I was starting to get fidgety in my seat in the café the other day as I listened to an entrepreneur I had been introduced to.
Not because I saw many flaws in her business idea or what it was going to take her to launch it. Nor was it because she was struggling to get it off the ground.
In fact, she knew what she needed to know in her industry.
I got fidgety because she actually knew too much. And because of this she wasn’t open to outside ideas.
And that is dangerous as an entrepreneur.
So after a few minutes of coaching her, I told her I couldn’t find a way to assist her and I wished her luck. She didn’t appear surprised in the outcome of our conversation.
And this entrepreneur is by far not the only one struggling with their businesses.
Over the years of meeting these entrepreneurs, I’ve gotten pretty good at determining within a few minutes if they will most likely be successful or not.
Top Five Reasons Entrepreneurs Do NOT Succeed in Business (and What To Do About Them):
- Resistance— How much you fight back when things don’t look like you want them to look is directly correlated to how difficult it will be for you to succeed.
You will always be challenged with your business. Especially if you’re building an UnReasonable one.
Here are some forms of this resistance:
- “I don’t know how to do this”
- “I already know how to do this”
- “I’m too busy to do this”
- “I’ve already done this”
- “I don’t resist!”
If any of these sound familiar to you, first acknowledge and then be OK with the fact that you are resisting.
It is normal. Just tell yourself, “Thank you for sharing, now excuse me… I have work to do.”
The “work” you have to do is try new and sometimes radical ideas. The more radical ideas usually create the best successes.
- No BLAST Factor—if you forget to have fun when building your business, you might take yourself out of the game over time. When it is a lot of work and no fun, it will be extremely difficult for you to keep moving it forward.
Keeping the excitement in what you do is crucial. For you and your stakeholders.
Whenever possible, especially if what you are about to do you are dreading, make sure you add the blast factor. For example, if you dread doing finances:
- do them in the park, or
- do them while cranking your favorite music
- have a friend or significant other help you in return for a movie and dinner afterwards
- Lack of Structure—in building a successful business, consistency is one of the most important components. Without doing certain activities on a regular basis to run your company, you will not create UnReasonable success.
In order to build consistency, it will be important to have a structure… a routine in your day to work ON your business. I recommend you allocate at least one hour daily, first thing in the morning and schedule it into your day.
Then within about three weeks it will become habit for you.
- Wrong Environment—if where you are working ON your business is not supportive of you being able to focus, think and feel energized, it is most likely keeping your business small.
For example, years ago I had a client who had a small gardening company here in Brooklyn. She was working out of her apartment that she was sharing with someone else. She was living out of boxes and piles of papers everywhere. The first thing I had her do was create a separate office space and organize it.
Her business tripled within a couple of months.
In order to take your business to the next level, how can you open up your:
- schedule,
- office space,
- piles of clutter
- telephone, computer and other office equipment
- Lack of Support—most entrepreneurs tend to slog through managing their dramas on their own as they build their company.
They either psyche themselves out, run for the hills when too confronted, start blaming others, or worst of all: play the victim.
Sound familiar?
Rather, build a board of advisors. Folks seasoned in business and in your industry. Give them a clear understanding of what you are committed to creating and by when. Let them help you deal with your obstacles.
Or you can create a small mastermind group of like-minded entrepreneurs to support you (and you them) in building your businesses.
Lastly, you can take on an experienced coach. Or have one help you run your mastermind group.
Now, of course there are many other reasons why some entrepreneurs will not be successful. Yet these are the most common ones that I’ve seen over the years.
Too many entrepreneurs fall into all or some of the above-mentioned traps far too often.
And so will you. It’ll be almost impossible to avoid it.
Just make sure you catch yourself when you do and quickly adjust. You’re much more likely to have UnReasonable success when you do.
Action Steps for the Week
How are things going? If you’re finding success is alluding you, or not what you originally envisioned it to be, perhaps it’s time to take a look.
First, what is your definition of success? Why? Really view it and make sure you are clear on what this is for you.
If you still feel it is alluding you, take and see what of the five above success-breakers might be tripping you up.
Most likely it is one or more of them. If not, ask your close colleague that does not have anything at stake in telling you their honest opinion.
Take this feedback and build a strategy to address it head on. Seriously contemplate building a support network, whether it be a board of advisors, mastermind group or getting a great coach.
More than likely be glad you got this handled.