Why You Need to Love Thy Entrepreneurial Self

Today I felt extremely human. Somewhere along the way I lost my Wonder Woman cape and instead turned into Miss Cranky Pants with sleep deprivation.

I was short with the friendly Google Analytics course instructor. I didn't enjoy the first day of the course I'd been looking forward to. By the end of the day I was totally drained, more confused than ever and feeling like a total imbecile.

Brian explained that today was more for developers and coders and tomorrow was more for marketers wanting to make real sense of all the information and I realised the others were equally as overwhelmed.

Mistake No. 1 Assuming you're alone in this feeling.

I also noticed my inability to just focus on the content and instead checked my email that is steadily piling up, answered texts on my iPhone and made a mental list of the fantastic interviews I need to type up for WomanzWorld plus the video footage I need to edit.

Mistake No. 2 - multi-tasking is not productive.

I berated myself for being behind in doing my 20 minute daily task on the $100 Biz Forum I'm part of to propel my business ideas for WomanzWorld forward. Whilst other people are going great guns and making amazing progress I'm just holding it all together.

Mistake No. 3 - benchmarking yourself against others is pointless.

Then it struck me that I was severely lacking in sleep, pushing myself by training for World Club Champs Ulti Frisbee 4 nights a week and trying to work on two businesses. Was it any wonder that I might not be Wonder Woman today?

Time for a SWOT analysis of yourself
As part of the $100 Biz Forum, one task I did achieve late last week was doing a SWOT analysis on myself, not my business idea but me. I think it was a great exercise to make me aware of my limitations but also to understand what I should focus on to be truly happy and successful. I'd like to share it with you because I'm sure many of you can relate.

This was my exact response on the forum:

We're all exhibiting the signs of a true entrepreneurs - we are, at heart, ideas people who are passionate about many things, love learning and chasing the `Shiny new object' and then have a tendency to not follow through on our ideas to execution and an exit strategy. Taking on too many things and then wondering why we can't do it all.

So first off admit that and go easy on yourself, and then work on how you're going to develop better habits to take you past the ideas stage and giving up just when you're likely close to succeeding. Surround yourself with people who possess those skills you don't, outsource to your areas of weakness and have a really clear vision for what you're wanting to achieve, backed up by solid annual, quarterly and weekly goals to break it down and make it manageable.

That said, I don't always practice what I preach so here goes:

Strengths: Huge amount of energy and passion, tenacity, drive and enthusiasm for learning, helping and connecting with others. High standards and expectations, aim to be the best person I can and help others to too. Nine plus years of a diverse range of marketing, comms, brand and product management skills and more recently strategic planning, technical product/ app development, business development, PR, Social Media and investment/ financial understanding.

Weaknesses: take on too much and get overwhelmed, get distracted/ or avoid tackling the big scary tasks sometimes, strong willed & competitive (can be +ve and -ve!), brutally honest, don't suffer fools gladly, impatient.

Opportunities: working on aligning my values with some solid foundations and goals that make all my plans more manageable and enjoyable. Two businesses that I am totally focussed on experimenting with, growing and turning into successes. Putting all that I've learned in the first year of business into useful tools for other entrepreneurs, collaborating with the awesome people here with complementary skill sets.

Threats: losing sight of the big picture and not following through on my master plan, getting burnt out, not creating enough value for my business or solving a real pain.

If only I'd read my own analysis of myself I could have seen this day coming.

Natalie Sisson