“Mindset has everything to do with being an entrepreneur”

Jonathan Foley is the founder of WULF Marketing and creator of the Instagram pages @Deep, @SocietyFeelings and @Positivity. He is an expert in all things Millennial, and more importantly, all things branding when it comes to Millennials. His entrepreneurship and business experience has brought him tremendous wisdom for other entrepreneurs trying to break into instagram, branding, technology or marketing.

Based on an interview with Jonathan, here are 5 entrepreneurial challenges young entrepreneurs need to overcome:

1. Finding the right mindset

“Mindset has everything to do with being an entrepreneur,” says Jonathan, “ at times you may try to talk yourself out of things and that can be your biggest enemy.” So what does Jonathan suggest for a young entrepreneur seeking success? “Positivity is the most important thing an entrepreneur should start practicing daily,” he says.

A positive mindset will keep you focused, happy, and productive, and while difficult, is often incredibly important to maintain to overcome tough circumstances when starting a business. With a positive mindset, anything else is possible.

2. Beating the economy

Being an entrepreneur in this economy can be difficult. Basic services for millennials are more expensive than any previous generation and the temptation to find an easier “gig” can be powerful, rather than following your initial business model and putting maximum effort into you startup What says Jonathan? “My advice is to start working as soon as you can, one of my partners Max Peterson is 15 years and is crushing it.”

He continues: “Age is just a number, the amount of hours you work to perfect something is what defines you.” Our generation is in a unique position. No other generation has had it as tough an economy to break into in some time, but at the same time, no other generation has had the skills and experience that millennials have.

3. How to engage audiences

Engaging audiences, whether you work on Instagram or sell vacuum cleaners, is a key component of business Jonathan says, “If I were to start from scratch with no money, I would start by creating solid post strategy that persuades my audience to engage with my content.” Without an engaged audience, nothing else an entrepreneur does matters. Be sure to do your best to create consistent and compelling content. This can be its own job entirely, but the creative entrepreneur should always be looking to hook new audiences!

Also read: Jack Ma has an advice for businesses and startups: “Compete with an Olympic spirit”

4. Doing things for yourself

Jonathan says his biggest challenge entering the industry was fending for himself. “My biggest challenge has been not knowing how to do something new or know someone who can do a task that needs to be done,” he says. Maintaining your independence is key and, “part of being an entrepreneur in an emerging field is learning how to do it yourself.”

This is often the hardest part of being an entrepreneur, but is a necessary part of the learning curve. After all, if you didn’t want to roll up your sleeves and do things yourself, you wouldn’t have started your own business! Maintain independence and absorb knowledge like a sponge, you’ll never know when you’ll need it!

5. How to collaborate

No man is an island, and entrepreneurs can gain audiences and profits by combining their skills. For Jonathan’s Instagram pages, he specifically used other entrepreneurs to promote his content. “Once I have implemented a successful post strategy I would reach out to other influencers or pages in the same field and do cross promotion with them,” he says.

Friends, classmates, and competitors are all those you can continue to learn from and promote each other through synergy and cooperation. Collaboration can not only strengthen your own business, but grow your field and audience in ways that pay off into the future. Never hesitate to cooperate and collaborate.

Where you are in starting your business, from sketching out a business plan to turning a profit for the first time remember Jonathan’s parting words of advice, “Success to me is once you no longer have to work somewhere that you don’t enjoy going to everyday. I believe the most important factor of being successful is doing something you love.”

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Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

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