Marketing with an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Whether you want to own a business, get ahead in your career, or start a side hustle, having the mindset of an entrepreneur can help you embrace challenges, own mistakes, and reframe failures as opportunities to learn and develop new skills.
Learning to have an entrepreneurial mindset is increasingly valued in college courses, online learning, and networking. But what exactly is it, and how can it make you better at marketing yourself or your business?
Before we can answer these questions let us first understand who is an entrepreneur.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, an entrepreneur is "a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks to do so."
An entrepreneur has also been described as an innovative initiator who takes the responsibility to translate ideas into commercially viable innovation, entities, or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.
But are entrepreneurs born with that risk-taking, innovative mindset, or can anyone develop the skills required to be a successful entrepreneur?
I’d argue that entrepreneurs come in both the born & built varieties. “Born entrepreneurs” are those exceptional individuals who have the “E-factor”. They never thought of working for others. They are the ones who had their lemonade stand at the age of five, had their side-hustles while in school or college, and are always thinking of ideas that can solve a problem. They are never driven by marketing research or numbers. Whereas “Made Entrepreneurs” are those who never really thought about working for themselves, could have been part of the corporate world and situations arose which made them stumble into an idea which made them into an entrepreneur over time.
The journey may have been different, but they are entrepreneurs nonetheless.
What IS an entrepreneurial mindset?
A mindset is a cognitive belief system which consists of interrelated beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge that can be used to process information, inform our decisions, and guide our behavior.
Based on that an entrepreneurial mindset is a specific set of beliefs, knowledge, and thought processes that drive entrepreneurial behavior. It is a set of skills that enable people to identify and make the most of opportunities, overcome and learn from setbacks, and succeed in a variety of settings.
What are the key traits of an entrepreneurial mindset?
Open-mindedness. They are all about discarding the norms and the biases and aiming for the uncharted, the unexpected. They believe in their ability to succeed and influence their own outcomes, which empowers them to take ownership of their lives.
Risk takers. They bring something into this world that does not exist. In most cases, It’s not about reinventing the wheel but finding a niche market for a “certain type of wheel”. They are willing to take the risk to bring “something new, something different” to the marketplace. The reason why they are willing to take this risk is because they are “passion driven” and not “profit driven.” They want to make a difference and in the process they succeed, that’s the bonus.
Resourcefulness - At most times they have no choice but to be resourceful and find answers and solutions on their own because they do not have the money or the help they need.
Perseverance and the ability to accept failure. They accept failure differently. To them it’s a mental game - the only way through is through learning from failure.
So, how different is marketing with an entrepreneurial mindset?
one is thinking out of the box
going against the norm
sees the product or the service as a solution to a problem and not how much money it will make
has an in-depth understanding of who the customer or client is because the product or service was created to solve their problem.
ability to be emphatic and communicate with the customer or client that will trigger them the right way
When one thinks like this, they create a blank slate effect (according to Erin Bury, Co-founder and CEO of Willful) which will them allow them to:
have compelling goals that keep them focused on the future and be intrinsically motivated, while driving them to be self-directed, action-oriented, and highly engaged.
be lifelong knowledge seekers with a focus on micro-experiments as learning opportunities to test ideas, cultivating curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking;
display a high level of reliability, understanding that following through on simple solutions can lead to unforeseen opportunities;
have a humanistic outlook, being other-focused and understanding that one creates value by looking to solve problems for others; and
surround themselves with an intentional community of positive influence and critical guidance
Not everyone is born with the ‘e-factor,’ but that doesn’t mean you can’t develop an entrepreneur’s mindset and skills with experience. If you make it a priority to develop these skills, simply the act of considering your goal can help you make entrepreneur-like decisions in your work-life.
Having an entrepreneurial mindset will make us better marketers and/or analysts as it will give us an optimistic interpretation of adverse events and see problems as potential opportunities, become highly resilient, resourceful, and solution-oriented even within highly uncertain, resource-constrained environments.
How can you apply this mindset to your marketing?
Consider the context of your communications, and be open minded about how to reach people. The platform you’re most comfortable with may not be the platform that works best for reaching your clients, potential job opportunities, or peers. Be open to trying new channels and topics as you explore ways to market yourself.
Be open to failure. Entrepreneurs are open to innovation, and that means being open to failure too. Almost no one succeeds on the first try at everything they do, and that means you have two options: stay in your comfort zone (getting the same results you always have) or be willing to risk making mistakes and failing. The good news is that eventually, something will work, and you’ll have an entirely new channel for reaching your audience.
Be resourceful and ready to pivot. We all experienced how many businesses, careers, and even lifestyles had to change drastically to survive and thrive over the past couple of years. When you are constrained by circumstances outside your control, sometimes you have to get scrappy and make do with the resources you have. Don’t forget to discuss your marketing ideas with peers and friends in your niche or target audience—much innovation comes from putting together multiple perspectives, and the feedback can help you find resources and opportunities you hadn’t yet considered.
Linda Aziz
Breakaway Advisor
Perseverance is key. Again, most people don’t succeed on the first try. This is especially true in business. Those “overnight successes” you’ve heard so much about? They often tried and failed for years before actually succeeding, and those years laid the groundwork for their later success. Whether its skills, a community, resources, or lessons learned, every time you fail and try again, you are gaining something that will help you in the future.
How do YOU apply an entrepreneurial mindset to your work? There’s always more to learn, so please feel free to reach out at laziz@breakawayba.com to connect.