“Opening a business isn’t what you think it’s going to be. It’s hard. It’s expensive.”
I spent some time last week speaking with women entrepreneurs about their journey to launching their businesses. Some were colleagues I met from classes and mastermind groups, others simply answered a post requesting interviews.
Their stories surprised me.
Not one of them was having the success they imagined when they started (or their coaches promised them they would get). They took the courses, drank the koolaid, invested tens of thousands of dollars, only to find themselves bootstrapped out of business and back in the workforce.
What went wrong?
Their stories followed a similar pattern…
Burnt out in a corporate job, they left to do something that they were really passionate about. They signed up with a high-end mentor and believed that they would be earning six figures in the first year.
The truth is opening a business isn’t what you think it’s going to be. It’s hard. It’s expensive.
There are lot of cookie cutter coaches out there (I won’t name names) who make the promise that you will have the same success they had. But you are not them and they may not align with who you are and what you do.
“The most important first step in launching any business is to be authentic and in integrity with who you are to connect with your ideal clients.”
If you are following someone else’s cookie cutter formula, it’s impossible for you to be in integrity. It’s like putting on a coat that doesn’t fit. It looks ridiculous and everyone sees it.
The problem with online business schools is that it is a one size fits all approach to launching a business. You don’t learn how to become a successful entrepreneur from watching a video and joining a facebook group.
If you are a first time entrepreneurs, launching a business without a hands-on mentor to guide you is risky business. The problem is, many of the business gurus have lost sight of their clients and instead focus on selling a product and the cult nature of their offerings
I have seen firsthand how dozens of new startups fail because their founders lacked the business skills and frameworks to be successful. They invested thousands – some over 100 thousand dollars – in getting their businesses off the ground.
How did they make such critical mistakes?
“I had so many insecurities – I was totally uncomfortable being out in public and selling. I needed help asking for people to pay me. I wasn’t past my own stuff.”
“I had a big dream to start my coaching business, but I couldn’t get past my own insecurities about it.”
“Looking back on a few different coaches I had – if they had focused on me building my own belief and confidence in myself, it would have been a game changer.”
“I dug myself into a hole financially holding on to the dream but not taking the actions to do it.”
So how do you have a successful startup?
Here are the top 4 strategies for successful startups:
1.) Maintain an entrepreneur’s mindset. Being an entrepreneur will push at all of your insecurity buttons. Insecurity is what leads so many to spend much more than they need to on coaching, training and mastermind programs. Mindset is a verb – a state that requires daily practice in order to be successful. I share a bunch of tips on how in other articles on the blog.
2.) Become financially literate. You can’t continue to throw money at a business that isn’t producing revenue. If your first launch failed, analyze why and iterate until you get it right. Don’t bootstrap yourself right back into a job. Create a pro-forma forecast on what you need to start up. Plan for pivots. Get help and have the right staff in place. If you are not a genius at selling – have someone sell for you. You aren’t serving if you aren’t selling.
3.) Get hands-on mentoring. When I talk with successful founders, what made all the difference to their success was an experienced mentor who was directly involved in their business. Whether it’s a board of advisors or a one-on-one coach, you need to be able to bounce off strategy and fill in your gaps in the mechanics and metrics of running a successful start up.
4.) Have a launch framework that works and don’t skip any steps. Make sure you are following a process, not a cookie cutter formula. What’s the difference? A framework tells you HOW to launch an effective business – step by step. Your answers, results, products and programs will be different from others. A cookie cutter formula says, “do it this way.” This is where your mindset trips you up into thinking someone else has your answer. Their approach, words, formulas don’t feel authentic to you, but your fear keeps you adhering to the protocol until your ultimate failure crashes your confidence.
Want a framework that works?
Click here to download The Passion Project Business Launch Blueprint. It’s a step by step guide in how to launch and grow your business and it’s my gift to you for reading today’s blog.
If you have any questions about the process, comment below. I’m happy to help you get momentum going for your business right from the start.
To your success,
Love,
Want a business launch framework that works?
Release Fear. Think Clear. Get Into Gear.