Jess Jeetly, guest on the Rocking Your Role Show, shares her insights on developing an entrepreneurial mindset.
As an employee if you realise you are becoming unemployable and don’t like being told what to do, you probably possess the inherent characteristics of an entrepreneur. When you’re not afraid of breaking the rules and believe that business operations could be better managed and have a burning desire to live life on your own terms to shape your future instead of shaping someone else’s, you are on the road to being self-employed The thought of being your own boss is both liberating and daunting. However taking the leap from being an employee to creating your own business requires a shift in mindset from thinking as a conventional employee to that of an entrepreneur. Anyone can reprogram their mind to think differently. Here are my top tips for changing an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial mindset:
- Model the actions, habits and behaviours of someone who is already achieving the success you want
- Learn how to set your own priorities and take complete personal responsibility for all your actions
- Develop self discipline – there will be no boss to answer to but yourself. It’s easy to press the snooze button on your alarm clock every morning when you don’t have a deadline to get to work; so motivation is key to get you out of bed early and get into action
- Make education your life-long commitment- Read daily to develop yourself and your business to ensure you are constantly evolving with changes in technology
- Think big and visualise your success
- Make a habit of putting thoughts into action
- Change your thought process from a linear fashion to thinking laterally and balancing different hats all at the same time. This means you can no longer just focus on being the sales or marketing person, if that’s your forte, you will now need to manage customer services, finances, logistics and operations until you have employed a team to do this for you.
- Focus your efforts on evaluating the return on investment of everything you do. Instead of just completing tasks for the sake of doing so, ask yourself, is this task going to move me closer to where I want to be? The key is to become ‘results’ driven rather than ‘activity’ driven. For example, one can easily spend hours on a social media post which will engage a few Fans without driving traffic to your website that converts into sales. Was that time well spent?
- Discard all negative emotions as they only hinder your progress.
- Be adaptable to change. When you are an employee you become accustomed to the status quo, so when things change uncertainty follows. However, the entrepreneurial mindset not only must seek out change, but in fact encourage it to happen because only by doing this can opportunities be created and leveraged.
- Remove self limiting beliefs and raise your self esteem in order to inspire those around you to believe in your vision and have the desire to work for you.
- Be prepared to step out of your comfort zone. The only way to grow your business is by growing yourself and doing things you have never done before.
You can view Jess’s interview on You Tube
Jenny Garrett is the Executive Coach and founder of Reflexion Associates, a leadership and coaching consultancy. She’s also the author of Rocking Your Role, a how-to guide to success for female breadwinners.