Flexing your entrepreneurial muscle

Dominik Loncar, CYBF Entrepreneur-in-Residence, dloncar@cybf.ca

One of the greatest myths about start-up businesses (also perpetuated by the media), is that all you need is a great idea; one great leap forward and you will land in heaps of money. Actually the opposite is true.  It takes small acts of day-to-day courage, built over time, to create a business diligently and incrementally before one can taste the rewards. Certainly a strong vision is motivating and a good idea helps, but those are just starting points.

Small acts of courage means doing things that stretch you outside of your comfort zone such as:

• Setting up weekly/monthly goals and monitoring them;
• Calling someone successful in your industry that you don’t know;
• Attending a networking event where you don’t know anyone;
• Following up with someone you met at a networking event/workshop;
• Working on aspects of your business that you don’t like to do (i.e. cash flow );
• Waking up early, getting some exercise, and starting your day off with energy!

The list can go on, yet all the items have this in common:  they require short-term pain for long-term gain.  They are not glamorous or earth shattering. They add value by flexing your entrepreneurial muscle.