Perseverance: the act of not giving up. Sticking to a course of action, belief, or purpose. Not giving up on your dreams and hopes to create a business that someday could become successful. Anyone can start a business but how many stick with it?
ABS stats in Australia state that in 2021 there were 2,402,254 businesses trading. There was a 3.8% growth, with a 15.8% entry rate and 12.0% exit rate. Medium-sized companies experienced the biggest growth in the 2020/2021 period. Yet, non-employing businesses dropped by 2.2%.
Many of us have a dream to start our own business, make lots of money and enjoy life to the fullest. Nice thoughts, but most of us don’t get to realize our dreams. Because we want it to be easy. Build a website, write a few blogs, and let it run on automatic pilot. That’s why perseverance in any business is essential. Understanding the importance of this trait sets you apart from the competition.
Almost all entrepreneurs make mistakes or face obstacles that may derail their business. If you can pick yourself up, more than once and learn from your mistakes, then you are on the right track for success.
What role does perseverance play in entrepreneurship?
Life will throw you curve balls. You need to realize that if you don’t get up again and again then your business may not do well.
“Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” Julie Andrews Edwards
It’s about being savvy, consistent, and sticking to your goals. We try, we fail, and we get lucky. We try new things something sticks, and we have learned from our mistakes.
The Entrepreneurial Journey
If you are starting out, you will running a one-person business is a no brainer. It’s easy enough to do if you are tech savvy and can lessen the workload by using digital apps.
Identifying your passion
Make sure you find a niche that aligns with your interests, expertise, and values. It’s important to find a niche that you know and are passionate about. If it’s something you love, it will keep motivation high. To be successful, identify and leverage your strengths. Develop products or services that are in line with market demands.
Research the platforms that you plan to post your content to gauge the type of content that is popular. Follow the people who are doing well so you can learn from those who are successful on the platform. This may also provide information to define your target audience.
Initial challenges
Some challenges for Solopreneurs and entrepreneurs are financial constraints and limited resources. Create a business plan. No matter how detailed you are you need to plan how you will run the business until money comes in. Create a realistic budget to work within to start. Adapt as you grow.
You will need to be resourceful with promoting your company. You can get a lot more done by automating a lot of your processes. This may take some time to set up if you are not organized from the get-go. We are all used to working with apps to make our lives easier. Running a business is no different, it’s on a bigger scale.
The role of perseverance
You may start a business and it fails. You need to be tenacious and keep going. If you give up, how will you know if you could have been a success? We all think that things happen straight away. That singer that became an overnight success. What we find out later is that singer had been trying for 5 or 10 years. It takes time and patience.
Facing the obstacles head on
There are going to be times where you feel lonely, and you lose confidence. Remember to keep in close contact with friends and family. You need that support mechanism to stop you from experiencing self-doubt. Find a mentor or coach who can keep you motivated.
Work with the expertise you have. Seek out platforms that provide information to resolve obstacles you are facing. There are so many blogs and podcasts that can help if you have time. You may need to, so you don’t burn out.
Remember to ask for help if you need it. Maintain your support network by setting up a weekly coffee date with friends. You can bounce ideas off them or even get back that sense of belonging. Sometimes when we are not doing well and feel alone we need to get back to reality for a little while.
Stay committed to your vision but realize you need a work-life balance to get there.
Learning from failure
We all fail at something in our lives. It might be at school, at a job or in your own business. Yet, if we don’t learn something when it does happen, we are holding ourselves back. Failure impacts your goal commitment. It may even result in the “what the hell effect”. This could cause erratic behavior.
Have you ever been in a situation where you have been trying to lose weight or get fit and you are getting nowhere? So, you eat a tub of ice cream or cancel a gym membership. But that doesn’t make it better it makes it worse.
One technique is to learn from somebody else’s failures. The aim here is to avoid doing what the role model has done. Or, take yourself out of the equation, talk about the failure from a 3rd person perspective. E.g., Why did John fail?
Self-care for work/life balance
Because most of us in our own business or even at work we are juggling so many things we need to stop and ‘smell the roses’. Take some time to focus on you.
Some ways to do this include:
– Personal ‘you’ time as an everyday routine.
– Make sleep a big priority.
– Eat right.
– Remember to relax and unwind.
– Workout as often as you can. Make it a part of your workday.
– Say no when you feel you must.
Learning from successful role models
If JK Rowling hadn’t been persistent she would not have been the success she is today. When she first wrote the first Harry Potter book in 1995, it got by 12 different publishers. One of the publishers even told her to ‘get a day job.’
“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing”. – JK Rowling
Steve Jobs achieved success early on in his career. But at the age of 30, the Apple Board of Directors decided to take the business in another direction. He got fired from the company he created. Jobs did go back to his former company. Because Apple purchased NeXT (a software company and Pixar), founded by Jobs. The rest is history that we can all learn from.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs.
Perseverance and tenacity are key elements of their respective successes.
Conclusion
To summarize, here are the points discussed in this blog:
The entrepreneurial journey:
– Identify your passion.
– Initial challenges.
– The role of perseverance
Facing the obstacles head on:
– Learning from failure.
– Self-care for work/life balance.
– Learning from role models.
A big hi-five to those Solopreneurs or entrepreneurs who start and stick with their dream. Are you ready to get started this weekend?
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