2 Tips on developing the mindset of an Entrepreneur

Get Bored Easily
As a management consultant, I have found that my most entrepreneurial clients get bored quickly, and seek to continually reinvent themselves. They test out new products / services, and drop old ones when they get bored.

Turn Problems into Opportunities
The best example of this tip is the famous 1930's jazz pianist Art Tatum. When he would travel for performances, he would often find that the piano at the night club or venue would have broken keys, or be out of tune. Rather than get upset however, Tatum would get excited! He would spend the day incorporating the flaws into his music, and would end up giving an improvised, one of a kind performance. This is a must-have skill for entrepreneurs! Problems are always occurring. Intead of simply fixing them, and getting back to the status quo, the best entrepreneurs recognize an opportunity for innovation, and improve the product or service beyond the old normal.

The Easiest and Hardest Parts of Running A Business

The easiest part of running a business is doing the actual work itself (i.e. satisfying the customer). 

Most business owners started their business because they found something that they enjoy doing, are good at, and enjoy helping other people with. 



The hardest part of running a business is getting customers.  This is because:
     
     1. Most business owners are not trained marketers.

     2. We are in the Attention Scarcity Age, where everyone is bombarded with demands for their time and attention.

The Hard Truth of Becoming an Entrepreneur

As the owner of a solo consulting firm, I'm an entrepreneur myself and also work with other small businesses.  As I learned from my mentor Alan Weiss, the hard truth about being an entrepreneur is that, no matter what product or service you provide, your main business is marketing (not sales).

Especially for services, cold calling doesn't really work, since we are in the Attention Scarcity Age.  People are bombarded with pitches, emails, social media posts, etc.  

Somehow, entrepreneurs need to break out of the noise and attract prospects to come to them.  The insidious thing is that this issue doesn't manifest itself right away.  Most entrepreneurs have enough connections that they can attract customers for a year or two.  But, then business starts to dry up and they find that they need to attract people outside their circle.

This is the hard truth of entrepreneurship: either build a pipeline to keep providing prospects, or else suffer feast or famine.

Think Like An Entrepreneur: Continuing Education and Reinvention

What I love best about being an entrepreneur is that I control the training budget, and can pay for any training I feel will increase my value to my clients and give me a great ROI.  


When I was in the corporate world, even in management, training was one of the first things that were cut to reduce expenses and I felt that, rather than invest in keeping employee's skills updated, corporations were willing to simply replace them when new skills were needed. 

So, even if you are an employee, in this case it pays to think of yourself as an entrepreneur.  Be willing to invest in yourself, and keep your skills relevant.  

Don't let your career stagnate.   Look for opportunities to reinvent what you do.