Most entrepreneurs have been there. You start a business because you love what you do and crave autonomy, independence and the freedom to be your own boss. But then reality overtakes you. Your clients suck. Or admin gets you down. Or you can’t get your head around financials / marketing / human resources. Or your business doesn’t make money.
Lauren Fleiser has had this experience no less than ten times. Ten times she’s started a business. Ten times she’s closed up shop. “Some of them worked from a business point of view, some of them didn’t. But most of them I consciously chose to end because there were elements that left me feeling unfulfilled or unhappy,” she says.
Business models that guarantee revenue generation are not necessarily well-aligned with your long-term dreams. Customers that are easy to land and who pay you are not always pleasant to work with.
With nearly 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, Fleiser has made just about every compromise imaginable.
“Then one day I decided that I was not going to compromise any more. I was going to find a way to achieve everything I ever wanted, become all that I can be, and express all that I am through the path of my own successful business,” she says.
Good thing, too. Her own struggle to find the balance between personal fulfilment through her business goals led her to where she is now – the founder of Trutrepreneur, an organisation that helps other entrepreneurs find the balance she sought for so long.
The concept, as reflected in the title of a book she recently published, is simple: Be true to yourself through your business.
Sounds good. But how do you do it?
“Firstly, you need to break your business down into its key components and create mini combined life/business strategies for each component. In this way you infuse the added dimensions of what you want to achieve and who you are into sound business strategies,” Fleiser explains.
These components comprise your product or service offering; customers; marketing and sales; staff; suppliers; business partners; profits; and work environment.
Trutrepreneur has given Fleiser the business she’s always dreamed of – a successful enterprise based on something she believes passionately about and through which she can express herself. She’s living proof of her own concept.
Action points
- Have you broken your business down into its key components?
- Now create mini life/business strategies for each component.
- Include your product, service offerings, customers, marketing, sales, all stakeholders and profits in your strategies.
Vital stats
- Player:Lauren Fleiser
- Company:Trutrepreneur
- Est:2010
- X-factor:Using her own journey to Trutrepreneur to build a brand that teaches other people to do the same.
- Connect:www.trutrepreneur.com • +27 (0)11 367 0604