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When coaching and consulting with many of my small business clients, we tend to focus on starting, buying or running a business. This can include hiring staff, working on better processes, developing a marketing plan and increasing cash flow. Often, though, they neglect important aspects of building success.
Through working with them, I’ve noticed that entrepreneurs and small business owners have a different viewpoint. Many small business owners build companies in industries where they were once employees. They often have trouble leaving an employee mindset behind. Entrepreneurs take more risks and think bigger, planning the future sale of their new business in the beginning and starting multiple businesses at once.
Entrepreneurs see challenges like a recession as just another opportunity. Small business owners are often married to their business and get mired down in details. When the economy goes south, they hunker down into survival mode. Entrepreneurs are less likely to do this.
How can a small business owner change this mindset? Take some time to sit down and envision what you want your entire life to look like, to feel like and how your business fits in with that picture. Write it all down. The more details of this future you can tease out, the better. What does an average day look like in your future? How much money does your business need to make for you to move into thrive (vs. survive) mode? How would you spend that income? Or is it free time that most lures you? How do you feel in this world? Don’t spend much time on the “how” right now. Focus on the “what”.
If you are creating your vision for your business and your life and practical thoughts intrude, push them away! Asking yourself what you really want and writing it down makes no room for being practical. Practical is about the “how” not the “what”. You will get to that later. If you are an author and you dream of being on Oprah, write that down. If you are a stay-at-home mom who wants to earn a passive second income so you can devote more quality time to your kids, write that down. Just putting your dreams on paper is the first step to making them a reality.
When you’ve written a detailed vision of what you want work and life to look like, it is important to feel it. If part of your dream involves a new car, what does the steering wheel feel like in your hands? How does that book you wrote look and feel? Professional athletes do visualization all the time. Tiger visualizes his perfect putt hundreds of times before he actually makes it. They work with coaches to help them with this process. Why shouldn’t this work for you?
Get out of survival thinking and start acknowledging your biggest visions of success. Entrepreneurs dream really big and take chances. Start changing your mindset now and begin thinking like an entrepreneur.
With 30 years of consulting experience, Steven Schlagel provides training and coaching for startups, entrepreneurs and small business owners. Check his site for more articles to increase your success!
Tags: Business, entrepreneur, motivation, small business owner, success, vision, visualization
Posted in Business · November 17th, 2009 · Comments (0)