Entrepreneurs running their own business often have many people giving them advice – parents, friends, consultants, lawyers and even your hairdresser or barber. Everyone thinks they know what somebody else should be doing.
However, tried and tested words of wisdom always work best. Here are four simple yet effective ways to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
Be a life-long learner
The more experience you gain, the wiser you become because you learn from both your failures and successes (hopefully). I try to consciously be open-minded and choose a “beginners mind”, which for me is acting like I don’t know. Most times when I behave like I know it all, I miss new learnings and interesting truths, because I am blind to them.
If you want to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, you need to develop a thirst for learning. I buy, read and collect hundreds of business books and am always looking for new ways to run my business better.
Hire people who match your culture
It’s easy to get carried away in the hiring process, especially if you need specific expertise to help your business reach the next level. However experienced potential recruits are, the most important factor when you select staff is to ensure they match the culture of your business and share your vision.
You need a team with determination, commitment and people who match your core values. You can teach skills but you cannot develop or change character. It’s better to employ a less experienced person who you can train, mentor and coach.
Read more: How to design an effective hiring process
Be decisive
According to multiple sources on the internet, the average amount of remotely conscious decisions an adult makes each day is equal to 35,000.
If you’re a business owner, you’re probably making more than that.
Even when you feel like you’ve made lots of decisions in a day or are experiencing a lot of fatigue, remembering as a business leader, you must be decisive.
Many businesses have lots of meetings but never really decide or solve issues.
Don’t let fear hold you back – even if you make the wrong decision, it’s better to make the decision, learn from the experience and then evolve.
Take risks
Most business success stories include a part where the entrepreneur has taken great risks. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes we learn from our failures.
My approach is to take a risk – once I have done as much fact finding as is reasonable.
For example, I made the conscious decision to expand my retail business into the European continent. The risks included potential operational failure, competitive market conditions, cultural challenges, currency fluctuations, unknown government regulations and tax implications. We hired a consultant to do a competitive analysis for us and tried to make an informed decision with as much data and information as we could. Fortunately it paid off, with hard work, grit and determination.
If you can follow these four ways to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, this should help you create the vision you need to make your business a success.
Bold Clarity helps you introduce a system called the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which gives you the ability to scale and grow, and get what you want from your business. Find out more by contacting us on +44 (0)7795 667480.