Gear Up Before You Get Going.

Gear up! Then, get out there and do it. You can’t just jump your fabulous self out there, singing “helloooooo, world, it’s me you’re looking for...!" All the while you are unprepared. You have to get your gear on…then you can jump into business! One of the things my time and experience as an entrepreneur has taught me is that you must research, investigate, and study. More entrepreneurs fail in businesses ultimately because they weren’t prepared to launch a business. They failed to do the research to learn about the market, the industry and the one main source needed to make a sale… their customer! Without proper preparation, you are setting yourself up for more stress, frustration and struggles that you would ever want to endure.

There are some things you can just “wing,” being in business…isn’t one of them.

You don’t see someone jump out of an airplane without a parachute or BASE jump without his or her suit, do you? Not unless they are planning suicide. Then whyyyyy would you just jump into a business without your proper gear on? I’m not saying don’t jump, I am saying that you must prepare to jump. What is your gear? It is the proper business structure, understanding your finances, putting in place systems to handle your operations, technology and social media must haves. Now, you don’t have to wait until everything is running perfectly, or until you learn everything about everything. No! That’s failure to take action. You learn, then implement, then learn something new, then implement, then rinse and repeat about 500 million billion times! All the while, you tweak as you go. Getting your gear on, essentially means that you have learned the fundamentals needed to start your business. You’ve ensured you have your personal finances and supportive relationships ready to uplift you – they are the wind beneath your wings! Are your bills paid off? Do you have sufficient savings? Can you work from home or do you need (and can afford) an office? Are you generating enough income to go full time or do you need to continue to work? Moreover, for how long? How will you manage your time while working a full time job and addressing family / other concerns? Ok, so you get the point, right?

You make the overall plan, get training, and learn the skills necessary to succeed. Then you do some practice jumps or simulations to work out the kinks, you test and check your gear to make sure everything is there and it works. A kink looks like: selling your product or service and your customer can’t buy it online or has to call you in order to pay because you forgot to setup sufficient payment options. When you think that everything is ready and you've fixed the kinks, you check your gear again! Once truly ready, you get yourself in the metaphorical airplane, climb up to 10, 20 or 30 thousand feet. Put on the rest of your gear, ahhh …like your helmut – (mindset metaphor), check your parachute, and then get into action!

You’ll be nervous and hesitant (well most of you reading this might be, anyway) and you say whatever it is, that you say to yourself to drum up your courage. Many will say a prayer to God, take a deep breath, then exhale, then maybe another breath, and exhale again (just don’t hyperventilate). All the while, the next person is wishing you’d hurry up, so they can do the same thing you’re doing when it’s their turn. See, they are watching you. They want to see how you do it, take mental notes, so they can do it too. You’re the example and the inspiration that they need. You finally get up the nerve to take that leap of faith and you do. You hurl your fears and doubts to the winds and do it! Your success is that much sweeter, because you were well prepared with the KE2SUCCESS.