The 3 D's of Starting a Business: Discernment, Discipline and Determination

Starting a business is exciting, scary and often involves feeling bundles of every emotion imaginable, in a short period of time. You can go from feeling pumped one day to terrified the next. Starting a business comes with new freedoms like not having anyone to report to, but also new challenges, like who is going to give you a paycheck? So, how do you ensure that you’re on track when when starting a business?

Let me introduce you to what I like to call the the 3 D’s of starting a business. Discernment, Discipline, and Determination.

DISCERNMENT:

Making wise business decisions from the start.

Discernment is crucial for any entrepreneur - being able to make sound judgments and decisions.

1. Understanding market needs and trends

• Market Research: Before you launch your business (or even start to bring it to life), conducting market research is imperative to ensure there is a need for your idea. Once you establish there is a need, learn about your audience so that you can create the best business possible that suits their needs and desires. Analyze your competition as well to see what is working well and where there’s gaps.

• Stay Informed: Keeping up with the industry standards will be crucial. Join any relevant organizations and attend trade shows, events and trainings as much as possible.

2. Evaluating Opportunities and Risks

• Weigh the Pros and Cons: Sometimes a business idea sounds fun, but it’s not worth pursuing. After doing your market research, determine if the pros outweigh the cons to move forward, while understanding the risks that come with moving forward.

• Financial Matters: Get a clear picture of the financial costs of starting this business and how it will be funded. Then, what do your financial projections look like in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years and 5 years. What overhead costs will you need to hire or outsource over time?

3. Learning from Others

• Finding a Mentor: Seeking advice from someone with experience and knowledge can help make the entrepreneurial world a little less scary. They’e been through it and likely understand what you’re going through and can coach you through it. Having a sounding board will put your stress at ease and uncover gaps you may have missed.

• Continued Education & Trainings: Plan to attend trainings to enhance your skills regularly (monthly, quarterly, yearly). For example, as you grow and hire a team, you’ll want to hone your leadership skills to cultivate a thriving team atmosphere.

DISCIPLINE:

Staying Focused and Consistent

When it comes to starting a business, sometimes it can be tough to stay on track. There’s no one holding your hand forcing you to show up, take breaks to sleep, and not get sidetracked with where you’re going. Having discipline can help you stay on the right path.

1. Developing Routines and Habits

• Establish Daily Routines: Having a schedule is helpful. Start with a morning routine, time block your schedule throughout your work day, and decide what time you’ll turn work off - and stick to it. Set alarms if you have to.

• Prioritize tasks: Identify the most important tasks that will move your business forward and complete those in your first time block of your day and avoid distractions while doing them. Pro tip: set your phone up on a tripod to film yourself work for social media content. Knock out two birds with one stone.

2. Setting Goals & Sticking to Them

• Set specific, short term & long term goals with the SMART framework and break down the long-term goals: Create ‘milestones’ for your long-term goals.

• Revisit and Adjust goals as needed: The cool thing about running a business is that you get to make changes. Reviewing your goals quarterly and adjusting them accordingly is important, especially as industries and the world’s buying habits are rapidly changing.

3. Overcoming Procrastination

• Identify what makes you procrastinate: Are there certain tasks that no matter what, you just hate doing them? Consider outsourcing if it’s a financial possibility. If not, try and create ways to make them more fun. (i.e. treat yourself to a fun Starbucks drink while you work on it, listen to your favorite playlist, etc.).

• Celebrate the Wins: Taking a moment to celebrate even the small wins with a reward. This could be a trip to the spa or something as simple as taking a day off to sit in the sun and read a book.

DETERMINATION:

Overcoming Challenges

1. Being Resilient

• Embrace learning opportunities: The truth is, sometimes we’re going to fail. Just because something didn’t work like we thought it would doesn’t mean we’re a failure and should shut down the whole business. Analyze what went wrong, take the lesson and use it to your advantage.

• Pivot when needed: If something doesn’t work, sometimes a pivot is needed. Pivots can be really beautiful and open your eyes to areas you didn’t previously see.

2. Mindset Matters

• You are who you surround yourself with: Find a community of like-minded people, often this is other entrepreneurs. If your spouse, family, and friends don’t understand the entrepreneur mindset it can be difficult for them to help you through tough situations. It’s good to not be the smartest person in the room. It’s also important to surround yourself with positive, uplifting people during this time.

• Invest in mindset: During this time, it will crucial to your overall wellbeing to invest in mindset. If you can financially afford it, a mindset coach is great. If not, meditating daily, listening to helpful podcasts, staying active and maintaining a healthy diet will help you in your mindset.

3. Stay Inspired

• Study inspirational women: Find a few inspirational women in business that you look up to and study where they started and where they are at today. Listen to their stories and what it took to get them there.

• Stop comparing: You may find yourself suddenly bombarded on social media with other entrepreneurs boasting about their success. If you find yourself comparing, hide their posts from your feed. Comparison can cause some of the worst imposter syndrome.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, recently started a business or have been in the entrepreneur world for a bit and feel stuck, keep these 3 D’s in the back of your mind. By making decisions that focused and consistent, staying disciplined and determined even when you want to put the brakes on out of fear, stress, or anything else, you’re that much closer to reaching your dreams. Remember, successful every entrepreneur started somewhere, often with the same doubts an fears you have today. Let these 3 D’s guide you on your journey to creating something beautiful.