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Hello SOTGC community,
In the first part of: Turn Your Great Idea Into A Real Business: The 6 Stages Of E-ship we talked about what the 6 milestones are when embarking on your E-Ship adventure. Today we talk about how to manage those milestones.
Heather: There is so much to learn, to know, to do and accomplish at each stage, what is the best way break down those tasks so they are more manageable?
Patti: You’re right – it is a lot to absorb. To make it more manageable I like to explain each of the stages in these 3 segments:
1) what happens in this stage
2) how do you know when this stage is complete enough to start next stage
3) when you may revisit this stage
I believe we are doing a few follow-up pieces for SOTGC where I can cover each of the 6 stages in more detail.
Heather: Most of the women reading this interview have a day job and/or a family.
Can you share examples of how women experience this lifecycle? What does it look like in reality – in the day to day of the entrepreneur?
Patti: Entrepreneurship, especially when you have a life, is always messy and never, ever clear cut. Entrepreneurs tend to wear “crazy” as a badge of honor. There is a lot of discomfort with starting your own business. It is even more uncomfortable when you have a job, a family, friends, and other stuff you want to spend time on. You have to make hard trade-off decisions for your time. You have the same 24 hours a day that everyone else has. Sometimes things just flow in the right direction and other times there are ebbs.
A lot of people want to adopt a linear, “lean” approach to entrepreneurship. That works for some. For most of the women I have worked with and for myself, it just doesn’t work. There are times that I can accelerate my business toward a milestone and there are times when I cannot. It’s all part of the process.
Just keep focused and apply your energy on the milestone goals, one goal a time, and you will get there. And, depending on what else you have on your plate, like having to miss a critical business meeting because your child’s holiday concert is the same night, well, those are decisions you have to make. You might not ever feel comfortable that you made the right decision, but you do need to figure out the trade-offs for the best decisions for you life.
Women are starting to understand that there is not work-life balance. We don’t have professional lives and personal lives. We have lives, integrated lives. Don’t strive for perfection in everything and don’t strive for immediacy of everything. Look at the big picture and be pragmatic.
Heather: thank you Patti and I look forward to the follow-up posts on the 6 stages of e-ship.
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