My biggest problem in becoming self-employed was me. In order to BE a self-employed person I had to start thinking like one. I found myself reverting to that nine-to-five mentality. If I wasn�t accomplishing a task every hour, then I must not really be working. Sometimes a self-employed person has to make decisions about her business. Sometimes she is just thinking about a solution to a problem. Sometimes she just has to quiet her mind so new ideas can come. Just because you�re not pounding away at the typewriter every minute doesn�t mean you�re not working. I�ve also learned that it�s okay NOT to answer the phone every time it rings. That�s what voicemail is for, and the same goes for email. At my nine-to-five job I would leave the email program open all day and answer each one as it arrived. It took me a while to realize it�s okay to only check email several times a day instead of constantly being interrupted. It�s actually more productive than having to stop your thought process every time �you have mail.� At my other job, I was able to let a phone call roll over into voice mail, but it took me a while to be able to shut down the email too. You�re going to have days where you feel you didn�t accomplish much. Then again, you�ll have days where you�ll feel you can conquer the world and you�ll be amazed at how much you got done. Some days you may not finish many tasks, but you�ll make a decision on a problem that needed to be addressed. Or, you will have learned a valuable lesson about yourself. And, I had to learn to stop breaking down all my tasks into dollars and cents. I tended to worry about how much I was or was not earning every day. The truth is, some days you�re going to make more than other days. If I spent my day on marketing issues, even though I didn�t earn any money from it that day, I would benefit from it some time in the future. Rather than worry about what benefits I do or don�t have, I realized the benefit I have in my business is that I answer only to me. Everything I do will benefit me sooner or later. Instead of my income being dependent on somebody else�s budget, I can go as far as I dream. And because I�m now doing what I truly love and not what someone else tells me to, I�m much happier and more content. I learned if you start THINKING like an entrepreneur, then you�ll actually be one.
