographies of successful entrepreneurs form a blueprint for an aspiring entrepreneur to understand the process.
But many people do not take the time to read the books, and remain curious about how an entrepreneur was able to become wealthy.
Image by DarkWorkX from Pixabay
We have a natural curiosity about how people became wealthy. There are many wealthy people who are not entrepreneurs and never were in their whole family line. You can get rich by winning the lottery or inheriting. You might even just buy an expensive piece of art for a bargain price at a flea market. Multiple roads to wealth exist.
But people primarily equate entrepreneurship with getting rich and living the life. People tend to forget about the work part, and only focus on the money and the life of leisure money can buy.
But if you dig deeper into the lives of entrepreneurs, the millionaires and billionaires who highlight all the stories, you might discover a reality about achieving wealth that people seem to be forgetting.
If you investigate a little further, you may realize, the secret to accumulating wealth is, as it has been for millennia: doing the work.
Part of the entrepreneur story is about money, the books and articles are written about the people who get rich. But for the wealth generated by entrepreneurs, the story is simple: Wealth is achieved through work – continuous, dedicated, unwavering work.
Build the Business Over Everything Else
On the road to wealth, you cannot have your cake and eat it too – meaning no birthday parties. When the most successful entrepreneurs tell their stories, they have nothing to say about going to parties, hanging out with friends, gossiping, surfing the Internet, playing video games, or binge-watching videos.
They talk about focusing day and night on their business idea, and bringing it into reality.
The willingness to be singular focused on business separates the wealth creators. You have to be obsessed with your business idea.
For some people, dropping all leisure pursuits sounds frightening, especially if you have already begun a regular life full of birthday parties. The most successful entrepreneurs never seem to have succumbed to the repetitive socializing routine, at least not once they were working on their business.
Change Your Life Routine
But for aspiring entrepreneurs who already have a ‘regular life’ full of social obligations and friendships, switching gears is a daily challenge.
If no one you know is doing what you are doing, and you want to focus on business 24/7, you have to make a choice.
The next time you receive an invitation for a general social function – not a wedding or funeral – but a theme party or drinks or dinner with friends – you have to decide what’s more important to you. Having yet another drink in yet another bar, or bringing your business idea into the global marketplace.
You are already someone who thinks differently from your circle. You are interested in delivering value into the world by helping people solve a problem using the product or service you create. Not everyone thinks like this. Most people do not think about big world problems at all – but you do.
And because you do – you have an opportunity to transform your life by bringing your business into the market. But you have to do the work. No one is going to know about your great idea if you do not develop it. No one is going to see or hear about it if you don’t market and promote it. The entire story is in your hands, and therefore it’s your responsibility.
Wealth is achieved by making the commitment to fulfill a need and then doing it. Once people become consumers, you can manage the market, and the reward that comes from helping them. But they know nothing about you until you’ve done the work to make yourself relevant to them.
The wealth that’s waiting for you is dependent on the effort you put in to obtain it. The question you have to ask yourself is – are you willing to do it?
Summary for How Entrepreneurial Wealth is Achieved
As a rising entrepreneur, you are curious about how wealth is achieved. You see many entrepreneurs who are rich, and you know their products or services, but how did they become the people who delivered those ideas to the market.
- They did the work. It’s that simple and that difficult.
- If you already have a regular life, and have not been tinkering in your garage since you were 10, you have to make an adjustment, which other people may not understand. You have to begin turning down social invitations, stop idle conversations and focus on your business
- Change your day, change how you behave and start operating like an entrepreneur by working on your business in every spare moment
- Change the conversation to business. If people in your life are not interested, you have to make a choice. You are not trying to convince other people that you can be an entrepreneur. You are trying to bring your great product or service to the people who need it.
- Make a commitment to yourself that you will work to success, just like every big-name entrepreneur has done in the past
How to Wake Up Ready
by Case Lane
When you set out to take control of your life, by starting your own business, there are two things you are trying to do at the same time – transform your life to the routine you really want, and start a business.
These ambitious plans and activities should not be taken lightly. To accomplish this major rewiring of your attitudes and your actions, you need to wake up ready to go. Each morning has to be about jumping at the chance to put yourself exactly where you want to be.
But at the same time you’re facing your reality – going to a job you might not like, family demands, financial issues. You need to psyche yourself up for the amazing plan you have to get to lifestyle freedom.
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
Set Your Reason for Getting Up
First and foremost, you want to control your own life – your working life. You want to be your own boss, do work that you really value, and bring your ideas forward into the global marketplace.
To do that, you want to start your own business. You want to become an entrepreneur, be that person who takes the risks, but reaps the reward of doing something unique.
Given that goal, you need your energy, perseverance and courage to make the changes you need to make to be where you want to be. You need to wake up ready.
Value Yourself
You must believe in your personal value, and your contribution to the world because when you do – you wake up with a smile on your face, ready to roll.
When you value yourself, each day is about achieving more, challenging yourself and embracing opportunity. Your ability to be ready is tied to your own vision of why it’s important for you to be ready.
You have something to offer. An idea for a product or service that the global marketplace wants or needs. And you are willing to take the risk to bring this product forward so that you can help people solve a problem.
Give yourself all these great reasons to wake up in the morning? To jump up and get on with the job. You have a clear purpose. But just as important, you know you are the person who can fulfill that purpose.
Picture Your Entrepreneurial Life
Have a clear idea in your mind of exactly the life you are trying to achieve. Not just in a general sense of a product or service you know you want to deliver. But the entire picture. What does your perfect life dream look like?
Make sure you know your own vision. If you wake up thinking about your plans, you can give yourself the spark to get to work immediately on making the dream a reality. Fall asleep with your goals too. And wake up ready to implement.
Someone once said ‘it doesn’t matter where a girl comes from, as long as she knows where she’s going.’ That’s a great phrase.
Have a Morning Phrase
Give yourself a morning phrase – a summary of your intention. Pick a line like the one above and repeat it. Make sure it’s a phrase that gives you confidence to get things done.
Establish a Morning Routine
Create a consistent morning routine. Hal Elrod’s best-selling book ‘The Miracle Morning‘ is a great place to start. Hal took six commonly known self-reflection activities – reading, mediating, visualization, affirmations, exercise and writing – and developed a process for you to do all six each day with intention. The key to getting the activities done is to get up earlier, and make the routine the first thing you do each day.
TMMers (that’s the community built around the book) recognize that the early start to specifically focus on having a great day – sets up a great day. Not all advice fits every lifestyle, and the six practices can easily be modified or adapted to suit a particular lifestyle.
But the basic concept remains the same. But the key is to give yourself something to do immediately when you wake up.
You may even prefer different activities like – sing a song, cook, check the stock market figures – any consistently done morning activity gives you a reason to get up and start your day.
Know Your Daily Goals
Know the key activities you want to accomplish each day to advance your business. These goals can be set and reset as often as needed, and can be tactical activity in support of larger annual or monthly goals.
You want to give yourself designated activities to do every day. Daily goals include activities you want to be doing consistently.
Also keep a goal to review all goals on a regular basis so you are adjusting to the changing reality of your situation.
Summary for How to Wake Up Ready
You are working on transitioning to the life you really want by becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business. To wake up ready every day…
- Start by valuing yourself. When you wake up knowing that you are a valuable person with a contribution that must be made, you can instantly put a smile on your face and a spring in your step
- Have a clear idea of the life you are trying to achieve. Go to bed thinking of the world you are building for yourself and others, and wake up each morning with that vision ready to set you up for the day
- Give yourself a morning phrase – what can you tell yourself each morning to keep yourself on track
- Have a morning routine. When you wake up and you instantly have something to do, you prompt yourself to act immediately
- Set and review your goals. If you have daily goals already set, you can look at them the night before, and be ready the next day to execute on exactly what you need to do
Disclosure: Links to books and physical products are affiliate links to Amazon.com. I earn for eligible purchases. There is no additional cost to you.
The Thing About Money
by Case Lane
One of the number one reasons aspiring entrepreneurs say they cannot start a business is because they don’t have enough money.
This thing about money is a top three excuse for not getting started. Yet 10 times out of 10, the aspiring entrepreneur who makes that statement does not know how much it would cost to bring their business idea to the global marketplace.
And 10 times out of 10 the wantrepreneur does not know how much money is actually available to them, if they were actively looking for it.
Instead, people with business ideas in their head are taking themselves out of the game before it has even started. And by putting money ahead of action, aspiring entrepreneurs are losing the life dream of running their own business.
To avoid this trip, entrepreneurs need to change their attitude about identifying startup money.
Eliminate the mental restraints
In societies that do not talk about money, many people have mental restraints around the subject. The most basic one being: don’t talk about money.
There are many reasons why people do not talk about money, but this article will purposefully ignore that history to focus on the topic.
Money is a thing of value. We use it to exchange for other things of value we want or need. It is important to our lives, it makes things run smoother, and we could always use a bit more.
Talk About Money
To start changing the rules, be willing to talk about money. And to talk about it in specifics.
As an aspiring entrepreneur with a business idea, you want to be able to state exactly how much money you will need to start your business. Not ramp-up, grow for global markets, or hire staff – but just to start.
You have decided to participate in the global economy as an entrepreneur because you have a business idea in your head, and you believe you can add value to the global marketplace. You may be a little uncertain about what being an entrepreneur means so you’ve read books and articles, and watched videos and documentaries about successful entrepreneurs.
You’ve begun to develop a mental picture of what you will need to do to join those people on the road to success.
You are ready to launch your business. What do you need to do first?
This is the point when you begin to calculate – literally – what you will need to start your business.
Start with Resources You Can See
Some of you will say – zero beyond the value of your own time.
Some businesses, specifically online businesses, can be started with no money and use free resources.
Or you may have a service to offer that you promote through social media. Sometimes you can start your business with nothing and that’s how you get going.
Others may be thinking about a brick&mortar business, like a storefront, that requires a lot more upfront capital. But how much more? You still have to figure it out.
You have to know how much money you will actually need.
The thing about money is that it’s ubiquitous, it’s always around. And the best way to get your hands on it is to make sure you are prepared when the time comes to build the business.
Of course money is important, and we all want more than we could spend in a lifetime so that we can live as comfortably as possible, and do whatever we want to do. And of course having a pile of money that lets you start any business you can dream of would be fabulous because you could experiment and play around and see what works for you.
But if that’s not an option for you, there is still no reason to believe you will not have the resources to start your business when you’re ready to start. Because you can start with the resources you have around you. But you don’t know what those resources are until you do your research, and understand the actual cost of starting your business.
If you just keep saying you don’t have the money and therefore you cannot start a business, you’ll get nowhere.
Focus on getting the business started. Learn about the resources you need to make your idea happen. Stay committed to bringing your business idea to fruition.
Successful entrepreneurs know how to pull resources together when needed, and how to utilize resources to their advantage. And you can do the same thing.
Avoid all Excuses
Negative money thinking is an excuse not to get started, which could be hiding your real fear about taking a risk and putting yourself out there as an entrepreneur, when you could always do the 9-to-5 like so many others.
Hiding behind the money excuse as a way to stop you from getting started only limits your life. If you are dreaming about lifestyle freedom, the ability to control your own schedule, and run your professional life as you see fit – then you want to get your business going. You think like an entrepreneur and want to put into reality the expectations you have for your own life.
This includes managing your concerns about money and any fears you may have.
Think Value
The thing about money is that it’s a product to be valued. But you manage and control it to your advantage. You set the parameters for what you need. Many successful entrepreneurs have spent their last dollar, leveraged every asset they owned, and dipped into the pockets of families and friends to make their business a reality.
You may end up doing the same thing. But you won’t know until you have begun to put together the pieces of the business that you want, in the way you want to run it.
Your actual goal – lifestyle freedom – is the most important part of your process, not money. Because as long as you keep in mind why you are pursuing your business opportunity, you will be able to sustain a vision for yourself that will take you exactly where you want to go.
Summary for how to think about money when you are getting started:
- Focus on getting your business started
- Know how much money you need to get started with your business.
- Start at zero and see how far you can go with planning and action before needing a single dollar
- Utilize the resources you have around you, especially free options
- Remember your goal is lifestyle freedom and dream you have for the life you really want
Offline U: The Education You Get from Not Going to College for Business
by Case Lane
Aspiring entrepreneurs have heard they do not need to go to college to obtain the information they need to run a business. There are other ways to obtain an education. But the ‘other ways’ are not always clearly defined.
The value of post-secondary education has always been in its formality. Not only do you do through a prescribed set of courses that result in a diploma, but also the diploma is recognized because other people understand the process, and the value of the paper.
But given the cost, time and demands of a formal college education, many are opting to move forward with a business and you do not want to use formal education to help you. Aspiring entrepreneurs want to learn in the real world, doing real business activities.
How do you succeed without the college formula?
Neither business school nor college is necessary to become an entrepreneur. Many successful entrepreneurs did not go to college, and few (as a percentage of all entrepreneurs) come out of the B-schools.
But both business school and college are also considered outstanding opportunities. College is still the ticket to higher wages, professional careers and advancing in life.
The challenge is to determine which path fits for each individual situation.
Go ‘Offline’
An aspiring entrepreneur can obtain an education, learn the facts and concepts necessary for business outside of the formal college campus. A self-disciplined person can pursue an ‘offline ‘course of study that will help achieve the success they’ve been looking for.
And self-discipline can be imposed if the person has some idea about what to do to achieve similar results to the formal college student.
This approach is Offline U because many courses of study are presented online, and are still formal methods of learning.
Offline U means turning away from all structured education to learn through direct action, observation and doing.
Image by Sebastian Šoška from Pixabay
You get the information you need from available sources, usually for free. Following this path, you have to remember the information is not going to be presented in any particular order or context like in business school. You are not going to be able to segregate the marketing information from the finance information. You are going to require your own system for doing that.
So to start, you decide how you are going to organize the information you receive.
If you already have a business idea, the ‘offline’ course of study can be even more productive because questions and information gathering can take place within the context of turning your idea into a business. The research becomes directly practical.
If you don’t have a business idea, you can use one that already exists to practice how to frame your ‘offline’ studies around a specific product or service.
Once the organizational infrastructure has been set-up for your offline education, you can implement the following practices to give yourself an Offline education that advances your business opportunities:
Read books and articles about successful entrepreneurs
The information you need about how entrepreneurs built their businesses is readily available in thousands of magazine articles and hundreds of books. The blueprints are spelled out in black and white.
If Sir Richard Branson were your best friend, you would read all his books to have the answers about how he built his business, not ask him to explain the story (or else he would know you had never read his books).
Reading the entrepreneur’s story allows you to understand the background how the enterprise was built.
Reading entrepreneurs’ stories also reveals one obvious and timeless fact – the most successful entrepreneurs did the work. They worked night and day on their business enterprise, and reaped the reward. It’s as simple, and as difficult, as that.
Interview someone who is doing what you want to do
If you know anyone near you who is a successful entrepreneur, ask for an interview. For the cost of coffee or a lunch, you may get information that is never taught in school.
To get the interview, honestly make the request from the perspective of a niche demographic that is either unique or aligned with the person’s causes or ideas. Even if you are a working professional, if you belong to any type of club or organization find a connection with the person you want to interview.
You can also interview on behalf of the organization perhaps as a profile for their newsletter. But make sure the request is legitimate.
Research the information other people are saying
Today you can find a lot of material about entrepreneurs and businesses, including interviews, documentaries and profiles that reveal more about how the business is run than you may have calculated.
Do a search for these resources, both positive and negative. Give yourself time each day to spend an extra hour or two with stories that give you ideas. Take notes, and then go back and review your notes, and put them in the context of your own business idea.
Meet like-minded people
Take a look at the meet-ups for entrepreneurs in your city or events that involve entrepreneurs. If you’re shy, approach different people with the same prepared set of questions. For example, ask:
‘I’m curious, how’d you get started as an entrepreneur?’
‘What do you wish you knew from the beginning?’
‘What do you think was the one key to growing your business?’
People love to talk about themselves, especially if they have a willing, eager audience. While stroking an ego, you can give yourself an entrepreneurship 101 lesson.
Go to work for an entrepreneur or organization you admire
If you want work that is meaningful, but are not quite ready with your own business, you can check the job openings at companies you admire, or with organizations you are interested in exploring.
One caution, going to work for any company may not be as glamorous as you could hope, and you may never meet the founding entrepreneur. In fact, the experience may even be a turn-off. But you will learn.
All experience – work, education, going to the store – could teach you something you did not already know which could help you in your business.
If there is a business run by someone you admire, and you think they could use someone like you, there’s no harm in applying, and earning money instead of spending it to get the information you believe you can use in your own business.
Attend conferences
Conferences will cost you some money, but the events are rapid-fire learning experiences. Pick the conference that focuses on your business idea or industry, and use the opportunity to not only learn about the industry, but also to meet other people working in the same field.
You might even find the connections that will feed back into interviews, meetings or employment opportunities that lead you exactly where you want to go.
In summary, to get an ‘offline’ business education outside of formal college or B-school:
- Read books and articles about successful entrepreneurs, and learn how businesses are built
- Interview someone who is doing what you want to do, and ask them about getting started and growing a business
- Research the information other people have about successful entrepreneurs including through interviews, analysis, documentaries and articles, that present both positive and negative views.
- Meet like-minded people at your local meet-ups or entrepreneurial events
- Go to work for an entrepreneur or organization you admire
- Attend conferences
Disclosure: links to books and physical products are Amazon affiliate links. I earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you.
Be a Contributor
by Case Lane
Lead, follow or get out of the way – phrase attributed most often to General George S. Patton and others
Some people have great ideas for how to get things done; some people want to work for, or with people with great ideas; and some people are indifferent one way or another. They are prepared to consume the good ideas when they are made available, but they have little interest in participating in the rise or fall of changes and risks.
And then there are people – too many people – who are not interested in any ideas. These are people who have something negative to say, or pushback against ideas, and generate essentially zero progress for the evolution of humankind. Those people are the obstructionists.
Identify the Obstructionist
Obstructionists try to convince rising entrepreneurs not to start their business, or tell ambitious self-starters they will never be successful, or are convinced the life they are in is the only life they – or anyone else they know – will ever have.
Obstructionists are standing in the way of those who want to move the world forward. And quite often obstructionist thinking is standing in the way of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs who also operate as obstructionists diminish their own chances for success while negatively affecting others.
Plan to Be a Leader
The fundamental idea of an entrepreneur is to take a good idea and put it where people can make use of it.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
But often the road to make that happen is full of obstacles. Some physical, some verbal, some administrative. Obstacles that are erected and maintained by people who do not want you to go where you’re going.
The first time an entrepreneur decides to verbalize a business idea is often fraught with peril. The entrepreneur likely had an epiphany perhaps after seeing something in a store or experiencing a frustration in the marketplace. The idea is based in a genuine recognition of a gap in the marketplace, and a consumer need.
But often when the idea is communicated, in non-entrepreneurial worlds where the majority live, the response is negative.
Those closest to a rising entrepreneur – family, friends, neighbors, teachers, religious leaders -are often the last to support the idea. They fear the risk of beginning a new venture with no guarantees.
They may also be embarrassed to have that one person in the – family, neighborhood, community – who will not do what everyone else says is the right thing to do.
Some aspiring entrepreneurs will get past the negative thoughts and start a business anyway. Others will never be able to move forward.
Unfortunately negative programming leads people to believe that the others are right. If no one you know has ever done what you are proposing to do, you must have the courage to face the unknown. And few hold to that courage.
Where leaders rise
In the entrepreneurial world, leaders are the people who take their business idea and turn it into a viable business regardless of the obstructionists. Courageous entrepreneurs face obstacles, overcome negativity, struggle to find the time and the money, and patiently refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer while making their business a reality in the global marketplace.
The example set by these entrepreneurs has set the stage for many other who eventually follow.
Where followers begin
Followers watch and learn from leaders. In fact, many leaders are also followers, incrementally adding to their knowledge by emulating what other leaders do.
Followers are excited to be around leaders. They have an opportunity to contribute by supporting the leader in achieving a vision that they support.
When an aspiring entrepreneur gets started as a follower, they put themselves directly on the path of leaders. With digital resources that facilitate the ability to follow a leader through articles, videos and on social media, an aspiring entrepreneur can pick a leader they admire, or a company to learn more about, and read, watch, listen and support the leader’s activities.
Followers even go to work for the leader or their company for the experience of learning from a proven success. These learning experiences help the original follower become a leader.
And obstructionists disrupt
What about getting out of the way?
Leaders and followers need obstructionists to get out of the way. Those that try to diminish the work of innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs and investors are limiting their own world.
Obstructionists tend to be those who are trying to slow down the world to suit their purposes. Instead of contributing ideas and inventions to build a better world, obstructionists are trying to hang on to the status quo, to protect themselves, and fading power.
Rising entrepreneurs have to find a way to get beyond the obstructionists and keep pursuing business goals. But sometimes the obstructor is in an individual’s own head.
Overcoming obstructionists, includes surpassing a personal tendency towards limited thinking and negative programming to become the businessperson you really want to be.
It also means overcoming the human need to better than the next person by criticizing other people’s work, plans or dreams while sitting on your own unfulfilled intentions.
There’s no reason to obstruct yourself or others. There is plenty of room for everyone who wants to create a business that adds value to the global marketplace. You can be a contributor who makes a difference in the lives of others by bringing a product or service into the market.
Be a contributor
Entrepreneurs are contributors. Leaders within their own world, followers of other leaders who provide constant daily fuel for the global economy, and hope and opportunity for employees and customers.
As you work on developing your business, keep in mind that you want to stay connected to contributors. Trying to stop others from achieving their stated goals will not make you successful. Neither will negative feedback, comments or bad-mouthing.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others are doing. Stay on top of your plans and dreams, not the activities of others that have no effect on you.
Top-flight global entrepreneurs do not spend their whole day criticizing others? Not if they want to be successful.
They work on continuing to deliver value. They focus on personal development, and meeting and surpassing their business goals. If you turn your own mind on to such pursuits, you will reap the benefit in the rising success of your business.
Contribute to your own life
Contributing also applies to how you run your life. Eliminating obstructionist behavior in business can transform to improving your personal relationships, and the opportunities of your own life.
Focus on positive, individual effort and goals. Focus on what you are doing and how you can make your world better through your entrepreneurial business ideas.
To Be a Contributor:
- People are asked to lead, follow, or get out of the way
- Unfortunately many people choose not to move, they are obstructionists who refuse to do anything but get in the way
- Obstructionists try to prevent you and others from achieving goals by providing negative feedback, or physical or mental barriers to success
- Sometimes that obstructionist is you.
- Perhaps you have been negatively programmed by other obstructionists, or perhaps you like looking for excuses
- To push back against obstructionism, you must be a contributor
- Global entrepreneurs are contributors
- You provide value by bringing a product or service into the global marketplace
- And you reject obstructionism and its many barriers, in favor of having the life you have always wanted running your own business as an entrepreneur
See the World like a Global Entrepreneur
Some people call themselves globalists because they believe in trading freely with other countries, and having world-level companies and organizations managing products and services.
And some people call themselves isolationists because they prefer to deal only with those within their borders, and to stay out of other people’s troubles.
But throughout history, for better or for worse, people have been influenced by those who are outside their borders. And in the 21st century, if you’re an entrepreneur, the influence is more often than not, a key factor in running your business.
Whether you’re a Fortune 500 CEO or a sole proprietor who put up your first website yesterday, the entire world is your market, and if you call yourself an entrepreneur, you need to know how to look at everyone.
Your community, audience, customers or client base is the whole world.
This is your neighborhood…Your Market for your product or service
This is a 21st century reality you cannot ignore. And to navigate effectively you need to know how to look at your community, how to recognize your place among everyone as you offer your product or service to the global marketplace.
So what should you do?
See the World as Your Market
The key idea is the entire world is your market. This has happened because technology makes it possible to connect with people across great distances for nominal costs. People now search for universal concepts and ideas. And if you are the one offering what they are looking for, then you win the business.
That means you can look at the world as your neighborhood. When you are reaching out to your customers they are as good as next door. This is not meant to sound kumbya. The idea is to operate with a world view.
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Maintain Your Unique Brand
This is also not meant to sound politically-correct. You don’t have to genericize your product or service idea, or try and be all things to all people. You just have to recognize you may have a customer base in places you did not originally expect to have them.
So be aware – not stifled by this opportunity. But stay authentic and true to your brand.
That’s not a conflict. Your value to the market lies in your uniqueness, your voice, and original presentation. Your ability to deliver to the market is in your capabilities and effort. So you keep your product unique you while still making it global.
Common problems, Multiple Solutions
Many people face the same challenges and are searching for the same solution. If your business operates in a universal industry like technology, food or fashion, you will be able to reach people who understand the underlying concept because it is the same in different places.
The next thing people will decide is if they like how you deliver it.
In the same way that there are thousands of personal development approaches, there may be thousands of takes on your idea. Individuals will decide which one they like. You may think Tony Robbins is too rah-rah, and you prefer the zen of Eckhart Tolle. Usually you make this decision based on your own personality, not because you live in a particular location.
Of course, sometimes you can associate particular cultures with specific approaches to how things are done. But this may also depend on the product or service you are offering. A culture may be open to one type of product, and closed to another. You will not know until you reach out with yours.
As an entrepreneur you look at the world as the marketplace where you can deliver your product or service. You respect the consumers in every market, but you are really only looking for the ones who are aligned with you.
Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to those customers who are critical or want to do things differently. Those are not the people you are looking for in your community, they can go elsewhere to find someone else’s version of your product or service.
You also do not have to be overly aware of holidays, time zones or standard work weeks. We live in a 24/7/365 time-shifting world. Whenever you decide to present your product or service, someone is awake somewhere in the world. And those who miss it the first time can catch the replay.
This is another benefit to operating in our high-tech global environment. There is plenty of scope for you to work when you want to work and still reach those who are looking for you.
So as you look at the world – your neighborhood – think of it as an always on, always open space.
Operate Inside the Walls
I have an analogy I use to explain the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing, but I think the idea also suits this topic.
Imagine a walled city, like you see in the movies and on TV, you know like Winterfell. Imagine in the center is the public market. Entrepreneurs are there all the time selling products and services, and buyers are there all the time as well.
The idea with traditional publishing is that you the author stand outside the wall and try and talk a sentry into escorting you in. Once you enter with a sentry people will notice you. You still have to deliver a product people are interested in, but you have a little attention already built in.
With self-publishing, you enter through the open door. You walk right into the midst of the marketplace, where everyone is trying to get everyone else’s attention. To get people interested in you, you really have to perform and figure out a way to grab their attention. You are in, right from day one. But you are on your own.
Frankly I prefer to operate from inside the walls, not outside. And you can imagine your place in the global marketplace the same way. You are in once you create your product or service that’s available for sale to the global marketplace. And you stay in as long as you continue to draw attention to your business.
If people like what they see, if you deliver the value they seek, they will notice you and come to you.
That’s what you want to be doing when you are looking at the world as an entrepreneur – you want to be participating.
