In this episode, Megan talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. If you answer yes to the questions and you can do these things, then you have what it takes to start a business.
What does it takes to be an entrepreneur? What does it takes to start a business?
You can’t sit back and wait for things to happen. Hustle.
Notes:
- Can you be proactive? Have your priorities straight.
- Learn to delegate.
- Time should be focused on making money.
- Things aren’t always balanced but you have to be able to roll with it.
- Never stop learning.
- Ask for help.
TRANSCRIPT
Megan Brame: This is the stop sucking at business podcast. Let’s go.
[00:00:08] It’s time to grow your business, stop spinning your wheels and build the life you deserve. And I’m here to help. My name is Megan Brame. This is stop sucking at business.
[00:00:20] Hey guys, Megan Brame here. Welcome to stop sucking at business. I’m an award winning entrepreneur and I am here to help you succeed in your own small business or blog.
[00:00:29] Thank you so much for joining me. I’m sorry about missing an episode. Last week, um, I had one scheduled, or I had one recorded, I should say, and it was about overcoming depression as a business owner, and I’ve been really feeling like the burnout lately and the overwhelm, and whenever that happens, it kind of triggers my depression and I just kind of shut down.
[00:00:58] And it wasn’t a happy episode. It wasn’t anything like, Oh my God, should we call somebody? But it was more just. It wasn’t my best work and it wasn’t work that I felt would be beneficial for you guys. So I just kind of gave myself a mental health week and stepped away, and I’m feeling better now. But the reason that I bring that up, other than to explain why there’s no
[00:01:21] episode last week is to talk about what I want to talk about today, which is what it takes to be an entrepreneur. And this episode might be half pep talk, half come to Jesus. It really depends on where you are in your business. And on top of that, I also want to talk about what it takes to start a business
[00:01:43] if you have no money. If you have no funds, if you have no time, what is it going to take? But first, I know that holiday season’s coming up and I know that you’re starting to plan your holiday season, and I am so excited for you guys because I know that’s when all the money rolls in, and that’s when the stress also rolls into it.
[00:02:06] So you should take some stuff off your plate if you can. I recommend you give FreshBooks a try. It’s amazing for your bookkeeping. It does everything for you and it’s automated. It just makes your life so much easier. If you’re dealing with doing your own bookkeeping or accounting, it’s just too much for you.
[00:02:27] You really need to look into FreshBooks. You can try it for free. You don’t even need a credit card. If you go through my link, it’s meganbrame.com/freshbooks Give it a shot. I’m telling you it’s really going to help you out. And what have you got to lose? Right?
[00:02:42] So one of the things that I go through, and you know, I’ve talked about it on my blog, and I’m not embarrassed to say that I suffer from depression and my depression takes the form of apathy where I will just spend an entire day on Reddit knowing that I have these things that I have to do, like my blog hasn’t been updated in weeks.
[00:03:05] I haven’t, I can’t tell you the last time I sent an email to my mailing list. So if you’re on that list, I’m really sorry you’ve been in the back of my head for a long time, like Megan, and you really need to do it, and I just haven’t.
[00:03:18] But this is me being proactive, and that’s one of the things that I think you really have to be, when you’re an entrepreneur, when you’re trying to do something on your own, you can’t sit back and wait for things to happen.
[00:03:32] I know of one person. And I still don’t believe her when she says it, but I’d know of one person that made it a success, or had a successful business, I should say, and waited for things to come to her. The hundreds of other entrepreneurs I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and that I am honored to call my friends
[00:03:54] they hustle and they hustle because the bills don’t get paid on hopes and wishes right? You gotta be proactive and that’s, I think the most important part of when someone has these worries of, do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Can I start a business? Am I able to invest in it or, is this a stupid idea? Is a sustainable, what am I going to do?
[00:04:22] Step one, can you be proactive? And I know how difficult that can be. I know that, especially if you’re an introvert, I know how exhausting it can be to stand there and talk to people and you know, pretend that you care about their eczema or, you know what I mean? Like even if you do care about their eczema, but just you hear it over and over and over again, and can you do it?
[00:04:47] Can you be proactive all the time? And. Maybe you don’t need it all the time, but you definitely need it 95% of the time. You need to make things happen. If you feel like you can’t do that, if you feel like it’s too exhausting, if you’re terrified of picking up a phone and calling, are you willing to delegate?
[00:05:10] That’s the second part. So first part being proactive. Second part, learning to delegate. You got to get help. And I know in the beginning, especially in the beginning, there’s no money, right? There’s no money. If you even have a separate bank account, it’s at zero or like $5. I remember there was a time in my business where I had $3 in the checking account and I was walking around Brooklyn like, what am I gonna do?
[00:05:36] How am I gonna run this business with $3? But i made it and it bounced back. And you’ll bounce back too. Especially because when you delegate, when you automate, when you eliminate, when you focus on what matters instead of everything, that’s when you succeed. Your time is so valuable. It’s worth more than the money in your bank account.
[00:06:01] I’m not saying that you should go into debt. I’m not saying that you should go negative in your account. I’m saying your time should be focused on making money, not on bullshit, not on accounting, not on bookkeeping, not on folding towels, not on pinning things on Pinterest. All of that stuff can be automated.
[00:06:28] You know all of the things that I use, I use BoardBooster, which the CEO came on here and he was amazing, right? I use FreshBooks and I keep telling you guys that you should start using it too. I use, what else do I use? I use Grum for Instagram, and that’s what I teach in Gram Crackers, my Instagram class.
[00:06:48] There are ways to get around all of the shit that needs done. You need to focus on making money. You don’t need to focus on what you think is saving money, because it’s not. It’s taking you away from the main focus, right? So prioritize, delegate, eliminate, automate.
[00:07:11] One thing I think a lot of people don’t talk about, and it kind of goes along with being proactive, is
[00:07:18] you have to have your priorities straight because you know, there’s that wanting to have it all, wanting to have an amazing family and amazing life and an amazing business, and that’s not something gets pulled in the beginning, especially in the beginning when you’re in that rapid growth, hustle, hustle, hustle phase, you’re not going to have the time that you want to have dedicated to your business.
[00:07:45] If it’s with your family, you’re not going to have all the time you want for your family when you have to dedicate it to your business. Do you see what I mean? Something gives, but it can’t give all the way. You should always make sure that you prioritize what’s important. Yes, I know. You want the freedom to be an entrepreneur.
[00:08:06] You want the freedom of having your own business. But it shouldn’t be at the cost of your marriage. It shouldn’t be at the cost of watching your children grow up. Those are the things that matter that, you know, they just, they’re the important things. They’re the stuff that matters. And so if you feel that you’re not spending enough time with your family, then take a couple of days because that’s what matters.
[00:08:33] Take a couple of days to be with your family. The business can still run. It won’t shut down. If you take a long weekend, you’ll still be good to go. Conversely, there are going to be nights that you have to be up hustling. They’re going to be nights that you’re still doing emails at nine o’clock. Because you have to, right?
[00:08:56] That’s the balancing act. There’s this push to your business. There’s this pull from your family, and then it switches and then there’s this push to your family and this pull from your business, and you have to be okay with that ebb and flow. As an entrepreneur, you have to realize that things aren’t always balanced and you need to kind of roll with it, but make sure that you are being intentional with rolling with it.
[00:09:22] Does that make sense? You know, you want to make sure that your family isn’t missing you and your business isn’t missing you and it’s a juggling act. I don’t think anybody ever gets it right, especially the first couple of years. I think that is you’re learning as you’re going. You just really have to make sure that you’re taking time for both things.
[00:09:43] Another thing I think that entrepreneurs true like successful you know, making it rain kind of entrepreneurs do is they never stop learning. Like the Brooklyn public library has probably saved my business more times than not. I learned so much from books that were just, as you all know, the four hour work week was, my Bible still is, but.
[00:10:10] There are so many books that I’ve learned, so many amazing things. The success principles. Um, I will teach you how to be rich. Um, sorry. Just looking back at my business book collection, the one thing launched by Jeff Walker in his classes. Amazing too. If you can take it, I’d definitely recommend it. Ask by Ryan Levesque delivering happiness by Tony Shea.
[00:10:34] All of these, and it never stop with books. I never stopped learning. And I constantly, as you guys know, investing in myself and spending crap, tons of money on classes because my time is valuable. Your time is valuable. We don’t have a lot of time here, especially when we’re, when we’re juggling all of these things, right?
[00:10:59] So rather than spending ridiculous amounts of time on Google we’re gonna spend time investing in ourselves and constantly learning. I think that the most successful entrepreneurs are always learning, always asking questions, always have a book. Always taking a class, always trying to better themselves so that you know, why try and make a new path when there is a paved road 50 feet to the right, but it has a toll.
[00:11:25] You know what I mean? Like, is it worth going through the woods on your own trying to figure out how to get to your end goal when there’s a paved road and the paved road costs five bucks and it’s just a straight shot? Do you know what I mean? I think that in addition to being proactive I think that a lot of people get caught up in this and they don’t want to spend, they’re so terrified of spending money.
[00:11:53] They’re so terrified of hiring people to help. They’re so terrified of spending money on classes, something that’s not tangible. You can’t hold it. You can’t say, I gave you this many dollar bills that were in my hand, and in return you put this thing in my hand and now I can show people. Do you know what I mean?
[00:12:14] I think that so many people get caught up in that, and myself included. It took me years to be okay with spending money and my accountability buddy Laura, same thing. We, we both had come to Jesus about it this year and we spent ridiculous amounts of, I think I spent probably close to four grand this year just on classes.
[00:12:39] As opposed to $0 dollars spent, you know, 10 years before, just and it’s so stupid. Now just looking back and thinking about all the time I wasted just, I wish, I wish for you that you never waste time saying, I’ll figure it out on my own. I wish for you that you’re smarter and you’re more intentional with your time than I was.
[00:13:05] If you can learn from any of my mistakes. It’s to learn from my mistakes and that’s the mistake. Just don’t make sure that you give yourself permission to invest in yourself. Last thing, this is going to be short episode. I think as an entrepreneur, I think as a person starting a small business who doesn’t know where to get started asking for help, guys.
[00:13:36] No woman is an Island. No man is an Island. A woman is an Island. No one between is an Island. No one gives you a trophy for doing it on your own. You know what I mean? And I think a lot of us get afraid of like, Oh my god if I talk to somebody else, they’re gonna steal my trade secrets. Or if I, if I talk to somebody else that makes soap, then they’re going to make my soap.
[00:13:57] And it could happen. It has happened, but I think that the benefits are so much better than the shitty stuff. You know? I think that those are the outliers. I don’t think that that happens that often enough for you to be afraid to not ask for help from somebody that has already been in the game already knows what they’re doing, kind of sorta or knows what they’re doing
[00:14:25] a lot. I think that you should never be afraid to ask for help. And that’s why in my mailing list, if you’re on it, a lot of you will get an email. It says, what is your struggle? How can I help you? And thank you to those that have responded to that and asked for help. I think that that is such a great step for, you know, just admitting that.
[00:14:48] We all are in a community and we all need each other and we all can learn from each other. And so I challenge you this week to do one of these things, to be proactive somehow to pick up the phone and call that store that you love and ask them if they want to get your wholesale catalog. I challenge you to automate, eliminate or delegate one thing and be okay with that and say yes I am worth more than this. My time is more valuable. May I recommend FreshBooks? I’m just sayin’
[00:15:28] Next, I challenge you to prioritize your family for one time, and if you feel like you do prioritize your family, then I challenge you for one night to prioritize your business. I challenge you to ask for help. If you want to ask me for help, I would be more than happy to help you if I can. If not, ask somebody that’s a peer.
[00:15:55] Ask somebody that you admire. Take somebody out to lunch and just pick their brain. Pick the shit out of their brain and get the information that you need. I challenge you to invest in yourself. I challenge you to say, my time is finite and valuable. And I am going to learn what it is I need to learn. You think you can do that?
[00:16:21] I think you could probably do that. I will be back next week. No more gaps. I’m going to be here. We’re going to rock and I will talk to you next week.
[00:16:29]One more thing. You know how you suck at Instagram stories. I know. It’s okay. I know. I want to help join me in my free live training. Three ways to use Instagram stories for your business. Go to meganbrame.com/instagram to join. It’s totally free. You’re going to learn a ton. See you in class .
