How To Develop Entrepreneur’s Mindset

How can new startups adopt the mindset of an Entrepreneur?

After the fourth failed attempt at starting a successful business, I said to myself, “This is it. Entrepreneurship is not for me. This is clearly for people who don't live here.”

I hated it. I'd had my e-commerce business going for a while and I was able to initiate good ideas but somewhere down the line, I knew I was doing something wrong. 

I have learned things from my failures. Every startup project taught me some lessons. And in my fifth startup, the business became somewhat stable.

As a business leader, you need to be inspiring. Being an entrepreneur is like being a parent. You need to take care of your startup just as you nurture your kid. In the beginning you need to give a lot of time to your baby. Before they start walking, you need to hold them and walk with them on every step. In the startup, you need to do the same.

Despite your kid falling down, again and again, you will give your kid a chance to learn, evolve, and to sit-back while the kid learns to walk properly. In your startup, you'll be faced with a similar scenario. You need to work with every aspect of your business to help in the process of evolution.

I have made a lot of mistakes while trying to establish a sustainable business. And I am happy to share some of the wisdom nuggets with you people. Although I am still a student of life. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in my years and I am happy to share these with you.

Big Vision With Little Steps

Start with a grand vision, but start with baby steps. Execute them one by one in order to move towards the big vision.

If you're planning to sell products online, you need to start by developing an eCommerce website. Once you’re done with the website, you need to start taking care of other aspects such as marketing, finance, and how to improve the product deliverability. You can't do everything at the same time, and they might seem overwhelming to you in the beginning. But you'll soon get used to your task routines. The main thing is to make sure you execute each and every step.

It's easy to talk the talk but what takes effort is to turn your ideas into action. Every idea is executable, so you can push your limits. How will you know your true potential, if you don't materialize what you have in mind?

Never be afraid to fail. What you need to be afraid of, is not trying. You cannot afford the luxury to give up on things that matter the most to you. Instead, you need to face the challenges and murder your fear in the process.

Under Promise and Over Deliver

When I started my first company, I was really excited. I took time to talk to every potential client personally, and in doing so I committed things that I was not able to accomplish. Every business is a struggling business in the beginning. You evolve as you learn things on your way up.

When the work started I came to know that brand reputation was one thing that people would looked up to. I decided to do whatever it took to build trust relationships.

With every customer order, try pushing yourself harder and do a little more than you promised. Over deliver and exceed their expectation. This is the right strategy that you need to learn and follow.

Diversify, Diversify, & Diversify

My second business was a total wreck because I was not able to create a business that was unique. I started a business which had already existed elsewhere. I dreamed of making it better but failed to stand out from the crowd. It turned out to simply follow the competitors.

Whatever you're doing, you need to add your own flavor to it. You cannot adopt the same idea but expect people to come and buy things from you.

In an MBA program they teach about creating a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for your business. There need to be something which your business is doing but others are not doing. Pick-up one service and master it. Do it better than others.

Have Fun

I ran my first business with my brother, and it was a roller coaster ride. 

We knew nothing about how things should work in real business industry. We were on our own, had nobody to teach us how-to's and experienced a lot of failures. So we had no option but to figure things out through trials and errors. But we were never bored, and we never let the series of disappointments bring us down. We were enjoying the whole process. From sales to product delivery we were enjoying every moment of it.

If your startup is not making you happy, it is best to switch to something else. Something you love. You need to start something which you feel passionate about even if it a success doesn't seem to be on its way to you just yet. The feeling of excitement will keep it going for sure.

No matter which business you start with, you need to love it wholeheartedly. You need to know what makes you tick.

To Wrap Things Up...

You cannot afford the luxury to fail and not learn anything from it. You need to learn how to drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into leads. It is good to fail, but it is not good to leave the field without learning from it. You need to learn from everything that you have. Every encounter that you come across with will teach you something positive. As an entrepreneur, you learn every minute of the day.

There is no one-way to achieve your goal. Keep focusing on your goal constantly but make your approach flexible. There are many ways to achieve one thing. Don’t baffle yourself by following just one way; maybe the other way can give more results.

Your job as an entrepreneur is to ensure that you're on the right path. Only you can decide the path and allow people to trust your judgments. Decide what feels like the right to you, and stick to that decision. No need to back out from your decision once you've made up your mind.