Blog #13 - 10 Things To Do Before Becoming An Entrepreneur

 

10 Things To Do Before Becoming An Entrepreneur.

 

 

So most of the articles on “Finance With Atul” are directed to finance, but today I want to talk to the entrepreneurs, who also follow “Finance With Atul”, but you're thinking about maybe one day becoming an entrepreneur, you just don't know what to do next.

 

See, there are 10 things I want you to be doing, before thinking about entrepreneurship. I remember when I worked at a private firm and I had a job and it was comfortable. I had a salary and it was good for me. I wanted to become a business owner, I wanted to become an entrepreneur, but there are a few things that I had to do before I made that decision.

 

I'm going to cover with you here today. By the way, I want you to know, it isn’t for everybody, so when I go through it, you may say, I can't do that, I can't do this. Well maybe it isn’t for you.

So let me get right into it here 10 things. 

 

Life of an entrepreneur.

 

                               

1. You should learn how to self-motivate.  

 

I get too many messages man that people tell me, how you motivate yourself. Can you, actually I get messages; people send me messages saying, "Atul, can you give me a motivational content for me to get motivated?"

 

If you don't know how to self-motivate yourself, cross this thing out, if you do not know how to self motivate yourself and get yourself fired up like this, business isn't for you because in the world of business you're alone. There's no one to tell you that you're amazing.

 

There are actually people on the complete opposite side, saying how horrible you are, constantly finding your leaks. Think about it this way here, so this maybe makes sense to you. Any athlete that first gets into the league, everybody picks at him. He doesn't know how to play defense, he doesn't know how to do this. It takes six, seven, eight years until they maybe win a championship, and then they get off their back.

 

The same is becoming an entrepreneur.

 

You have to learn to keep yourself up, you got to learn how to play hurt, you got to learn how to stay motivated and get your people motivated. So you got to learn how to self-motivate before you become an entrepreneur.

 

2. Save your money

I saved my money when I worked at Pvt. Firm. I was working at firm but I was saving that money. I was setting aside the money, because I knew long term, I was going to be in sales.

I didn't know what I was going to sell and I didn't know if I was going to stay as an employee forever, because I wanted to figure out a way to make more money. I did know sales was it, but I did know that I needed my money in case if I went fully commission, what am I going to do if I go fully commission? So Save, save, save.

 

3. Learn how to sell.

 

Today we had an entrepreneur that came here. He may be in the next blog, I don't know if you're going to put him on there or not, we'll figure it out. But he came today. His idea was, he has an app that he's designing that's for what, that's for house cleaning. For instance, I'm in Delhi. I want a house cleaner to come to my house tomorrow to clean it up. I get on there, I book them four hours, my house is 2000 square feet, and the pricing is going to be $120.

 

As an entrepreneur, if you're an employee right, now you're working wherever you're working at.

If you don't learn how to sell, what do you think happens? All of a sudden you become an entrepreneur; you don't know how to sell. You got to learn how to sell. Before you make that plunge of becoming an entrepreneur full-time, learn how to sell.

 

 

4. Work for one

 

Work for one, yes, work for one.

 

Work under an entrepreneur.

 

Work closely with a CEO, shadow one, see what they do, and see what's different about them. I'm talking about one that, today an entrepreneur, I hear a lot of people that say, "You know, I work for a 72 year old very successful entrepreneur who made a lot of his money, but he golf’s every day."

 

That's not who you want to work with. You want to work with the entrepreneur that is starving, but he's on his way up so you can learn from him.

.

5. Network, build contacts and relationships.

 

Network, build contacts, relationships, whatever you're doing, everything to you is just relationship.

So network, build contacts, you never know who is going to introduce you to, people send me a message and they say, "How do I find an investor, Atul, how?"

 

What do you mean how do you find an investor?

 

If you're a rookie entrepreneur, make a list of everybody you know today. Then spread them out. By the way, that could be a whole different episode. Spread them out. Who knows who, who knows who, who knows who, who knows who, and then from there, contacts. As you're starting, as an employee you want to become an entrepreneur. That decision you want to make, make a lot of, and build a lot of contacts. 

 

Learn How to Sell Product/Services

 

6. Work 80 hours a week for 12 to 24 months

 

Work 80 hours a week for 12 to 24 months and see if you can do it or not. While I worked at firm I worked 80 hours every single week as an employee, and they only paid me four, you know, six dollars an hour or seven dollars an hour, five dollars an hour, whatever the number was, because it was commissions. But I worked 80, 90 hours per week. I was at the gym from morning until night. Every day I was at the gym. You know why? Because I wanted to see if I had what it takes to work because if you don't know how to work 80 hours a week as an employee, you are definitely not going to be an entrepreneur.

 

If you go full time and you want to make a business, you're going to be required to work regularly. I think a lot of times people have this idea that you become an entrepreneur, because when you become an entrepreneur, you're going to become a millionaire.

 

 

Don't get me wrong. That eventually happens.

 

7. Research

 

Learn how to research and learn fast. I think this thing about researching. Again, that's a whole different thing that people, we can probably do one, how to research something, that could be an episode.

 

I think researching is a skill.

 

You got to research who is this connected to, who does this guy know, what's this thing all about, what is this product all about, what is this guy, why did they come out with us, why did this happen, what does this law have to do with this. You got to learn how to research, and you get to the bottom of something like, this guy is connected to this guy. Fine, now I get why this guy is saying this. Oh, this is starting to make sense.

You get the click, I figured out what's going on. I got to learn how to research and learn fast.

 

8. Build an audience.

 

Build an audience. Back in the days in 1990, when I worked at firm, there was no Facebook.

 

There was nothing. There was no way to build an audience. But the way I built an audience, I built it with everybody that was a member at the gym. I built an audience that worked at different Firms. I built a relationship there. But build an audience. Build an audience on social media.

Build an audience on Snap, on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube, on Twitter. Figure out a way to build an audience with your voice.

 

 

9. Make Decisions

 

As you're going through this and you're making a decision to go here, start becoming self aware and aligned about what your own strengths and weaknesses are. Figure that part out. You know what; I never knew I was going to be good in sales until me started working at firm. I mean, I used to sell at 10 years old. But I really started realizing, I can be pretty good at this sales thing. Then I started realizing pressure. What happens in pressure? You know deadlines. When we have numbers we have to hit, in sales, we had closeouts on Thursdays. I'm okay with this. There was another guy, one of my managers that I work with. He was my boss, he couldn't hack it himself, but he was my boss. Great guy, a sweetheart, and one thing I'll never forget about him.

 

 

10. Death Ground

 

Death ground, you got to put yourself in situations where your back's against the wall. Let me tell you what that is. Death ground situations, before you become an entrepreneur. Because death ground for entrepreneurs, every day baby, you're on the death ground, every single day you are on death ground as an entrepreneur but even more when you're a startup entrepreneur.

Take a deadline.  That seems crazy. Go hit it. Say yes and take responsibility for certain projects and go hit it. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? Take that deadline that no one wants to touch, because they're afraid of coming through.

 

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