The recent economic downturn has found highly-skilled professionals on the unemployment line. With employment options limited, inventive professionals exercised their ingenuity and launched their own business. In fact, the US Census Bureau states that small businesses without payroll – those who classify themselves as free lancers, self-employed, or solopreneurs – make up 70% of America’s 27 million companies with annual sales of $887 billion. To you we say, Welcome!
And, as someone who has been on both sides of the equation as a business owner/entrepreneur and a strategic business coach working with entrepreneurs, consider this a PSA (public service announcement): Don’t Grow it Alone!
Don’t grow your business alone. Not only is business increasingly complex today, you also want to unlearn the employee mindset and learn the entrepreneurial mindset. Working for an organization, no matter what size, doesn’t prepare you for the topsy turvey world of entrepreneurship.
You’ll love the freedom and flexibility and will, simultaneously, need some structure. Don’t grow it alone!
You’re highly skilled in your core competency and will need to learn an entirely new and different industry and all it involves – entrepreneurship. Really – don’t grow your business alone!
You’ll thoroughly enjoy the peace and quiet of your home office and will need an objective opinion and a safe place to further develop your thoughts and vision free from judgment and criticism. Your friends aren’t that person. Seriously – don’t grow it alone!
As an entrepreneur, accidental or not, what advice would you share with those just entering into the wild, wacky, wonderful world of entrepreneurship? (Beyond not growing it alone.)
Like peanut butter and jelly, the future success of your small business may be in developing meaningful partnerships. And, with the right type of planning, “teaming up” can prove to be a match made in heaven. Without advanced and thoughtful planning, partnerships can be hell.
Several years ago, the explosion of the internet caused several industries to become extinct. Some business owners, like those in travel, found themselves without a business. Recently, the Huffington Post released an article entitled, 
Website bounce rate is one of the most important metrics you should be tracking in your analytics. Bounce rates tell you what percentage of visitors click-away after viewing only one page of your website. This is obviously a critical statistic when you are trying to convert browsers into buyers. A simple mistake in your website strategy and design can send visitors away even if you have the best product or service in your industry.
As an entrepreneur, it’s likely you’ve “sensed” when an aspect of your business was not working well. Something was off. You may not have been able to put your finger on it but, one thing was certain, it created a sticking point for your business. Whether it was a marketing tool, a client, an event, a group membership…your gut was speaking to you, telling you something wasn’t fitting as well as it could. Unfortunately, the importance of trusting your gut isn’t a strategy you’ll find in many business schools. Yet, it’s one of the most effective tools in a successful business.
A few years ago, I participated in the Amgen 