Shifting Your Mindset From Employee To Entrepreneur

It takes a lot of daring and drive to become a business owner and strike out as an entrepreneur. After all, you’re separating yourself from a steady paycheck, quitting your job and now everything is your responsibility. If you’re serious about starting a business and getting your ideas out, none of that should bother you. However, those thoughts and many others are the products of an employee mindset. Owning a business requires shifting your mindset from employee to entrepreneur so you can be successful. If you’re striking out and starting your own business, here are some ways that shifting your mindset from employee to entrepreneur will ensure you succeed.

Set Short And Long Term Goals

When you’re just an employee, your goals tend to relate to the work at hand. Perhaps you have 5 year goals, but they tend to be less perpetual and enduring than your goals have to be when you start a business. Shifting your mindset requires you to set strategic goals for the short term business operation and long term goals related to your vision and your core values. You may be used to following to some degree, even if you were a leader in your former company, but when you transition from employee to entrepreneur, you become the leader and if you have any employees other than yourself, they will look to you for direction.

Take Responsibility, But Don’t Be Superman

When you transition from employee to entrepreneur, one of the most significant, scary implications of the position is that you are no longer able to rely on the safety net that you might have as an employee. You don’t have a salary or benefits from the company to rely on. You are awarded simply for your work and every benefit you can provide for yourself or your employees relies solely on the work you get done. Your success depends on shifting your mindset, being willing to pick up the slack, to be willing to be more than a deckhand working on the ship, but the captain with a responsibility to the ship and all of its crew.

However, and this is a key point, that does not mean do everything yourself. Success also relies on your ability to delegate actions and decisions or to designate time for certain tasks so you don’t end up losing the forest through the trees.

Think Outside The Box Because The Box Doesn’t Exist

An employee works within the confines of the business they work for and the duties they are assigned. They also work within a rule set, a time period, with considerations for overtime, vacations, holidays and a multitude of other factors. Employee life is very structured, but the life of an entrepreneur, especially immediately after you make the shift from employee to entrepreneur, is not limited by this box. You need to continue shifting your mindset so that you are prepared for a life where no one determines the structure of your work or duties. However, this doesn’t mean life is chaotic as an entrepreneur, although it certainly can be. Being an entrepreneur means you have new opportunities and new possibilities to accomplish your goals and you aren’t tied to the same rules that you are when you are an employee.

Shifting your mindset from employee to entrepreneur is one of the biggest changes when you start your own business that no one really talks about, but everyone experiences. HJR Global is a company born out of entrepreneurship and we support the efforts of new and established entrepreneurs. HJR Global helps entrepreneurs with anything they need from funding, to motivation and even expanding skills such as emotional intelligence, one of the most effective tools for leaders that want to expand their teams. Right now, you can expand your emotional intelligence skills and join the #LeadershipUnlocked movement. Click the link below to learn more.