I'm here today with 5 psychological tips for you on starting a business.
In all of the coaching I've done with entrepreneurs, I think the first thing
that is important to get clear about is WHY. Why are you doing this? Now, a lot of
people start a business to make some money. Totally legitimate reason to start
a business. I don't know that that's a strong enough why. You've probably heard
the statistics that like one out of every 2 new startup businesses fail
within the first few months. Why is this? Well, because maybe they don't have a
strong enough why. There's a lot of ways to make money. If you get clear about
your why, it's going to give you the energy that you need to do all of the
hard house. You've got to have a strong enough why. So, search your heart and mind
for that a little bit. In fact, here's a question for you. What would you give
your life for? What would you give your life for? Now, does that sound dramatic?
Because that's exactly what you're doing if you choose to spend your time and
your energy and your money on this. You're giving your life to this cause. So,
give it enough thought to get clear about your why. Second tip: Get clear
about your WHO. If you're like me, you want to help everybody, right? And I've
been trapped there so many times. Here's the problem: If you want to help
everybody you're not really helping anybody. It's hard to develop marketing
messages for everyone. So, you get clear about your who. There's a book called
TRIBES by Seth Godin. He nailed it. He identified that each one of us is the
leader of a tribe. You might not even know who your tribe is yet.
And they might not know who you are yet. But what you have to bring to the table
is for them. And if you don't show up, they don't get it.
Think about this tribe that you've got out there who is waiting for you to
deliver your message, your product, your service. Whatever it is your business
delivers, they need to get it from you because you are in fact the chief of
their tribe. That makes you feel kind of important, doesn't it? And it is important
to figure out who you serve with your business. That's the second tip. Tip
number 3, get clear about WHAT. What you deliver? What's your product? What's
your service? This becomes a little more clear when you figure out who the who is
and what your why is. The what is the answer to an unresolved problem that the
WHO has. Did you follow all of that? There are unresolved problems that your tribe
is experiencing right now. What you deliver to them answers that problem. And
hopefully it answers it for them in a way that is so compelling. And this
product or service answers their unresolved problem in a way that is so
compelling that it practically sells itself. That's what we're shooting for.
The what has to answer an unresolved problem. Otherwise it's not really a
legitimate business venture. I think the only reason business exists is to answer
the unresolved problems that people are having. Which people? Your tribe. The
fourth tip today is to get clear about the when. Is this the right time for you?
And it isn't always. There are seasons and there are reasons. Let me tell you
what I mean. Seasons happen in your life. For example, you might have young
children at home. Alright. That's a season. That's a little different from
mine. Vicki and I have grown children now. All of the little ones
in our family or grandkids. And guess what? They don't live here. So, the seasons
of your life will sometimes determine what you're going to do in terms of a
business venture or anything else that you're going to spend your time and money
and energy on. The seasons have to be acknowledged and respected. Because this
may not be the right season for you. Now. let's talk about reasons. I picked the
word reasons because it rhymes with seasons. But reasons sometimes become
excuses. And your mind can come up with a half-dozen reasons why you shouldn't do
this. Have you noticed? Oh, the thing that's
hard about that is "Well, the problem would be ___. Well, here's why I can't ___." You see
all the reasons that can come up? All you need is one good why? That's why we hit
that one first. The reasons can't become excuses. We simply handle the
considerations. If it's the right season for you,
then address the reasons, handle the considerations and let's make this
happen. Get clear about your when. There's a lot more topics related to starting a
business. I want to get to the final one for today's video. Number 5 was
inspired by Rich Christensen in his book the Zigzag Principle. Now, let me put a
little context around that. When you're climbing to the summit of a mountain, you
don't go straight to the summit. That would be far too difficult. Sometimes way
too dangerous. What you do is you go this way for a while. And then you turn around
and then you go this way for a while. It's called a switchback. And you'll
switch back from this side to that side. Zigzag, zigzag all the way up the face of
that mountain until you get to the summit. And there are times when you're
going a totally different. Well, it doesn't mean you're off track. It means
that you got to take a little zig in order to zag later on and finally get to
where you're going. Keep that in perspective as you're looking
at your journey in starting a new business. And here's another tip that
rich shared with me. And the one that I want to end with today. Put up guardrails.
Think about when you're driving up a steep mountain course. And there are
guardrails along the edge of the road that keep you from plummeting off of the
cliff, right? In case something goes wrong, that guardrail catches you and it keeps
you safe. You need to have some of these when you're starting a business. The
guardrails might be timed guardrails. They might be money guardrails. How much risk
can you afford to put into this business? And so you might say, "You know what? I'm
going to spend up to 3 months and $3,000 to try this idea." Now, I just
pulled those numbers completely out of the air.
Whatever your guardrails are, will reflect your tolerance for risk.
Put the guardrail in place. Because sometimes you can get into it and you
don't know how long it's going to take before you get a return. Well, if you can
get to a certain point in 3 months and convince yourself that "Yes, this is a
legitimate venture", that's going to help keep you safer than if you don't have
the guardrails in place. Time guardrails, money guardrails. There are a lot of
clarity that you need to get clear in your mind in order to start a business.
Hopefully this has helped you to hone in on some of the top ones. As you can
probably tell from this particular video, I am an entrepreneur. And I do a lot of
coaching of entrepreneurs. Sometimes coaching is a really helpful thing to
get. And if I can help you with that, I would be happy to. Come on over to
drPaulJenkins.com. My website where you'll be able to connect to coaching
and other services that can support you in your journey.