It seems there are as many ways to define entrepreneurialism as there are ways to become an entrepreneur. Perhaps the question is not what this means for everyone, but what it means to you. Only this way can we have the courage of our convictions to move forward and assess our approach, developing a competence that helps us provide value and ultimately build our brand.
So, how should you define yourself as an entrepreneur? This can be highly dependent on your own situation, your experience, and what you intend to do. By our thinking, there are only two questions an entrepreneur should ask themselves when starting out – ‘where am I going?’ and ‘who is coming with me?’
Of course, outlining what entrepreneurialism means to you (yes, we mean sitting down and thinking this through as well, perhaps with a tasty coffee and a spare two hours to write) can ultimately help you stick to your founding principles, or if you make changes in your approach, more easily understand why.
Let’s get started and discuss this most interesting of topics together, then:
Your Vision
Your vision is important to consider. We don’t mean this as a throwaway consideration, rather, this should be integral to your strategy. What motivates you? Why do you do what you do? What does it mean for you to have a brand, and what approach would you like it to take? This can dictate everything from your branding to your company name to exactly how you structure your process. How can you use your experience to strengthen your vision, and how can your vision strengthen your way forward? This is a question that entrepreneurs should ask themselves every day.
Your Principles
Your principles are also very important to consider. They are different to your vision in that they provide the grounding to it. Do you hope to make your company totally ethical and only subsiding on renewable or sustainable resources? How might you approach social issues and hiring when it comes to your new firm? What causes might you wish to support, either explicitly through your public presence or implicitly through your action? These approaches can truly make a massive difference, and if you don’t have principles, you’ll find yourself on shaky ground.
Your Problems to Solve
Every entrepreneur should ask themselves what problems they hope to solve. No matter if that’s using information gleaned by a review of Modern Millionaires as a symbol that it always takes more context to gauge success, or perhaps you just wish to make an industry more transparent in its action. If you can focus on moving forward and developing in this light, you’re much more likely to try something new, because you will have set yourself that goal to begin with, rather than worrying about developing it later on. It’s not hard to see where that potential lies.
With this advice, we hope you can more readily define yourself as an entrepreneur, and feel confident in doing so.
