In this episode Oh Shoot! podcast, Cassidy Lynne talks about what it really takes to be an entrepreneur!
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In this episode, Cassidy Lynne through how she started her photography business, and what it takes for you to be an entrepreneur too.
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Oh Shoot! I am your host Cassidy Lynne and I am so excited that you are here today! This episode is about what it really takes to be an entrepreneur. I’ve been very inspired lately as an entrepreneur and I wanted to share that inspiration with you guys um and share that spark that I have and hopefully, it rubs off on you guys too!
I have recently been listening to a podcast, new to me it is called how I built this. It’s a business podcast; I love a business podcast at the right time of the year. January through April is a great time to listen to a business podcast. For the rest of the year, I struggle because I am busy like we don’t have time to be working on these things that you’re telling me to do. But I’ve been loving this podcast, it basically is this host who interviews successful business owners. And this guy has the founders of all sorts of companies on there! If you are into the business mindset I would definitely recommend checking it out!
What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur
My story as an entrepreneur: I’ve always been entrepreneurial, constantly looking for ways to make money through various side hustles since before I was even supposed to! Let me take you back to elementary school – I’m curious if anyone else has similar stories. In my classroom, we had this cool money system called “paulers” (named after our teacher, Mr. Paul). You’d earn these dollars for things like answering questions correctly, helping out, or cleaning up. Looking back, it was actually a brilliant way to get kids excited about participating in class. At the end of the year, there’d be this big store where you could spend your paulers on different items. Here’s where my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in – I came up with this candy bar business. I bought a bunch of candy bars and created this clever reward system where each candy bar had either a red or green dot under the wrapper.
If you got a green dot, you’d win another candy bar, which could potentially have another winning dot. It was basically my way of getting people hooked on buying more candy bars from me! and I would sell them for class paulers because I just wanted class paulers lol. Then in high school, I ended up really liking hairstyling! I would do hair for like prom, weddings, word just got out that I did hair and that I was pretty cheap. I was literally 14 yrs old, I would just show up to people’s weddings and do their hair. The BRIDE’S hair! Which is totally insane to me. I cannot imagine a hiring a 14 year old to do hair at a wedding! Then in college, I started like this little nail salon business. Basically, I bought this nail polish kit with a UV lamp and everything and it cost me about $50 bucks. I wanted to make my money back, so I wanted to book 4 people at $15 but then I ended up booking a lot of people!
Facts About What It Takes To Become An Entrepreneur
Let’s get into some facts about entrepreneurs. Facts are so interesting, so I wanted to give you guys some facts!
- 582 million entrepreneurs
- 88% of millionaires in the US are self-made entrepreneurs
- Women-owned businesses have grown 114% in the last two decades
- The most common reason people start their own business is to be their own boss
- Women entrepreneurs are more resilient and adapt to change faster.
- The average entrepreneur works 52 hours a week
- 48% of entrepreneurs are happy
- Personal funds are the main source of funding for 77% of entrepreneurs (compared to using a bank loan or money from family, etc)
- Average start-up capital is $10k
- 83% of business owners started their companies from scratch
- Over half of companies are started from home (so avoid rent coasts & add funds to their business)
- The majority of entrepreneurs do not have a college degree !!!!
- 31% of entrepreneurs have managed to turn their dream into reality with an associate degree alone. 30% have done it with a high school degree, including Bill Gates. The percentage of entrepreneurs with completed BA, MA, or Ph.D. studies is 39%, according to entrepreneurs facts.
- 49% of entrepreneurs handle marketing on their own
- 8 out of 10 small businesses survive the year
Common Misconceptions About Entrepreneurs
One of them is that people think that entrepreneurs are very planned and thought out. I believe that there are a good amount of entrepreneurs who don’t have everything planned out. In fact, they make a lot of good on the fly decisions. Sometimes I think that entrepreneurs who don’t have everything planned out ended up being more successful because they don’t follow a certain map.
Another common misconception about entrepreneurs is that every entrepreneur reads 1,000 books a year. I don’t know if this is a misconception that I had, but I feel like every entrepreneur that I have heard of, or that I follow would be like just finished reading this business book now I am reading these 5 other books. And honestly, it gave me a little bit of imposter syndrome because I was like, I don’t read a thousand business books but that’s okay! Not everyone likes books, not everyone likes to read.
Traits On What It Is To Be An Entrepreneur
I want to list a couple of traits that I have noticed entrepreneurs have!
- The drive to work because no one else will if I don’t (can be a bad thing)
- Seeing everything as a business opportunity
- The hustle
- The willingness to fail
- Not caring what others think about you
- I don’t always have a plan right away, I plan things as I go sometimes
- Willingness to try things outside of my normal / comfort zone
- Wants a mentor / someone to help them get better
- Is willing to own up to their mistakes publicly if needed
If you want to start a business this year or if you want to go full-time this year, think about these things okay! Think about these traits these qualities that I’m talking about. What can you work on? Is it your motivation? Are you staying in bed until 2 p.m. and then working until 2: a.m.? Are you putting off the things that you need to get done? Is it help with your motivation? Do you need help not caring what people think about you? Do you care so much about how you’re perceived publicly? If you’re not willing to take chances if that’s you, work on that. Because that is keeping you from your full potential and we’re all about meeting our potential over here!
The purpose of this episode is to tell you: YOU GOT THIS!!!
Show Notes:
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