So, how did I get here? Here being a new entrepreneur about 9 months into business. No this wasn’t planned in the sense that I wanted to be a business owner since before college or after. I truly decided when I was faced with a choice. Do I switch jobs, start from the bottom, and hopefully land at a place that I love working at? Or, do I continue being in a field that I love but take over all the responsibilities and be my own boss? If you’re reading this article posted on my company’s site, obviously I went with the latter, but with some hesitation. 

In the time leading up to this big life-changing decision, my mind was circling with questions.

Could I rely on myself to find success? If I took all my questions and what ifs and looked at them together, the main question was that. There’s no manager or boss to take the lead or follow direction from. If you fail, that’s on you and you will have to own it fully. That was daunting to me. I always knew that I was a natural born leader, I’m smart, not afraid of a challenge or venturing out on my own, but could I take the leap without anyone to fall back on if needed? I did have to think about that and ultimately realized that I had the confidence to do it. More importantly, I understood that it wasn’t going to be a path where everything works out, but that I had the persistence to be okay with the challenge. 

So what if you have a partner? Doesn’t that make the road of entrepreneurship easier? Well I do have a business partner, we took the leap together. BUT if you’re thinking about being an entrepreneur but have mindset of just falling back on your business partner, then you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. If you really want to succeed, you have to give it your all and so does your partner. Half-assing it alone is the same as half-assing it when you have a business partner; both situations lead to failure. And hey I get it. Everyone has those days where you lazily coast and do the minimum, but as a business owner you are literally only hurting yourself. Not going to do that one little thing today? Well that’s one small task that you are choosing to discredit your business further on.

Harsh? Yeah but that’s money talking. Your money. 

So again, here I am about 9 months truly in and I think I’m doing pretty good. Of course there is room for improvement, there always will be. If you’re not always looking to improve then you’ll fail or you’re plateauing, and to me that’s just as bad.

Written by Eva Gerrits