10 Best Business Mindsets to Set You Up for Success
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” –Lao Tzu
An online business and blog is a long and winding road. Learning to accept that it’s a journey, and setting your mind to positive mode, will take some of the sting out of the setbacks you’ll encounter.
Learning and embracing the best mindsets for business success isn’t always easy, but as you practice and make them habit, you will hopefully find yourself recharged more often than discouraged, and confident in your abilities to be wildly successful — all in good time, of course.
10 Mindsets I Wish I’d Known Early in My Journey
1. Patience is Paramount
Don’t be in a hurry to climb Mt. Everest. Give yourself lots of credit for deciding to tackle the online business world. The most famous climbers (and business owners) must put foundations in place before safely starting and ensuring their success.
Being in business for yourself is a two-steps-forward and ten-steps-back kind of deal for a while. If you set your mind to putting in the time, having realistic expectations, and being persistent, patience will indeed pay off. Suddenly you’ll realize that you’re actually scaling that mountain and the summit is in site.
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2. Be Your Own Unique Self
Don’t compare yourself with others and their successes! I can’t emphasize this one enough. The more you focus on other businesses, websites, and bloggers, the faster you lose sight of yourself and where you want to go.
“Keep your eyes on your own paper” — that old refrain from school comes in handy. That person next to you most likely has a different test than you do. If you’re constantly looking to them for answers, you’ll fail your own test.
Your business or blog is the only one with your voice and your intentions. Own it and enjoy it.
Related: Become a Blogger In Seven Easy Steps
3. Dream Big About Your Long-Term Goals
Say what you want out loud. Write it down on an index card and put it where you can see it. This is empowering (and scary as hell). What if it doesn’t come true? Say it and plan for it anyway.
Once you’ve determined what you really want, don’t get stuck in your head. It can easily become habit to dream and obsess over what you want to happen, rather than putting the individual parts into place — which leads to the 4th mindset strategy.
4. Set Plenty of Small, Attainable Goals Throughout the Year
Set small goals that lead to your dream. Insert these into the roadmap of your journey and it will keep you on track and out of the clouds. Maybe it’s just me, but I spend too much time in the wild beyond imagining what it will be like when I’m a huge success. (That’s slightly embarrassing to admit!)
I’d never get anything done or make progress down the road to success if I didn’t put small goals and their related tasks into action. Grab a good notebook, planner, or online tool to regularly jot down a solid plan to tackle the short-term goals that point to the big dream.
5. Don’t Underestimate the Groundwork
The groundwork you lay for your business success is really important and valuable. This may include taking a course (or several) to add important new skills that relate to your business or online practices. This work can be tedious and make you feel that no progress is being made.
More often than not, the mundane task of looking up your hundredth YouTube video about how to add a new plugin to your website feels like a total waste of your day. I’ve been there many times. Dozens of hours have been spent looking things up, researching, and watching how-tos.
You can’t have a great business without a great foundation. Unless you have unlimited resources to hire things out, you’ll need to make friends with the learning curve — and it’s a big one for most. Adding to your skills and becoming a lifelong learner will only increase your success. Embrace it.
6. Celebrate Small Victories
Train yourself to be grateful for each new thing learned and accomplished. Did you finally create an awesome Pinterest Pin that rivals those with a million shares? Good for you! That’s a serious accomplishment.
When I got my first subscriber (even today when I see new ones) it was cause for real celebration. Someone was reading and enjoying my writing! It made my day.
Any time someone leaves a nice comment or I get a small affiliate commission, I train my brain to celebrate it. The small wins keep us motivated to keep reaching for the big ones. They also validate that we’re doing good work and going in the right direction.
7. Realize That You Are Enough
Ever heard of Imposter Syndrome? Most people have, and there are plenty of great articles about it. It’s that nagging feeling that you don’t know what you’re doing and you have no business trying it at all. It’s a lie — the most crippling kind.
Our feelings of inadequacy most often stem from comparison to other people who are “experts” or killing it in the business world. What do they have that we don’t? In reality, not much.
It’s a perception problem that needs changing. Much energy (and creativity) is wasted when we obsess over what it means to be “qualified”. If you have a brain, love to learn, and you’re passionate about sharing your unique thoughts and talents, you are enough.
8. Making Big Changes Doesn’t Equal Failure
Changing your mind or rebranding mid-course happens all the time. Last year, I realized that the name of my blog and its layout didn’t match what I wanted to portray with my business. As long as I was making a drastic change, I renamed the blog and jumped over to WordPress.
It went well, but not knowing what I wanted in the first place felt like a failure on my part. Don’t most people have that all figured out before they start their business or blog?
According to my Facebook group threads, bloggers and businesses make changes, big and small, all the time. Not many have it all figured out from the start. Treat everything as a learning experience, make necessary changes, and forge ahead.
9. Be a Helper
Being able to help another newbie with their challenges feels great. You know you’ve made it past the know-nothing stage when you’re able to say something intelligent to help another beginner. It’s weirdly validating and builds your confidence. You both benefit.
If you’re not new, you are invaluable to the beginning bloggers and businesses around you. I’m very fortunate to be in a few groups that are encouraging, helpful, and always ready with a smart answer to my newest conundrum. Giving is gratifying — help when you can.
10. There is Plenty of Room For All
Don’t get caught up in the scarcity mindset. We aren’t in competition with each other, even if we’re in a popular niche. As of March 2017, there are over 3.7 billion internet users worldwide. Check out more internet statistics.
With 96% of Americans shopping online and an average annual spend of $488 per online shopper, that’s a huge chunk of change to go around. That’s according to CPC Strategy blog.
There are enough consumers to easily go around where it comes to the goods and services online businesses have to offer. Sometimes it feels like we’re on top of each other, but with great marketing, and unique products and voices, there is room for all.
Things I’ve Learned On This Blogging Journey That Are Worth Celebrating
- HTML and Javascript are becoming more familiar — I even know a little coding
- Pinterest isn’t just for recipes and DIY — it’s a powerful marketing tool
Precision Pinning by Tracie Fobes is fabulous and teaches how to automate your Pinterest marketing and analyze how your account is doing. I’ve had great success with my Pinterest marketing by implementing both of these methods together!
- Facebook has advertising
- Affiliate marketing will change your blogging life
- I know the backend of WordPress pretty well now
- A widget is no longer an imaginary thing from my economics class in college
- Blogging is a lot of freaking work
- YouTube is a new blogger’s best friend
Cultivate a great business mindset. Make your own list and celebrate your wins. You’re not just an online blogger/business, you’re a rockstar!
Business mindset isn’t just in our heads either! Having a dedicated office space to call our own can go a long way toward acknowledging that we ARE ACTUALLY RUNNING OUR OWN BUSINESS. My friend over at Just Plain Marie has wonderful tips for Setting Up An Organized Home Office!
Read my related post: Blogging Isn’t a Get-Rich Scheme: Stories from Real Bloggers
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