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The Reinventing Entrepreneur

Posted: Sep 15th, 2010

What does it mean to reinvent yourself?

Reinvention, as a general term, is the active involvement in your personal evolution. Truly transformative reinventions can occur for entrepreneurs capable of syncing their personal and professional lives, along with their business, in a single reinvention. 

 

 

Why should entrepreneurs care about reinventing themselves and their business?

Reconceptualization in a time of great change provides entrepreneurs with opportunities that others will miss due to their own limiting fears. The process of reinventing--rewriting your DNA and changing your classic patterns--forms the basis of business growth, renewed creativity, and personal rejuvenation. 

 

Reinventing is about opening up your field of vision and seeing the possibilities of the future--visualizing and reading the signposts--what’s happening within you, around you, and in the marketplace. This can be a tough challenge for entrepreneurs who struggle with slowing their pace in order to connect-the-dots in front of the curve. But by not doing so, you can miss critical personal and business inflection points.

Reinventing yourself and your business requires a strategy and well-executed plan, otherwise you risk either of these scenarios happening:

  1. You pursue every new idea that hypes your brain or hums your heart instead of honing your core business. As entrepreneurs we’re often stronger in the ideation arena than the general population, which means we run the risk of not focusing on what’s required in building a solid business by allowing ourselves too many creative distractions.
  2. You become stodgy and your business becomes stale when complacency sets in by focusing too intently on the status quo. 

 

You want to create a balance that begins first with an understanding of your Optimum Change Cycle (OCC). Most of us intuitively know when it’s time to institute a change in our life; however, knowing when it’s time for a change and acting on it on two different things. Validating your OCC often requires a deconstruction of your historical change patterns. The benefit of going through this process is that by understanding your classic patterns within the last decade (or two), you’re able to recognize when you need to begin your reinvention cycle. 

 

For example, I’m a “two-year marker” person, which means that my OCC occurs every two years. I begin my reinvention one year into my two-year cycle with the help of Intuition, Connecting-the-Dots and Peripheral Vision signposts. 

 

 

What types of business reinventions are happening in the Great Recession?

During this Great Recession I’m seeing three types of business reinventions for micro-enterprises and small to medium businesses.

  1. Here in the U.S. where our national unemployment is currently stuck at 9.5%, we’re seeing more micro-business start-ups (SBA definition: less than 10 employees). Former employees weary of waiting for the traditional hiring process to kick in are deciding to take their “hobby” ideas out for a spin. These are the “forced entrepreneurs” who may, or may not, decide to operate their own business long term.
  2. The Great Recession has resulted in entire industries drying up, so the second type of reinvention are entrepreneurs in business for 3 to 5 years who decide to change their industry focus. Side note: Unless your industry has completely dried up, focus on “reinventing in parallel”, where you continue to operate your existing business while learning a new industry, developing a customer base, and re-branding your business before cutting over to a new industry. 
  3. Entrepreneurs who fall within the third type of reinvention are those with laser-like focus aimed at their existing business and target markets. Instead of trying to be all things to all customers, these entrepreneurs are leveraging niche marketing via Internet messaging and social media relationships as a means of differentiating their products and services. 

 

What practical steps can entrepreneurs take to reinvent themselves?

Reinventing yourself and your business requires creative change. This change doesn’t happen without moving into action and trusting your ability to stretch beyond your comfort zone. Innovation doesn’t occur without creativity, personal risktaking and accountability, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a good dose of discipline.  

 

OCC

 

Take a look back over the last decade or so and map the times in your life when either a) you initiated a big change or b) an external event occurred that required a big shift, or change, of you. What is the frequency? Of course, the challenge in any economy is when we must reinvent ourselves before our optimum time in order to align with external developments, something this Great Recession is raising the bar for entrepreneurs to do.

Intuition

 

When was the last time you listened and acted upon your intuition? You know, those whispered messages that come to you when you’ve quieted the sounds of the daily rush. Many of you might discount your intuitive feelings as “woo woo” thoughts not to be trusted. But like a muscle that becomes stronger when exercised, intuitive feelings are a key signpost along the road to reinvention.

 

Peripheral Vision

 

Just as Intuition is about paying attention to internal messaging, Peripheral Vision is an external signpost of what’s occurring around you. Pay attention to conversational tidbits, listen “between the lines” for what is or isn’t being said (but maybe should be said), notice subtle shifts in peoples’ behaviors, and read books, magazines, blogs, etc. for depth and breadth. Think of Peripheral Vision as your personal periscope that sees around corners--it widens your view and perspective and extends the reach of possibilities for you. 

 

 

 

 

Connecting-the-Dots

 

Connecting-the-dots is when you pull everything together--your Optimum Change Cycle (change patterns), your intuitive messaging, and your external messaging via peripheral vision--and begin putting together your reinvention strategy and execution plan. 

 

 

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About Dee McCrorey

Dolores “Dee” McCrorey, speaker, author and trainer is the Chief Risk Guru of Risktaking for Success LLC where she partners with corporate thought leaders looking to level the innovation playing field by transforming their organizations from ho-hum status quo to entrepreneurial success in a reinvented world. With over 25-years of industry experience and talent for leading high potential, high risk initiatives and programs, Dee earned a reputation as a turnaround expert with a personal brand of someone who would ‘Fix it, Get rid of it, or Reinvent it’. You can follow her blog The Ultimate Corporate Entrepreneur and catch her internet radio shows Coach for Innovation and Big Dreamers! The Reinvent Success Show on BlogTalkRadio.