4 Tips for Starting a Business

Leanne Shanks,
Dir. Franchise Support

 

How are you going to make money? How are you going to advertise it? These are all things that you want to start thinking about before you even start.

Leanne here for business with a coach. In this session, I’m going to offer you some tips to help you get ready to launch your business. Self-discipline. Every single successful business owner has mastered the art of self discipline. This actually may be one of the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur. You know, when you’re going to a job and you’ve got to be there for a certain time, you couldn’t just not show up for a day or two.

Tip 1: Self-Discipline

People would notice. And in entrepreneurship, you have to have that self-discipline to show up whether somebody is noticing or not. Sometimes it can take weeks, months, years to see the impact of your work. And if you start taking days off because you haven’t got the self-discipline, it may be a long time before you notice the results. Even doing tasks that maybe you don’t enjoy, whether it’s your accounting or making cold calls, if you don’t have the self-discipline to do those things, whether you feel like it or not, then you’re going to have a challenge.

Being successful in business, one of the best ways that I can think of to practice and nurture self discipline is to commit yourself to something before you start your business. Take a course and finish it without a parent telling you have to go to class or do your homework. Train for an event, a short race or a half marathon, even a marathon.

Commit to the discipline of the training, or the learning, or reading books over a certain period of time. Commit to something to develop that self-discipline, and that mental toughness to be able to persevere even on the days that you don’t feel like doing it.

Tip 2: Follow your passion

In business, it’s super important to follow your passion. You know, entrepreneurship can be hard, and if you’re not loving every single thing that you’re doing, if you wake up in the morning and just can’t even imagine getting out and going to work, then that’s going to be a problem for you.

You should want to do your business regardless of what’s going on. The passion that you have for what you’re doing is going to see you through tough days. And so follow that passion and be authentic. Be genuine about what you love to do. The same can be said for the roles within the business. You know, if you’ve identified that there’s an element of the business that you don’t necessarily enjoy doing well, that’s your cue to bring in vested partners or employees or people who can help you achieve those things.

And allow you to focus on the things that you’re passionate about. So knowing your passion and following your passion are really, really key. Another tip is to listen to the pros. I remember hearing one point that nothing was new and I initially was like, that sounds a little bit sad. Nothing is new, nothing is innovative. But really what was meant by the person that was telling me that is that everything is already been done.

Tip 3: Listen to the pros

Everything has already been tried. Somewhere there is an expert on what it is that you’re trying to do. And as an entrepreneur, your job is to find them and listen to them. If somebody has been successful in business, then chances are they have something to say that you should be listening to. If you go into your business thinking that you have it all figured out and you have all the answers and you’re not willing to listen to the pros, then you may miss out on some really valuable learning that could help you be successful.

00:04:18:26 – 00:04:45:10
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Find a nurturing environment. Nurturing for entrepreneurs. You know, entrepreneurship can be a lonely road a lot of times even lonely from your family. I mean, you spent all of this energy and effort convincing them that this is the greatest thing and that you should be doing this and this is where you want to go. And oftentimes, as a business owner, you’re in sales.

And so you’ve got to be on You can never have any doubts. You can never have any concerns. You can never feel as though you maybe don’t have a skill. So admitting vulnerability and admitting when you may need some help with something can be really, really hard.

Tip 4: Find a nurturing environment

One of the best ways that I know of to overcome this is to find nurturing environments for entrepreneurs, whether that’s in a franchise network or it’s small business forums or it’s other friends that, you know, that have been successful in business.

There are online forums. Surround yourself with people and a network of connections who are nurturing towards entrepreneurship. You know, the more support you can get, the better. And all of these things contribute to your long term and overall success. Thank you so much for joining us for business with a coach where we offer tips and tricks and coaching as if you were at Driverseat franchisee.

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