- You need to make some major changes if you want to escape poverty while trying to run a successful business.
Did you know that around 4 million people start businesses each year? Many people aspire to become entrepreneurs to have a better life. However, they often continue to struggle with poverty.
There are a lot of challenges that you need to cope with when running a business. You will find that you need to spend a long time creating a business plan, hiring quality employees, developing a marketing strategy and coming up with ideas for new products. This all takes time and it may be months of years before your business will be successful.
Unfortunately, this may not do any good for new business owners that are already struggling to make ends meet. Some business owners are living in poverty, which can be very stressful. You will find it is even more stressful when trying to run a business while dealing with the constant fear of putting food on the table and making your mortgage payment.
The stress of poverty can make it harder to run your business successfully. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to minimize the stress of both at the same time.
Business Owners Must Overcome the Struggles of Poverty
Poverty is a bad place to be. No one would argue that there is anything good about suffering privation. If you find yourself living below a level where your basic needs are met, you need to get out of that state as quickly as possible. You might be living from month to month in a constant state of worry about your needs being met. If that is the case, you are still near enough to the poverty line where you need to make a change.
Being uncertain about whether or not you will make rent and utilities is only marginally better than not achieving those basics. Your mental state is chaotic and you know you are only a bad day at work or a bad decision from missing the deadlines for your bills. Having your utilities turned off and getting eviction notices are never far behind.
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Unfortunately, poverty can be even harder when you are dealing with something as stressful as running a business. The first step you should take is securing resources to keep the power on and getting the rent paid. You will find that the fastest and easiest way to those emergency funds is via a loan of some kind.
Companies like Western Shamrock provide informational resources for the different types of loans you can get, how to qualify, and which loans might be right for you. Perform your due diligence before opting for any loan. Once you do, secure the necessary resources for keeping the lights on. Your situation becomes exponentially worse if you allow yourself to be evicted or have no power and running water. Secure that first, then continue with the following steps:
Change Your Poverty Mentality
If you want to change your poverty status, the first thing you have to do is change your poverty mentality. You literally have to change your mind about being poor. That means enhancing your knowledge on wealth and how to achieve it. Most poor people don’t believe they can be anything other than poor. They have very low expectations about upward mobility.
As a business owner, you likely already have a positive outlook about moving out of poverty. However, you may still hold onto feelings of hopelessness, which may subconsciously cause your business to fail.
Some will go as far as to think they don’t deserve it. Some are held back by prior social or religious ideas about wealth and poverty. If you believe that poverty is a good thing that will be rewarded later, you will have less incentive to get out of it. Just recognize that mentally coping with poverty so that it doesn’t overwhelm you is not the same as embracing it. You should never embrace it. Make no peace with it. Poverty is the enemy. It is a condition that you would spend your life helping others to escape. You just need to include yourself among those worthy of better things.
Befriend Successful People
No one questions the importance of friendship. However, it is important to have the right kind of friends. It is about influence and not snobbery. Your friends influence your behavior and point of view. That is why you need to make sure that the people who are influencing you are people that will help you succeed as opposed to people who will only serve to keep you down.
It is not just about subtle influence. A good friend with a special skill can help you learn that skill. In this case, that skill is becoming financially successful despite the odds against you. It is not just a matter of luck, though luck can be a part of it. Your successful friends will tell you that you make your own luck. And part of that luck that you have to make is befriending the right people and releasing the relational dead weight.
Finding successful mentors is especially important when you are trying to run a successful business. You will have an easier time making your business successful if you get insights from people that actually know what they are doing. This is a much better alternative to winging it or getting cliché advice from hacks that don’t know what they are talking about.
Make the First Move
Once you have started the education process of what it takes to build wealth, you have to take a chance and make the first move, even if it is small. Get your business off the ground and start taking steps to help you succeed. After you have some success, you can start expanding it.
One you have turned a small profit with your business, buy your first investment stock. Open a savings account. Enroll into an online school so you can finish your degree. These might seem like big steps. But in reality, they are just steps. A poverty mentality is telling you that they are big. But anyone who is actually successful will tell you they are basic. Big or basic, you have to make a move. Baby steps lead to more confident steps.
Not everyone will make it out of poverty in our lifetime. But there is no reason that you shouldn’t. Start by changing your mindset. Make friends that will help instead of hinder. And take the first step that will start you on a whole new path of success.
