Avoiding Entrepreneurial Mindset Traps

Advice from Those Who’ve Faltered and Evolved

An entrepreneurial life is anything but stagnant. Whether you aim for it to happen or not, your business will evolve and so will your professional mindset. It’s really only natural; business must adapt to circumstances and you aconstantly learning along the way. There’s a lot of wisdom we can glean from fellow entrepreneurs as they navigate the waters of their own professional seas. Recently I spoke with several entrepreneurs who shared with me from their experiences throughout their years in business. I culled their wisest words and came up with a couple pieces of advice from their combined comments.

Listen to the Market

"I knew what I wanted to do - but I didn’t know what my potential customers needed." That, this entrepreneur said, was the total disconnect that caused his business to get off to a rocky start. As he’d conceived of his business, he thought he’d be working as a technology consultant, helping small businesses supercharge their processes, improving their productivity, efficiency and profitability. When the work didn’t come, he felt like he was failing at attaining his dream consultancy. His passion was there, but the people his business was attracting, while drawn to working with him, didn’t see the value in what he was offering.

The reason: He wasn’t offering the actual services his audience wanted and valued.

What they needed - and were willing to pay for - was someone to fix their malfunctioning technology, help with configuring and updating their machines and set up and administer their websites. Once his offerings were aligned with the wants and needs of the people he served, his business took off, he was successful and he grew a large and loyal clientele who were always happy to recommend him as their technology "go-to" guy.

Moral of the story: Listen to the marketplace - find what the market really wants and provide that rather than what you assume it wants. It would have served this entrepreneur to do some market research before setting up shop to learn how he could best utilize his skills to build a thriving business.

Get Help When (or Before You Think) You Need It

Entrepreneurs tend to be individuals who feel they can - and believe they should - do it all. That, however, couldn’t be farther from the truth. This entrepreneur - a birth doula - was so used to doing it all herself that it didn’t even occur to her to hire help. "I can’t afford to pay someone to do things I can do myself!" she’d proclaim as she worked yet another night to the point of exhaustion while making no real headway toward implementing the big dream she had for her business.

The Reason: She was spending too much time doing things that weren’t contributing to making her money.

When she finally realized how hiring help would free her up to be more targeted in her approach to her work and focus on the higher levels of what she offered, it was a revelation. She was finally free of the distractions of the day-to-day details - and the tangential roles that are better served by competent industry professionals. She’d arrived in her sweet spot and could flourish while serving more and bigger clients from a place of empowerment and peace without exhaustion.

Moral of the story: Don’t be a hero - no one can do it all by themselves. Hire help - or a team - when needed so you can spend your professional life acting in your professional capacity. This entrepreneur’s professional roll was slowed considerably by taking on too much on her own shoulders.

Developing a successful mindset takes time - rare is the entrepreneur who can hit the ground running. If you find your business faltering, consider if perhaps you’ve fallen into one of these entrepreneurial traps that are keeping your business from being all it can be. Keep an agile mindset where business is concerned; stay open to the possibility that circumstances have changed, that you missed something or that you’ve taken on too much. Pivoting from that awareness can help your business evolve rather than whither.

What could you learn from the missteps of entrepreneurs you know?