Member Article

How to be a successful entrepreneur.

This is written by global business coach Peter Boolkah who has experience helping entrepreneurs scale up and grow.

With over 25 years experience as a business coach I have worked with some phenomenal entrepreneurs. However, the global business environment is a difficult place to operate in currently and entrepreneurs are human beings. Here are some tips for entrepreneurs who may be finding things challenging at the moment.

Focus on the positives. Over the past few years the economy has been hit by unprecedented events. The pandemic, Brexit, the war in Europe and the cost of living crisis has had a profound affect on businesses globally. A lot of entrepreneurs have been badly hit and it has affected their confidence. Now is the time to build up your mental resilience as business owners. The news agenda is filled with doom and gloom so how can you keep positive and clear headed when you are faced with uncertainty? If you are running a business, focus on what you are good at, on where you bring real value to your clients now. If we focus on what we are good at and stay focused on it, we’ll keep delivering it and we’ll keep bringing the money and business in that we need.

Building a team will help take the pressure off you as a business owner. There are cost implications of course but the more you have a team around you that helps you with those parts of the business which aren’t your specialism, the more you can focus as an individual on the thing that brings the best value to your clients. Also build a network so that you have somebody to pick the phone up to at the end of the day and say, “I’m having a bit of a bad day. Can we just have a chat about something I’m struggling with?” This is especially important for solopreneurs. Being vulnerable is difficult. It’s a learned skill. Recognise that vulnerability is a sign of strength, not weakness. It says something about you and your character and your individuality. You need other people to become the best person that you can be. Self care is paramount when running a business in terms of economic instability. This will help to build that resilience and emotional awareness. Don’t sit in isolation and try and do everything yourself. Locking the problem away rather than solving will cause issues.

Get rid of negativity and negative habits. As business owners we need to be aware of what is going on economically and often we gravitate towards the news to give us this information. However, the news agenda is largely negative. There are other ways of consuming the news you need. Change that habit of watching the news every day at 6pm and finding out what else has gone wrong in the news today. Look at the trade associations which apply to your industry and business and follow their news. The content will relate more to your business needs. Be intentional about where you get your news from. Consider how to find out about people’s successes in your industry and build relationships with them.

Acknowledge your emotions. Be curious about the emotions you are feeling rather than dwelling on them. Recognise them and understand what triggers them. After a while you will be able to identify things that are important for your emotional stability. And that means you can stop them before they get too much. For example cash flow is one of the things that can really affect a small business. For months in a row you can have good cash flow and be able to pay your bills on time then something happens and there’s a little bit of a cash flow crisis. A lot of people go and hide. They avoid paying the bills, but they also avoid talking about it. They are fearful. If you can recognise that feeling before it happens and deal with it then you are building mental resilience.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Hood .