Written by: Eszter Zsiray, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
When you start your business there are plenty of common-sense tasks you need to take care of. Work out a thorough business plan, find investors, get an accountant, learn how to do your taxes, create a marketing strategy, and I could continue with the list. What gets much less focus though, is one of the most important parts of becoming a successful business owner: preparing yourself with the best entrepreneur mindset. Because the key to success is having the correct mindset.
1. The WHY
Everything starts with your WHY. You plan to start your own business and you want to make it successful and enjoy working on it for years, don’t you? As you think about the long term, you need to invest your time, energy and money into something that is aligned with who you are, what your values are and you need to have that deep inner motivation that will help you to go on and continue even when it is more challenging than you ever imagined. Now, if you can’t answer off the top of your head why you are really doing this and what your core values are, it doesn’t mean that you are on the wrong path, maybe you just need to dig deeper to reflect on these questions. But be prepared, challenging times will come when you have less sales or on the contrary, you suddenly have so much work that you are exhausted and self-doubt knocks at your door questioning you about whether or not you should have ever really started this business in the first place – that is when your inner drive will be the only sparkle to keep you working through the difficult times, so take the time to consciously find your WHY and vocalize it to yourself.
Coaching tip: money is hardly ever the reason why we spend most of our active hours with a business, it is just the tip of the iceberg. What you can do is ask yourself at least 5 times to get to the core answer. Why am I doing this? To get money. Why do I need money? To live the life I always wanted. What does that life look like? I can work from my area of genius as the artistic leader leaving the rest to experts and spending enough time with my family. Why is that important? Because for me the core values in my life are family and self-realization. Why are those things so important? Because I come from a dysfunctional family and I was always dreaming of creating my own, a happy and warm family where I can provide for my loved ones and feel that I can be anyone. Here you go. That is your inner drive that will help you get through the difficult times.
2. The VISION
Why should you have a clear vision and strategy? Very simple: having a crystal-clear vision is like adding the name and address on a package that you want to send by post – without it, it will just float around getting sent from place to place, but it is very unlikely that it will ever arrive at its destination. And this is not just some humbug theory but true science.
Take the time and answer the typical interview questions: where do you want to be in five years? How do you want your life to look? Where do you see yourself?
Our conscious mind creates the goals and visions, but it is the subconscious mind that makes them come true. When you spend time visualizing what your desired outcome looks like, your brain interprets these pictures as real-life events. Our subconscious mind doesn’t distinguish between visualized images or real facts, so it will handle your imagination as if they were memories from your past – and it will command your brain to work towards that reality being consistent with what we imagined for the future or experienced in the past. It’s amazing, isn’t it? The more detailed and complex your vision for the future is, the more precise the instructions are that you send to your subconscious mind to make it true. As it receives millions of data every day, it needs to filter very thoroughly through what it sends over to our conscious mind, so if you have a clear vision and strategy in place it’s basically as if you just added the correct address (including a postcode) to your package.
Coaching tip: create visions for all aspects of your life and write them down or create a vision board to keep yourself focused on your desired future. Don’t focus only on the obvious areas but define what your work-life balance will be and how you will take care of yourself and your physical and mental well-being, as you will definitely need that! Find a way to make this a habit and regularly visualize your future to help your subconscious mind to do the magic.
3. Take ownership
No business will flourish without hard work. You are motivated, you know what you want, so now you need to put in long hours and take full responsibility for your future.
But your partner is not supportive. You don’t have the time as you have kids and house chores. You feel you are an impostor. You know nothing about finances. Just remember: no one has it all figured out when they start a new business and everyone has a lot of expected and even more unexpected difficulties that slow them down, distract them, confuse them and make them doubt their own aptitude. The important question is what you want to do with the external challenges and with the ones in your head. Will you take charge of your own life and see what you can learn, how you can proceed and work towards finding solutions, or will you feel sorry for yourself because it is too hard? Don’t get me wrong, feeling sorry for yourself or being angry and blaming others is absolutely understandable, we are all just human, but how much time and energy do you want to spend on those feelings when they don’t take you anywhere closer to your goals?
Part of being in charge of your own life is sitting in the driver's seat, but also facing up to your biggest enemy: YOURSELF. Your own fears and limiting beliefs might be the biggest obstacles you find on your journey. They will try to stop you focusing on what is important, they will whisper your weaknesses into your ears, they will tell you what a failure you are and they will find a million other ways to doubt yourself. Being a successful business owner is also a journey where you get to know yourself and win over self-limitation and self-sabotaging.
Coaching tip: focus on what is within your control and do everything you can to improve those areas. If your partner is not supporting you, initiate an open conversation to understand each other better. If you don’t have time, look at it honestly. Where could you cut more hours to dedicate to your business? For example, instead of watching five episodes of your favorite series and scrolling social media for hours, go for a quick run to recharge your batteries and then get back to work with all the endorphins you just generated. If you know nothing about finance, hire someone who does or invest in yourself and start to learn about it. The more consciously you create your life, your habits and control your own thoughts, the more successful and balanced you and your business will be.
+1 Believe in yourself
Imagine that you have all the confidence in the world, you are 100 % sure that you will get what you want. What would you do differently if you completely believed in yourself and in your success? Would you talk to more people about your business? Would you dare to design those original shoes instead of trading with other people's dreams? Would you go and sell at Sunday markets? Or would you regularly post videos on social media?
Too often we limit ourselves because of lack of self-confidence as we don’t want to be visible and we don’t want our business to be visible. What if you had no fear?
Coaching tip: actually imagine that you have no limits, no fears, you are full of confidence and people notice that empowering vibe around you. What would you do differently in your business with such strong and positive energy?
If you are eager to work on these and several other key areas of a successful entrepreneurship, grab a copy of my new e-book, Entrepreneur's Mindset Academy with exercises and resources that will guide you to create an advanced vision and strategy, support you to deep-dive into your own fears and limitations and learn how to overcome them and master the growth mindset and be the creator of your prosperous future.
Eszter Zsiray, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Eszter Zsiray is a Certified Life Coach, author, blogger and creator of the program VELL©, supporting her clients on three continents to successfully transform their lives.
With 17+ years of leadership experience she is passionate about human potential and growth. Her research areas are ownership & responsibility, self-sabotaging behaviours, the positive impact of confidence and empowerment, growth mindset and healthy habits for a mental and physical wellbeing.
As a mother herself she is committed to serve women and mums and she created a special programme for new mothers to adjust to the new life challenges and a programme for women entrepreneurs to shift into the proper mindset and to thrive in their professional and personal lives.
