by Lauren Brown
You know your craft. You know how to do the work in the field you have chosen. You are familiar with your industry. You know other entrepreneurs in the industry. All of that is good. But, do you know how to be a profitable business owner?
It starts with the mindset.
Mindset determines everything. If you have a negative mindset or negative thoughts, you will stay in that space and not make progress.
You must believe that you can change your mindset. While many have expressed this thought, “believe and you shall achieve,” carmaker mogul Henry Ford may have said it best. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Are you getting the importance of mindset?
If you are aware of what you say and think, congratulations. You are well on your way to “shifting gears” to a profitable business mindset. One of my favorite sayings is “adjust your thoughts and adjust your life!” This could be a real challenge for some of us, because we then have to be fully responsible for our actions.
As an entrepreneur, we all certainly thought that we wanted to be responsible for our business. As a profitable business owner, we take responsibility for the successes as well as the challenges, obstacles and failures in our business. Does this sound like You?
Some ways to shift your mindset:
There is no doubt that entrepreneurs have passion, dreams and beliefs, while taking risks. But do you have a profitable business mindset.
The profitable business owner has a mindset that goes beyond being an entrepreneur. They take their business one step further by embracing and addressing things differently. They include:
• One’s purpose is to make money/not a hobby/not just self-employment
• Think for yourself
• Take calculated risks
• Strategic approach to business activities
• Connect with profitability
• Understand and implement business strategy
• Multiple streams of income/multiple businesses
• Understand your emotional ties to your business and customers
• Decisions affect your business today and in the future
• Innovation
• Value creation
The next two articles in this three-part series will focus on ways to improve your profitable business mindset and profitable business owner tips. Let’s start with focusing on your why – do not lose sight of why you are pursuing your business idea and how important it is to you. Daily reminders keep you on track!
Lauren Brown is the founder and lead consultant at LRB Global Consulting Services. She has a juris doctorate (JD) and master's degree in business administration (MBA). She can be reached at lauren2freedom@gmail.com.