On June 30th, 2019, I left my high-paying sales job knowing that I was ready to embark on a new journey as an entrepreneur. I had big dreams, and big goals, and I had a plan on how to make it all happen, but in reality, I did not know what I was actually doing.
As my boutique agency continues to grow significantly, I’m always told by my peers that the way I run my life and business is very uncommon. After all, business is nothing but a reflection of our inner selves.
Here are three unconventional business decisions I’ve made that may help you.
1. You have to stop thinking like an entrepreneur and embody the CEO mentality.
Mindset is everything, in order to act like a CEO, you have to start thinking like one. I started my agency on my own. I had no investors, no mentors, and no knowledge of business, but I had the desire to succeed, so I learned and did everything on my own. I was my own assistant, my marketing team, my sales team, accounting, client relations, etc. I taught myself everything I needed through Youtube and Udemy courses.
Because of the way I started, I had the habit to keep overworking myself, and congratulating myself for doing the job right-thinking nobody could do it as well as I could. In order to keep growing, I had to release control, hire the right professionals to support me, learn to monetize my strengths, and outsource my weaknesses. This is the only way you can keep growing without being a slave to your own creations.
2. Funding and loans are not always the answer.
When I decided to embark on my entrepreneur journey, I had no money. I had recently graduated with my master’s degree and felt lost.
I was terrified of debt. Throughout college and grad school, I worked very hard to be able to graduate debt-free. I never took out loans and grew up thinking using credit cards was a bad idea.
To succeed in business though, I started getting financially educated and learning more about money. I never asked banks for loans and never spent time trying to raise funds from investors, but I did use my credit cards to pay for investments that I knew will help me grow faster.
I made some pretty bad investments and mistakes when I first started, but credit cards also are a great resource that helped me fund my business. Use your resources intelligently.
3. Sometimes, following the business standards will keep you stuck.
In college, business professors would tell me to set certain goals, focus on numbers, and pay attention to standardized supply and demand. After all, business is supposed to be a statistical game composed of objectives, data, supply, and demand.
However, the moment I realized my college professors had never run a business of their own, was the moment I started focusing on people. Treating people as more than data. Creating a safe space for my own emotions. Running a business is easy if we take emotions out of the equation. Giving my brand a personality, and embracing the power of storytelling was a game-changer for me.
The moment I stopped overwhelming myself with “goals” was the moment I was able to break through the ceiling of my own limitations. An entrepreneur is visionary. We all have different energy levels, creative ideas, and personalities. We have the power to do things in the way that best aligns with our being without having to follow standardized rules. It is your job as a business owner to discover what works best for you and your business.
My intention with this article is for you to realize that business does not have to be a conventional practice and trusting yourself and your visions is the only way you will attain what may seem as unattainable.