The journey of starting a small business - part 1

The business mindset & value to customer

Starting your own small business isn’t an easy decision. Giving up your full-time job to pursue something with no guarantees can be scary.  However, there are currently over 2 million small businesses in Australia making a go of it. So, to help you out we’ve crafted a 2-part blog series to help you start that journey.

The business mindset

Nobody is born a business owner or entrepreneur. They need to learn essential non-inherent skills along the way.  Part of what makes someone successful in business is their mindset. Successful small business owners and entrepreneurs have the below characteristics: 

Positive (mindset) attitude

The ability to mentally reframe yourself to things that happen to and around you, good or bad. It also promotes learning and growth. Not just being happy all the time.  

Critical thinking

Make decisions quickly and effectively once the information has been assessed. Then being okay with the results and learning from your mistakes.  

Resilience

Bouncing back from a mistake and using that experience to further develop your service, product, and yourself. It’ll help you stay curious and activate your creativity to further innovate.  

Creativity

Is about how you think. How you find solutions and create opportunities from problems. Your creativity is a great source of innovation and inspiration for your business.  

Accountability

Is about accepting responsibility for your wins and losses, and not trying to make excuses. It’s the art of practising ownership of your decisions and behaviours. 

Motivation

It’s more than the goals you set, it’s the purpose behind what you want to do. It drives you to get out of bed in the morning no matter what happened the day before.  

Having the right mindset is as crucial to the success of your business as the product or service you’re offering.

Value to customer

The most important part of your business is your customers. That’s why understanding the problem your business solves for your customers is crucial. While many business owners believe they know what their customers want, it pays to delve a little deeper to figure it out.  

Here are three things you need to understand about your customer to help your business thrive: 

The gains

This relates to the benefits your customers want and need from your product or service. Think on how what you offer will delight your customers and build your value proposition around it.  

The pains (pain points)

These are the problems your customers are trying to solve. The negative experiences driving them to find an alternative solution to relieve their pain.  

Customer jobs

These are the tasks your customers are trying to complete. The reason they are looking at your product or service, or that of a competitor’s.  

Tip! 

Put extra time into researching the pain points of your customers. If you can solve more than one problem, you’ll have an advantage over your competitors that will make you standout when it comes to purchase time.  

We hope that this blog has given you a new perspective to consider when starting your own business. Keep an eye out for Part 2 of our ‘The Journey of Starting a Small Business’ blog series.  

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