Business by Janice

So what are the attitudes that guarantee you success with your business?

In my last post I made reference to the book “How to be an Entrepreneur” by Steve Parks and one of the secrets of success he outlines is that of attitude.

From a simplistic point of view (and I love simplicity), if you start off thinking, “I’m not talented enough” or “there’s so much competition out there”…  that’s an attitude that will lead directly to failure.  So yes, a POSITIVE attitude is a must to begin with.

However, Parks claims there are six main attitudes that successful entrepreneurs share. They are:

• being principled
• openess
• passion
• versatility
• resilience

I’m going to  talk about the characteristics which I believe to be particularly important.

A business owner is responsible for everything that happens in their company. Even if you are empowering your team by encouraging them to use their initiative and creativity, if something goes very wrong, you accept responsibility and immediately look for the action to take to solve the problem and move on from it. Time is not wasted apportioning blame.  Employees respect and feel secure with this attitude and it creates an atmosphere of trust and cooperation.

You need to be passionate about what you are doing. It might be passion for your product, it might be passion for growing your business, it might be passion for the learning experience that running a business gives you, but passion has got to be in there somewhere. Perhaps the area where passsion is essential and will really make a difference to the bottom line is in sales. If you can’t get passionate about what you’re selling how can you expect the client to?  I’ve often heard it said that selling is a transfer of enthusiasm, and that’s so right. Passion is what gets you up in the morning,  what makes you pull out all the stops when the company hits a crisis. By the way, a crisis is a great learning experience, I believe every business owner should have several along their journey.

Which brings me to the third characteristic which I feel is important in an entrepreneur - resilience. How a business owner deals with a crisis is very revealing. It’s natural to want to panic at first, that’s a natural human reaction when we feel out of control. Entrepreneurs may feel pressured to act quickly by their staff, but giving yourself space to think and reflect, and assess the situation is essential. You need this space to collect your energy and determination to then move forward.  If you have demonstrated the other characteristics of being principled, open and responsible and now demonstrate the resilience to pull through a crisis, your staff, clients and suppliers  will be with you all the way.

I remember when we opened the extra classrooms to our academy 6 years ago. We did it quickly so as not to miss out on the start of the new academic year never thinking that we wouldn’t get the support of our bank. Unfortunately this move coincided with the scandal of the “Opening” chain of schools and for that reason(!) our actual bank wouldn’t give us any money to finance the project. It was only by negotiating wih our suppliers and employees, borrowing from our families and going without a salary until we signed agreements with additional banks that we avoided the business from grinding to a halt. If you have been conducting your business up until then with integrity, any action you decide to take is easier as people are prepared to collaborate to help solve the problem.

Entrepreneurs come in  all shapes, sizes and profiles, but there is no doubt that when it comes to having the attitude that brings business success, the attitudes mentioned above have got to be in the mix somewhere.

http://www.steveparks.co.uk

There’s thousands of books been written about how to start your own business -  what sort of person you should be, the sort of plans you should make, how you should select your business partners, how you should finance it etc. etc.  And of course, most of these books talk about the risk factor.

If we are offered an opportunity to go into business, should we take it or not?  At the risk of being over simplistic (which I love to do),  I would say, if you have to think about it too much, no , if it gives you a  rush of positive feeling, go for it.  Nowadays, with all the information there is on the internet, all the people we can connect with who can help us, we can get all the information we need to launch our business. In my opinion, it’s all about mindset and passion.

Let’s take the case of an internet business, perhaps the least risky of all.

There’s never been a better time than now to start an internet business because people are hungry for information and as I mentioned above, all the info you need is at your fingertips. You can set up a simple web site on a subject that you’re passionate about, write lots of articles, give away free downloads, promote it using internet networking sites, start selling ebooks once you’ve established credibility and there you have your business. All it requires is to  write about what you’re passionate about, take the time to learn about internet marketing and a  smidgen of technology and there you have it.

Everything comes back to being aware of where circumstances, events and people are taking you, and if  a business propositon gives you the rush of feeling, that’s the push from the universe trying to bring you what you want (even though you may not be fully conscious of what you want yet).

For those of you who like to be more practical and are still reluctant to leave everything in the hands of our favourite universal law (the Law of Attraction in case you hadn’t already guessed), I would like to recommend an excellent book I’ve just read. It’s called “How to be an Entrepreneur” by Steve Parks.  The book suggests there are 6 factors which are necessary to become a successful entrepreneur.

• Attitude
• Opportunity
• Focus
• Talent
• Buliding
• Communication

Over the next couple of posts I’ll be spending some time outling the main points that Parks in each of these categories and adding my own insights from the experiences I’ve had running my own business.

If you’re the type of person who embraces change and growth, running your own business is an exciting ride. A successful business takes on its own personality and hungers for (personal) growth. Balancing your own growth with that of your business is the real challenge.

Times of crisis affect everyone differently but the one thing that impacts on any of us is our level of proactivity.

What prompted me to write this post this week is the varying attitudes I see from teachers as they hunt for classes. There are teachers who take full responsibility for their own future and calmly and persistently seek out the few vacant classes that are around, and there are others that consistently project their neediness on us, demanding that we find them classes.

Getting more classes is what our business  about,  so of course , as business owners, we are going to be as proactive as possible to  achieve that end. In fact,  if we don’t have a minimum number of classes running, we are in danger of falling into a headlong spiral of losses which could ultmately result in the loss of our houses as the majority of the overdrafts from the bank are guaranteed by the business owners’ properties! The old story of entreprenuers taking risks in anticipation of greater rewards, I know. I just like to throw it in from time to time.

My observations this week got me thinking that regardless of whether you are an employee or an employer, you are responsible for your future. We are all our own “personal corporation” and must invest in ourselves and act accordingly. It is indeed our level of proactivity will give us results and shape our lives.

Times of economic recession are times of adjustment, reshuffling and flexibility. The first challenge for many comes from a simple acceptance of a situation. Yes, times are hard, let’s accept that and just get on with it. The next step is to ask ourselves, what needs to be done differently? How can I adjust to this new situation? How can I be flexible to change what I’m doing to fit this new situation? Because that what recession is - a process of change, so it makes sense for us to change as well. If we don’t, we will be in a state of resistance with all the negativity and conflict that that would involve.

I love the spiritual tenet that nothing is good or bad, it just is.  Something is a problem because we decide to name it so, and then surround the situation with negative energy.  If not controlled, that negative energy then takes on a force of its own as more negative thoughts are drawn to it by the Law of Attraction. Before long, we see a physical manifestation of our negative thoughts.

So, where are you? Do you view the crisis as a problem? If you do, what can you do to change your perspective? Because the crisis just is, the problem lies in how you see it.