8 Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Hear

Happy birthday, Mpowering Solutions! Today, Mpowering Solutions turns 1 year old. We can't believe that just 1 year ago, founder Michele Li-Fay announced the start of Mpowering Solutions to the world. And while the journey has been rewarding and educating, it's been full of ups and downs that every entrepreneur can relate to. Here, she shares 8 key lessons that starting and running Mpowering Solutions has taught her about business and life in general, so other new entrepreneurs can learn and gain comfort from her experience.

#1 - You Will Make Bad Decisions

If you're a first-time entrepreneur, the chances are this is the first time you have to make big decisions by yourself, with nobody to bounce pros and cons off of. Sure, you can discuss them with your family or friends, but ultimately, the decision affects your business, and thus only you can make the final decision. And it is inevitable you will get some of them wrong.

Some wrong decisions don't have too big a repercussion: if you use colours that you don't like a few weeks down the line, you can just change them and move on. But some wrong decisions can have substantial financial impacts. For Mpowering Solutions, one of the biggest bad decision was investing in a marketing platform that we already had a bad gut feeling about. This marketing platform had a big historical name (hint: first word is a colour, second word is the content of a book), though its modern influence now has clearly waned compared to its glory years. But given its legacy, we thought we'd give it a go, and ended up signing a year-long contract with a monthly fee. We already managed to negotiate down to the cheapest package, but it was still not an insignificant amount of investment, especially for a small new business.

Only after a couple of months did we realise that it was the wrong decision. But we were still locked in for a further few months due to the 12 month contractual agreement. So we angrily watched as money left the account every month, invested into a marketing platform that brought in 0 leads. Yes, that's correct: zero leads.

But you know what? We had to take the plunge to realise it wasn't worth the investment. If we hadn't, we wouldn't have known what we know now. Would it be nice if we had known what we know now without sinking money into it monthly? Yes, of course. It was an expensive lesson to learn. But at least we learnt, and we can take action to remedy the situation going forward.

When you make a bad decision, don't beat yourself up about it for too long. Yes, feel bad. Yes, feel foolish. Yes, go through the roller coaster of shame and blame. But then pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. If you've learnt something from the experience, then it wasn't a waste of time or resources. You will go through life and your business journey making hundreds and thousands of decisions; you cannot be expected to make the right one every time. So it is inevitable you will make mistakes, but what matters if how you react to your errors.

#2 - You Will Dip Into Your Savings

In your first year of business, you will make a loss. It is very rare for a business to be able to generate healthy and consistent revenue, let alone sizeable profits, in its first year. It took Amazon 9 years from founding to turn its first profit, Net-A-Porter took 4 years, Tesla took a whopping 17 years.

This is because businesses take investment and reinvestment to grow. Any revenue you do make, you will likely need to reinvest in the business, whether it's for equipment, process or marketing. Heck, even before you've made any revenue or signed your first client, you will need to invest money to get the business off the ground, whether it's a new computer to be able to run your business, or advertising spend for customer acquisition.

Be prepared to dip into your savings to invest in your business. Or if you don't have savings, be prepared to take out a business loan. This is inevitable; this is not a failure. Make sure you are in a financially comfortable situation before you take the plunge to start your own business. Because just like every plant needs water, every business needs cash flow. And in Day 1, you will not have a consistent revenue stream to tap into.

#3 - There Will Be Days of Regret

The chances are, you've been in full-time employment with another company before. Everybody talks about the corporate slog, but we often take for granted what a regular job brings to the table: a steady salary, routine, hierarchy, camaraderie... In other words, stability. And so when you're running your own business, this stability often goes out the window.

Suddenly, you are your own boss. Suddenly, you have to make every business decision that could change the trajectory of your business. Suddenly, you're counting the pennies and making sure you're not spending frivolously, whether it's in business or your personal life. Suddenly, you need to learn about accounting and marketing, things you'd never done before.

There are many upsides to running your own business. But equally, there are many uncertainties, and that can lead to long days of regret.

And if you're feeling that pit of regret bubbling up, you are not alone. This is perfectly normal, and we have all been there. I most certainly have been there. Numerous times. Sometimes multiple times a day. Sometimes these thoughts have been so strong and prevalent that they result in sleepless nights, just tossing and turning in bed, wondering if I've made the right decision.

Whenever you feel that cloud of regret loom overhead, just remind yourself why you started your business journey. What were the circumstances that led to your entrepreneurship? What drove you to try and make it on your own? You were passionate and confident enough to take that first step into starting your own business; try and bring yourself to that place, to that mindset, to that moment in time.

Social media wants us to believe that starting your own business is the best decision you can ever make, that being your own boss is the best thing in the world. And sometimes it is. But more often than not, the life of an entrepreneur is difficult, and not every day is sunshine and rainbows. Just know it is OK and perfectly normal to doubt yourself. But in the words of Taylor Swift, shake it off. Don't dwell in the what-ifs and regrets; take a deep breath and know that owning and running a business is a long ol' marathon. Focus on the positives and possibilities of a success business.

#4 - Stop Putting Yourself Down

In your first year of business, you're still new to the process. You're probably dealing with accounting for the first time. You're probably dealing with social media for the first time. You're probably making executive decisions by yourself for the very first time. It can undoubtedly become very overwhelming very quickly. You start to feel out of your depth. You start to think you've bitten off way more than you can chew.

Self-doubt starts to creep in. You start to wonder why you were foolish enough to embark on this entrepreneurial journey. You start to put yourself down, regretting why you took the plunge into such an unknown.

At this emotional fork in the road, you have 2 options: you either give into those negative, nagging voices in your head and descend into a downward spiral. Or you metaphorically pull yourself out of the pit, and shake off those feelings. Stop giving that negative, critical voice a platform. Spin the negatives into positives, and even start to believe it.

Every entrepreneur goes through this journey of self-doubt and self-criticism. So you are not alone. But wallowing in the pit of negativity will not do your mental health any good, and will not do your business plan any good. And when your business suffers, you suffer, then your mental health deteriorates, and the downward spiral continues.

So the sooner you stop putting yourself down, the sooner you take action to further your business, and the sooner you take your first, second, third step towards success.

#5 - Find Your Support Network

Before you start your own business, you will likely hear loads of encouragement from friends, family and peers. "You should definitely run your own business!" "You'd be so good at it!" "You're a great boss, you can do this!" But when you actually launch your business?

Crickets.

Suddenly, the support that was so forthcoming before fades away. Suddenly, the people you thought you could count on to do something as simple as liking a social media post disappear.

Don't despair. Don't feel resentful or disappointed. The chances are, because they are not in your position, they don't understand just how much a single 'like' means, or how impactful words of encouragement can be. They have their own lives, with their own office dramas and work dilemmas to get on with.

Instead, find your true support network. Attend networking events for like-minded entrepreneurs or small business owners. Throw yourself out there to meet new people. Sure, it may not be easy to just get out there, especially if you are an introvert. But most of the people at these events are in the same boat as you: looking to make connections and share experiences. Soon, you will find yourselves agreeing with each other, nodding vigorously in unison, feeling incredibly seen.

If you have friends and family who are there since your Day 1, greeting your news with enthusiasm and offering words of encouragement, don't forget to thank them. Often, they don't realise how impactful their gestures and words are, and will feel compelled to continue if they know how much of a difference they are making to your business life. And if you don't have this network? Make your own. There are so many people out there who are looking for this type of mutual support. Find your network; find your tribe.

#6 - You Will Learn So Much About Everything

If you're starting your own business, the chances are you are pretty damn good at what you do. The confidence and skill required to start your own business should not be underestimated. So you are likely an expert in your field.

But what nobody tells you about starting your own business is how much you will learn about everything else unrelated (or indirectly related) to your business. You will suddenly be familiar with accounting concepts like P&L (profit and loss) and VAT. You will suddenly be the one reading (and writing!) legal contracts and terms and conditions. You will be reeling relevant statistics off the top of your head like your favourite song lyrics. You will know the differences between different shipping and courier companies if you're an eCommerce business.

Take us for instance. Because of our clients, we have done research into bookkeeping, accounting, charities and non-profit operations, first aid, business compliance, physiotherapy... The list goes on. And we've loved it. We love being exposed to different industries, to catch a glimpse of what other businesses and entrepreneurs live through in their everyday. While we would never proclaim to be experts in these different fields, it has opened our eyes to new worlds, new knowledge and new horizons.

When you start a new business, always be open to learning, whether or not it benefits you and your company. It keeps your mind agile, and provides you with new knowledge that you never know when you can reference back to.

#7 - Your Personality is Your Weapon

When we first started Mpowering Solutions, we were adamant about separating our personal life from our professional life, especially when it came to social media. Our posts were all very informative and packed with nuggets of knowledge and insights. We stuck to our style guide, using brand colours, brand fonts and a professional tone of voice. We spoke for the brand, not ourselves. Because it's all about Mpowering Solutions.

But soon even we were bored by our content. And our engagement was not great (other than our 6 faithful followers. Thank you; you know who you are!).

We did some brand soul-searching and realised that, for our entire career in corporate, we were encouraged--even mandated--to separate personality from professionalism. In our career in Buying and Merchandising, it wasn't about what we liked; it was all about what the customer liked. In our previous corporate environment, "bring your true self to work" was a mantra that was oft said but never really meant. Correspondence with external suppliers and vendors were devoid of personal touches; it was strictly professional. All of us in senior management had to toe the party line, putting the brands' interests ahead of our own.

We realised we were carrying a lot of this corporate culture into our own business. But what Mpowering Solutions has that no other business, big corporate or small startup, had was us. Nobody else had our personality, our point of view, our quirks, our turn of phrases.

So we started incorporating a bit of personality into our content. And while we aren't social media giants or viral creators, our engagement grew, our reach grew, because people started to get to know us, the people behind Mpowering Solutions. This gave the brand a voice, a soul, a bit of difference.

We still keep things professional. We try to remain as apolitical and neutral on hotbed topics, because we want to be an inclusive and accessible platform to all. But we're not afraid to post some behind-the-scenes snippets, to share our faces (no matter how cringe it is), to put our mark on our content. Because there is only one Mpowering Solutions. And the same goes for any other business. There's only one you; find a way to weave your personality into your brand, because that is how you stay unique in a crowded, oversaturated marketplace.

#8 - You Will Become The Strongest Version of You

If you've made it to point 8, you'll realise the absolute roller coaster every entrepreneur goes through, be it financial, emotional, mental, existential... It isn't an easy journey, otherwise everybody would do it. With every bump on the road, with every hurdle you face, if you make it out the other side, your armour toughens, your skin thickens. You become stronger, tougher, more resilient.

A mistake is worth making when you learn something from it. That's what the journey of an entrepreneur will teach you. And when you learn from your mistake, you reduce the chance of making it again. You become wiser, and next time you will face a similar problem head-on with greater strength and knowledge.

Every time you pick yourself back up after you've tripped, or your talk yourself out of a spiral of self-doubt, you toughen up, you train yourself in mental resilience. Because in order for your business to succeed, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader. You are your own boss, you are your own colleague, you are your own mentor. So you begin to rally yourself in a way no corporate culture requires you to do. In a way, the solitude of being a business owner becomes the biggest asset to success.

So enjoy the journey, ride that roller coaster. Because when you take a break and look back at what you've achieved, you will realise that you have become a much stronger, more resilient, better version of you. And the great thing is, there is no end to that journey. You will continue to learn, to overcome, to succeed, and you will continue to be stronger, wiser, more resilient. And that, perhaps, is the ultimate thrill of being an entrepreneur: that you become the best version of you.

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