Entrepreneurship And How It Can Impact Your Life And Those Around You

Entrepreneurship And How It Can Impact Your Life And Those Around You

Each person that decides to take the first step to becoming an entrepreneur experiences it differently in their daily lives.  The impact that it can have on yourself, and/or your family is something that should be considered beforehand.  Every action you take has rewards or consequences (and sometimes both) on your life, and those around you.

Media outlets, articles, and advertisements always paint a picture about entrepreneurship and how being your own boss brings instant freedom, financial success, and luxurious lifestyles.  Save a lucky few who started the right business at the right time and had instant viral success, it’s a climb, a long climb up a mountain where few finish.

According to Bloomberg, and repeated by dozens of credible sources, 8 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 18 months.  In my opinion, a large chunk can be attributed to individuals not knowing what they get into.  A true entrepreneur never gives up even after failing.  Failing is just another way of learning and will make you a better person, and businessperson.

What a new entrepreneur can expect at the beginning

Less freedom.  Contrary to popular belief, being your own boss doesn’t mean having freedom, or financial freedom (right away).  The freedom that everyone talks about takes time for you to earn it.  What it does give you is freedom by not reporting to anyone, like a boss.  You may get the freedom of never having a boss, but you now answer to customers, clients, suppliers, investors who in their own way can dictate your daily business life.

Less time with friends.  When you have less freedom because your business is becoming a top priority your friends may need to take a back seat.  While you should still occasionally make time for them and hang out when you can, you no longer have the luxury of spending 4-5 nights a week out chilling.

Increased stress.  Let’s face it, every decision you make or inadvertently make can affect your entrepreneurship journey.  One wrong move can be costly, and crippling to your new career.  But it can also be the opposite – gambles and risks can pay off and jump you forward in your path.  Challenges you face and hurtles that need to be overcome will be the biggest issues.  No matter how much you know your niche, there will be things that keep you awake at night.

Mistakes & failing.  All along your journey you’re going to make lots of mistakes, you may even outright fail at an idea.  It happens to everyone, every big name, every big brand at one point has failed at something.  They’ve learned from it and improved upon themselves that experience and grown.

Gaining Knowledge.  One upside to everything is that you’re going to learn a lot.  Every step you take will have obstacles you’ll be needing to overcome, and you’re going to do tons of research and seek assistance to figure out how to get over each hurtle.  As your business grows, you grow as well, with knowledge.  Knowledge is one key element that makes an entrepreneur great.

Improving yourself.  The greatest thing about being your own boss is that you get the opportunity to improve yourself – build you character, confidence, and overall skillset as a leader.  This is the most rewarding thing early on.  In the first while as you start piecing together everything like a puzzle and seeing your visions come together making progress can be one of the greatest feelings. It is the fuel to driving your entrepreneurial spirit.

Research

Before taking any step on your new journey to becoming an entrepreneur ensure that you do full research on what you’ll be getting into.  An entrepreneur is someone who has chosen to do what they want with their life.  When you do what you want, it’s one of the greatest joys you can have in life.  To become the best entrepreneur that you can be do your best due diligence and find out every detail of your upcoming path.

The more prepared you are beforehand then the higher chance you’ll have at succeeding at what you do.  The most important thing you want to grasp are expectations.  Find out what everyone says about expectations and in turn find out about reality, in most cases, they can be a world apart.

You need to do research so when it comes time to jumping in, hurtles and road blocks won’t surprise you, and you’ll be better equipped to deal with them and grow.  Most importantly, setting the most realistic goals and milestones for yourself.  Research so you can plan ahead, and not just about business but how you’ll correlate it with your personal life.


Plan

Come up with your game plan on how you’ll separate your personal life from your business life.  For most, business life will seem to take over.  As you get more into it, and become more serious about succeeding you’ll find you will spend more time working on your business.  After all, the more work you put into it, the higher the chance for rewards and to reach your goals sooner.

Make sure that your friends/family know you’re getting into something new and that it can affect your availability.  As a new entrepreneur, you’re going to eat, sleep and breathe your new endeavor.  If you thought working 40 hours a week was a lot, entrepreneurship may not be for you.  Some of the most successful individuals, and even those other ones starting out at the same time as you (who will become your direct competitors) are working much more hours.  Working 40 hours a week as an entrepreneur is like having a week off.

Have plans in place to keep your attitude in check.  Mistakes and failings can have a major impact on your business life, in turn that can spill over into your personal life and affect your relationships around you.  Come up with something that can avoid this, something you can do, a place to go to, or someone to talk to each time you’re on the low end.  Spend an extra hour at the gym or BBQ at 3 in the morning in the winter with a cold beer in a snow pile.  Start a tradition of something that you can to put a barrier between your business and personal life briefly to gather your thoughts to protect each aspect of your life from others you don’t want intertwined.

The same above also goes for the counterpart.  Make plans and preparations to ensure that what happens in your personal life won’t affect your business.

Get a mentor.  Finding a mentor – and in turn mentoring someone is a great weapon to have.  You can not only gain knowledge by having someone mentor you, but you can also learn a great deal from passing on your knowledge to others.  A mentor can be there for you when you’re on a low, or on a high point in your career to help you move on to the next steps.  A mentor greatly reduces uncertainty that you’ll experience down your path.

Celebrate the winnings each time you hit a goal, a milestone or have a great above average day or experience that yahoo moment.  Rewarding yourself can be a great motivator and show you that your entrepreneur path is paying off, and your gaining something from it.  This is a wonderful time to sit back, and reflect on what you’ve done over a nice meal.  Have plans in place so you’ll know the next step and how you can benefit further and grow upon the new success reached.

Don’t forget about your family.  While you may be required to spend 70-80 hours a week to just get by as an entrepreneur, it’s important you get time in with your family as much as possible.  Allocate timeslots throughout each week to set aside for them, and prepare backup plans as your business life can easily take over and shift all plans.  As you grow and entrepreneurship becomes more demanding of you, may find yourself having less available time for them.

Be able to adapt your plans at any moment.  Entrepreneurship is like a living breathing creature that is constantly growing, and changing to everything around it.  What works one week, may not work the next.  Don’t have plans stuck in stone, make sure they can be changed at any moment and follow the plans until they’re no longer viable.  When you need to change a plan, come up with new ones and stick to them until they no longer work or you’ve figured out something better that moves you towards your goals/dreams.


Results

As I’ve said many times in the past, you get back what you put in.  Like buying a product – you get what you pay for.

The more effort you put into your entrepreneurship dream, the higher chances you’ll have at succeeding, or reaching goals faster.  Each individual measures success differently, and each will have complete different experiences going into this lifestyle.

When you get knocked down, get back up and try again, or pivot and try something a bit different.  You will learn each time you get knocked down, and you’ll better yourself.

Keep your expectations reasonable.  Set realistic goals.  The hardest thing that will knock you down and not let you get back up is the disappointment of not reaching your goal you’ve set, this is where most people I believe quit.

By understanding how being an entrepreneur will affect your life, you’ll be able to get that perfect balance for you to not only have great business success, but with family as well.  Finding that balance between personal and business is key to having a great life.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone.  Anyone can do anything they put their minds to, but not everyone is willing to have the drive, motivation and determination to make it work.  Research, plan, and reflect on results and grow to become the next generation of great entrepreneurs.

Thanks for reading!
I hope you enjoy all the blog materials i have to offer.

Damien Defranco
Founder & Chairman of the Board
Defranco Enterprises Inc & Defranco Enterprises LLC

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