Have you ever dreamed of becoming your own boss? It may sound cliché, but there are key ways to be your own boss in the business world. Successful entrepreneurs each have their personal stories to tell. While every entrepreneur’s story has a different beginning and ending, there are lessons to learn and remember.
Whether you’re yearning to start your own business or have started a company that has not taken off yet, it’s good to find inspiration from the journey of successful “bosses” around the world. However, life itself has plenty of practical lessons to teach every aspiring business owner.
The Journey to Becoming Your Own Boss
Success means different things for different people. One person may be contented with starting a profitable small business, while another person will not stop until they establish a large company that spans borders or continents. Thus, the first thing that an aspiring business person should do is set goals.
Goal setting is a step that every budding entrepreneur shouldn’t miss. Goals are not just a to-do list, but it’s supposed to give direction and boost motivation. Also, having a set of goals allows you to focus on what’s essential so that you don’t end up wasting your time on activities that’ll not contribute to your success.
To create compelling goals, they should be S.M.A.R.T., which stands for:
- Specific – goals should be detailed and can be defined precisely (I will sell natural handmade soaps through Shopify).
- Measurable – goals must be quantifiable so that the progress can be tracked (I will aim to sell at least five pieces of handmade soap per week after setting up shop on March 15).
- Attainable – goals are supposed to be reasonable and realistic (I will promote my products on the shop’s Facebook and Instagram account and aim to gain 30- 50 followers per week).
- Relevant – goals that are in line with your long-term plans (I will benefit financially from my hobby, that is, making handmade soaps from natural ingredients).
- Time-Based – goals should have a deadline or target date (After March 15, my Shopify store will be fully operational with at least 50 pieces on-hand inventory).
Having these S.M.A.R.T. goals is not enough to realize your dream to be your own boss. There are still things that you can do and traits that you must acquire to help you achieve your goals.
Here are key ways to help you become your own boss:
1. Focus on Self-Improvement
As an aspiring entrepreneur, there are many things that you still need to learn. That being said, here are the ways you can improve yourself in many aspects that’ll benefit your business:
- Invest in your health: Expect entrepreneurship to take a toll on your health. The long hours and late nights will slowly deplete your energy and make you less physically able to take on the challenges lined up ahead. Proper nutrition, ample rest, and regular exercise will all help in keeping your body in good shape.
However, it would be best if you didn’t forget to take care of your mental health, too. While building your business provides a feeling of self-fulfillment, entrepreneurs are also susceptible to mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety.
Stress and burnout can pull you away from your goals, putting all your efforts to waste. Thus, it’s crucial to invest in your mental endurance by regularly taking a break to disconnect from work, delegating work to qualified associates, and seeking the company of family and friends.
- Learn something new every day: Even if you’re already a few years into your business endeavors, there’s always something new that you can learn to improve yourself as an entrepreneur. Enroll yourself in self-development classes or find a mentor who can inspire you to become a better business person.
No one said that becoming your own boss is easy, but with the right mindset and a great support system, you’re well on your way there.
2. Be Creative and Courageous
To set yourself apart from the other entrepreneurs, you should have a unique and creative mind. As an entrepreneur, one of your goals is to create a solution for consumer problems.
While many entrepreneurs have creativity and ingenuity, some lack confidence and courage to put their ideas to work.
Courage doesn’t mean making decisions and acting on them on a whim. Every action plan must be thought through to ensure its feasibility or effectiveness. But, even if the best strategy may not work out, you’ll never know unless you tried it.
Taking risks is part of your journey to becoming your boss, and every successful individual has experienced rejection and failure – it can be regarded as a baptism of fire for entrepreneurs.
3. Work with Passion and Discipline
To become a real boss, you must learn to work with passion and discipline. The desire to succeed in your business endeavors must be complemented with the ability to discipline yourself throughout the startup process.
Working with passion means taking every success and failure as an opportunity to improve. When things go wrong, you don’t just pack up and leave. You try to find out how to do things differently until you get things right. You’re motivated by your goals and fueled by your vision for your business.
Frequently, our worst enemy is ourselves; procrastination and pessimism can pull us down. But, as an entrepreneur, you should understand that self-discipline is an outstanding quality that comes from having the right mental and emotional mindset. A disciplined entrepreneur motivates the people around them with their positive attitude and industriousness.
Conclusion
The best part about being an entrepreneur is that you have total control of your best asset – yourself. Many startup entrepreneurs began building their successful business with nothing and no one to depend on but themselves.
Conquering your fears and insecurities is key to becoming your own boss in the business world. You can achieve it by continuously improving yourself, being creative and courageous, and working with discipline and passion.
