In the last 3 months as I worked to prepare my company’s launch and my jump into the unknown of entrepreneurship, here are some useful learning points I wanted to share with you, or how I have started to look at myself differently:
- You learn a lot about yourself. After I resigned from my employment, there was no turning back – I needed to go for it. I found out it is more an internal struggle than an external one. A lot of things boil down to self-limiting beliefs. When you overcome them you find that the world is quite keen to hear about you and your project. So why hesitate?
- People crave to jump into entrepreneurship: more than 80% of the people I talked to in my former company, after I resigned, expressed support and added something like: ‘I’d love to do this. It has been my dream forever’. And often, they actually provided support and contacts. So, what prevents you really from doing it?
- Our mindset is very much geared towards security, and this impedes people to take action. Those people also added: ‘You have some balls!’. In effect, is it more secure to stay as an employee nowadays? I am not sure!
- I went through some high anxiousness moments myself. They were not entirely rational for sure, because the short term future is assured by a contract that I managed to get, but the lizard repeats in your ear again and again, and louder if something happens like a rejection: ‘that will never work!’. Leaving employment to create your own company can be sometimes an uphill battle!
- It is very important to benefit from the support of family and friends. In particular in these tough moments of doubts, or to find advice and resources. Support and excellent advice often come from unexpected places!
- It is exciting to meet new interesting people and think in terms of what opportunities could be developed. As I try to grow my network I am meeting lots of interesting people and I attend great seminars, speeches etc. OK, I could have done that when I was employed but it gives an incentive to have to do it for your marketing! And that’s a side which I really like being an entrepreneur. I am also free to go to many new events, it’s just a choice by me how I want to spend my time, within certain reasonable bounds.
- Take advantage of the cheap resources like books and blogs to know what to do and what not to do. Thanks to the Fourth Revolution, there are many resources available for close to free! As my development area at this moment is mainly in marketing, I read lots of books, in particular, ‘Book Yourself Solid‘ by Michael Port, ‘Duct Tape Marketing‘ by John Jantsch, and ‘Built to Sell‘ by John Warrillow ; I follow also many blogs or receive newsletters among which Michael Port’s, Pamela Slim’s Escape from Cubicle Nation blog and Tim Berry’s blog.
- Just try and if it fails, you’ll have a direction for improvement. It is much better – faster and more secure – than thinking too long to develop the perfect thing, that might not appeal to anybody! Instead of going to a professional for branding, I have decided to give it a try. I’ll only pay a professional-looking website and branding materials when I’ll be very crystal clear about my niche and will have feedback from clients on the products. My first try at the company’s visual identity was not professional enough, and the feedback from prospective clients and esteemed relations hurt a lot. But it gave the incentive to go for a second try which is much better. In the meantime I had plowed my way through Michael Port’s workbook, had had some discussions with prospective clients and was much clearer about the identity and the tagline for the company, so the second version of the branding look is much more to the point, and much more focused.
- Focus your niche as much as possible. I did not really believe in this widespread advice first, but it is very true, and it works. It helps you define your identity, gives a clear edge for all the resources and tools you develop, and helps you define very clearly what you intend to do. I have already met other entrepreneurs struggling with a too wide range of ambitions. Focus on a small niche first, it does not impede you to take other jobs, and you can grow later. In my case I started from general project management consulting, and now my tagline is “We Empower Organizations to be Reliably Successful in Executing Large, Complex Projects”. Much more focused isn’t it? Focus, Focus, Focus.
- Professional associations are desperate for speakers, a good opportunity to get yourself known. It is relatively easy to get a slot to talk locally, and it is a good starting point for your marketing
In summary, I’ve learnt a lot already in these 3 months, mostly on myself. I feel like I am going on a steep learning curve and that’s what I like most. Stay tuned as I will continue to share with you my insights on my transformation into a Knowledge Exchanging Enhancing Networker!
