Every small business owner faces stiff challenges on their journey. Growth-oriented entrepreneurs gracefully coast through resistance to accelerate sales in any business climate. You will surrender to even mild challenges unless you develop a growth mindset for your business.
Genuinely difficult obstacles feel impossible for narrow-minded entrepreneurs to navigate.
Every small business owner eventually experiences overwhelm, as if they have bitten off more than they can chew. My wife walked me off the small business ledge on the second day of my blogging career.
On that day, I almost quit my blogging journey. I felt intimidated by all I needed to learn and master to succeed.
She offered me my first small business lesson: cultivating a growth mindset involves facing fear and taking practical steps to grow your venture on a rock-solid foundation.
I edged past that fear to begin my entrepreneurial journey.
Table of Contents
Business Growth
Business growth hinges on frequent expansion. A growth mindset compels one to expand one’s business freely, but embodying this mentality requires a commitment to mindset training, regular improvement, and a willingness to take risks even if one falls flat on one’s face in the process.
I developed my growth mindset by stumbling a few times here and there during my blogging career. I may appear to live a neat life of circling the globe as a world traveler now but felt embarrassment, shame, and a general sense of being a failure on the way.
Ryan Biddulph from BloggingFromParadise.com
I organically think of “growth” now, but only because I patiently purged a static, contracting, regressing poverty consciousness from my mind over time.
Point blank: Establishing a growth mindset makes gaining exposure and driving sales easier for a small business owner. You will naturally do things that less expansive thinkers struggle to do because you think of “growth.”
Follow these tips to develop a growth mindset as a small business owner.
Build Your Entrepreneur Friend Network To Develop A Fixed and Growth Mindset
Surround yourself with entrepreneurs who can help expand your small business presence and develop your growth path.
Highly successful small business owners never go it alone.
Connected entrepreneurs reach the top of their industry by surrounding themselves with supportive and helpful business owners who exponentially increase their presence.
Lisa and I have been promoting each other’s blogs for over a decade. Through a mutually beneficial friendship, we have increased each other’s traffic and small business income.
Networking has accelerated our growth mindset through the new, successful entrepreneurs we’ve met, who have helped one another and offered us support, new ideas, innovative strategies, and consistent business expansion.
For example, my blogging friend network instilled growth in my mind by introducing me to several blogging tribes. Instead of playing small by blogging solo, I think big by promoting fellow bloggers who encourage me in return around the clock.
Follow Successful Small Business Owners Closely
Pay close attention to successful small business owners. Develop a growth mindset by studying prospering entrepreneurs.
Note how pros think, feel, and act. Observe their mindset.
Struggling entrepreneurs think in terms of scarcity. Successful entrepreneurs adopt an abundance mindset.
For example, failing business owners fear losing money on their venture and try unsuccessfully to build their opportunity for free. Successful business owners who trust their instincts invest money to grow their businesses exponentially over the long haul.
Strengthen your business mindset through osmosis. Surround yourself with small business pros to follow their ways.
Highly successful entrepreneurs challenge you routinely. Being in this environment fosters rapid growth for your small business.
Stay Current in Your Industry
Research your small business industry thoroughly. Stay current to cultivate a growth mindset for your small business.
Things move fast in the online business world. Continuously researching your niche is the only way to succeed in the long run, because as trends change, you also need to adapt.
Blogging has undergone significant changes since I purchased my domain and hosting in 2008. Back then, the heyday of internet marketing hype plagued blogging and the online business game in general.
Blogging underwent a series of challenges that informed bloggers how to navigate them gracefully. Everyone else who resisted doing thorough due diligence faded away into blogging obscurity.
Read top blogs from your niche. Study the latest strategies to remain at the forefront of your industry.
Thinking with a growth mindset means adapting to change.
Adapting to change requires staying current with your small business niche by doing regular homework.
See Opportunities in Challenges….Quickly
Seeing opportunities in challenges forces small business owners to do mental gymnastics.
Spotting opportunities in challenges *quickly* requires a seemingly Olympic-level of mental gymnastics amid trying appearances.
Growth-focused entrepreneurs quickly seize and capitalize on small business challenges to increase their productivity. Everyone else panics by cowering from business-related obstacles.
I recall my blog’s formatting appearing wonky a while back. After working with my web developer on the issue, I discovered that a CDN issue was plaguing my site.
Even though the initial fix improved the blog user experience, I spotted an opportunity within this challenge; since my website appeared heavy with hundreds of thin posts, I quickly deleted all short-form content that was over 8 hours old.
Seizing this opportunity sped up my blog, improved the UX, and fortified my brand because every remaining post, being long-form in nature, lacked quality.
Since deleting thin content, organic traffic increased across Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
I dug deep into my mind to examine how fear hindered my blogging growth. I clung to low-quality posts, diminishing the quality of my entire body of work. Digging deep revealed a prospering opportunity within the appearance of a crisis.
Train your mind to see opportunities for growth within appearances of heartache.
Thriving entrepreneurs grow their ventures fast by hop-scotching from one opportunity to another for expansion, rather than being handcuffed by obstacles.
Video
Seeing possibilities in what appear to be bleak situations requires having the right mindset. I explain why and how to cultivate this mindset here in the video below:
Leave Your Comfort Zone Online and Offline
Exit your comfort zone, both online and offline, to embody a growth mindset. Rapid small business growth occurs well outside of your comfort zone.
For example, I once wrote and placed 30 guest posts daily to test the limits of my writing talents. I have since pulled back on guest blogging and published only detailed, long-form blog posts; however, I still venture outside my writing comfort zone to grow my blogging business.
Entrepreneurs grow by regularly sprinting outside their comfort zones.
Meet new people interested in your niche daily. Become prolific—open income channels. Write and self-publish your first eBook. Submit your first guest post. Exit your online comfort zone to grow your venture directly.
In the offline realm, exercise daily, meditate, train your mind, try public speaking, network at events, and become comfortable with being uncomfortable offline to bring these skills online. Travel.
My wife and I have traveled around the world for 14 years. Being globetrotters continually edges us outside our comfort zone as we enjoy new environments, customs, cultures, and languages.
As a rule, the most successful entrepreneurs spend the most time outside their comfort zone. Follow their lead to adopt a growth mindset.
Invest Money in Your Small Business for Exponential Growth
Frame money investments in your small business as exponential growth factors.
Entrepreneurs who succeed perceive money as a leveraging agent.
Invest money in your hosting to handle increased web traffic. Hire a web designer to create a professional-looking website, blog, and brand. Buy courses or hire coaches to continue your small business education.
Money multiplies your business success. All businesses require some investment to get off of the ground and increased investments to scale effectively.
Conclusion: Developing A Growth Mindset
Think big as a small business owner. Developing a growth mindset will help you to overcome challenges and accelerate your business success.
FAQs
What does it mean to have a growth mindset?
A growth mindset means you are open to new and expanding ideas.
How do you develop a growth mindset?
It means having the ability to take risks to grow your goals and dreams.
Do others help with developing this mindset?
Others may inspire you to think outside the box, help alleviate your fears, and support you along your journey of growth.
Why are growth mindsets so powerful?
They can be very powerful, as they may transform your entire life. New ideas and approaches can yield different results.