Growing towards success – breaking down the entrepreneurial mindset

Entrepreneurs and founders must be steadfast believers and unerring in their opinions of their product or service. Here are some star characteristics that are often found in entrepreneurial minds.

While many might, in their more fanciful moments, wish to read minds, it is probably a good thing that we can’t peer into the thoughts of our friends, colleagues, and peers. But delving into one mindset, in particular, can be helpful for many, especially online business owners – the mind of an entrepreneur. A startup has to be constantly morphing, adapting, changing, and growing. How does one transform the seed of an idea into a successful and thriving online business? The answer lies in the entrepreneurial mindset.

Usually, a startup company is built around the vision or ideas of one or two individuals. These people put themselves on the front line and have to overcome many barriers and negativity to see their ideas come to life.

Steve Jobs once said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance”.

Entrepreneurs and founders must be steadfast believers and unerring in their opinions of their product or service.

This belief is essential in dealing with the fears and doubts that assail them in the course of their journey, where they have to constantly deal with the prospect of bankruptcy and the crippling loneliness that come with being a proprietor or partner in a fledgling business. Either out of a kind of natural selection or as a common personality trait amongst entrepreneurs, they are usually optimistic, open to new ideas, and have effervescent minds which constantly throw up new ideas and thoughts. Sleep, clearly, is a rare luxury for them. They have to be willing to roll up their sleeves and take on a variety of roles for their business in different situations – whether it is marketing, analytics, sales, recruitment, or finance. In between all these pressures and demands upon their times, entrepreneurs have to make several sacrifices in their personal life as well.

How do they manage to keep going in these challenging circumstances? Weaker wills and minds would have given up and failed. As the Apple advertising slogan identified, the important ingredient here is that they ‘Think Different’. Here are some star characteristics that are often found in entrepreneurial minds:

• Conquer Fear – We all face fear at some time, and it is a crippling feeling. But entrepreneurs find a way to overcome fear and not let it hold them back! They do not cower in the face of fear but take it as motivation to act on it, push forward, and learn from the experience.
• Curiosity – Entrepreneurs have an unending quest for knowledge – to question the why, where, and how – in their endeavour to understand and deconstruct the world around them. It’s this constant craving that allows them to gain new insights and discover a better way forward and do better than their competitors.
• Focus on new possibilities- Entrepreneurs focus on their goal and imagine what could be and how to get there, rather than worrying about the here and now. Their minds will often travel to a future state with new possibilities, rather than looking backwards.
• Speed – Startups are fast paced. They are not held back by large company policies and processes and break legacy rules and restrictions.

A large company can absorb errors and be ‘good enough’ but as a small startup you have to excel in all areas and one big mistake could prove fatal to your business. You need customers to partner up with you because you go the extra mile, but also because they share your vision and want to be a part of your project and community.

Share your enthusiasm for your online business and customers will want to buy into your ideas.

If you have an idea or notice a requirement in the market, then the first step is to innovate. Provide a solution to the problem and give customers what they need. But what comes next and how do you grow organically? Once you have a solution and are bringing it to market, you will need to expand your business to cater to the demand. This could mean building up your team, trying new technologies, and scaling up your operations. As you continue to taste success in the home market, you might set your sights on international horizons. Build a team that you can trust to be smart, dynamic, hardworking, and perceptive enough for you to rely on them to work in difficult environments and foreign cultures. This will be useful while making your company work and fit culturally with diverse markets and continuing to keep it connected with your brand and the values it stands for.

Is there an ideal plan to follow to create a startup business? Ideally, your plan should flow like this:

• An idea or inspiration
• Build it into a concept
• Create a prototype
• Build your brand

Pitfalls can often include:

• Not knowing the product/market fit
• Most startups fail not from product development, but from lack of consumer interest
• Wasting money on premature scaling

Helpful hints to guide you:

• Have a business plan. A plan will help you to formally visualise and break down what will happen and helps to give you credibility in front of those funding you.
• Conduct a survey. Find out the pros and cons of your business by asking your target audience.
• Don’t go with ‘should’ – Entrepreneurs tend to dislike all pre-conceived ideas and go beyond what you or others think you ‘should’ be doing.
• Hire an accountant/legal professional. Analyse the risks of your business and if the financial side is your weak point hire professionals to help with this.
• Start with sufficient funding. Funding is available from many means – banks, investors, crowdfunding – but it’s not always easy to source. Sufficient funding is crucial to the consistent running of your business, smoothly and for a long period of time.

Ultimately, the entrepreneurial mindset can be beneficial to us all – from businessmen to babysitters – but it’s especially useful as an online business owner. Seize the entrepreneurial mindset and let your creativity and imagination propel your business forward in the online marketplace.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)