Do you have the confidence that is a pre-requisite for entrepreneurs whether a kitchen-table start-up or small business? The small business person cannot afford to be sucked in by the gloom and doom that surrounds them. They are fighters. They cannot close shop because of bad times brought about by institutions.
Whatever set of circumstances they are given, entrepreneurs need to come up with new ideas, new ways of thinking, adapt to changes and rise above.
I recently saw and spoke to the owner of a coastal trading store who three months before started promotions for the December/January holidaymakers. When I met her she was outside in the garden in front of the store mowing the lawn herself. Her’s is a very small business and most of the running of the business she does herself. She’s not shy of hard work.
This brings me to another area of the small business person who isn’t afraid of cost-cutting. They are used to working and building their businesses on a shoestring. This means finding ways to spend less and leverage the small amounts of money they have. They know how to use less to create more.
It’s tough putting yourself on the line. Some entrepreneurs who have started their businesses walk a very fine line – very close to ending up on the street but they cannot let themselves go backwards.
Hardy, tough, persevering entrepreneurs do whatever they can to make something happen in their lives and business. They have tasted the bitter fruits of failure many times and rise up above their circumstances. There is no one to bail them out. No one will pay for their mistakes. No one will pay for their extravagance, largess and wild spending sprees.
Successes is incremental. You grow one step at a time. One sale after the other. You never forget the hard times when there is so little money that you have to rack your brains for creative ways to start your business, run your business, promote your business.
Entrepreneurs ignore the bad news, the bust economy and use their self-confidence to get on with what they know they have to do.
