Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I frequently meet people who (think they) want to go out on their own. They see people like me - working with a variety of clients; having fun; tons of (apparent) freedom…and they ask, “How can I do it?” Well, it takes a bit more than hanging out your virtual shingle and printing business cards…

First and foremost, be honest with yourself. Do you really have the skill set (and passion) for the area in which you’re wanting to consult? For example, if you’ve never actually managed people, you shouldn’t pitch yourself as a proven “people management” expert. You’re not - no matter how many books you’ve read. And, sooner or later, your credibility is going to be seen as the sad, tissue-thin thing it is - by both potential clients and referral sources.

This honesty thing applies to any type of entrepreneurial endeavor. Do you really want to work 80 hour weeks? Give up paid vacations? Hire and train people? Talk to investors? Find “affordable” (heh) health insurance? Make sales calls (and learn from rejection)? Hmmmmm….

Read More:

Via Re:Invention: All Entrepreneurs Are Liars Chirps Wayne Hogue (The biggest reason for failures…mebbe it’s that many entrepreneurs lie to themselves.)

Via Lipsticking (Lena West): Need or Choice - Which Is You? (There are two main reasons people become entrepreneurs: need and choice.) As Lena notes, “I believe that I am an entrepreneur because my parents were (and still are) entrepreneurs and so were several close Aunts and Uncles.” Like Lena, I watched my Mom and Dad take the wild leap (Dad was the wild-eyed one, Mom squeezed the pennies, kept the books and made sure we could pay the bills. Nice combo of DNA for me - I’ll take risks and I keep an emergency fund…which I never touch, even in an emergency.

If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so. It may take a bit to show up since I hate making people type in little letters (I can’t read most of them myself) - so I moderate all comments. Feel free to disagree - debate is healthy. However, I’ve blacklisted the worst obscenities, including the “f” word, as part of the troll wall.

Tags: consulting, entrepreneurs, entrepreneur sanity check