No one ever says being an entrepreneur is easy, the challenges are many and varied. From cold calling, pitching for investment or partnerships, juggling the many roles you do to making sure the finances all add up. So how do you develop the entrepreneur’s mindset, to back yourself to make it.
There are over 2.1 million Australians invested as small business, inspired to living out their dreams, from the flexibility to making it big and retiring young or starting the next project. Along with the fabulous perks of being your boss, business owners must manage and deal with risks and opportunities presented daily without pushing themselves to financial ruin or adrenal fatigue.
Calculate your risk, face your fears
Entrepreneurs are often classified with a number of similar traits – whether they’re innate or fostered by the experience of owning their own business is down to the individual. The entrepreneurial mindset is often defined as someone who thinks big, is action oriented and someone who doesn’t stop just because they get a ‘no not possible’ response, instead they find workarounds or pave a new path.
Most business owners will tell you that they often operate outside of their comfort zone and face challenges that leave them second guessing their decisions but they tackle them head on nonetheless.
ForPrezzee.com.aufoundersClaire Morris and Matt Hoggett, opportunities with associated risks is something presented fairly regularly. Both admit at times stress can keep them up at night but notes ‘No decisions are made without investing the time to do adequate research and source the information to make data lead decisions,” says Morris.
Facing your fears and doubts is about preparing for what’s on the horizon. “I really believe there is an art to welcoming risk, allowing yourself to become at peace with the grey space of fear and excitement that breeds innovation. We have spent hours researching and understanding the consumer needs and experimenting with our solution,” says Morris.
Fuel the body, power the mind
Risk takers by nature become incredibly resourceful and spend their timescoping new marketing opportunities to develop or increase cash flow. “We developed Prezzee Business with this in mind – we can now services corporates which is complementary to the consumer product and provides increased revenue all year round vs seasonal gifting periods which is what we predominantly see with the consumer product.”
A work life balance is imperative to ensure you are giving the business the best shot and knowing when to recharge, becoming comfortable in this space isn’t easy “for me it’s about doing everything else in my life to ensure I’m ‘stress fit’. Eating right, going to yoga and spending time doing things that I love in my down time so that I am making decisions in the right frame of mind,” says Morris.
Nail the pitch
A critical time for entrepreneurs is pitching their business ideas to investors and new clients, a time that often signifies the cusp of growth or big opportunities. Getting into the mindset, putting in the preparation to make sure you’re familiar and comfortable with every facet of your business, will mean your presentation will be attractive.
“For me, taking time to know who I’m meeting with including their interests and investments is invaluable – I do my research to understand their business background, knowing their motivations allows me to tailor my pitch accordingly,” says Morris.
With a pretty bold goal to ‘colonise mars’, extreme risk-taker Elon Musk has never let anything come in the way of his vision and has pioneered incredible innovations, all in shadow of financial ruin. Not every business owner has a vision of the same scale, but it’s about being able to define and pitch your vision, setting a big scary audacious goal, and refusing to let anything come in its path.
According to Morris, being able to clearly define the Prezzee vision and value of “building a flexible and fun solution that helps retailers and consumers out” was why they connected so quickly with Prezzee.
“We had rock solid foundations and could clearly articulate our pitch in less than five minutes, I think that’s why we managed to secure major retailers like Myer and JB Hifi,” says Morris.
“As a result we have formed close relationships with all our retail partners allowing us to fulfil requests quickly and on brands.” says Morris.
Welcome change
For most people, the most common response to the unknown is fear. From an evolutionary perspective that’s designed to keep people away from things that might hurt or threaten them. The body responds by pumping us full of adrenalin preparing us to tackle whatever is coming. In the business environment, we are often faced with challenges or risks that can bring about the same response which if left unchecked can lead to fatigue.
“When it comes to new challenges or change, I’ve learned that I need to be open minded and welcome it. If I don’t then I am not allowing every experience to come up as often, it is the most unlikely idea that can sometimes work,” says Morris.
While risk tolerance will always vary from person to person, repeated exposure helps entrepreneurs become more comfortable. Morris says to guarantee success “it’s about adopting a flexible mindset and constantly evolving and tweaking our business in response to feedback or changes in the market”.