So you’ve taken the plunge to become self-employed, be your own boss, become the next Steve Jobs…but you find yourself starting to lose steam…or starting to lose money.
What do you do, now? How do you step back into the entrepreneurial mode with the same enthusiasm that you started with, or at least a renewed drive and confidence that what you’re doing is what you want to do?
Here are a few ideas –
Don’t Be Afraid To Venture Out
So your venture started off as your dream business but turned into something else completely. Mourning the loss of what you thought was your dream business is fruitless, and will only cause heartache (and nights of lost sleep). Don’t be afraid to follow the path that your venture is heading on – if you try and force your company to your whim and your will and you can’t adapt to new situations, the new business (and you yourself) are more likely to to collapse and fail.
Change Your Perspective
If you thought that being an entrepreneur was going to be all sleeping in and working in your pajamas, welcome to your wake-up call. Even though many people with the drive to cuts ties with the traditional business model recognize this fact, more often than not our subliminal understanding of how to run your own business does not match with the reality.
If you feel like you are stuck in your perspective but can’t figure out how to change things to make your business move on the path to success – try putting yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. What questions would they have for you when they called – what kind of things would they want to know? Would they like your website? (Hopefully you actually have a website).
Learn From Others
You’ve got to have some sort of business person that you admire and strive to replicate their successes. But have you ever taken an analytic approach to their methods, success and failures? Take one (or more) of your business icons and cut them down to size.
Read their biography, read any work that they’ve published and track their business over the years – see where they made mistakes, or where you would have done things differently. Pick apart what they did and try and understand the reasoning behind it. And then take the same fine-toothed comb to your own business path.
Be impartial and honest about where your business plan is (potentially) failing and where you are being too timid or too aggressive. Looking at your own business through the lens of your idols can really help you see your own weaknesses and strengths, which will help you move forward.
Ask For More Money
While sometimes entrepreneurs do run into philosophical dilemmas, sometimes the obstacles are more concrete than that – sometimes people will just start running out of money. In this digital era, there are a number of different ways that you can find angel investors or business partners (if you’re willing to perhaps merge with another company or even be acquired) or even use Kick starter as a platform to pitch your business or your idea to the masses and ask that they donate to help you out.
About the Author: Ashley doesn’t work with m&a experts, but she likes to think that she can give some good advice on keeping your business out of an acquisition. She is always looking for new and interesting ways to promote a business, from social media to traditional advertising.