How To Think Like An Entrepreneur

During this section of the Business Start Up course, Richard McMunn discusses how you can start to think like an Entrepreneur.

Take a look at the two lists below and you will notice that there is a distinct difference between how an entrepreneur thinks as opposed to someone who is not in business:

Person not in business

• I’ll continue working here because of my pension.
• The job is steady and secure.
• I only have 10 years until I retire.
• I have a high position within the organisation/company.
• I have a good company car.
• I’m glad the weekend is here.
• Is it Monday already?
• I could run a business.

The Entrepreneur

• I need to make money so I can retire whenever I want.
• I want to be financially free.
• I don’t want to stop running my business.
• I am in control of my own future and destiny.
• I own my own car.
• Is it the weekend already?
• Thank goodness it’s Monday!
• I am running a business.

The advantages

The advantages of being an entrepreneur far outweigh the benefits of a secure career with a fixed salary. Don’t get me wrong, we have the utmost admiration for the person who holds down a steady job and always provides for his or her family. However, after spending years and years working for someone else it can become seriously frustrating.

Frustrations like these are not uncommon, especially if you are an employee working for a 'controlling' employer. Decisions seem to take an age to be made. Senior managers are more concerned with themselves, their status and their future as opposed to the benefit of the organisation or company.

The fact is you have the power to make your own decisions, which are based solely on the benefit of the company and your financial wealth. You have no need for status or promotion and you can start to enjoy working providing you start to think like an Entrepreneur.

Think laterally, not literally!

A man was driving home in his car one cold and wet winter’s evening when he suddenly realised he had a puncture in one of his tyres. He pulled over and got out of his car to investigate the problem. He decided to change the wheel and replace it with the spare tyre that he kept in the boot of his car.

He began by loosening all of the wheel nuts one by one until the wheel became loose. Then, by accident he dropped three of the wheel nuts down a drain leaving him with only two left. He stood there wondering what to do. He had no breakdown cover and it was too late to call anyone for assistance. Then, out of nowhere he had an idea! He undid one nut only from each of the remaining three wheels and used them to secure the spare wheel. Then he drove home safely at a slower speed.

It is this type of lateral thinking that will help you to see things that other people wouldn’t normally see.

Develop your mind to see opportunities and you will find success.

Self Motivation

Motivation is the drive and desire to succeed. It is the catalyst to your success and something that should come naturally when you are running your own business. Of course 100% motivation is unsustainable all of the time, but you should naturally feel the drive and energy to become successful. If ever you have an off day or feel a little de-motivated, then always take time out and do something different. Learn to know when your unlikely to perform at my best and a brisk walk for an hour will always get you back to full levels of motivation.

Keeping fit and healthy will also play an important part in your success. Many successful entrepreneurs understand that a healthy body and mind is essential if they are to succeed. You will be working very hard at times and often late into the night so you will need to be at peak fitness.

Fitness is also a great way to take your mind off your new venture and this in turn will help you to come back to it totally refreshed an invigorated.

Failure is an opportunity!

It is inevitable that failure will cross your path somewhere along your route to success. How you view ‘failure’ or the mistakes that you make along the way is important.

It is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, within every failure or mistake there is an opportunity. You just need to learn how to identify the opportunity and turn it to your advantage.

Secondly, we wouldn’t be who we are today without learning from the mistakes we have made. Making mistakes, and more importantly learning from them, will turn us into better entrepreneurs. As soon as you make a mistake, or fail in your pursuit to achieve something significant, ask yourself the following questions:

• ‘Where is the opportunity here?’

• ‘How can I learn from this and make it work for me?’

Most people usually get down following a mistake or failure but you must learn to adapt your thinking and mentality to turn negative situations into positive ones.

Learn to take responsibility

Remember that you are the key to your destiny. You control your future and therefore you must take responsibility for it.

In order to become a successful entrepreneur you don’t have to be good at everything. You will decide which jobs you want to do yourself.

I understand that in order to become successful I will need to employ people who are better than me at specific jobs or tasks. Only you will know what you are good at and the jobs that you want to be involved in. Many successful entrepreneurs will employ people who are highly trained and experienced in their roles in order to help them improve their company or business. You should adopt this same principle once you have established what role you want to play in the growth of your own enterprise.

Remember to take full responsibility for the outcome of every situation and improve at every opportunity. If somebody makes a mistake, look for ways to prevent it from happening again.

Stick to what you’re good at!

When deciding what business to set up, bear in mind the following:

You are far more likely to succeed in a business venture that you have experience of. Trying to start a business in an area that you have little or no knowledge of will only cause you problems and difficulties.

For example, if I tried to start a business making wedding cakes I know that I would struggle and come up against many difficulties, simply because I have no knowledge or experience in this area. Yes, I could employ someone to do it for me but I’d still be in the dark about how to develop a business in this area. The advice to anyone who is thinking of starting up their own business is to think of areas that you are either good at, or have experience in. In addition to this you are also more likely to think of business ideas that relate to a field you have experience in.

One idea at a time!

Once you come up with your first idea, take the time to make it grow and develop, ensuring that you give it your full attention.

One of the problems that you may encounter in the early years is that you start to come up with more ideas than you can cope with! Whilst this is great for you, it is still important that you concentrate on one idea at a time and be cautious not to spread yourself too thinly.

You will also find that because your business is new, customers will be cautious about using your service or buying your product. Therefore it is essential that you put time and effort into every area of your business so that it runs smoothly and without too many glitches.

Networking and Contacts

Every entrepreneur understands the power of having good connections, but the most enterprising connections aren’t made in a room full of people. Networking will be essential to your business’ success and how you go about creating your contacts is very important.

Networking has many benefits. For example, when I first started the business How2become I attended a start up course through Business Link. As a result of this I met a very good business advisor who still provides the company with advice to this day. He then put me in touch with an exceptional freelance writer who has successfully contributed to a number of guides that the company sells. In addition to this the freelance writer put me in touch with a very good accountant who now looks after the finances for the business. Hopefully now you are beginning to see the importance of networking and how one contact ultimately leads to another one.

Entering competitions

When you start your business, and you begin to reach a point where you are making sustainable progress, consider entering local and national business competitions.

To begin with, it will make you raise your game. It will also make you create a business plan and it will make you look at every area of your business closely. Most competitions require you to submit an application form or entry slip where you have to answer a number of questions about your business.

After about a year of trading I decided to enter the company into a number of competitions. With some of them we didn’t get anywhere, whilst with others we found success. One thing I began to realise very early on was that by entering these competitions it forced us to improve the business. It also gave the company valuable free publicity. If you find success in a competition, the competition organisers will automatically send out a press release telling the local media about your new found success. Naturally, this can be great for sales and you may even find that your sales increase as a result.

Protect your environment

One of the first and most important rules in business is to protect your environment.

As an entrepreneur you will constantly be watching your competitors and trying to close the door on any ‘holes in your business’ that people could exploit. For example, make sure you protect your business name and if necessary apply for trademark protection or patent your idea. Whilst this can be a lengthy and expensive process it is certainly worth the effort and the additional cost.

The National Business Register is an excellent source for protecting your business name against ‘passing off’ and other common problems.

You will also want to protect your intellectual property by way of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to allow creators to gain economic rewards for their efforts and so encourage future creativity and the development of new material, which benefits us all. Copyright material is usually the result of creative skill and/or significant labour and/or investment, and without protection it would often be very easy for others to exploit material without paying the creator. There is no official registration system for copyright in the UK and most other parts of the world. There are no forms to fill in and no fees to pay to get copyright protection. You do not need to register copyright - there is no official registration system. This is why protection is said to be automatic. So long as you have created a work that qualifies for copyright protection, that is it falls into one of the categories of material protected by copyright, then you will have copyright protection without having to do anything to establish this. It is a requirement of various international conventions on copyright that copyright should be automatic with no need for registration.

This can be very beneficial to a person who creates a copyright work, as worldwide protection is given for the creation without the creator having to do anything. However, copyright owners can take certain precautions to help protect their rights. A copy of your work could be deposited with a bank or solicitor. Alternatively, a creator could send himself or herself a copy by special delivery post (which gives a clear date stamp on the envelope), leaving the envelope unopened on its return.

Whatever you do, make sure you take the time to protect your business environment and intellectual property.

Non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements

Think very carefully about disclosing your idea before you have obtained protection for it.

Disclosure can invalidate your ability to apply for protection.

In many cases, a third party may agree to sign a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement (NDA). Many businesses will not do this as a matter of policy. They may already be working on a similar product and signing an NDA could jeopardise this.

If you have to disclose your idea, talk to an intellectual property advisor first. They can advise you on the best course of action to take.

Remember, you will only start to achieve real success when you start to think like an Entrepreneur!

Richard McMunn | Founder and Managing Director | How2become Ltd

To move onto the next section of the Business Start Up Course, entitled 'Business Financial Management, please click here.