Taking hold of your own future is an exciting next step in your career and being an entrepreneur is the most fulfilling way to do it. Finding yourself uninspired, doing the same task, the same work routine for a job that doesn’t reflect your passion can be grueling and can even impede you from realizing your potential. Once you decide that this is not the path for you, then you can start pursuing your own goals and make a difference not only for yourself, but for others.

Becoming an entrepreneur takes work, dedication, and commitment, but there is a heightened sense of independence and fulfillment that you just can’t find anywhere else: knowing that you are doing what you love, what you’re good at is rewarding. As Celebree School CEO Richard Huffman puts it, “I think… one of the biggest gifts of being an entrepreneur—having that feeling that I’m making difference in my community and creating a business where I can rally other people behind me who have the same vision and same passion that I have about making a difference and creating a legacy for my family.” It is finding purpose and joy in what you do that it doesn’t feel like a typical job anymore.

Getting started

As an entrepreneur, you need to have the most basic elements of starting up: a clear vision of the business you want to build and grow, willingness to learn and adapt, and a strong network of support. 

Part of the process is understanding what this step means for you: being a boss and being a leader is not always the same thing, as with merely owning versus growing a business. Being a good entrepreneur is mastering several roles, being innovative, embracing change, and making it happen.

The first few steps are critical in establishing yourself and your business. 

• Find the right business for you. Explore and research markets that match your interests and passion. Know your strengths and the skills you’re good at. Learn from successful models and identify gaps in the market. Arm yourself with knowledge and do comprehensive studies of the business you want to build.
• Identify your target audience. Validate your consumer market. Know the answers to these key questions: Who will your business serve and how big of a market is it? How will your business cater to their everyday needs? How will these improve their lives? Gather direct data. 
• Plan and strategize. Focus on creating solutions to the problems you identified. Develop products and/or services that will address these areas and how you can fill the demands in the market. Build a solid business plan. Tailor these to your target audience. 
• Create engagement. Attend events and network. Build your contact list of key people who can fortify your foundation. Start promoting your work. Develop campaigns. Listen to feedback. Build a loyal base by incentivizing early consumers with the quality of your service/product and essentially turning them into ambassadors for your business: their satisfaction and success is one of your greatest selling points.
• Cultivate a strong support network. Sometimes, the entrepreneur himself/herself can be the one who limits the business’s growth. Don’t try to do it all alone. Surround yourself with a trusted team and people with the experience and knowledge that can help propel you to success. Find a mentor or a mastermind group. Learn from your peers and people from different industries and absorb what works for your business.

Entrepreneurial growth

It’s not too early to envision what and you want your future to look like. Keep a positive mindset. Becoming the best entrepreneur that you can be starts with something small. However, it’s also important to know that rapid growth is not always an indicator for success: efficient and proper management, as well as open communication channels, must be put in place in order to handle all kinds of situations you may encounter. 

Being a good entrepreneur also means being innovative: focus on learning and being up-to-date with the latest trends, technologies, and industry news. Never stop finding ways to improve and evolve professionally and personally and apply what works for your business. Highlight the value of your service or product, not just based on performance, but how it actively and meaningfully makes a positive impact for others. In serving more people, you’ll be able to scale your business.
Take the next step by building your capital and scale your business. Take advantage of your success and use it to grow your reach and your brand, expand into new markets, and make exponential gains.