Karen Repoli March 17, 2021 Being an entrepreneur brings many challenges along with its many benefits. One challenge in particular involves your business mindset and recognizing if you’re setting yourself up for success or failure.
Figuring out what mindset you have involves using your common sense. If you’re afraid to fail, chances are that’s what will happen because you won’t want to take any risks so you won’t take any action. However, it IS possible to shift this mindset; so instead of being afraid, you become determined to make your business work. Which scenario do you prefer: Being determined and taking action or being afraid and cowering in a corner, doing nothing?
Throughout my life and business, I’ve never been afraid to take a risk and do what it takes to achieve my goals. This mindset has led to many successes and yes, some failure. But every successful person has failed at some time.
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill
“It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford
Here are some common mindsets that may negatively affect your business:
A negative mindset can affect your confidence.
How do you react if a client says you made a mistake or they’re not happy with your final product? Does it rock your world for days at a time or can you regroup, make the correction, and move on? If your brain is telling you to reach for perfection, then of course you’ll be extremely disappointed when you make a mistake or misunderstand your client’s needs. Accept the fact that you’re human and find a way to make the client happy.
One of my first employers in the business world told me, “Don’t tell me what went wrong. Tell me how you fixed it and what you’ve done to avoid making the same error again.” This is GOLD! I’ve adopted it in every aspect of my life.
A lack of confidence may prevent you from taking that jump from employee to entrepreneur to begin with. Do you want to be stuck working in a cubicle for other people or would you like the freedom to set your own hours, accept the clients you want, and to answer only to yourself?
A poverty mindset can affect how you set prices.
“Money blocks” is a popular buzz phrase lately but I still hear story after story of solo-entrepreneurs who consistently underprice their services. If you’re underpricing just to get the job, then you run the risk of not earning enough to pay your bills and you’re telling prospects subliminally that you don’t value yourself enough. If clients baulk at paying your prices, then those aren’t the right clients for you. Just move on.
An imposter mindset can affect how you present yourself to others.
Another common theme among solo-entrepreneurs is feeling like an imposter, especially if their skills are self-taught or their market has thousands of competitors already. Feeling like an imposter also feeds into these other situations above, where you lack confidence and don’t charge your worth because you feel like you’re not good enough. Portraying this image to prospects will likely cause them to reconsider hiring you, simply because they want to be fully confident that you are competent to do the job.
Knowing and understanding your mindset about different aspects of your business is important for your personal growth as well as your business growth. But don’t despair: Mindset shifts are certainly possible with some steady practice. Very often it involves changing that negative self-talk into positive self-talk, or adopting the opposite thought. So if you don’t feel confident about a situation, think about all the good work you have done for your clients instead and read their testimonials. Done frequently enough, your confidence will grow.
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