Have you heard ‘mindset matters most’ for business success?
Mindset.
We read about it. We read about the importance of it. We are told if we want a successful business, it is something we will not be successful without.
Have you ever wondered why some people are successful quickly when they start a new business, and why it takes other people a bit more time, and some people never make it happen, leaving you to wonder where they went wrong when they are no longer around?
Mindset matters.
Therefore, in working with new entrepreneurs in helping them build their business, I typically start at the very beginning – developing the mindset and establishing what that looks like so they can move forward and build a viable business.
What is mindset? Why is it so important?
I have recently found myself asking these questions, even though I have built 4 successful businesses from the ground up.
Have you ever felt out of sync with your life and your business?
Things feel sluggish, slow, and your momentum is dwindling?
It is a stage all business owners go through at some point, and multiple times over the months and years. During these times it is easier to avoid the reality of what it takes to move forward and hide behind training and preparation.
One of the questions I get asked most is, “What course should I take for ____?”
You can fill in the blank – building my list, increasing my Facebook likes, getting more Twitter followers …
As people enter the online world of entrepreneurship, they quickly learn how many digital products are available to purchase (all with a promise to offer the best results and better than any other product.)
You can find multiple courses on growing your email list from 0 to 10,000 in 3 months (or less!), how to create a Facebook ad that will net you $10,000+ on one of your own online courses you created overnight (there is a separate module telling you how to do this), how to master social media so you sale products while you sleep, and even courses to convince you writing a book is the best way to go even if you hate to write (I am being a bit sarcastic; however, you would be amazed at the promises made to get a sale!)
I could write a 20 page article just by listing the number of courses you can purchase that make big promises you will grow your business nonstop and overnight!
The next thing people find as they enter the world of online entrepreneurship is how many people have gone before them to create and build an online business. While this is a great thing, so the wheel does not have to be reinvented, the challenge can be a feeling of over-the-edge overwhelm that quickly sets in because there is so much information available.
Almost too much in many ways!
One person tells you to do this, another says don’t do that, do this! Repeat. Repeat again!
It is only a matter of time before feelings of defeat, confusion, and doubt set in. It is common to get stuck so we just stop dead in our tracks and do nothing because we do not know what to do with so many different messages being sent to our brains.
What does all this have to do with the importance of mindset?
And how does this affect our business success?
Without your mind in the proper place, it does not matter how many courses you purchase, how many cheat sheets or templates you sign up to have delivered to your inbox, or how many newsletter emails you read looking for the one nugget of information that is going to set your business on fire or send a blog post viral, your business will not grow to the next level. It is likely it might never even get off the ground.
Have you ever purchased an online course and not completed it? Worse yet, barely even started it? Have you done this more than once, or even multiple times? I have to admit, I have done this! And I understood the importance of mindset prior to purchasing or committing to a course!
As I started to analyze what it took for me to build 4 profitable service-based businesses, and what I work on with my new coaching clients, these are the 9 key components that build a mindset that is ready to start a business. When these key components are in place, you are ready to purchase the how-to courses, and they are going to blow your business out of the water!
The following key steps are to prepare you and your mind to create and maintain a successful blog/business.
And you will be ready for the next step – which is to find the online course you need to help you build your business and take it to the next level!
1 | Know Yourself
What are you willing to do to grow a business? What are you willing to sacrifice? What is your family willing to sacrifice until it is on the upward trend of success?
How do you define success?
What do you need to feel like your business is successful?
A specific amount of income? Flexibility? More time with your family?
All of the above?
It does not matter what I (or any other coach, mentor, or friend you turn to for help) tell you, what I teach you, or what I show you if you don’t take action.
If you are not willing to take action to complete the task, the best business strategies will not make a difference in your business.
When I had my business as a real estate appraiser, my mom decided she wanted to get her appraiser’s license and earn a bit of extra money on the side. I agreed to coach her through the process, train her, share some of my clients with her, and work alongside her until her business had a solid foundation.
For any of you that understand an appraiser’s job, there is flexibility on the front end with scheduling (to some extent); however, once the home visit is complete, preparing the report for the lender must be done in a fairly short amount of time (if you want to stay in business!)
I gave my lenders what they wanted (quick turnaround time without compromising quality reports), and I also ensured they received quick service if a change needed to be made in the appraisal report once it was submitted to the underwriter.
Apparently, my mom did not understand the importance of this in the mortgage world. She was used to working a steady job (for someone else) where she went to work and when the clock hit her clock-out time, she walked out the door and did not return until her next shift – nor take work home with her.
This became a problem in the appraisal business world.
One day she was leaving for a trip out of town, and one of her mortgage lender’s called her about an appraisal she had completed. The underwriter had requested a last-minute change in a report, and the loan was scheduled to close the next morning so they needed the updated report asap.
My mom called me right away. She proceeded to tell me she was on her way out of town and she did not have time to reboot her computer, get out
Is it like this forever? Absolutely not!
While flexibility can be built into your schedule once the foundation is solid and you can hire help, it is important to understand there is always that chance you may need to drop what you are doing to tend to an issue before damage is done that is difficult to repair.
2 | Work With Urgency
As I help people build their online businesses, there is little difference than when I helped consultants build their physical business with Mary Kay Cosmetics, or when I trained people to become a successful real estate appraiser.
In fact, it is not even much different than when I assigned activities or homework to my high school students when I was a teacher!
I have found the more time people have on their hands, typically the less productive they are with time management. There is something about having the feeling of unlimited time to complete a task that diminishes urgency, which shows up as being unproductive.
As I help people build their online businesses, there is little difference than when I helped consultants build their physical business with Mary Kay Cosmetics, or when I trained people to become a successful real estate appraiser.
In fact, it is not even much different than when I assigned activities or homework to my high school students when I was teacher.
I have found the more time people have on their hands, typically the less productive they are with time management. There is something about having the feeling of unlimited time to complete a task that diminishes urgency, which shows up as being unproductive.
Ways You Can Work With Efficiency
- Clear your desk so there are no distractions.
- If you are working on your computer, close all the internet tabs except what you are using.
- Turn off auto notifications from email, social media, etc. You should never see what is coming in during this work time. It can wait!
- Before you start working, know what the ONE task is that must be completed. Kevin Kruse offers great advice about this is in his book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management.
- Set a timer, but be sure you are being realistic with the amount of time the task should take.
- If you are working for several hours on a time-intensive task, be sure to set 5 minute breaks (I call them ‘brain breaks’!) every 45 minutes.
Another factor that seems to get in the way of working with urgency is having a to-do list that is too long when the day starts.
If we look at a list that cannot be completed, our mind can make us believe since we will never accomplish what is on the list anyways, just ‘get done what you can.’
This is one way to ensure you will likely have an ultra non-productive day!
3 | Believe In Your Process
Remember the part in the beginning of this article when I talked about how easy it is to get overwhelmed from all the information available to us about building an online business?
There are hundreds of ways to accomplish a similar end result.
This was one of my biggest struggles when I built my first online business even though I had built 3 successful businesses prior (that were not online.)
There is not only more than one way to do something, there are hundreds of ways. And each of those hundreds of ways have worked for someone – likely the person you are following and trying to mimic their business model.
Decide on the business model you are going to use, write your business plan and do not look back!
Quit reading about other ways to do it (until it needs to be changed or perfected.)
Believe in your plan.
Believe in your process.
Follow it.
4 | Never Quit Looking Forward
Vision.
What do you want for your life? Why are you building this business? What do you want for your business? Can you see it?
Most of us can see it.
Are you willing to do it?
This remains the key to success.
The important part of looking ahead is to be able to stay 3 steps (or 3 months if you set goals by the quarter, etc.) in front of where you are now, and to never let your vision stop growing. New goals must be set before one set of goals is completed.
This is especially important for your quarterly and annual goals.
Imagine a trip to Disney World.
What do you want to do when you get there? How many days do you want to stay so you get to do everything you want? What is the anticipation of packing to go going to feel like a few days before you leave? Can you see yourself the morning you get there, and how you feel walking through the gates into another world? This is your vision of an amazing trip.
Did you notice our vision didn’t include the specific plans for the trip, such as how we are going to pay for the trip, are we going to drive or fly, what route would we drive, etc.?)
Now imagine your business in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years.
What do you see? How does it feel? How will your life be different than it is today?
And just as important, can you envision what it will feel like each step of the way as you reach milestone goals?
5 | Quit Working Like You Have Tomorrow
This goes along with the key component of Working With Urgency (#2).
When we talk about creating urgency for each task so we can use our time productively, this includes making every minute of every day count.
This is the key factor.
With everything we work on in a given day, we must ask ourselves one question before we start: “Is this moving me toward my goal?”
If we believe it is, we ask ourself the next question, “How is this moving me toward my goal?”
This ensures the task is something we should be working on today.
6 | Know Where You Are Going
Goal setting is easy for some people, more difficult for others.
Your goals are your road map.
In my years as a school counselor working with high school students on their college and career planning, I always wondered why some students had such a clear vision of what they wanted to do after high school, and some had not even one idea of what their personal interests were so we could start planning their future.
My recommendation for all business owners is to set 5 year goals, 3 year goals, annual goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and daily goals.
This sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? It isn’t as hard as it sounds, nor as time-consuming as one would think.
The reason it is not that difficult is when we goal-set backwards (begin with the end in mind), our goals build on each other to push us forward.
This is the best way to create momentum in a business.
Not looking ahead and staying in front of our goals by setting new ones prior to finishing one is also a sure-fire way to stop momentum dead in its tracks!
Goal-setting is an important topic in building a profitable business.
If it is overlooked, we achieve at a much slower pace or sometimes not at all.
7 | Prepare For Barriers In The Road
The more you fail, the more successful you will be.
If you haven’t failed in your business, imagine how much more successful you could be if and when you do experience failure!
Many entrepreneurs choose not to talk about failure because they think it is negative and should be avoided. Or they mention it as a passing comment and do not want to talk about it further.
When we are developing a strong mindset, we have to prepare for failure and be ready to learn from the situation.
When I was a high school counselor, I taught my students, “It is only a mistake if you do it again because you didn’t learn from it the first time.”
I look at failure the same way. It is only a waste of our time if we don’t find a lesson to learn from it.
Many entrepreneurs choose not to talk about failure because they think it is negative and should be avoided. Or they mention it as a passing comment and do not want to talk about it further.
When we are developing a strong mindset, we have to prepare for failure and be ready to learn from the situation.
When I was a high school counselor, I taught my students, “It is only a mistake if you do it again because you didn’t learn from it the first time.”
I look at failure the same way. It is only a waste of our time if we don’t find a lesson to learn from it.
8 | Finish What You Start
I recall a specific scenario Brendon Burchard talked about at his Experts Academy conference when I attended.
He shared his perspective about one of the biggest reasons people fail in an online business, which is because they don’t stay on one path. They branch out into many paths too soon.
I cannot recall his specific example, but the gist of it has stuck with me.
Imagine the Gold Rush and all the people that were digging for gold. They would get to their location and start digging. When they didn’t find gold right away, they would give up, believe there was no gold there, and start digging another hole.
Eventually, they had numerous holes in their digging area, and still no gold. Finally, they gave up completely, believing there was no gold, and they would leave empty-handed.
If they would have just stayed in one place, and dug deep in one hole, they would have found the gold. They gave up too soon by looking in another place.
Your online business is the same way. It takes time to build a viable business. A business is built one step at a time.
This means one blog article at a time, one person that signs up on your email list at a time, one Twitter follower, or one Facebook like.
It does nothing to move you forward if you have a stack (or even just a few) unfinished blog articles, video scripts without videos, or completed videos that are not edited, etc.
Create your business plan. Follow it. Believe in your process.
And before you start a new project, finish the current one.
9 | Work Tirelessly
Being an entrepreneur is awesome.
I love the flexibility. I love the opportunity. I love the fact that I don’t have to get dressed up everyday and wear shoes that are killing my feet by the end of the day!
I love that I don’t have to fight traffic, drive in the snow, and pack my lunch before I go to bed every night. Yes, I love working for myself.
But I am accountable for everything that I do.
I am accountable for the money I make to pay the bills on a personal level and for my business. I am accountable if the internet goes down, a product is not delivered as promised, or if the business goals are not met.
If something goes wrong, I am the only one to blame so I must take responsibility.
If I don’t get to the office until 10 a.m. and I need to work 8 hours, that means I may not get to have dinner with my family that night.
Working tirelessly is not an option as an entrepreneur.
I cannot call in sick, take a sick day and still get paid. I don’t get a paid vacation (in the general workforce term.)
I can’t refuse to put my email on my phone like I have with some of my jobs because I had the attitude I wasn’t responsible to check my email if I wasn’t at work.
Are you ready to take responsibility for every single thing that impacts your business, both good and bad?
Are you ready to work tirelessly?
DO YOU HAVE THE MINDSET TO GO TO THE NEXT LEVEL IN YOUR BUSINESS?
After reviewing the 9 key factors of having the right mindset to build a business, are you ready?
Do you have what it takes?
What do you feel is your strongest quality, and what are your areas of opportunity to grow (I am not a fan of calling it our areas of ‘weakness’)?
Share below in the comments and I can respond with some ideas for overcoming any obstacles you are encountering.
Now back to purchasing courses, and what they have to do with mindset.
All the courses you purchase are not going to make your business a success. In fact, no course will help your business if you do not have the right mindset and you do not do the work and take action.
And they definitely won’t make your business a success overnight, even the greatest ones!
However, they can certainly guide you in the right direction and do amazing things for your business once your mind is prepared, you are ready to work, and you accept the trials and errors that go with starting, building, and growing a business.
When you are in this place, remember to select the courses you purchase with a strategy already in place so the money you spend is utilized well, and you complete the course to get the highest value possible out of it!
I would love to hear your favorite point from the post and how you will use it to grow your blog in the comments below!
You got this!