Entreprenurial Spirit

Recently I sat is a room with some male colleagues who were discussing their entrepreneur ship with gusto.   I realized that they had no trouble applying themselves with the label of “Entrepreneur”.

We hear this statement often in our circle and yet I wonder how many of us really know what it means to be an entrepreneur or if in fact we are one.   My mission is to help other women develop their entrepreneurial spirit…so to help with this mission I have put together this set of critieria that I believe encapsulates the spirit of the Entrepreneurs.

On our path to rise to our Entrepreneurial Spirit we should:

• Own a vision:  Write down your vision and keep it in a place where you can see it every day. Next draft a plan of action, execute it and remain focused specifically on your goals until they are accomplished. By doing this you will be crafting your own life and making your dreams come true.
• Stand firm against the negative things that people have to say to  you or the negative attitudes you encounter in your daily life..  Stay focused on your  mission and be  “unstoppable”
  Lead the way. Don’t wait to be told what to do. Focus your energy into being productive.  Rather than rely on the opinions of others , do your own research and evaluations and come to your own conclusions.
• Focus on what works… do not always try to reinvent the wheel, you must have the “if it’s not broken don’t try to fix it attitude to life.
• Find your niche and dedicate time to developing in that area.
• Learn from your mistakes.  Try not to waste precious time wallowing in self-pity, crying over spilled milk or sweating the small stuff.  You need to know how to learn from your mistakes and move on. Know how to take responsibility, be accountable, not procrastinate, and be decisive. Do not justify or condemn; you are in control.
• Take inspired, prompt and precise actions to get the job done. Make proactive steps quickly and decisively and follow your “gut reactions” and your intuition.
• Be teachable and coachable. Be open minded and willing to learning new skills and improve upon the old ones.
• Spend time and money seeking out knowledge, information and building yourself up. Attend training seminars, listen to motivational and inspirational recordings, read books and stay with the current trends. Self development should be a continuous process.
• To help propel yourself through your entrepreneurial process, find experts who walk their talk and pay them well to show you how to implement cutting- edge strategies to assist you in your success journey.  Simply put, you pay people to do the things you can’t achieve alone.
• Be eager to share your wisdom and knowledge. Have a passion to bring out the best in others and in yourself. You want to always be on the cutting edge and to assist others in getting what they want…in doing so you will get what you want.
• Be a team players, mentor and resource guru. You know that when knowledge and wisdom are applied there is POWER. Share your knowledge because you understand that the more you “give” – the more you “get” .
• Listen attentively.  Know that  good listening skills are an asset to your success. Know that listening to what the customers need , is one sure way to build relationships and please them. Understand the power of word of mouth marketing.
• Never be afraid to ask questions. Formulate the right questions to get the desired answers.
• Be gratuitous and have a “giving spirit”.  Study and apply the universal laws of success…and generously give back to society.
• Know your products inside out and how to maximize their benefits.
• Be the CEOs of your company as well as the CEO of your life.

I hope this list inspires you to fire up your “Entrepreneurial Spirit” and move strongly in the direction of your Dreams…. hopefully you’ll read these again over a deliciously, piping hot “cafe latte” and take reflection.

I’ll see you in the Cafe’s of the World….

Can We Really Have It All?

The question I hear so often from my women friends is “Can we really have it all?” – “Is there really a way to have both personal and business success?”

As women, we take on so many different roles: wife, mother, friend, homemaker, business maker and it seems we are so often so busy caring for everyone else that we find it difficult to find the time to care for ourselves and dare I say follow our own “passion”. In fact we are often so busy helping everyone else develop their passions that we lose touch with what our own “passion” really is.

Suddenly we find ourselves at 40+ asking ourselves the tough question “Is it too late for me to follow my bliss and find my own passion”

Well I am here to tell you that – yes it is possible. From one who has been there and done it. To achieve the at home mum, lifestyle business – that I call my “Cafe Latte Lifestyle” by finding the balance to be both a successful home based business woman with time and lifestyle freedom and a full time mum…

Running your own home based business gives you the opportunity to utilize all your innate skills. There is no doubt that women are born networkers, communicators, promoters and story tellers… that is why they make the perfect entrepreneurs.

We seem to have been born with the natural tendencies to promote our products and services, especially the ones that we have had personal success with and we naturally communicate trust. The thing that I have found that holds women back most of all is that they just don’t know where to start.

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you some of the strategies that I have learned for getting started… You see, what most people do is they get a brilliant idea that they get all excited about… but then you start to have doubts and start focusing on all the work involved and get bogged down in the details.

My advice to you…before you start to get snowed under with all the things you have to do (or in many cases “think” you have to do), there are some simple steps that you can take to push forward – through the ‘doubt barrier’ and start heading for the success that you deserve.

Right now I urge you to put “Develop my Dream Business” at the top of your TO DO LIST… and work towards turning your passion into a real “Cafe Latte Lifestyle”

See you in the Cafes of the world