So you're leaving corporate for entrepreneurship
5 mindset shifts for success that ChatGPT doesn't know
Whether you’re a new founder-CEO, thinking about starting a business, or leaving corporate for the first time to report into a founder, this one’s for you.
The shift from corporate to entrepreneurship is bigger than a culture change. It requires fundamental changes in how you think about the business you lead.
Here are five mindset shifts I learned through my pivot from Fortune 200 director to entrepreneur - none of which ChatGPT produced when I asked for its thoughts:
SHIFT #1: Focus on one before many.
When you work in large companies, you’re trained to think at scale. At PayPal, I worked in millions and billions. Users were faceless numbers in my Excel files.
When I started my business, this mindset was a plague. I learned, fast, to scale way back.
I had eight weeks to get five paying clients. One client = 20% of my target. Where could I find this person? What would I need to say to engage them?
Even if you intend to scale, remember: if you haven’t met a need well yet for one ideal customer, you’re not going to get past that one to many.
SHIFT #2: Execute before you evangelize.
Roadshows are so corporate: making your rounds to tell loads of people what you plan to do before you do it.
Your energy goes into selling the story, rather than taking the action that has potential to deliver a great outcome.
There’s a time and place for this.
When you’re first getting started, prioritize getting your ideas in front of potential customers early and often to learn what will resonate. Iterate.
Because talking about what you need to do, rather than doing it, is like leaving your game piece at ‘Go.”
SHIFT #3: Pay attention to signals before crunching numbers.
Corporate involves controlling your outcome wherever possible. You start with calculating opportunity, and championing ideas with a sizable TAM and ROI.
While the numbers need to work, this approach doesn’t leave room for opportunity to reveal itself to you. Those cues that say: maybe you should check out this way.
My move to entrepreneurship was based on signals. My first year success in surpassing six figures was, too. I had noticed that my entire client base was women of color. It happened organically, and following this signal led to growth.
Pay attention to repetitive cues to help you find your way forward. They’re evidence that being reactive sometimes has its benefits.
SHIFT #4: Meet the core need before adding special features.
In corporate, your company was already fulfilling a core customer need. That’s what led the company to scale.
As an entrepreneur, one of your toughest jobs is to get super clear on the core need you’re going to fill so you can meet your customer where they’re at - not where you wish they were.
It requires listening with a clear mind, being willing to set aside your opinion, and prioritizing the many needs you may uncover in your discovery process.
I’ll admit: while I’m a strong listener as a coach, I have found that listening to buyers is harder because your identity and personal goals are intertwined with your business.
But if you don’t understand and meet your customer’s core need first, they aren’t going to stick around to appreciate the details.
SHIFT #5: Look inward before you look outward.
This shift might seem like a bit of a cop-out because entrepreneurship forces you to look inward whether you want to or not!
When things go wrong in corporate, we default to root cause analysis ie. assessing what’s going on in the system: Where did a process break down? What happened in the market?
When you’re an early entrepreneur, you’re faced with me, myself, and I. If you haven’t initiated sales outreach, what’s holding you back? If you’ve become a bottleneck for your team, why is it hard for you to delegate tasks?
Looking inward is important in corporate, too, but it’s much easier to hide from it when you’re part of a system than when you’re on your own.
If you’ve made the switch from corporate to entrepreneurship, what would you add to this list?
And if you’re in the process of adjusting to entrepreneurial life and want to chat, reply to this email and we’ll set it up.
Farah, this is such a solid list, I'm not sure what to add! What comes to mind might be a shift to creating your own SOPs rather than following the process someone else (years ago) put in place. Also, from a PM perspective, as a solopreneur, you're now responsible AND accountable for all outcomes - successes and failures. BTW, love that Chat couldn't figure any of this out! And that's we need coaches with lived human experience...