Becoming an entrepreneur is more than just working for yourself and against the man. It’s an identity, it’s a lifestyle, and it’s a foray into community. The typical stance of having to do it all on your own, having to know everything about a business, and making little to no mistakes is an old paradigm that no longer fits with entrepreneurialism. Even at Inspectionally, not only are we built on the foundation of community, but we engage
with other service provider communities to connect, improve, and adjust. It’s a mutually beneficial, consistently revolving cycle that give credence to the lifestyle. And, it’s only one of our top five most underrated lenses of being an entrepreneur.
1. Community
If it wasn’t obvious, community building and engagement can easily become paramount in your career as an entrepreneur. Think about it; if you’ve ever moved to a new place and had to start over socially, you may have joined meetup.com, or viewed the events on a bulletin board at the library or local diner, or you attended a church event, or maybe you’re really ambitious and you went out for a night in town solo.
You were allowing yourself to be pulled in the direction of a community because it’s a tendency we all have viscerally. Being an entrepreneur is no different because you are enveloped in a world that is starkly different than your family and friends that have more traditional careers. No longer can you go to them for advice, vent sessions, or even general understanding of how you spend your days; communities of entrepreneurs are laser specific in many of the areas that can feel like they’re MIA when you make the leap.
Take a chunk of time to consider what sorts of communities you’d like to be in personally and which you’d benefit from professionally; then just attend one event each and assess. It’s all a process of considering, doing, assessing, adjusting.
2. Lean into the Grey
Entrepreneurialism is often the antithesis of black and white. It’s filled with ambiguity, uncertainty, and the anxiety inducing grey zone. In a traditional workplace, one may have a job description that they can refer to when errands and duties seem to spill over. There are people at the water cooler that you love, that you hate, and that annoy you. There’s a set start and ending time, as well as consistent wages, and even time off.
Once you work for yourself, you take on much more than you may have anticipated. This ranges from do you prefer to work from home or a coworking space or elsewhere, can you handle doing your taxes quarterly or should you hire a bookkeeper, are you organized or will you need to spend time on that skill, will you offer 15 services or stick to a core 5, and the list can truly never end. Unless you let it.
Every answer will not make itself known to you when you want it, so do yourself a favor and write down all the ideas that come up so they’re out of your head and refer to them once a quarter to assess. Allow things to feel murky and uncertain because entrepreneurialism is similar to life that it ebbs and flows.
3. Zone acceptance
The two zones we’re speaking of are those of genius and capacity. Zones of genius are those things you can do at top level, you’ve received stellar reviews on your work in these areas, or you feel like time slows into a flow state when you get going. Zones of capacity are the ones that you know you can do because you’re a smart human that has learned stuff and completed things, but you may need to spruce up a skill, you have little to no enjoyment doing the task, or you rush through it to get it done.
Taking stock of the truth of your zones is imperative, particularly when just starting on the entrepreneurialism train. It’s easy to burn out, overwork, and spend time in areas of your business that just aren’t priority. By doing less, with more intention and focus in order to reap the highest impact - that’s the real ticket.
4. Take time to reinvigorate
From working on your business to working for your business, the days can get long, the personal calls can go unanswered, the overwhelm can feel sky high, and sometimes you might forget to eat. Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle to get you to a place where you feel freedom and flexibility at their utmost in your day to day life, not caged in by the amount that has to be done!
If you have to set a calendar event or post it notes around your abode, ensure you make time to do nothing. Ahhh the sweet sweet feeling of guiltless free time! It is not easy if you’re a recovering perfectionist or highly ambitious, but the rewards of taking consistent time for yourself to just BE are countless. We could share playlists, YouTube videos, books, articles and more to drill this point in, but we know that you can understand the main point. R E S T. It allows your neural pathways a necessary break as well as some healing time, it allows your body to stay in an optimal state, it allows your personal life to have some sort of balance, and it allows you to just sometimes take that nap.
5. Delegation
When we first begin in this path of the business world, it’s common to think we won’t need to get or hire help for quite some time. We’re watching those coins closely and trying our best to prioritize the needs from the wants. We get it.
But we wouldn’t be Inspectionally if we didn’t at least mention the positive impacts that delegation can have on your life and on your business. It doesn’t have to be grandiose with payroll and job descriptions, it can be starting small with a virtual assistant for five hours a week. Consider those things that slow you down, frustrate you, or otherwise keep your energy on empty when you could be spending that time in your zones of genius. Then consider how you can delegate these tasks or if they’re even necessary.
Being an
entrepreneur is a spectacular lifestyle choice, yet it’s not for everyone that
tries it. The good comes with the bad, the highs are sky high and the lows can
be dreary, but the knowledge that you’re working for yourself on your own terms
is typically the biggest benefit. Keep these five underrated aspects handy as
your day to day entrepreneuriallife gets a little wobbly and work
toward finding that middle path.
Some of our articles you may like
· Top 5 Most Underrated Aspects of Being an Entrepreneur
· Are you a fighter, a survivor? Do you have the hustle in you to make it as an entrepreneur?
