I do something called “discovery calls” with prospective clients where I talk with them for about half an hour about what their vision is for their business. We discuss where the holes are, what's missing and then see if there's room for me to support them as their business coach.
Yesterday I spoke to a woman and she was one of the first and few people to be crystal clear on what she believes to be missing in her business. It was a profound moment in my work as a coach.
I was inspired by the fact that someone could be so introspective and really candid about what was missing for them.
Oftentimes, what we think is missing is that we need more clients and we need more money. That's easy right? Because one of the primary reasons people start a business – aside from freedom, flexibility and sharing their gifts – is to make money. So, it becomes easy to say well, I am not building the business that I want because it's not profitable or because it’s not making the money that I want it to make or I don't have “X” amount of clients.
The reality is, when you jump into this journey of becoming an entrepreneur, there are nine things that I believe – and in my experience working with entrepreneurs over the last twenty plus years and being a coach and also having started my own businesses – that are truly missing.
1. Courage
If you have courage to step into this journey of becoming an entrepreneur, you're a step ahead. It is easy to have a 9 to 5 job, it's easy to get up in the morning, get dressed, go to work, do your job that you were hired for, leave at five and get a pay check every two weeks.
To make a decision to go into this and to be vulnerable with your gifts and your talents, to create a product, to create a service, to share that with the world and to go out every single day and to do the sales and the marketing, that takes courage. Sometimes it can be really scary especially if you are technician of whatever your craft is, meaning you are a chef or you are healer and yet you don’t have that business part down and so you have to have the courage to know that you can do both. That you can build a viable business that supports you, that supports your family and that provides the lifestyle that you desire and is fulfilling.
2. Desire
A deep desire to have success. Now I know that sounds interesting for some people because some people think success means you've got to want to have planes (and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with that). But we create all kinds of beliefs about what it means to be successful and quite frankly you need to define success for yourself.
And when you define that, you can be super solid and have this deep desire to be fueled by that definition of success and it becomes that much more easy because you know what you are working toward. Your business is not just about creating a business, it’s about fulfilling a greater desire that you have in your own life.
3. A plan
Oh my gosh! I cannot tell you how many entrepreneurs go into this journey and they don’t have a plan, they don't have a strategy on how they are going to gain that success, how they are going to actually build that business, how they are going to get there… how will they get new clients, how will they market their business? How are they going to manage their operations? How are they are going to fulfill their products or their services. A plan. I am telling you, if you have a plan, you have a leg up on your competition.
4. Belief in yourself
A belief that you are the one and possibly the only one that is meant to provide that product or service that you create as a solution to your ideal audience. You have to have that belief that… “I am the one, I am the one”.
I know in my heart and soul that what I do as an Intuitive Business Strategist, no one does it like me.
Are there other business coaches? Absolutely!
Is there anyone that does the same work that I do in the same way that I do it? absolutely not!
And so you have to have that same belief in yourself and in your work to know that you are the one to provide that solution.
5. Belief in your products
You need a deeper belief that that thing that you offer is the only solution for your customers or clients. Whatever your product or service is, it's the best solution for your ideal client. Whatever that product is, whatever that service is, whoever your ideal clients are, whatever their challenge is, your solution is the solution for them!
6. Accountability
Very few people are actually self-motivated and very few people can hold themselves accountable. Often times, when we have a team, we’re accountable to our team. When we have employees, we are accountable to them. People depend on us for their salaries. People’s livelihoods are dependent on the business that we’re building.
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Smart entrepreneurs will get an accountability partner or they will find a coach who helps hold them accountable. Accountable to the vision and then accountable to the goals and the daily tasks that help get them to those goals.
7. Support
We all need support, I don’t care who you are….no man is an island, right?
And so you need to be really clear and know that you can be honest about it and say “I need support. I need help. I need a mentor. I need a coach. I need someone to help me along this journey, to help fill in the holes with the information that I don’t know.”
I always say I love surrounding myself with people that are smarter than me in certain areas. So surround yourself with people that are smarter than you in certain areas, in areas maybe where you can build your business, where you haven't built your business before, maybe smarter in areas of marketing or smarter in areas of sales or smarter in the areas of mindset and helping you shape your thinking around what it means to be an entrepreneur and a business owner or what it means to be wealthy or what it means to build something really bigger than yourself in your business. So you need that support, Ok?!
8. Inspiration
We need to constantly surround ourselves with people that inspire us. That inspire us to be greater than we are today, that inspire us to be a better human being, a better entrepreneur. That inspire us with their stories of failure. That inspire us with their stories of success. We need people around us who are constantly inspiring us in ways that help us elevate our own work and our own mission.
9. Willingness to do the work
This is so important, and I see this as being one of the biggest misses quite frankly with people who say they want something and yet they don’t accomplish it.
I just shared with a friend last that I know I wanted something when I get it. I know I really wanted something when it's accomplished. If I don’t get the thing that I say that I want, I didn’t want it in the first place right? And so, number 9 is you need a willingness to do the work, not sometimes, all the time. You need a willingness to commit to that work, you need a willingness to commit to yourself, to commit to the vision, to commit to your ultimate desires and that is when you will start seeing success.
So, you think what you need are more clients and more money.
What you really need is a bigger picture for what your business is all about and how it is that you will accomplish your goals.
