Being an entrepreneur is hard work. There is no denying that. Being an entrepreneur takes an individual who is willing to take a chance and to jump in and make things happen. Because it’s not easy, there are ways that entrepreneurs can be mentally healthy that can assist them in reaching newer and higher heights of success in their endeavors.
Do you take care of your mental health? Do you make your physical and mental health a priority or are you too focused on business success that other areas of your life are suffering? You need to find a balance. It is crucial to business success and life success.
Ways Entrepreneurs Can Be Mentally Healthy
If you’re not certain if you’re mentally healthy, here are a few areas to consider.
Do you feel sorry for things you’ve tried that “failed”? Entrepreneurs need to look at things they’ve tried, not as failures, but as experiments from which they can learn, move forward, refocus and try again. You can’t have an “oh woe is me” attitude if you want to thrive as a business owner.
You’re not willing to face change head on. If you’re mentally strong and mentally healthy, you will embrace and jump into challenges and changes. Don’t focus on the “fear” of the unknown, instead focus on the welcome feeling of taking on a new challenge — it’s a chance to grow.
Don’t get lost in the weeds of things you simply cannot change or control. Is the price of your equipment going higher? Not much you can do unless you look for a new supplier. If you mail a physical product and the price of shipping is going up, look for a new vendor or find ways to creatively absorb or pass along the costs. As an entrepreneur there are many things beyond your control — just as there are things in your life beyond your control. You need to know which battles to take on and which to let go.
Be resentful of your competition. If your competitor is doing “so much better” than you are, you need to look and see if they are truly doing that much better or are they “faking it until they make it”? If you don’t have insider knowledge you don’t know how they are actually doing. What you can do is focus on your own successes and learn from your past experiments and move forward.
Do you ever take time for self reflection? Mentally healthy people seek solitude as a way to reflect and recharge their mental and physical batteries. Meditate. Take a walk. Enjoy nature. Pet a dog. Eat a healthy meal — that is not eaten in front of the computer screen.
Take time to appreciate and celebrate your achievements. Learn from your mistakes. Keep moving forward toward your entpreneurial successes!
Are You Smart About Tech For Your Business? Tech can be our friend or tech can be a bane of your business’s existence. Whether you’re bogged down in email or if your site gets hacked or your website or computer get hammered by ransomware, technology can make running your business easier and more effective if you have a plan in place.
Here are a few things you will want to look at right now and take care of so you’re using tech to its best effect for your business.
Are You Smart About Tech For Your Business?
Make sure your social media pages, website and domain name are in your name. Don’t hire a company to build your site or your pages and have everything in their name you need to own it from the get go even if you’re hiring a pro to build and monitor it.
If you have tech — social media pages or a website or a cash register, learn to use it. If your entire staff doesn’t come to work one day would you know how to keep your business operational? You need to know how to do it all, even if you don’t always have to.
Make your passwords safe and don’t keep them in a location that’s easy to get to. Also, don’t keep a file on your computer that reads, “passwords.” Use a password program like Dashlane or Last Pass to generate strong passwords and store them for you. Make certain your password for the password program is extremely long and strong and keep it in a location that cannot be easily accessed.
Keep documents and information off site. You may want to upload documents and other items to the cloud and make off site backups. If you’re a paper heavy office, scan that information in and take a copy of it all off site.
If you have an employee leave the company, make certain you immediately revoke his or her rights and access to your website, their email and any other sensitive information. Change the passwords on social media and keycodes on the doors.
Technology is great. You just need to use it correctly and safely!
It’s so exciting when you start a business. You’re enthusiastic. You’re pumped about everything you do and everyone you talk with. What happens, though when the excitement wears off and you’re not making as many sales as you thought you would? When that happens you may be wondering how to take your business to the next level. We can help and we certainly understand what you’re going through — been there, done that!
How To Take Your Business To The Next Level
Just do it! It’s easy to get stuck in procrastination because you’re a perfectionist. You surely don’t want to put an inferior product or service to market, but if you’re ready to launch, done is better than perfect. You can always tweak items to make them work better or perform at a higher level.
Prepare to feel that let down. It’s normal. You just need to power through and look for the opportunities ahead.
Provide free samples in return for honest feedback and/or testimonials.
Make sales. You need to be willing to pick up the phone or knock on doors and make sales.
Build your lists. Start a newsletter. Get sign ups from your website or ask current clients whether you can add them to your list so they can be the first ones to know about special products or services you’re running.
You may need to experiment with pricing. You don’t want to undercut yourself, and you don’t want to lower yoru prices to simply compete with the business down the road. You need to make a profit, but if you’re in the start up phase, it may make sense to offer discounted pricing.
Where are you stalled with your business growth? Are you having issues with moving from one level to another? What can we do to help?
Just as people change and grow, so too does your business. Where you were ten, five, or even two years ago may not be where you are now. You and your business have morphed and expanded. Should you rebrand? It’s a question many entrepreneurs ask themselves at one point.
It’s not an easy question to answer, especially if your clients have come to know you as Brand A. Will they stick with you when you’re Brand B? Is there a way to meld the “old” you and the “new” you? When you’re looking to rebrand, it’s best to speak with a graphic designer or a rebranding specialist who can help you make the transition a smooth one — for you and your customers.
You don’t want current customers to get scared you’re changing and won’t be the company you once were, but you don’t want to let fear of that hold you back. You need to tell your current customers why you’re changing and how they fit into the “new” brand.
Should you rebrand?
What is prompting the need or desire to rebrand? Here are a few reasons to consider:
There’s been a sea change in your business and your current logo and brand feel don’t seem to fit. If the business management team has changed that may prompt a rebranding.
Are you going in a new direction with your business? That new direction may mean you’re going after new clientele and the rebranding may be what you need to appeal to them.
Your logo may simply look dated. It may be using colors that are either outdated or are so prevalent in other industries or businesses that you feel your identity is getting lost. If you started out your business by selling widgets and now you consult with others who want to sell widgets, the brand image may need to be retooled to show the new direction.
When, or if, you rebrand you can use that as a way to “relaunch” your business, have social media events or even an open house to introduce the new you to the business community.
Have you gone through a rebranding? Have you considered the fact that you should be rebranding? What is stopping you? What made you jump into rebranding?
Working from home. It sounds like a dream! You can stay in your pajamas, have meetings in bed and generally be relaxed, right? Well, maybe. Many entrepreneurs find that when they are working from home they need to get dressed — even if it’s jeans and a t-shirt, comb their hair, brush their teeth and act as though they are going to an office. How to set up a successful home office is something not too many new entrepreneurs consider.
Sure you can work from the corner of the kitchen table, but do you want to? Can you have client phone calls in the middle of dinner chaos? To truly feel as though you’re running your own business you need to treat it, and yourself and your workspace as viable entities.
How to set up a successful home office
Set up a work space that is yours and yours alone. It is all right to grab an end of the kitchen table when you’re just starting out, but when you claim your own space you are on the path to taking your business more seriously. Find a space — even the corner of a spare bedroom, set it up to feel like an office and work from there.
Meet customers outside of your home when it’s required. Don’t bring a client or customer into the chaos of your home or into your cramped spare bedroom office. Rent a co-working space for a day. Ask a friend who owns an office if there is space you could use for the occasional client meeting. Meet at a nearby coffee shop.
Set work hours. If you don’t want to be working 24/7 you need to establish office hours. Let clients know when you will be available. More importantly, let your family and friends know when you’re working and that you don’t want to be disturbed. If you don’t establish hours and guard them, no one will respect that you have office hours.
Hire a sitter. You can’t run a business if you’re hoping to schedule client calls when your children nap. What if you schedule a call and that is the day your child won’t sleep? Even if you only claim one day a week as child-free you need to do this in order to get your work done. Same goes with pets — you don’t want dogs barking in the background of an important client call, either.
Know yourself and know what will make you feel like a “real” business owner — because you are one! Claim your space and set up a successful home office.
Do you consider your home office a success? If not, why not? If so, what makes it that way?
