In her book Flight
Club, Felena outlines 10 tips to go from Employee to Entrepreneur; she was
generous enough to share the first five here!
1. Dream and do at
the same time. You must be the long-term visionary while simultaneously
keeping the day-to-day tasks under control. As an entrepreneur, you have to
project your mind forward, thinking about the potential pitfalls and
opportunities that lie around the corner and making decisions based on
uncertainty.
2. The buck stops
with you. In a job, you're often waiting for things to happen—for someone
to give you permission or for your boss to give you the "green
light." Entrepreneurs have an incredible opportunity to create something
from nothing, but this means you must be 100% self-motivated. You decide what
you do, how you do it, and when you do it. While many long for this kind of
autonomy, the reality of all this decision making can be challenging for some.
3. Get comfortable
with being uncomfortable. As an employee, you have a significant safety
net. In most cases, you have coworkers to support you if you drop the ball or
make a mistake. You typically have checks and balances all the way to the
finish line to make sure things don't go wrong. As an entrepreneur, there is no
net. You see what others don’t, test new ideas, seize new territory, and take
risks. This requires courage, a thick skin, and the ability to keep going
despite rejection and skepticism—daily!
4. You can't only
focus on what you do best. When you're an employee, you can typically hone
your skill set on a functional skill: accounting, law, marketing, HR,
operations, admin, etc. As an entrepreneur, you wear every hat simultaneously
unless you have the funds to outsource what you're not good at or don't want to
do. This is one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs. They want to do
what they do well and ignore the other areas of the business. You can be the
best social media strategist, but if you don't bill and collect from your
clients, you'll be out of business in short order.
5. You're always
seeking knowledge. As an employee, training is often delivered to you; the
company lines up continuing education, which is part of HR’s job. As an
entrepreneur, you’ll have to find information on your own via online courses,
books, magazines, or mentors. This can include learning to set up an accounting
system, getting investors on board, marketing your ideas, crafting your perfect
pitch, or using unfamiliar technology. It can be overwhelming to decide where
to go to find the most relevant, actionable information, but as an
entrepreneur, you must love to learn—you'll be constantly immersed in gathering
new information.
Buy Flight Club here
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