End of 2009 I decided to leave the world of being an employee and become an entrepreneur. Since then I have learned many new skills through study and experience. My set of beliefs has changed and I have learned to put my talents to more use than before.
The learning part is continuous and is giving a lot of knowledge and energy.
Next to the change of approach on my financial situation (see others blogs on financial freedom), there are many more new insights I have put into practice. Some seem like “open doors”, but their truth merits continuous repetition.
It’s not in the knowing, it’s in the doing that you prove you understand and acknowledge their value.
One “open door” is to have the Right Attitude. These are the rules I have started to live by:
- Be Optimistic: always visualize the end result, build on former experience and stay in line, even if things seems to go slow.
- Champions are made in training: they practice to improve and keep going for more
- Willingness to make Mistakes: learn from your mistakes and get over it. Do whatever it takes, “I will Try” is not the best start.
- The Client is the Center of the Business, not me!
- To get Paid the best, you need to be the best in Doing Business. The money you receive is part of keeping score.
- Be Set up on how to Win: most people are set up on how not to lose
I am lucky that most of these rules come natural to me, but even then I need to remind myself once in a while.
One other insight also helped me a lot:
My business is not about delivering my expertise, but my business is selling my expertise. With other words: I am in the business of marketing and selling my consultancy and training services.
This insight has changed my approach to the market. A condition of course is that I need to over-deliver on the services when I provide these.
Measured in time this means, spend:
- 20% of your time on delivery
- 20 % on operations (administration and the like) and
- 60% on marketing and sales.
If this is true to you, you can also start to decide differently about the expenses and cost you make. If money is tied, spend your cash flow not on the tools, but on the sales!!
Create a timing difference between income and expenses. If you have the knowledge and expertise and you know you can deliver what you promise, why first develop and than sell. A design or prototype may be enough. First sell than create the service. In my case this means that I no longer sell the trainings I have, but what I can make. This way, keeping the Client at the Center of the business becomes a natural attitude.
The best way to service your clients is by helping to take away their “Pain”. For most clients “Pleasure” is a luxury, but avoiding “Pain” is a necessity. Understand what their “Pain” is, provide a solution and help them.
Since I adopted these ways of working I started to move from being a Trainer and Consultant on certain topics to being an Expert on certain topics. Being an Expert has many advantages. In one of the future blogs I will elaborate more on that.
What are your experiences becoming an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurial employee? Share your knowledge via the comments and enrich the readers and myself.
If you want to receive some advise on how to develop your approach to your market, do not hesitate to contact me directly.
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Esther Celosse
Follow-it
One of the first things I decided that was an absolute necessity when changing from being a salaried professional to an Entrepreneur was to realize there was going to be a set period of time when I would not be able to pay myself as the founder of the company and I needed to understand how long that could be theoretically. The second important thing I learned was to do your own market research, your own financial plan, capital budgeting plan, and pro forma financials because when you are first delivering your ” elevator pitch ” you want to be perceived as astute, market savy, and that you have a great command of your financial projections. If things go well, that person who heard your pitch may not be interested but a day or two later they may mention your project to someone the know very well and hand them your business card. That brief encounter could lead to a telephone call from your first investor and future board member. The last recommendation that I would make to any Entrepreneur’s is that the most important marketing aspect of your business is the quality of the professionals you hire to ultimately allow you to achieve your dreams. In the beginning do your own recruiting, interviewing, reference checking, and hiring because it is so important that you hire as many Type A personalities like yourself that understand that the ” Client ” must always be the focal point of every single decision that is made by the people managing and supporting your business. Great professionals and staff make it easier to achieve operational and strategic objectives, mediocre and really bad staff are an absolute death sentence for your business. Good luck to all the Entrepreneurs out there, when you are a huge success please give back to your communities in exciting and novel ways. Remember to always to ” pay it forward.”
MC
Great input Michael. We all read about entrepreneurs and have pictures in our minds about being one, but living the reality is quite different from what we imagine. It’s like having kids…..people can tell you all about how it is, but you only know when it’s happening to you what it truly means and how it feels.
Cheers and thanks.
Esther
Two important take-aways:
It’s not in the knowing, it’s in the doing that you prove you understand and acknowledge their value.
Be Set up on how to Win: most people are set up on how not to lose.
Regards,
It’s sometimes a bit tacky what I write and “kicking in open doors”, but I figured that I am not that much different from everybody else and if I need to tell myself these obvious things once in a while, others may need it too….
Cheers, Esther