How to become a successful entrepreneur? Start where you are

Most of us have become successful in our corporate, professional lives. We are comfortable with what we know and what we have accomplished.

And in this stage of our lives, we also want to do work that we are passionate about. We want to build a business around our passions.

We daydream, say what if, learn, and maybe even do some initial planning.

And then the fear of not knowing stalls us. It prevents us from moving forward. We believe that if we don’t know everything about our topic, we don’t know anything. That we aren’t enough.

Sometimes we think we need to be validated by others before starting a business, getting a MBA for example would make us worthy.

That’s not true.

Start Where You Are and Leverage your existing knowledge

You are enough and you know enough to build a successful business centered on your passions.

Start where you are and leverage your existing knowledge. It will serve you well. Probably better than you think.

Use your knowledge and cumulative experience to provide value to folks in terms of a product or service they want and desire. And are willing to pay for.

Be passionate about that. It’s your business. Be passionate about your business.

Expert enough

We get going. Using our skill set. Applying what we already know to our new adventure and it undoubtedly happens.

We hear the term expert.

It could be a slight reference to someone else, it could be via a direct question to you.

This causes us to stop and doubt ourselves. The term caries a lot of weight. We doubt our knowledge and our abilities.

But during these times of doubt we need to remember now famous entrepreneurs weren’t experts when they started and they still started, kept going and learned along the way.

You only need to be expert enough to be successful. You don’t have to be the biggest expert in your industry.

There are varying degrees of expertise, not a single, absolute value. It’s not all or nothing.

So you don’t have to be number 1, you can be number 2, number 3, number 100.

And in the same vein, think about the folks who have very little knowledge and therefore no expertise in your chosen subject. To them you are an expert.

You provide products and service for those who have less knowledge and expertise than you.

You know more than the person you are trying to help.

 

3 things to learn while still employed

And although you may not be striving to be number 1 in your industry, you still do want to keep building your knowledge and increasing your expertise.

To build expertise, we generally learn as much as we can. And in entrepreneurship, it’s no different.

We need to learn and apply what we learn.

Since owning a business includes all aspects of a business, there are various topics you may want to explore.

Here are the 3 Topics I think new, part-time entrepreneurs should focus on before quitting their day jobs:

• Market Research and Analysis
• Finance
• Decision Making

Take time to read about these topics. Take classes on these topics. Look for them in action in business that you admire. It’s a lot of work but the payoff will be worth it. It’s an investment.

In addition to using you current skills and taking the time to learn the 3 topics mentioned above:

• Be confident in what you know
• share your knowledge
• Help folks
• Be satisfied with where you are at the moment and keep improving.
• Keep learning and building your skills
• Know what you are talking about, but there is no need to be an absolute expert
• Have a desire to keep getting better but don’t set out to gain your expertise too quickly or you will risk burn out.
• Don’t let the fear of people rejecting you stop you from progress. Some will reject you and that’s fine because others will embrace you.
• You have enough knowledge to help some folks but the only way you can do that, is to start
• Say to yourself you are enough, do it today, and believe it
• Know that the best time to start is now. There will never be a better time in your life than now.

In my opinion, that’s how to become a successful entrepreneur.

So tell me in the comments: where have you focused your learning so far.