How To Become An Entrepreneur

jasongandy (36)in #entrepreneurship • 7 years ago (edited)

Build THIS Business

There are many business models out there that you can build, and I’ve tried many of them. Some worked for me, some did not. But in every single business model, I have met dozens of people that WERE successful at the one’s that didn’t work for me. This was for many reasons, but the point is you have to start building, and maybe fail, and build again to figure out which business model works best for you and your natural skill sets.

The most important thing is to get started. You don’t need to have the perfect plan or idea. As you actually take action and build, you will see the opportunities and get the ideas that you would not have gotten otherwise. It doesn’t matter where you start, whether it’s creating a website or setting up a new Facebook group, but you have to get off your ass and get moving.

Learning to build a business is like learning to fight. You can watch all the Bruce Lee movies, play all the martial arts video games, and even attend boxing or MMA events. You can read all the martial arts books and buy martial arts gear so you look like you can fight, but until you actually put on the gloves and start throwing punches and taking hits, you will never learn to fight. The same goes for starting your business. You can attend all the webinars, take all the business courses, and go to all the seminars. You can read all the business books and dress like a businessman, but until you start trying, and failing...and trying again, you will never reach your goal of running a successful business.

If you are serious about building a business to earn a living, you do not have time to stop and smell the roses. Money likes speed. If you only hustle on Monday, Wednesday and Friday...but your competition hustles 7 days a week...you will lose unless you have a truly special gift or talent that the competition does not. Which brings me to my next point.

The most important skill anyone can have to achieve success in entrepreneurship is self awareness. You have to know your capabilities, your strengths & your weaknesses. Being truly self aware gives you the rare ability to know what needs to be done, and whether or not you are the right person to do it. Do you remember the saying, ‘You can be whatever you want in life, as long as you work hard?’ This is nonsense. You have to be self aware. I could practice 24/7 from the time I was a child, train with all the coaches, and practice every single day, but I would still never have enough natural talent (or height) to make it to the NBA. Somebody like Lebron James could hardly ever practice, and have a 100x more likelihood to make it than me. I’m self aware enough to know that my body is not designed for basketball. Even if I had that burning desire, I do not have the other attributes required to succeed in the NBA, such as height and a 60 inch vertical jump.

You have to know yourself, your skills, your talents, what you can do physically, mentally, whether you're an introvert or extrovert, what you are good at, and what you are not good at. Once you figure this out, you will have a good idea of what business you were designed to build. It would have been a huge waste of time for me to spend the best years of my life trying to make the NBA at 5’10...150lbs. Don’t waste time, it’s the most valuable commodity. Figure out what business you should be spending time on, based on self awareness and a honest assessment of yourself.

How To Replace Your Job

In order to build a lifestyle business to replace a full-time job, you first have to decide on the type of business that is right for your specific skill set and talents. Sometimes you have to try things out before you can see that it’s not right for you. But the key is to find this out as quickly as possible. You do not want to waste valuable time on something that you don’t like, or can’t do easily. As they say, “Fail Fast” and move on to the next opportunity. I spent over 2 years testing all sorts of online business models. Personally, I’ve always learned best through trial & error. Some things worked unbelievably well, and some failed miserably.

For instance, I would talk to many authors that are making a full time living from simply writing ebooks. I decided to give it a shot, and quickly learned that my passion and skills for writing are not at a level needed to have the success as them. I currently have 2 books published, but I know it would take years of practice and learning to get good enough and actually have the desire to earn a living from ebooks.

But after years of trial & error, or what I like to call “Research & Design (R&D),” I finally reached the point where I felt comfortable leaving my job and pursuing an entrepreneurial career. Exactly 5 months ago (So far so good…)

If you are not sure what your talents are and what you are meant to do, I suggest trying out various business models that you think you could dedicate a lot of time to. You want something that you actually enjoy doing. As long as you are having fun, you are never working.

And remember to keep self awareness in mind. I could practice golf for 10 hours a day for the next 5 years, and I would still not be good enough to even come close to the natural talents of Tiger Woods, or any other professional golfer for that matter.

Once you find a business model that is right for you, it’s now time to put your head down and work. You have to devote as many hours per day as you can spare to building your dream. If you’re like 95% of people, right now you are saying “I don’t have time, because…” This mentality will lead nowhere but failure. You have to ask yourself, “How can I MAKE time?”

If you actually take the time to think, there are many areas in your day that can be eliminated and replaced with productive work. A few examples would be to cut television, reduce time on Facebook or wake up earlier. Stop going out on weekends until you accomplish your goal. If you sleep for 8 hours per night, start sleeping 7 hours, and use that extra hour to build your business. You need time to both learn your craft, and also to build it. Find a mentor that has already accomplished what you wish to achieve, and find a way to get his help. Even if that means paying him. Isn’t it worth having a business that provides you with freedom and income?

Once you realize you have the time, it is just as important how you spend that time. You should only spend time on income producing activities such as creating products, finding clients and marketing services. If you are doing non-profit producing activities, such as checking your email every 5 minutes...you are wasting time.

Forget about all the other possible online businesses you could start, and focus only on the one your are building at the moment. You are going to hear people in your space telling you that there is too much competition the market now, only people that started years ago are making money, and that it’s impossible to achieve your goal for one reason or another. If you do not learn to ignore this, you will fall into a dangerous trap.

"If you think you can do it, you are right. If you do not think you can do it, you are still right."

The goal for the next year or two is to get your business off the ground, and to build a runway of cash to sustain you as you grow your business. In order to build this runway, you need to setup an “escape” account, so you can start depositing money until you have at least 6-12 months of cash saved.

Here are 3 places to find your escape cash:

Your Current Job: You should save a certain amount from each paycheck and deposit it into the escape fund.
Eliminate Expenses: Cut as many expenses as possible and deposit the extra cash. This means eating out less and buying cheaper toilet paper.
Your Business: As your business continues to grow, you will begin earning more and more revenue. Don’t go buy a Ferrari just yet, save it.

After you have your escape cash, and your parachute partly assembled. You can now take the leap!

You should have a good amount of cash for emergencies, and your business should already be earning a profit and growing at a steady and predictable pace. Leaving your job will now give you the time you need to take your business to the next level.

But do not expect this to happen overnight. This process can take anywhere from 2-5 years, depending on your business model, your market, your work ethic and your talent.