Being an entrepreneur has many blessings. One of which is the immense amount of learning you do. In no other field is there such a learning opportunity, except maybe health or technology. An entrepreneur gets to learn many things that they wouldn’t have taken the time to learn otherwise, like finance, billing, web technology, communication, marketing, product development and creation, and strategic planning. This summer I’ve learned quite a few things about running a business.
As simple or dumb as it sounds, you have to make sure you’re doing what you like. If you’re no longer enjoying the work you’re doing it’s time for a change. In the beginning of August I sat down and started working on some changes that I’m making to how I help people and what I focus on so that I continue to both meet the needs you have and enjoy what I’m doing.
Second, if you’re not communicating, it’s not getting done without you. If you don’t put the marketing out there, nothing markets for you. If you don’t update the website, no one does it for you. If you don’t contact people on social media, they won’t contact you. If you don’t take the time to care for your clients, you won’t have them for very long. And even if you had a [virtual] assistant to help you, if you don’t communicate with them, the work still won’t get done.
Finally, you have to love learning. Yep, if you don’t like change and learning new things, you’re much better off working at a job than running your own business. It’s not always easy to adjust to the changes, especially if it takes you a while to make all the changes; because by the time you’ve made the changes, new changes already need to be put in place.
What lessons have you learned this summer? I’d love to hear your thoughts.