I am an Entrepreneur
What does it really mean?
By definition an entrepreneur is "a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so." That most certainly does not cover all the bases. They may need to update this definition!
If you are an entrepreneur chances are you are the visionary, the bookkeeper, the social media manager, the inventory manager, the administrator, the blog writer, the copywriter, the website manager amongst 25 other job titles. It is only as your business begins to scale that you realize that your time is valuable. That you would be better balanced if you were doing the things you love, which are within your zone of genius. Typically I see my clients begin to ponder the idea of outsourcing some of these tasks at the point their mindset shifts to believing that their time is valuable, and that they would be better of focusing on specifics. Realistically, if you are an entrepreneur wanting to grow and increase revenue, you will need to build a team to succeed. Your team may start with one additional member, and grow but it cannot be just YOU! You can do everything, I know. But should you? Are you giving 100% to all the things? The truth is, eventually you will have to spend money to create a strong foundation and push forward to reaching your dream goals. You should not do it alone, and it is very important to ensure that your first hire is reducing time spent, and saving you money. It could be a couple of hours a week. But that $100 a week may save you thousands in the long run. An easy way to determine where you should hire is to look at what you should be paid per hour, then ask yourself if you can hire someone for less to do the job. In some cases the answer is no, and that is where you ask yourself is this something I want to be doing, or is the freedom it will give me equivalent to the value of the expense. As an entrepreneur you are the face of your business, the one expected to have all of the answers and to lead yourself towards your dreams. But what isn't mentioned is that you are doing all of that while also carrying the weight of your families dreams, while parenting, while caring for family, while preparing dinner every night and attending functions and sporting events. You are expected to do it all and show up fully in each area. So if we look at all of the actual duties of being an entrepreneur along with the duties of family and friends, being an entrepreneur is a multitude of tasks, responsibility, coping strategies, balance and passion. If you are reading this and you are an entrepreneur, congratulations because you have taken on the biggest and best challenge, and hopefully you love it!
After working with many, many women in business, I cannot stress how important it is too allow yourself to have help. Look at your business and identify the top three tasks that you would love to outsource. Perhaps they cause the most stress, even though you "can do it yourself." Remember, that stress has a price tag! Once you have those three tasks identified, give them a value. How much are they worth and how much of your time is spent doing them. What could you do with that extra time? How much money could you generate as a result? There are different stages of entrepreneurship and if you are not just starting out, you may want to have a look at your overall operations and complete the above task. If we look at every successful woman there is a common denominator. She considers her own needs and well being as well, as that of her family, and team. The definition of an entrepreneur is vague. The definition of a successful entrepreneur is someone who organizes and operates a business, family and maintains their values. It is someone who recognizes the importance of life-balance, well-being and creativity. Who takes on greater than normal workload, and manages financial risk, all to fulfill a dream.