Motivation - The Basics Of Successful Self-Employment

Photo by Malte Helmhold on Unsplash

Motivation - The Basics Of Successful Self-Employment - If you look at the speakers and experts in the online business sector, a high level of motivation never seems to be a problem with them.

The reality is a little different for many self-employed. There are always motivation problems and then the question arises how to deal with them.

In this article, I give practical tips on how to stay motivated and share my experiences in this regard.

How Important Is A Motivation For The Self-Employed?

Motivation - The Basics Of Successful Self-Employment

If you start your own business, you have to deal with so many things that there is hardly any time for the “soft” factors. In Germany, there is any way the tendency to approach starting up a business in a sober manner. The business plan must fit, the capital must be available and the marketing measures should already be prepared.

But from my experience, something completely different is usually responsible for the success of the self-employed. It's about your motivation. I think this is extremely important because if you are not motivated, it is difficult to get up every day and go to work. There's nobody there to tell you what needs to be done. You are solely responsible for both the plans and their implementation.

New ideas, creativity, and commitment are only possible in the long term with a high level of motivation. That's why I consider this one of the most important success factors.

Choice Of Self-Employment

Success is often decided at the start of self-employment. Therefore, one should not only look at economic key figures here. It is particularly bad when you choose a certain self-employed activity just because of the money.

Instead, you must do what you enjoy and what interests you most. Only then will you be able to work overtime without any problems and step on the gas instead of giving up if you have problems.

Therefore my most important tip for a high level of motivation in self-employment:
Look for self-employment where you can hardly wait to go back to work the next day.

My Experiences

I had a lot of fun building websites during my studies. I had taught myself everything back then in the mid-1990s. Later I looked for a job where I could set up and maintain websites. In 2007 it was only natural that I decided to start my own business as a web designer.

However, over time, I realized that dealing with customers wasn't exactly my thing. It was mostly fun and many customers were very nice, but I also had bad experiences at times. In addition, I didn't want to be so dependent on the opinion and input of others.

That's why I invested more and more time in my websites in the years that followed. I've always loved writing, so it was fun writing articles daily. In the meantime, I don't do anything for customers anymore.

I have learned in my self-employment that you should do what you enjoy most of all. This is the best for motivation.

In addition, I made the experience that I always need new challenges. That's why I prefer to start something new that brings unknown challenges instead of resting on what I have achieved and just managing things. My motivation suffers when I do the same thing every day. For me it is important to find a good balance, then I am very motivated.

Incidentally, at the beginning of my self-employment, I also had to struggle with existential fear. If there is hardly any money coming in, but the bills want to be paid, that is a problem. However, this fear rather motivated me. I shifted up a gear and said to myself that I wouldn't let that get me down. In retrospect, those were not always good or easy times, but I always tried to get motivation from them, which worked out well.

Practical Tips If You Lose Your Motivation

First I can calm you down. It is quite normal for motivation to drop from time to time. In the early days of my self-employment, that made me a bit nervous, as I feared that my motivation would not return. But she kept coming back.

So fluctuations are normal. If this is the case with you, here are a few tips on how to deal with it:

For me, it has proven to be beneficial to tackle administrative work on days like this. Bookkeeping, filing, or other tasks that are easy to do but don't require creativity or special motivation are good choices.
When the motivation is in the basement, you should try something completely new. Often this brings new fun, interest, and thus motivation. In any case, it works very well for me.
In addition, it helps me during this time if I don't think too much, but just start. Often the fun and the motivation come back when I just get over my weaker self and get started.
Often the motivation suffers because you sit all alone at work. That is why it can help if you do something in a team. The discussions and simply the energy of the partner often also increase your motivation.
If nothing helps, then just take a vacation, switch off and then think about what you want to do in the future.

There are more experiences and tips in the contributions of many participants in my blog parade about motivation in self-employment.

More Tips On The Basics Of Self-Employment

In this series of articles, I present one factor in each case to be successful independently. Of course, I mainly describe my own experiences from more than 10 years of self-employment on the Internet, but I also go into basic tips and basics.

Basics Of Independence:
Passion, business knowledge, goals, tax office, illness, order and structure, financial reserves, family and work, using setbacks, envy, focus, adaptation, brand, bills, office, private life, motivation, stress, learning, ideas, appearance, perseverance, Advertising, insurance, liquidity, comparisons, opportunities, technology, old-age insurance

I am of course happy about your experiences and tips on the topics covered.

HANIFMR.COM