How does someone “become” an entrepreneur?
I was talking with a mama friend recently about her own life path and the sense she’s had for years that she could be doing something “bigger.” She’s currently working a remote corporate job from home. Although I know she’s lived as an expat in both Spain and Ireland for multiple years in her 20s, now she’s back to a more traditional daily life (or as Kit & Viv from Nomad & Spice would say “muggle” life.) However, it’s entirely by choice, and she’s very happy in her beautiful home with her husband and toddler.
We spent a lovely morning (and evening) catching up during my recent visit, and she admitted that she’s been thinking and dreaming about doing something “else” and starting a business or maybe even a non-profit. It seemed clear that she’s beginning to wonder how she could start moving those ideas from “Someday Maybe” and into action. It was that conversation as much as anything that inspired me to write today about some of the steps involved in “becoming” an entrepreneur.
Maybe you’re currently a digital nomad, but you’re working a remote job for a corporation and feeling ready for something bigger, as my friend is…
Maybe you’ve been “freelancing” and just grabbing gigs on Upwork for a while, but you’ve never really considered yourself an entrepreneur who’s running a business, building a team, or a brand…
Maybe you’ve been starting a business, but not fully “claimed” your identity as an entrepreneur…
If any of these feel true or familiar to you, then let’s get you out of neutral and into gear on your personal path toward greater purpose and clarity.
Entrepreneurs Are Problem-Solvers
At their core, entrepreneurs are people who create solutions to specific problems. Our solutions might be through offering services, developing products, or creating opportunities. If we’re successful, then our solutions are so valuable that others are delighted to compensate us to have access to those solutions (that’s the business part ;).)
Which means that the first three questions for anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur are:
- Who do you want to serve?
- What problem will you solve?
- How can you solve it?
Got it? Let me offer some examples:
Problem: We need to file taxes every year, and they are complicated to figure out particularly if you’re an American digital nomad or expat.
Target Market: Digital Nomads or Expats from the USA.
Solution: Start an accounting and tax preparation business to file taxes for digital nomads and expats from the USA.
Problem: Online entrepreneurs often struggle with generating the conversion-focused copy for email campaigns, launches, or FB/IG Ads.
Target Market: Online entrepreneurs who hate to write copy or struggle with conversion-focused writing.
Solution: Start a copywriting business focused on writing conversion copy for online entrepreneurs.
Problem: Many senior golfers are not limber enough to keep the fluidity and strength needed to keep a “good swing.”
Target Market: Senior golfers who want to improve their golf swing (and overall fitness)
Solution: Create an online business that teaches senior golfers simple yoga sequences and nutritional changes they can make to “get their swing back.” (I personally know someone who’s considered starting this business…and if you’re reading this, then you know who you are ;).)
Every entrepreneur (at the most basic level) has answered these three questions: Who, what, and how? So, finding your answers to these questions is Step #1 to become an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs Are Visionaries
Truly successful entrepreneurs also share an ability to imagine and envision amazing futures.
4. How would the lives you touch be different if they no longer had that specific problem?
5. How will your life be different if you build a business to serve these people fully and with passion?
6. [Bonus] How could the world be different if this problem was solved on a massive, even global scale?
I’ve recently been enjoying listening to some interviews with Mike Michalowicz (author of Profit First, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, and Clockwork), and he declares that his personal mission is to “Eradicate Entrepreneurial Poverty.”
His work (particularly since his book Profit First) has been to teach entrepreneurs, but even more importantly bookkeepers, accountants, and other financial professionals who work with entrepreneurs his Profit First system. He’s identified a BIG problem about how entrepreneurs handle their financial management and planning, created a system to solve that problem, and crafted a business that envisions a future in which this problem is gone, eradicated like smallpox.
Having a clear vision of the future, whether that’s on a local or global scale, is one of the most valuable tools an entrepreneur has. It provides motivation for powering through the daily tasks when they feel hard. It provides inspiration for your team to give their best to their work. It guides you to know what is and isn’t “worth doing.” If the task will not push you clearly toward that vision, then it’s a no.
These questions allow you to answer your WHY.
Mapping Your Route
Basically, if you can answer these questions, then you are truly on your way toward becoming an entrepreneur. With your answers to these questions you will know:
Present/Starting Point – Who you will serve and what problem they are experiencing?
Future/Ending Point – How life will be different for them (and for you) when this problem is resolved?
The road between this present and future is the HOW… your process, method, or system to achieve the outcome and solve the problem. That’s your route, the journey that you will take to develop your business and serve your market.
You have to know where you’re starting and where you’re ending before you can successfully map a road between them. However, allow me to caution those of you who then get stuck in thinking and mapping rather than taking action. You will NEVER know the full route for this journey until you start walking it.
You simply start walking (aka taking action and building your business,) and as you build it, you will identify which routes work best. If you spend too much time “planning” your business but not developing and implementing it, then you’ll get stuck in perfectionism and analysis paralysis. This mud pit is one into which too many budding entrepreneurs get stuck and never escape. There are many amazing potential businesses that never have the chance to blossom because of this perfectionist mud pit.
Don’t let yours become one of them… remember, entrepreneurs are problem-solvers. When you find a new problem, then get curious, get creative, and find someone who’s already solved it. It take a village, and we’re all helping solve each other’s problems most of the time!
As your business grows you will figure out your personal systems and solutions that keep your business focused, functioning, and growing. As you do, then you’ll want a copy of Your Freedom Map eGuide to help you end the grind and start creating a business that can run on auto-pilot 😉.
It will help you:
- Brainstorm the processes that you can simplify, document, and delegate to start freeing your time and energy.
- Learn the difference between a system, a process, and a tool so that you can always be solving the right problem not just churning through new productivity apps.
- Get a step-by-step approach to clarify your business processes so they become easier to do and to delegate.
- Identify the areas of your business where you’ve been “flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” for too long and wasting time and energy.
- Discover the 7 Core systems that you NEED to run ALL 50+ Business Processes.
This journey to become an entrepreneur (or to fully claim your identity as one) is so worth it!! After over 16 years of building and growing businesses, I truly can’t imagine any other life. I hope this will help you to take your next step on your business building journey. This is your year… claim it!
