Steps to becoming an entrepreneur

For many, pursuing their business plan and becoming a successful entrepreneur is a dream prevented from coming true by fear of risk, the uncertainty of irregular income and perhaps also a lack of business finance. Having access to digital marketing consulting services in South Africa will of course also be important. Despite this many are so passionate about their ideas that decide to take the leap, often with rewards of self fulfillment, independence and the freedom to run the business in the way they may choose. But of course starting a new business is not always that straight forward and even the best known entrepreneurs out there have not achieved what they have without good business planning, plenty of hard work and a strong sense of commitment and flexibility in working towards their dream.

So what does this mean for you? What can we learn from those who have gone before us?

 Here are some entrepreneurial skills that you can work at developing as you learn how to become an entrepreneur.

   1. Create your new entrepreneurial mindset. Before you can become successful, you have to create a new mindset to achieve the things you want in your life. Examine your current mindset, and how that way of thinking has gotten you to where you're at right now. Be honest with yourself when looking over your current results, because this will give you an accurate measure of the choices that you have made over the years. Only then will you begin to see for yourself that it is time for you to work on your new mindset in order to start living the life you want to experience, regardless of your current circumstances. Once your new entrepreneurial mindset is in motion, you will start making very creative choices to move you faster to your desired goals. Find three to four successful entrepreneurs that have the lifestyle that you want, and ask them if you can interview them individually to understand the reasons why they are so successful at what they do in their current business as an entrepreneur. While you are listening to them, take notes, examine what they say to you about themselves and their success, and grasp what type of mindset they have now in their lives. This will propel your own success in so many different ways because you will be able to apply what you have learned to your own mindset.

      Apply personal development in your daily life starting today. For example, read good self-help books like the one mentioned at the end of this article. Listen to self-improvement tapes, CDs, and as an extra bonus, attend a least one personal development seminar a year to help grow, maintain and keep your new entrepreneur mindset growing everyday. Your level of awareness will increase greatly with the new mindset that you are creating to go after the things you want in your life. Having an open mind as an entrepreneur will also help you make better decisions quickly, and become more creative.

   2. Get out three blank sheets of white paper and a pen or pencil. Take out three blank sheets of white paper and a pen or pencil. You are going to write down your new mindset as an entrepreneur on your sheets of paper. Writing down what you want (and what you are going to achieve as an entrepreneur) is a very powerful activity that you are making a habit of now. Taking out your sheets of paper right now is a serious gesture that you are making to let your subconscious mind know you are a person of action. This step will help propel you on your new journey, the journey of taking the necessary steps needed to achieve your desired goals. These three blank sheets of paper represent your future. As an entrepreneur with a new mindset you can paint any picture you want to on the three sheets of paper, regardless of your current circumstances.

   3. Write down all of your new ideas as an entrepreneur on the first sheet of paper. Label the first blank sheet of paper you have as number one. You have been spending some time changing the way you think, and creating a new entrepreneur mindset: Start writing down all of the new ideas that you have as an entrepreneur now. The entrepreneur ideas that you are writing down now are the ones that you have been thinking about in your mind that you want to create and achieve in your physical presence now. For example, if you have a burning desire in your heart to start your own daycare center, restaurant, hotel, or create a product for people to buy, then write down all of your ideas in every detail. Write down how big the daycare center is going to be, where it is going to be located, what color the building is going to be, how many children you will allow to be kept in your daycare, how many people you will staff, what type of services you will provide to the parents and children coming to the daycare. This is a perfect example of how you can start writing down all of your ideas as an entrepreneur on the sheet of paper now.

   4. Write your short-, middle- and long-term goals down on the second sheet of paper. A short-term goal is something you want to achieve in one day, one week or one month. A middle-term goal is something you want to achieve in ninety days to six months. A long-term goal is something you want to achieve in one year or more. Write down what you want to achieve as an entrepreneur on the second blank sheet of paper. List them in the categories stated above as short-, middle- and long-term goals. At the top of the paper, you can have your short-term goals, in the middle section of the paper, you can have your middle-term goals, and at the bottom of the paper you can have your long-term goals (if necessary use the back side of the sheet of paper). Be creative when writing down your goals because this is your life that you will be experiencing in the near future. This is one of the biggest reasons why 1% of our population is earning around 96% of all the money that’s being earned in our world today. They set goals, and they keep at them until they have seen them through into their physical manifestation.

   5. Write down fifty things you want to experience in your life now on the third sheet of paper. Write down fifty things that you want to experience in your life now on the third blank sheet of paper. You can start really having some fun in this step by writing down fifty things that you want right now regardless of your current bank account, job, business or relationships in your life now. Those fifty things that you write down will help you to understand that you can have whatever you want in your life as an entrepreneur. However, you have to first know what you want in detail. For example, you might want a brand new house in the city that you are currently living in. If you write down that you want a brand new house, however, that is not what you really want, and it is not in enough detail for you to realize that you can have what you want now. If you write down that you want a brand new two-story house that has five bedrooms, and four bathrooms with a whirlpool Jacuzzi in the master bedroom upstairs, and brown hardwood floors all throughout the downstairs of the house, now you are really writing about wanting that house! You can see it clearly in your mind, and you will surely take the necessary actions when the time comes to buy that home (without violating the rights of others in achieving your goal). This will surely move you in the direction of taking the steps necessary to meet your goals. Many wealthy entrepreneurs get what they want every time because they write it down on paper first; then, they go after it in their daily life.


   6. Integrate personal development into your daily lifestyle. Start applying personal development everyday in your daily life. With the new mindset you have now, you should continue to feed your mind everyday with personal development. For instance, you can take out three minutes in a day and meditate on goals or just clear your mind of everything for the moment. Read a good book on personal growth, listen to meditation music, have a conversation with a positive person and people or obtain a personal development program to help keep your mind on track in accomplishing your goals. The meaning of personal development can be found in the term "self-help," which means any practice whereby an individual or a group attempts self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually or emotionally. So you see this is some great stuff to add as a part of your daily life and it will certainly help move you in the right direction. Successful entrepreneurs apply personal development in their daily lives everyday. They work ninety percent on themselves, and ten percent on their businesses. So with that in mind, personal development is a must to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

   7. Give yourself a command and follow it. Now that you have been thinking and writing about your goals, the things you want, and your ideas as an entrepreneur, give yourself a command on what you want to achieve first as an entrepreneur, and follow it until you see it through to the finish. Then you can move on to something else that you want to focus on and achieve. You will continue the same process over and over--whatever you decide you want to achieve, give yourself a command and follow it until it is achieved. This is part of achieving entrepreneur success.

   8. Keep your new mindset positive by hanging around like-minded individuals. Hang around more like-minded individuals daily, monthly and yearly to keep a positive mindset. Hanging around individuals that have the same entrepreneurial concepts that you do will keep your mindset in a positive state, and on the right track to achieve your goals. You can hang around like-minded individuals by either listening to a group of individuals on the phone via conference calls, attending seminars, being part of an online forum of positive people like yourself, and keeping in contact with the positive like-minded people you have formed a relationship with on your journey in achieving your goals. The more positive like-minded people you associate with regularly, the more it will certainly keep moving you in the direction of becoming successful as an entrepreneur.

   9. Take seven minutes out of everyday to visualize the end result of your goal in your mind. Take seven minutes out of your day to visualize the end result of your goal that you have decided to achieve within a specific time frame (as mentioned in step number three). For example, if you decided to own your own daycare center, then you could spend seven minutes in the day visualizing about every aspect of your daycare center as if you currently owned it in the present moment. You can also start off visualizing everything that you wrote about the daycare center in step number three. Then you can work your way to the end result of having the daycare center in your possession now. For instance, visualize the amounts of checks that you are receiving from your customers now that you have the daycare center, visualize different cars parked at your daycare center parking lot, visualize the joint ventures that you have created with other daycare center owners in your area in providing better services in your city. Before successful entrepreneurs became successful, they first visualized the end result of their goal, and continued to dwell on that end result a few minutes of everyday until it became a part of their experience in life.

  10. Put four positive affirmation statements on a sticky note around your home, office, and work area in times when you need to be encouraged as you move forward with your new idea. Place your affirmation statements in a specific area in your home, office, and work area to help continue your encouragement in accomplishing your new ideas. Affirmations should always be written as positive statements in the present tense. Placing four affirmation statements on a sticky note around an area that you visit most often will further your actions toward your goal because your affirmations will began to work as supportive thoughts, and a placeholder for a more positive mindset in your daily life. Your affirmation statements should always be written in present tense such as, "I own a daycare center in South Africa," or you can write, "I am a daycare center owner in South Africa." Keep your affirmation statements short, positive, and to the point of what it is that you want to see manifested as an entrepreneur in your life now. You will definitely be putting yourself in the 1% bracket of our population that gets everything they want out of life.

  11. Sign your name to the sheets of papers with your new ideas, goals, and the things you want in your life as an entrepreneur. Put your signature on the end of the sheets of paper where you have written down all of your new ideas, goals and the things you want to experience in your life as an entrepreneur. By doing this step, it will promote a sense of seriousness within yourself, that you mean business in accomplishing your ideas, goals and what you want. You also will feel that you have already completed your aspirations by signing your documents of personal achievement. Your signature represents a decided heart and a new mindset. Eric Rodriguez

  12. Make a decision to yourself that you will never give up on your new ideas and goals until you see them manifest in your life. Do yourself a huge favor right now and go ahead make the decision to never give up on your new ideas, and goals until you see them manifested in your life as an entrepreneur. Many unsuccessful entrepreneurs in today’s society give up on their goals and ideas at the first sign of temporary defeat. There is no such thing as failure, only temporary defeat in life, period. When a successful entrepreneur has a temporary defeat, he remains calm, relaxed, and confident in his quest to achieve his goal because he understands that every temporary defeat is backed by a great or equal number of successes in his life. That’s why many successful entrepreneurs always get what they want in life; they never give up on what they want.

  13. Take action on your new ideas and goals as an entrepreneur. You have been taking action all throughout this article in the steps listed above, so now it is time for you to take the necessary action to make it happen. This step is the meat and potatoes or the salad and yogurt (if you are watching what you eat, you get the picture). Take action everyday on your new ideas and goals as an entrepreneur. You deserve the best that life has to offer, so the only gap between knowing what to do and doing it, is action. Take action everyday regardless of your current circumstances in life. As an entrepreneur with a new mindset, you are the leader, and it's time for you to start living successfully as an entrepreneur in today’s world.

These ideas may not all be straight forward and perhaps not what you see as important to secure business success but the key issue here is that we have to learn from both the best and worse who have gone before us to ensure our own changes of success increases.

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