How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

Anita Campbell raised a question in Small Business Trends where she is the Editor-in-Chief about how did a few entrepreneurs get the confidence to start their business.

Below, I quoted Andru Edwards’ response from whose thoughts I believe is very related in our quench for starting our business and the importance of setting of small business goals.

“Setting Goals” says Andru Edwards, GearLive.com:

When I decided to start Gear Live, it was with the knowledge that I knew I could do it, and that I wanted to strive to be one of the best at what I did. I really do think it is all about drive. When it came to confidence, I was simply confident that I could not only do it, but do it very, very well. With that goal in mind, I forged ahead, and never took my eye off of that goal.

Starting a company on your own is tough, and there are a lot of moments where you are going to question whether it was the right move, or whether you should throw in the towel. I decided that I wouldn’t throw in the towel until I hit my goal. If my goal was to be one of the best, then I couldn’t stop until I got there

In my estimation, if you don’t have the desire to be the best, and would instead be happy with the status quo, then you are in the wrong business. Find something you are passionate about, something that you know you can always get behind, and something that you absolutely, without a doubt, want to achieve. Once you find that, your confidence will be more than enough to not only start a business, but having a very good chance of succeeding.

You can check out other answers from more entrepreneurs in this post – How Did You Get the Confidence to Start Your Business?

SMART Goal Setting Technique

One thing I can always remember on my Business Essentials and Administrative Purposes (BEAP) subject is the importance of setting specific goals for your business. There is actually an acronym for us to remember it easily. The acronym will serve as a guideline on to how we should set our small business goals. The acronym I am referring to is SMART.

He stressed out in our class to ensure each of our goals follows the SMART concept. SMART means:

• Specific
• Motivational
• Action-oriented
• Relevant to your situation
• Time-bounded

Knowing the actual meaning of the acronym SMART, do you think it does made sense in setting goals for our small business? Well for me, it is. What’s your view? Just share your views in the comments section. Thanks in advance!

Goal Setting Guide

Oh I am actually a few months behind with Anita Campbell‘s discovery of Denise O’ Berry’s Goal Setting Guide. It’s free to download guys and we better grab a copy of it so we can get our business started. Below I quoted my favorite lines, I don’t know if it’s Anita’s goals or resolution for the last new year, but it’s worth to be noted. Well, here they are:

• Instead of letting life just “happen,” you take charge.

• Instead of spending time on things you do not like to do, you make conscious choices.

• Instead of letting your business just mosey along, you drive your business in the direction you want it to go.

Till next time!

Defining Small Business Goals begins with the Basics

I found an article which is actually a good activity for small business entrepreneurs to engage with.  It contains the basic steps in defining the goals for your small business. It has concrete examples and are very easy to comprehend.

So, grab a notebook and a pencil and sit in a place where you won’t be disturbed for about 20 minutes. So let’s begin. Check out – Setting Up Your New Small Business: Defining Your Goals.

Setting Specific Goals

What one change can you make to increase your success ten fold? Learn how to set specific goals when goal setting and use specific goals in all your business planning. Goals need to be specific if we have any chance of accomplishing them. Setting specific goals when we’re goal setting sets us up for success rather than failure.

The above is quoted from the article written by Susan Ward the importance  of Setting Specific Goals. Defining specific goals for our business can optimistically increase our chances of winning our business.