Entrepreneurship is one of those things that is widely considered to be appealing, dynamic, and exciting, among a broad section of society – and for good reason, too.
As an entrepreneur, you get to acquire a vast degree of practical insight, while flexing your creative muscles, taking your professional destiny into your own hands, and potentially revolutionising your industry or even the broader fabric of society – if everything goes exceptionally well.
Of course, “making it” as an entrepreneur requires plenty of diligence, attention to detail, hard work, persistence, and insight. And, it also requires you to be comfortable with the idea of running up against various setbacks, and systematically overcoming them and incorporating the lessons they have to teach.
There are a huge number of different guides out there offering insights, coaching, and “how to” advice designed to help you kickstart your career as an entrepreneur, or to take it to the next level.
But, while it’s certainly useful to have a list of the things you “should” be doing, it may be just as useful – if not even more so – to be aware of some of the things you shouldn’t be doing, too.
Because, when all is said and done, there are a lot of things that you might do as an entrepreneur which can quickly and dramatically undermine your career and damage your professional future.
So without further ado, here are some surefire ways to sabotage your career as an entrepreneur.
Trying to do everything solo
With many new entrepreneurs getting a start online, often with small operations and very few overheads, it’s natural that those same entrepreneurs will tend to get used to the idea of doing everything “solo”
After all, you likely will be able to run your business as a one-person operation for a time, depending on the industry you are operating within. Saving money on staff by “picking up the slack” yourself certainly appeals to the general entrepreneurial worldview of self-sufficiency, hard work, and determination, too.
That’s all well and good, but it’s important to realise that there are limits to how much you can actually take on by yourself – and even if you are able to run your business effectively in this way for a time, the day will inevitably come, if you scale up, where it is necessary to bring on board additional help.
Services such as https://www.concise.co.uk/locations/it-support-services-manchester can allow you to have critical elements of your business managed by a professional team, on a remote basis, in a way that will be more accessible to many entrepreneurs than the idea of setting up a physical office and bringing in a permanent in-house staff right off the bat.
Just keep in mind that your ability to make a success of your business largely depends on the degree to which you can focus on your core competencies, reduce distraction, and delegate effectively, so that the areas of your business which are not within your immediate wheelhouse are handled to a professional standard nonetheless.
Adding excess stress to your routine, instead of coming up with stress management systems
This point ties in with the last one to a significant degree – because one of the key effects of entrepreneurs trying to take on as many duties and responsibilities as they can, on a personal basis, is that they frequently end up becoming overly stressed, and then burn out rather than maintaining the kind of long-term consistency that is essential for prolonged growth and success.
Although entrepreneurs do, of course, need to work hard, there are nonetheless certain fallacies embedded in the idea of “hustle culture,” such as the idea that working tirelessly around the clock leads to optimal results, while being sustainable over time.
In fact, some striking psychological research has found that professionals who take weekends and their full annual vacation allowance off, significantly outperform those who do not.
In order to remain resilient and motivated, you need to have effective stress management systems, rather than generating as much excess stress yourself as possible.
It is not just a matter of your motivation and sense of well-being, either. There’s a good chance that you will simply be able to do much better work, much more reliably, if you can keep yourself from feeling overwhelmed and as if you are perpetually on the verge of some or other crisis.
Failing to exercise proper scheduling and good time management
In a conventional job role as an employee, a lot of your scheduling is handled for you – or, at least, it will be easier for you to maintain a reasonable professional schedule, because you have assorted accountability mechanisms in place, including managers and other team members who are curious about the progress you have been making and what you’ve been doing with your afternoon.
Many entrepreneurs find that, without these external accountability mechanisms, their own personal scheduling and time management often hits a number of stumbling blocks and falls short of the ideal standard.
But as the saying goes, “time is money,” and it’s also one of the most vital resources at your disposal for making a success of your business, and for exploring any kind of project you might care to name.
So, do everything in your power to exercise proper scheduling and good time management.
Dispersing your focus too widely
It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to try to gain an edge over the competition by trying to do more than them, in general. For example, by offering a variety of additional services that the competitors might not offer.
While this might certainly be helpful if you’re able to manage it effectively, and while offering a high-quality of services, the reality is that it is often a big mistake to disperse your focus too widely, and to try to do too much.
Generally, you want to perform masterfully in a couple of core areas, rather than to a mediocre standard in half a dozen different areas. The more you disperse your focus, the less likely you will be to achieve anything spectacular in any one domain.
- DISCLOSURE – This post has been written by an outside source
