Starting a business isn’t all unicorns and rainbows.
Most of the time, it’s challenging, scary, and emotional.
It’s a journey of perils and obstacles.
And what’s worse is that you never know how the entrepreneurial ebbs and flows are going to last.
Luckily, there is a tiny silver lining that comes with going through a lot of peaks and valleys, especially during the bumpy 12 months of business: those challenges help you build your resilience.
They force you to find alternative ways to overcome obstacles and improve your relationship with risk.
And, once you have learnt how to handle the outcomes of any hardship, you become able to keep your business in gear even when the situation goes downhill.
After all, problems don’t last forever – so hang in there.
If you deal with the ups and downs of business, read on. I have five great tips that are sure to help you ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship.
Table of contents:
- Seek out a mentor
- Make your business more agile
- Find a community of like-minded people
- Hire people who believe in what you do
- Be objective when you’re emotionally invested
1. Seek Out a Mentor
Industry analysts, online gurus and networking contacts can surely provide you with accurate, timely, exclusive information and business insights.
However, only a business mentor can pass on their wisdom to you so you avoid making the same mistakes as they did.
Starting a business without a mentor is no different from jumping in a car and trying to reach an unknown destination without a map.
Chances are you get lost on the road while driving, which may also trigger feelings of anxiety.
Relying exclusively on the generic business advice you get from casual acquaintances and publications is very likely to bring you to an unwanted destination.
The keynote speaker J. Loren Norris said, “If you cannot see where you are going, ask someone who has been there before.”
I couldn’t agree more with that statement.
A good mentor knows the ups and downs of the path ahead. Their experience and knowledge can help you shorten the learning curve and look at a problem through fresh lenses.
If you experience a similar situation as your mentor once did, they will act as a map of your business journey.
That’s why it is essential to have someone to guide you through your entrepreneurial journey and put their knowledge at your disposal.
2. Make Your Business More Agile
When facing challenges, the response is often that businesses need to improve agility.
But, what exactly is business agility and how do you increase it?
At its simplest, being agile means operating in a way that enables your business to rapidly adapt to changes.
By taking an agile approach, you can react faster to market shifts, pull through the ups and downs of business, and open the door to new opportunities.
So what makes one business more agile than others?
In this day and age, the answer is related to mobility.
For today’s tech-savvy employees, business mobility means having remote working options that enable them to complete work without being tied down to a single location.
Your business’s ability to remain mobile determines how your team performs tasks and communicates with customers – all while providing you with opportunities to make your strategy more agile.
Business mobility enables you to improve operational efficiency, increase collaboration, and boost productivity.
With virtual office solutions, collaboration tools, and the like, you can make your business more mobile and increase agility so you can build a culture that can quickly pivot when unexpected events happen.
Not to mention that working remotely with a virtual office allows you to tap into non-local talent without paying relocation costs while significantly reducing overhead expenses.
3. Find a Community of Like-Minded People
Being a lone entrepreneur can lead to feelings of isolation and loss of confidence, which may affect your ability to manage the cycle of ups and downs in your business.
After all, no one has gotten to where they are completely on their own.
That’s why when you take the entrepreneurial path, there will probably come a time when you start looking for a community of like-minded people.
When you connect with professionals in the same industry as you, the benefits are great and can tremendously help your business.
Here are the advantages of joining a community of like-minded people when building a business:
- It provides you with an opportunity to learn and acquire more knowledge
- Communities help you grow your professional network and get more customers in your sales funnel
- You can get the right type of support to get past hardships and survive tough times
- Makes you realise there are people in the same boat as you, so you aren’t alone
- When sharing your struggles with like-minded people, it becomes easier to brainstorm solutions
I know that your busy schedule doesn’t make it easy to seek out like-minded entrepreneurs.
However, the value of surrounding yourself with the right people is priceless. Learning from the experts can save you time, money, and much more.
4. Hire People Who Believe in What You Do
Simon Sinek once said, “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”
As your business grows, you will need to build a team who believes in you and your mission.
For example, if you’ve built your business because you wanted to make a change, find people who believe in that change – not just people who match the skill set that you want.
When you have a passionate, involved, engaged team who believes in you, trust emerges.
This will make you more willing to explore and take risks with the confidence that if you make a mistake, you can work together as a strong team to fix it and push your company forward.
Remember, belief drives behaviour, and behaviour drives the right results.
5. Be Objective When You’re Emotionally Invested
As you progress through different stages of startup development, emotions like anxiety and fear may hit alarming levels.
However, if you let your emotions overwhelm you, you risk ending up completely drained.
If you notice your emotions starting to spiral out of control, take a moment to reconnect with the present.
Emotional overwhelm can make it challenging to perform daily activities, so it is important that you stay balanced despite all the doom and gloom.
This will help you make decisions based on facts instead of letting bias affect your decision-making.
If you can’t manage your emotions, you are likely to experience cognitive distortions – thought patterns that create a distorted view of reality.
This may result in lost opportunities that may never come your way again.
Many people give up when something goes wrong. However, when you mess up, all that matters is how you handle failure.
Instead of letting your emotions overwhelm you after failure, pick yourself up, take a deep breath, and dust yourself off.
Ask yourself what you could have done differently to reach a better result and consider how that could help you improve for next time.
Conclusion: Your first year in business will probably be a roller coaster of emotions and a time of unprecedented change.
There will be many days when you’re stressed and overwhelmed, and there will be days when you feel empowered to show your mettle to the world.
These five tips (in tandem with your hard work, passion and motivation) are sure to help you move your business forwards amidst ups and downs and make it thrive.
Need a helping hand to make your business more flexible to navigate change? Our virtual offices in Melbourne provide you with all the services you need to overcome challenges and scale up fast. We help you work remotely and make your business more agile while ensuring you establish a professional presence at minimal costs. For more information, do not hesitate to contact us – we’d be happy to help!
