Quick Tips: Entrepreneurship

It's National Entrepreneurship Month! Time to celebrate sacrifices, dreams, and lessons learned from entrepreneurs of all sizes.

I personally never considered myself an entrepreneur until I was forced into it. Like many professionals, layoffs happen. Many years ago, I remember the firm I worked for was sold and marketing was "closed and moved" to the new HQ.

But then, it happened.

Less than 24 hours later the firm contacted me asking me to be a contractor immediately because the new corporate office didn't have the bandwidth to take on additional marketing like they promised - yikes!

Fast forward from that scenario and I jumped into entrepreneurship as a consultant for financial services and trade associations where I learned many lessons.

Here are my 3 quick tips for entrepreneurs.

1. Know your worth and charge for it. A little humble brag here, but you better believe I charged my first consulting client 4x more than the hourly rate. I worked for agencies and know how much firms pay for marketing. Don't be afraid to charge your worth. Companies need you

2. Take time for yourself. There is an unhealthy mantra in the entrepreneurship world around "grind hard" or "hustle always", and while they are important at times, we are glorifying burnout. I've been burnt out. Badly. It's not good for your health, your business, your ability to be creative, or your family, friends, and support network. Mental health is important. Take time for yourself right now. You can find a therapist in seconds here. Time for yourself will help you grow, cast a better vision, and be a better leader in your personal and professional life.

3. Your skills are transferrable - always. I remember being worried that when I reached a point years later to return to W2 work employers would question why I "gave up" consulting or would think I was a "flight risk" and lose me to a better project. While I had a few firms get hung up on this, I left them in the dust and remembered that what I did was important. So important that firms were willing to pay - a lot - and continue to pay vendors - a lot more - for what I did. The skills I learned as an entrepreneur: customer service, accounting, sales development, forecasting, time management, and more, have helped me be better in my career.

Those are my quick tips. They still apply today, even though what it means to be an entrepreneur has changed. Did you know that over 60% of high school students have started or plan to start their own businesses? Working in the edtech world now, I developed an online resource center for high school student entrepreneurs packed full of tips, inspiration from other students, and online tools to aid them in their entrepreneurial journey.