Neil Asher – Lifecycle of an entrepreneur

If you are or ever have been a work from home entrepreneur, you can probably relate to this… These are the 4 Stages of the work from home entrepreneur Life Cycle, according to ME.

At the risk of laying my emotional immaturity bare for all the world to see, read about the four stages below.

I figure I’m probably in good company, however, according to Jung in his book memories dreams and reflections (which is AWESOME by the way), our emotional development stops at about age 7.

So that would make the following juuuust about right then 

Stage One

I call this one the wide-eyed and bushy tailed stage. Cause it’s the phase in being a work from home entrepreneur where you are all star eyed and bedazzled by what kind of earning potential you’ve got out there waiting for you.

I went from earning £8.50 an hour as a chef, to £100+ an hour (that’s my conservative guess–definitely on the low end, figuring £5,000 a week which is what I was making back then in my first business.

Stage Two

Here’s where the problems begin. You somehow missed it before, but now it becomes clear that being a work from home entrepreneur is actually work. Heaven forbid. By stage two, you’re getting used to making money with a whole lot less effort than 99% of the world.

And that’s the problem.

Call it human nature, but that soon gets old. You start to realize that while generating £10,000 a week is great, BUT…. it’s still work. Dissatisfaction starts to brew. 

Stage Three

Here’s where things can go south quick if you don’t just stop and take a breath and understand that you are where you are because you need to be there at the moment. Tough pill to swallow sometimes, but it’s the truth.

However… It can be hard to remember that when you look up long enough to see that you’re generating X pounds while you read about other people telling you they make £50K a week.

You don’t really think about all the risks, hard work, sacrifices, or their string of failures that led them to their current success. All you can see is the difference in the bottom line.

Thoughts like, “Well if that guy can do it, anyone can do it.” start to creep into your head.

Stage Four

The pressure builds enough for you to consider busting out of this (now crap) business and doing the next big thing. After all, everywhere you look, there are a ton of successful people (far less equipped than you  that are doing it. If they can do it, why not you?

Here’s where you have a choice to make.

You can either shrink back and stick with what you know, and somehow just be OK with the nature of the business. That you work for money. And that when you don’t work, you generally make less.

OR… you can stretch yourself and make a move. For me, Stage Four is the time to make the move. A BIG, BOLD move. Cause you realize that the only perfect business you’re ever going to get is… YOU.

So you start shifting your thought processes. Instead of being focused on how to keep your client “happy” and how to keep the projects coming through the door, you start focusing on step one in business: generating more revenue for yourself… selling more of your own stuff or other people’s stuff. This is where you need to FOCUS. My advice make your first business work BEFORE you start the new business.

What does “work” mean?

For me it means it runs without me, if I need anymore than an hour of work to make the business work then it’s not a business, it’s a job. So stay focused and systemise the business and get people to run it for you.

Then you’re ready for the next one.

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