Business Education

How to Push Forward Starting a New Business when Few People Believe You can Make It

Entrepreneurship is a journey that is full of challenges, and it is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to experience moments of self-doubt and a lack of motivation. However, it becomes even more challenging when the people around them are negative and tell them that they cannot succeed.

How Entrepreneurs can Stay Motivated and Focused Even when People Around them Say they Can’t Succeed

Negativity can weigh heavily on an entrepreneur’s mind – leading to a lack of focus and plenty of unnecessary second-guessing. So, let’s go ahead and discuss some strategies that entrepreneurs can use to stay motivated and focused even when the people around them are saying they can’t succeed.

Believe in Yourself

The first and most important thing is to believe in yourself. You must have confidence in your abilities and trust that you are capable of achieving your goals. If you don’t believe in yourself, it will be difficult for you to stay motivated and focused when others doubt you.

Surround Yourself with Positive People

Surrounding yourself with positive people who believe in you and your vision is essential. Negative people can bring you down and sap your energy. Seek out individuals who are supportive and can offer encouragement and constructive feedback.

Focus on Your Vision

Stay focused on your vision and goals, and don’t allow others to deter you from your path. (This isn’t easy because we all have self-doubts and are unavoidably influenced by the opinions of others – particularly the people closest to us.)

Entrepreneurs have to make a lot of tough choices each day and it can take a toll. Throughout the rest of the day, though, they tend to limit decision-making to keep things simple. It’s a great tool for motivating entrepreneurs because it keeps them sharp when their abilities are needed elsewhere. —Inc.cdom

Remember that success often comes after a series of failures and setbacks, so stay the course and remain committed to your vision. If you can put failures in perspective, you’ll have a much better chance of persevering when things don’t go right.

Celebrate Small Wins

Entrepreneurship is a journey, and it is essential to celebrate small wins along the way. Recognize the progress you’ve made, no matter how small, and use it as motivation to continue working towards your goals.

Take Breaks and Practice Self-Care

Running a business can be overwhelming, and it’s crucial to take breaks and practice self-care. Take time for yourself and do activities that bring you joy and help you relax. This will help you stay on task and keep your drive to succeed healthy in the long run.

Keep Learning and Growing

Entrepreneurship is a continuous learning process, and it’s essential to consistently grow and develop your skills. Attend seminars, conferences, and networking events to learn from other entrepreneurs and industry leaders. This will help you stay motivated and focused as you work towards your goals.

Embrace Failure

Finally, it’s essential to embrace failure as part of the learning process. Every entrepreneur has failed at some point, but what sets successful entrepreneurs apart is their ability to learn from their failures and use them as motivation to keep pushing forward.

Summing it all up, staying motivated and focused as an entrepreneur can be challenging, especially when others doubt your ability to succeed. However, by believing in yourself, surrounding yourself with positive people, focusing on your vision, celebrating small wins, taking breaks and practicing self-care, keep learning and growing, and embracing failure, you can stay motivated and focused on your path to success.

What other strategies and/or attitudes would you add to this list? Please, take a few minutes to share your own thoughts and experiences so others can benefit from your perspective!

Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

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How to Solve the Biggest Problem a Work Routine Creates

March 4, 2020 No Comments

Every entrepreneur has heard the advice to adopt a work routine. While it’s certainly helpful in a number of ways, it can eventually lead to feeling stuck, stifled, and unrewarding. That’s definitely no place anyone wants to be because it becomes counterproductive. What’s more, it drains your energy and doesn’t help to fulfill your passion. It’s called a rut and it’s the single biggest problem with following a routine. Advantages of Having a Routine Now, there’s a whole lot of good that comes from establishing a routine. It helps you to keep focused, stay on-task, on-time, and avoid wasting effort on unimportant tasks. Plus, a routine helps to ensure you check off entries on your to-do list, one prioritized item at a time. A routine that is too rigid can become a rut, and a rut can become a trap. Some people are so adamant about sticking to “the routine,” that it becomes a full-blown stress when anything disturbs it. And you can count on disturbances! They are a part of life. But these people have forgotten how to think outside the cherished routine. The joy of spontaneity is missing. —Self Growth Moreover, a routine lets you know precisely where you are at any given time. Then, there’s the psychological and emotional benefit of having peace of mind. When you follow a routine, you’re much less likely to feel anxious or stressed out. 3 Effective Ways Entrepreneurs can Break Out of Work Rut Although there are a number of benefits to following a routine, the biggest downside is it turning into a dreaded rut. This is a bad situation and will only worsen, if you don’t stop the cycle. Here are three effective ways entrepreneurs can break out of a work rut: Change things up. Okay, this one’s obvious but it’s necessary because it’s so hard to actually do. When you change things up, you’ll feel like chaos has broken loose. You’ll also probably feel a bit lost. But, when you change things up, you’ll also start to feel more free, realizing your routine isn’t always the best way to work on your business. Give yourself new tasks. Try giving yourself at least one or more new tasks to complete. It will challenge you to think in a way that you haven’t before and help to unleash your creativity. Plus, it will give you a real sense of accomplishment because it’s something you’re not accustomed to doing. Spend some time in different places. Work ruts can happen anywhere, not just the office or shop. You probably run in the same circles all the time, frequenting the same locations over and over again. So, try something new in order to experience new environments and people. It will only widen your perspective and might even inspire you in a totally unique way than ever before. What other suggestions do you have? Please comment and share your thoughts and experiences! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Waiting for Perfection is a Perfect Recipe for Failure

May 16, 2017 No Comments

We see it all the time–especially in the technology sector–companies pushing out products that aren’t perfect. Bugs, hang-ups, you name it, they exist right inside, and it’s usually weeks, even months, before the fixes come. It happened when Disney first opened its parks, when Apple rolled-out a smartphone with a proprietary map, when this or that company introduced a product with this or that problem. With so much money at-stake, and, the sheer number of consumers waiting with baited breath to get their hands on the latest, it’s little wonder why companies push-out products that aren’t quite ready. The question is about these instances is just why that is a reality? Why is it that mega-corporations, with some of the best talent on the planet, putting out products with bugs? The answer might lie in the quality control, or, it could be just a matter of human limitation–that is, not knowing everything about the product and/or not being able to foresee the future. Waiting for Perfection is a Perfect Recipe for Failure Though large organizations do introduce products that have problems, these are usually minor. However annoying the faults might be, they are not typically too big a deal. It does boggle the mind how it happens, but, it gives us a very good lesson about business: waiting for perfection is a perfect recipe for failure. Chasing perfection can become an addiction that’s unlikely to help your peace of mind or your business. It seems counterintuitive to stop reaching for perfection, especially since we’re often told it’s the only way to achieve success. All the extra time and effort to ensure every aspect of your business is perfect won’t move your company forward, and it’s very likely to drive you crazy. —Forbes Like the nearby quote states, it can be downright unhealthy to chase perfection. The larger lesson, though, is that nothing is ever finished if it isn’t started. We’re talking about ideas, new products and/or services, a new take on something old. Whatever it might be, entrepreneurs can’t wait to get it perfect because the longer it stays inside as a secret, the more opportunity there is for someone else with a similar idea to launch and chase their dream. While you’re waiting to get it 100 percent right, it’s costing you time, effort, and a lot of frustration. Instead of striving for perfection, here’s what you ought to be doing: Place value in feedback. You can always make changes and when people see that you’re not only willing to make them, but also to make other improvements, will come to trust your brand. Understand that you have limitations. Sure, you might be able to get it to work without a hiccup, but that comes at the cost of lost time and revenue. What’s more, you’re putting way too much pressure on yourself and team to demand it be exactly right. Launch in stages, if possible. If you are able to do so, release it in stages and fix along the way. Chances are if you can do it incrementally, you’ll see things that can be changed or improved for the next increment release. While you can wait to make it great, you shouldn’t rush to completion. Sometimes, companies give into the temptation to rush something out, even if it’s completed, just to get it out to sell. When you hurry, you make mistakes and don’t have the time for consideration. Perfection is admirable, but, it means you’ll fail if you keep waiting and waiting to launch. This type of Start up practice; don’t wait for perfection … has been formulated recently into what is called Lean Startup Methodology. Several of my colleagues and I met on this subject and we are planning a work shop for Entrepreneurs in October. As written by Steve Blank in the Harvard Business Review, “…recently an important countervailing force has emerged, one that can make the process of starting a company less risky. It’s a methodology called the “lean start-up,” and it favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional “big design up front” development. Although the methodology is just a few years old, its concepts—such as “minimum viable product” and “pivoting”— have quickly taken root in the start-up world, and business schools have already begun adapting their curricula to teach them.” Take your idea to market and test what the buyer says about it … today! [shareaholic app=”follow_buttons” id=”26833294″]

Elon Musk, Twitter, and Bogus Business Numbers Teach this One Simple Lesson

May 22, 2022 No Comments

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is full of drama. It’s one of the biggest deals in the world of social media. What makes it so fascinating is the many bomb drops that continue to detonate, drawing huge public attention. Among the latest is about the actual number of bots on the microblog. Musk threatened to walk away if the company can’t provide proof positive about the percentage of fake accounts, citing his offer was predicated on official SEC filings. Turns out, there might be a lot Twitter is hiding from the public and this is a prime teaching example. Why Businesses should Never Mislead the Public or Consumers As a business owner, you should be aware of the consequences of misleading the public. When businesses knowingly deceive their consumers, it can lead to disastrous results. Not only can it ruin your reputation and cost you customers, but it can also lead to legal trouble. In this article, we will discuss the consequences of misleading the public and why honesty is always the best policy. One of the most influential propositions in marketing is that customer satisfaction begets loyalty, and loyalty begets profits. Why, then, do so many companies infuriate their customers by binding them with contracts, bleeding them with fees, confounding them with fine print, and otherwise penalizing them for their business? Because, unfortunately, it pays. Companies have found that confused and ill-informed customers, who often end up making poor purchasing decisions, can be highly profitable indeed. —Harvard Business Review Deceptive advertising is one of the most common ways that businesses mislead the public. This can take many forms, such as false claims about a product’s effectiveness, exaggerated claims about sales figures, or even making false promises about what a product can do. In some cases, businesses may even resort to fraudulent activities, such as selling counterfeit products or engaging in bait-and-switch schemes. Consumers rely on businesses to be truthful about their products and services. When businesses engage in deceptive practices, it erodes consumer trust and confidence. This can lead to lost business and customers turning to your competitors. In addition, if you are caught deceiving consumers, you could face legal action from state attorneys general or the Federal Trade Commission. The bottom line is that honesty is the best policy when it comes to running a business. Misleading the public may seem like a quick and easy way to make a profit, but in the long run, it will only lead to problems. Be truthful about your products and services, and you will build trust with your customers that will last for years to come. Have you ever been misled by a business? How did it make you feel? Share your story in the comments below. And if you’re a business owner, remember – always be honest with your customers! It’s the best policy for ensuring long-term success. Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.