Written by Angie O’Shannessy
When asking the question "What motivated you to take the plunge and devote yourself to your own business full-time?" the most common answer is "losing my full-time/part-time job" and second was “if my boss can make that much money so can I!”
Having been there done that as they say, I can appreciate what a difficult transition that being your own boss can be. Working for someone else is just completely different than working for yourself. One of the problems I have noticed with clients is that you suddenly have to be paying attention to all sorts of things that other people used to look after for you like getting the money your owed, paying the bas, bill’s and wages, working out that some times there is to much month in your budget and them to top it of who’s now looking after my super. It can become very stressful.
Eventually I learned that if I was going to be successfully self-employed, I was going to have to think and act differently, in fact the exact opposite to most other business owners. I had to develop what is called an "entrepreneurial mindset".
Being in business is not for everyone. Being self-employed is very different than being an employee. And some people find it impossible to adjust to the differences. Let's see if you have the necessary entrepreneurial mindset to become self-employed. These are the six traits that I think encapsulate the ways you have to think and behave if you want to make a successful transition from being employed in some one else's business to starting a business of your own.
1) You have to be flexible
If you start a business, you no longer have a job with clearly defined duties and responsibilities. You'll suddenly have multiple jobs, which will be often interrupted by unforeseen circumstances. Many employees are used to having days filled with predictable activities; many self-employed people often fine them selves doing the job’s that they just plan hate doing.
And once you start a business, there's nowhere to pass the buck. As an employee, you may be used to passing problems up along the food chain or not be very involved in decision making. As a self-employed business owner, you're the one who will have to deal with whatever the crisis is and solve the problems. You're the one who will have to make all of the decisions.
2) You have to be self-motivated
When you're an employee, other people tell you what to do, either directly or indirectly. You get used to having your actions directed by others. But you have to direct your own actions as a small business owner. You can't just sit there and hope that maybe some clients stroll in or that someone will drop by out of the blue with inventory for your retail store. No one's going to drop work on your desk or point out what needs to be done. For many people who try to become self-employed and start businesses after having a long-term full-time job, this is the hardest adjustment to make. Being able to do what ever it takes to get the jobs done is essential. And Marketing has to be your best friend. People just done walk in the door, yet lots of small business owners think they do and when it’s not busy there happily reading a magazine or on Facebook wasting the day.
3) You have to be able to recognize opportunities
Most employees do what they're assigned to do. There's someone else whose job is to look out for opportunities, either a boss in a small business, or perhaps a sales department or a managerial team in a large corporation. If you start a business, you need to be the one constantly watching for opportunities - and be able to recognize them when you see them. It might be a small opportunity, such as the chance to pick up a new client, or a large one, it may be getting your product on the shelves in a large retail chain, but as a small business owner, you have to keep scanning the horizon yourself and positioning yourself to benefit from the opportunities that you find. As an employee, you may be used to operating in a "head-down" position; if you're going to start a business and become successfully self-employed, you need to start operating in a different mindset.
4) Plan ahead
Your last job may have involved no planning at all, as that was someone else's job. Or perhaps your job involved planning on a localized level, such as planning a particular project. As a business owner, you need to develop expertise in both short-term and long-range planning; it's about to become a big part of your life.
When you start a business, one of your first tasks will be to work through a business plan. As your business becomes operational, you'll find that this plan (however detailed) needs to be revised and that other plans need to be created, as you work towards the long-range goals that you've set for your business. From following someone else's plan as an employee, you have to learn how to create the plans yourself - and adapt the plan as circumstances change.
5) You need to be constant and consistent
We've all seen employees who are just going through the motions, or who were just "putting in the time" until retirement. You don't need to be a co-worker to know who these people are. As a customer or client you can tell, too. Bluntly, starting a business takes energy, and you need to be able to give it 100 percent. You can't afford to just coast along, or go through the motions, if you're running a business. Your customer and/or clients need to know that you are devoting 100 percent of your talent or skills or attention to them - and will go elsewhere if they don't feel this is the case.
Worse, you need to deliver this constant and consistent effort without the employee safety net. Many employees are used to being able to "call in sick" and have someone else cover their job, for instance. As a self-employed business owner, you'll have to go in and give it your best effort no matter how you feel or close up shop if you don't have employees who can fill in. You can also say goodbye to the holidays that many employees enjoy, both the annual x number of weeks and the statutory holidays, at least until your business is established to the point that you can manage your own time.
6) You have to be able to deal with uncertainty.
As a self-employed entrepreneur, there's no guarantee that the products or services you offer will be in demand six months from now. There's no guarantee that your customers will pay their bills on time or even pay them at all. There's no guarantee that your current big client, who seems to be perfectly happy with your work, won't drop you next week. There's actually no guarantee that you will make any income this month or the month after. For many ex-employees who are used to having a pay cheque arrive regularly the uncertainty of being self-employed is very difficult to deal with.
The point of this article is not to scare you off, but to make you aware of how you have to readjust you’re thinking to make the transition from employee to self-employed business owner. Hopefully as you read through this list of traits you need to become successfully self-employed, you were saying to yourself, "I can do this". Because every one of the traits I've listed here is an attitude or behavior that can be learned, and when it comes to being self-employed, awareness is more than half the battle.
The most important thing is attitude, successful people have the right attitude, you might be saying what’s that, what I have to do to have the right attitude.
What I have done in the past is find someone who has what you want, some one with the business that you would love and look at there behavior, what do they do on a daily basis to achieve the goal that you also want. I would even ask them for advice, most successful people love sharing what makes them stand out of the crowd.
The final step is doing what they do, in every way… If there fit become fit, if they are driven become driven, if they don’t watch tv give up tv, I know this is a bit harsh to some but if you too want the success that’s what you have to do. I almost forgot one of the most important things… Love what you do so much that you would do it for free, this is the difference. Successful people all love what they do it has nothing to do with money, they money comes when what you do is excellent. Have fun and enjoy the journey
