One of the most common pitfalls new business owners fall into is believing that they can do everything alone. This is a really strange pitfall since they are precisely the people who should be making the most of every contact they have. They need to take every opportunity for support: physical, intellectual or promotional they can lay their hands on. One of the best ways to get yourself into the right mindset to make your business a success is to work with an entrepreneur. “How difficult is that?”, I hear you say. Not as difficult as you’d imagine. With online entrepreneurs sharing their vast knowledge, often free of charge, there’s never been a better time to find yourself an entrepreneurial coach.
So why might you want an entrepreneur to coach you? Surely if you have a good idea and work hard, the success will come? Not necessarily. Let me give you a sporting example. If you want to become a great tennis player, footballer or skier you’d recruit a coach, wouldn’t you? So why should it be so different in business?
Here are just five ways you might benefit from working with a successful entrepreneur:
1. Experience. A successful entrepreneur, by implication has experience. He or she has gained that experience through good times and bad and like any good role model can share these experiences with you to help you smooth your own route to success.
2. Forewarning. No matter how successful an entrepreneur, they’ll have made mistakes. One of the main things a good entrepreneur can help you with is forewarning you of things that might stand in your way of success. They have faced the pitfalls and survived. They can share these survival strategies with you to help you avoid pitfalls wherever possible.
3. Confidence. Something often lacking in new business owners is confidence. They may well believe 100% in their idea and (most of the time), think they can be a success, but when the going gets tough, it’s often their confidence that “gets going”. One sure-fire requirement of business success is confidence. By working with an entrepreneur you trust, whose style you relate to, you will gain the confidence you need to be a success, to allow you to reach your goals.
4. Attitude. Whether entrepreneurs are born or made is a very difficult question to answer, but there is no doubt that successful entrepreneurs share a common attitude. That attitude is “can do!”, there is no such thing as impossibilities, there are only opportunities. This attitude can be learned and is best learned from someone who you respect and can relate to.
5. Network. One of the keys to entrepreneurial success is knowing you can’t do everything yourself and time spent “re-inventing the wheel” is time wasted. Successful entrepreneurs draw on a network of support in different disciplines that helps them be the best they can be. If you work with an entrepreneur, it’s more than likely that they’ll share their valuable network with you, which will save you lots of sweat, blood and tears finding solutions on your own.
So, if you’re now convinced that you should consider working with an entrepreneur, what should you look for when making your choice? Here’s our top tips:
a. Choose someone with a proven track record. There’s no point in associating yourself with someone who simply calls themselves a successful entrepreneur and has nothing to back up their claim. It’s essential, if you’re going to listen to the advice of anyone that you are confident that they know what they’re talking about. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to be a multi-millionaire or work with corporations, but they do need to have a proven track record that you can relate to.
b. Choose someone whose style you like. If you’re a timid business person, there’s no point in choosing to work with an entrepreneur who shouts his or her success from the rooftops and encourages you to do the same! Try to find an entrepreneur whose style you feel you could emulate and mould to fit you and make you feel proud.
c. Choose someone who speaks your language. If you’re just starting out in business , there’s little point in attaching yourself to an entrepreneur who speaks so much business jargon that you don’t fully understand what they’re saying! Choose your entrepreneur by looking at things they’ve written or videos they’ve produced and make sure you’re on the same wavelength language-wise.
Finally, remember that working with an entrepreneur is no guarantee to overnight success, but it will certainly help!