7 MINDSET TIPS FOR THE PASSION DRIVEN ENTREPRENEUR
When you make the decision of turning your passion into a profession, it can be complicated to get into the right business mindset. You feel this project so close to your heart that it feels almost wrong to look at it from a logical perspective. But every business needs a solid foundation.
There are things you absolutely need to do if you want to make sure that what you are building is standing on solid ground. The first one is to get into the CEO of a business owner. Here are some tips on how to do it.
1. Open your eyes
Because this business feels closely personal, Passion Entrepreneurs tend to base all the business decisions on their own personal opinion. And while listening to our intuition is a great starting point, you need to look further.
Your business needs to work and live outside the realm of your own identity. It needs to stand out against your competitors, it needs to be attractive to your customer, it needs to be understood by your team and collaborators. All of these things happen outside your own brain. You need to open your eyes, your ears, and your mind and welcome that information.
2. Learn to manage your efforts.
Because this is something you are really passionate about, your first instinct will be to go all in. To dedicate all your time, effort, and resources to it. But that is not sustainable in the long run. You need to make sure to set boundaries for yourself and think of this as a job. And yes, a starting business will need a lot of time and effort in order to work. But you also need to make sure of having time to rest, socialize and keep learning.
Consider as well that you are just starting out. You likely have no clients to tend to, no suppliers to chase…No fires to put down, basically. The workload associated with this project will only increase with time.
If you start at a hundred, you are leaving yourself no room to grow.
3. Have a roadmap
I see this mistake far too often. Passion Entrepreneurs get so excited about their project that they envision what do they want their business to become in the future and want to fast-forward to that point. STAT.
But things don´t work like this. Rome wasn’t built in a day! Although it is fantastic having a clear idea of your goals, it is also important that you understand the different steps that are required to achieve them. And of course, you need to allow yourself to take them on one by one.
Passion makes for fantastic fuel, but fuel without a plan…is no good! Imagine if you are driving, trying to reach a destination, but have no map and no idea how to get there. Yes, maybe you can start driving and randomly turning right or left and you might eventually reach your destination, but odds are you are going to waste a lot of time and effort.
4. Eyes on the price.
The ultimate goal of every business is to make sales and to turn a profit. Period.
When you are starting, your resources are limited. It’s critical to make sure that every activity you dedicate yourself to directly and positively affects your sales and profit.
Especially if you don´t have a lot of experience in business, I´m sure you will be asking for advice left and right. Everyone is going to have a different suggestion on what should you be doing. This is perfectly fine. But before spending several hours learning a skill or developing a certain strategy ask yourself: “How is this going to help me get more sales?”. If you can´t really find a connection, it´s probably not the best use of your time.
5. Know your strengths
We are all naturally amazing at certain things and struggle with others. Make things easier for yourself and develop a strategy that allows you to play to your strenghts. This will lead you to progress faster while feeling confident and motivated. Why put yourself in a difficult and uncomfortable situation from day 1?
Think about what are the things absolutely required for you to kick-off (or grow) your business. Then, decide which ones you are confident about taking on yourself and which ones you would rather avoid. And if you are convinced they are necessary, consider finding someone that can support you with those!
6. Get your numbers right
Most creative and passion-driven entrepreneurs tend to feel very uncomfortable around numbers.
I understand, I come from a design background and used to get overwhelmed by numbers as well. But the truth is that being familiar with the figures behind your activity is absolutely necessary. You need it to understand how well the business is performing and to make decisions about the next steps. You need to be able to track and understand certain quantitative data. Think about things like your traffic, your engagement and conversion rate, your sales, and your margins. The sooner you make friends with numbers, the easiest is going to be in the long run.
7. Create a distance between you and your business
Especially if you have a business model where the service that you are offering is your own talent, creativity, or knowledge (like an artist, a designer, or a coach for example) this line is very complicated to visualize. But again, a business mindset is critical when it comes to transitioning from a passion into a profession.
Remember: The point of building your own business is gaining control of your life – not to give up your life for it.
You need to be able to know where the business ends and where you, as a person, begin. The goal is to make this business succeed and grow, so eventually, it will be bigger than yourself. If you don´t get into the right mindset early on it will only get more complicated. If you understand these boundaries now as the business grows you will find it easier to delegate and distance yourself from it.
You need to understand in terms of time management, and you need to understand this in terms of money (which expense is for “the business”, which expense is for you).
Get your mind right, and the rest will follow.
I understand that looking at this project from a rational point of view can sometimes feel like you are betraying your passion and your calling. This is not the case.
Your home is so much more than just a building, right? But you still need to do things like cleaning the toilet and paying your utility bills. These things are necessary for the maintenance of the house. Yet they don´t take away from the sentimental value that your home has to you.
I know that your business also feels more than just a job. Believe me, I literally wrote the book on Passion Entrepreneurs. The book is thought to help guide people like you to get their mindset in line with their goals and build a show-stopping brand. I invite you to take a look, see what you think! You have a good chunk of the book for preview on Amazon.
And if you have any questions about how these tips particularly apply to your business, you can comment on this article or contact me at adela@alonso-alonso.com. you can also visit our facebook or Instagram, or go to Youtube and hit that subscribe button.
