3 Ways an All Or Nothing Business Mentality Can Sabotage a Solopreneur

All or nothing. As a solopreneur, that mentality can be detrimental to your business – and your self-esteem.

An all or nothing approach will have negative effects in a variety of ways:

• Inflexibility. Nickel and diming either clients or vendors can land you on the “not a pleasure to do business with” list. Obviously, you need to set some standards for how low you’re willing to go in your pricing and for the  concessions you’re willing to make, but keep an open mind and meet people in the middle whenever possible. Showing a desire to make it work, builds trust and good will.

• Stagnancy. All solo-professionals need to make changes within their business processes from time to time. From altering your social media strategy to updating your client contact list, rarely will you be able to sit down and do it all at once. If you wait for the opportune moment when you can tackle it all in one fell swoop, the changes you need to implement might never get off the ground. Instead, break larger change projects down into more manageable pieces and chip away at them according to a schedule that works for you. It’s far better to set aside a little time over a span of time, than to be completely immobilized.

•  Self-doubt. When you’re running your own business and wearing all the hats, it’s challenging enough. Don’t put unrealistic expectations on yourself; you’d complain about that if you worked for someone else and your boss did that to you! It’s okay to set the bar high on what you want to achieve, but don’t set yourself up for failure. Being a business owner should be an empowering experience – be sure to appreciate yourself even though you don’t have superhero powers.

Have you ever fallen into the self-inflicted “all or nothing” trap? How did you snap out of it?