The Mom Lowdown: Do I have what it takes to start a business?

Thinking about starting a business? You know it’s not going to be a piece of cake. It’ll take something.

But could you actually do it? Could you actually launch a mom-business you love and people will buy?

Here is the good news.

You don’t have to be predestined to be some great business leader. You don’t have to be born wired like Mark Zuckerberg or Oprah Winfrey or whichever successful entrepreneur you aspire to.

All you need are certain qualities to create a business allowing you to support your family. Many of these characteristics can even be honed if you set your mind to it.

Here are 4 qualities that are essential for anyone thinking of starting a business, especially moms.

Open mind

Having an open mind means you are receptive to other people’s ideas and feedback. You are not tied to your way of thinking. An open mind doesn’t mean you always agree with others, but you’re willing to try the on, like a new pair of jeans, and see if they fit.

An open mind is critical because what you think your customer needs may not actually be what they want and will buy. To deliver a product or service that has value, you need to listen to feedback. The world constantly changes, especially now, so an open mind will help you change and evolve with it.  

Resilience

Starting a business has its ups and downs, much like a rollercoaster. Riding the highs is usually easy, but it’s the lows that require finding some extra energy and strength to keep going. You will need to have – or find – resilience when things don’t turn out as planned. Sometimes success is getting up just one more time after you’ve fallen.

But hey – chances are you’ve had practice with this one! Being a parent requires resilience. If your child has ever woken up sick on an important day or freaked out in the middle of the supermarket, you’ve had to deal with adversity and keep going.

Committed

As a parent, we often have competing demands on our time. We’ve got our family, but we also have  work to do. And then there is housework. Time with our significant others. Time for ourselves. Exercise to keep healthy. The list goes on and on, much like your weekly grocery list.

Your business has to be a priority too. You have to choose to commit to it and find time. Once you make the choice to commit to your business – again and again if need be – you will find a path forward.

Take calculated risks

You don’t need to be some high-flying bet-the-farm risk taker to start a business. You do need to take calculated risks, whereby you go for something that has a chance of failing after you’ve evaluated the pros and cons of the opportunity. Success isn’t guaranteed when you start a business, but if you don’t take calculated risks, you won’t make the future you envision a reality.

To take calculated risks, you evaluate the opportunity in full. What are the upsides? These are the benefits or outcomes that attracted you to the opportunity in the first place. What are the downsides? To get to the root of the drawbacks, ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen if the opportunity doesn’t pan out. What is the likelihood of this happening? Are there ways to mitigate or minimize this outcome?

When you take calculated risks, you’re more likely to feel at peace with whatever happens – and increase your probability of success.