Entrepreneurial Skills for the Information Age

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

“If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.” – Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder

Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.

When I started my first business I was clueless as to what I was embarking on. I was clueless as to what I was about to learn and I was certainly clueless as to what my passions were and what I was here on this planet for.

That first simple business of teaching people how to make silly little wheat woven symbols was my conduit to entrepreneurship.

My mother-in-law gave me a book by the name of “Country Crafts” written by Anne Dyer, Lettice Sandford and Zena Edwards in 1981. They described how to make woven baskets, how to make baskets, how to make Corn dollies, how to make flowers.

Why did I choose Corn Dollies?
I have no clue!
I just did!

We often don’t know why we choose actions to undertake when we are young, enthusiastic and often hungry to learn.We have ideas in our mind but don’t know how to exactly turn them into realities. Also, being young, we are not sure of success and hesitate to start up any business.With over 30 years of my experience as a successful women entrepreneur and having met and mentored many men and women in business through online and offline mentoring, I have learnt the hurdles people face while starting their own business. In my blogs you can read about how to turn your ideas into reality. I believe the biggest risk in life is when we don’t take any risks. In this swiftly changing world, there is only one strategy that will fail, and that is not taking the risk. Ultimately, you will only regret the chances you never took. So go ahead and work and play with your ideas.

It is when we have experienced the hard knocks and so called failures that we become confused and often frustrated. Failures are nothing but simply another opportunity to begin again with a better and intelligent strategy.   We mould to societies demand of earning money to pay the mortgage, paying for the ballet classes, keeping up the Jones generally.Often for parents we are moulded to our children’s needs and forget about what it is that we want to learn.  Our passions get lost… covered over with the busyness of living. We get lost in the world of statements, opinions, traumas, dramas and confusion of what we need and what we value.

Are you searching for the meaning of life?
I’ll tell you the meaning ….

It is to live it because its short!

And since life is short, it is important to think with purpose. If you want to really have the time of your life, it is compulsory to see how you USE the time in your life.Rather than time use you. You can either make excuses to reach mediocrity,or you can change lives, the choice is yours. Because as I have already said in my previous blog, “Time is all you have!”

How do you make the most of the time you have here in this life?

You take the time and you action what you see. You create images from your mind/ That’s how you make the most of your time here.

There would be many questions that will come into your mind if you took the time to look into a crystal ball. With your eyes closed with a relaxed mind you could ponder upon some questions that you would ask yourself when you are committed to forming your images in your mind:-

• Are you sitting with a person transferring your skills?
• Are you flying a plane delivering people or resources?
• Are you feeding the Black Apes in Africa?
• Are you on a stage sharing what you know?
• Are you over a test tube researching?
• Are you in the snow teaching kids to ski?

If you can figure out what is in your mind with images, you WILL facilitate YOUR answers, you are then directing yourself to realize your passions and your purpose. It is important to know what your passions in life are.Keep living day-in-day-out to serve the purpose of your life through your passions. Many of us forget about our passions. They are snuffed out by paying mortgages to parenting to playing our assumed role in our society. I believe, to be happy in this life, we MUST follow what our heart wants and live out our PASSION. That is one of the hardest thing to do in this age we are live in now. There is a remarkable difference between PASSION and Purpose.

When you think of the above questions, they help you define your ideas into images. These are images of you living out your passions and doing what you love to do.

 There are many activities that can help you identify your passion and purpose in life. For example when you are relaxed and in your happy dream world, what song do you hear in your head? Is it:-

• Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
• When the going gets tough
• Eye of the Tiger
• We are family
• We are the world

Let us assume another situation. Let’s say that if you were just given $10,000 dollars what would you do with it? Again, there would be many options that Im not suggesting here:-

• Start a college fund for your children?
• Go on a holiday?
• Invest it in your idea?
• Start a side project that keeps popping up in your head?
• Split it between your kids?
• Put it into your retirement fund?

We all would choose different options from the above choices, depending upon our needs, values, culture and lifestyle.  The main concern is that how do you keep your glass of life full?

 Live outside of your mind!

This brings me to the questions of how do you feed your mind?
How do you keep your glass full?

• Do you read various books, vlogs, blogs
• Watch TV
• Do you work hard.
• Who needs a glass when you can drink from a coconut
• I love what I do, I never see my glass half empty.

All of us have different ways to keep ourselves self full-filled. Being a successful women entrepreneur and online mentoring women in business my philosophy of life is that you don’t need a glass if you can drink from a coconut. Today, I have owned 8 successful businesses, I’m considereda successful business entrepreneur, I’ve grown into a International Speaker, a mentor for those who burn to turn their ideas into a passionate business. Im not bragging… Im simply sharing with you that I have spent time and money revealing and accepting my history for myself and for others.

My History is not a mystery.

As the years have past I have come to recognize I’m here for a reason.   I have studied other entrepreneurs, got to really know them, discussed their visions and dreams. We all have four attributes in common: 

• We have learnt how to solve problems for other people.
• We have all created systems to work and play in.
• We have all learnt how to make effective decisions.
• We have been mentored and we have mentored others.

Let me share in detail about these four attributes.

1.) Solve Problems
It is important to learn how to solve your own problems and then from those solutions we can take actions that impact our outside world, rather than reacting from our past.  Once we know what we value and what we need personally we can move forward with clarity and dignity in our own style. It is important to make value based decisions. Our own style is seen in our branding our tone of voice, our delivery of our message to our market.In order to succeed, your desire and passion should exceed your fears and problems. Solving your problems from what matters (your values)facilitates confidence, dignity and your own style.Now in the Information Age our honesty, our authenticity is seen and felt like never before through our written word,videos in our blogs, our posts on social media. The success of being on social media is not about how many active users are there. But it is actually dependent on how you can connect with your customers in a relevant way.Our audience is savvy, educated and with one click will leave with a sniff of hype and that often seen quick buck attitude.

2.) Create a System
Personal Routines translate into business systems.  You can read what a system is here.When I say personal routines I am referring to what food do you plan to eat?  I have written many blogs on this subject. Go here to see just one of them.

I’m referring to what you feed your mind, how you think, what modalities do you embark on for your personal healing? How do you move your body?  Here is a blog I wrote about why wellbeing works for business.

You can’t become great unless you feel great from within. It is important how you spend your time. According to me, ordinary people think merely of spending time whereas great people think of using it profitably. Today, the internet allows you to do business from anywhere. For example for an online business it is necessary to have a website. It is your home on the internet.  What do you do on your website weekly?  What do you blog about, you only need one blog a week and I’d recommend it be aeducative pillar blog for people to gain tips to help them solve a problem. Your readers need to gain a sense of what you do and who you are rather than just stories or selling your product or service. Inspire your audience Do this consistently through your preferred social media platforms.Organize your content in varying mediums – written, video, photos to help your audience engage from their learning style. You can learn more here about learning styles, making decisions, absorbing information from your preferred style.

3.) Make effective decisions
How do you get out of your way to see what are the best decisions for yourself and your enterprise?
Sisca, in her interview with me, said she puts her heart into her business like she puts her heart into her children. Her decisions come from what she values.(Values) Decisions also come from knowing the current language of the online world. Know what you need enabling your clear questions to obtain a clear answer also remember don’t get caught up in the jargon online. Business life and personal life are entwined. To build a business, online or offline, one needs to have focused action everyday based on effective, often fast  decisions.

Effective decision makers are easy to spot with their ideas being actioned rather than rattling around in their heads blurring their questions and conversations.

Listen to yourself when you are asking a question.  Is it a simple question using simple language that a 5-year old can understand?  When it is, it shows you that you know what you are asking for.

The bottom line is people want connection, they are hungry for connection.  Fast effective decisions  through self questioning along with listening skills are seen through how we turn up and action our ideas through what we are passionate about.  With global noise through old and new media distractions are abundant.  Make effective decisions from concise words and explanations of those words that will always be a base for you to springboard from no matter what the distraction was.  If you are not using concise language for your mind to make effective decisions you will be confused.  Stop the confusion….. create your base for all your future decisions.

4.) Been mentored and have mentored
No-one can do anything by themselves.  It’s a simple fact of living, loving and learning about life.  To be the best we want to be and that is what humans want, even if you are in denial of that fact, we must co-operate and create our own direction with other people.  There is the paradox right there.  Co-operation and creativity can only be done with other people.

It is easy to see, hear and feel who have been properly mentored when acknowledgement of mentors flows from the heart rather from the pretence of – we know everything. There lies the difference between being a coach and a mentor. As a mentor I love to help women in business, men have also gained everything in getting what they want. You can learn how to go from frustration to freedom here .

There is a new level of self definition and self discipline when we grasp these entrepreneurial skills by the horns and truly live with them everyday.

There is a new level of clarity and choice when we have the ability to give what we are here to give. Once we have clear images in our mind of what we are giving we can take actions that we never thought possible. We see opportunities from a new perspective. These actions create a new reality.The rule of my life is to make it my business to do business from my purpose. Success in business takes thinking, discipline and experiential mentoring from a experienced mentor. If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business. Especially with the leverage online skills can give us.Listen to other people who have created a new reality through me simply sharing how I went from being clueless to designing my new reality.

Hugs and love

Di

Check out your free E Book
Check out our travels on Instagram
More images on Candidly
Im on Pinterest
One of my passions is Photography… see where I go
See what Im up to on You Tube
Connect with me on Facebook
Check me out on Twitter