Entrepreneur has become somewhat of a digital buzzword – and it’s losing its significance because anyone with a new idea or concept considers themselves a bonafide entrepreneur.
Fact is that it isn’t easy being entrepreneurial, it’s hard graft, and it’s risky — but it can also be rewarding if you have the impetus to be your own success story.
Becoming an entrepreneurial blogger is not something you achieve overnight, it’s a mindset that requires action and it requires being very in tune with your audience. Ready to make the leap?
Let’s start at the beginning….
How To Go From Blogger To Entrepreneur In A Few Mindful Steps
By definition an entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit.
Fairly straightforward right? But this definition could so with some updating to reflect what we expect of an entrepreneur by today’s standards.
Entrepreneurs have specialist skills, they have to rely on those skills to make money and often take huge risks in the pursuit of professional success. The entrepreneur life is not for everyone, but is it for you?
Firstly let’s make a the distinction between entrepreneur and writer very clear. Someone who writes for a living is doing a job, a vocation they’ve chosen to pursue. Someone who is entrepreneurial is doing that job in a certain way – but ‘entrepreneur’ is not a job title!
It’s a means to enable you to work for yourself – to take the leap from blogger to something bigger. But please let’s stop talking about ‘entrepreneur’ as if it’s a job in its own right; it’s confusing, it’s inaccurate and it’s deceptive.
An Entrepreneurial Writer – Now We’re Talking!
An entrepreneur who is also a blogger, is someone who takes risks with writing. They risk their credibility as an author by pushing the boundaries or saying something unexpected; by being brave.
Blogging is not always financially rewarding, but there is opportunity to make money and a career if you’re dedicated and passionate about your subject matter and your readers.
Audiences are becoming more discerning and whilst you may find the sheer amount of bloggers you’re competing against overwhelming, you have something they don’t all have – you are a specialist and you have the audience’s best interests at heart.
If you’re reading this post you are already in the right mindset, you already have something special to offer and a fire in the belly to make it happen – that fire just needs to be stoked.
Niche Is Not Just A Word People Can’t Pronounce
To make the transition from blogger to ecommerce entrepreneur, you need to stake your claim, plant your feed and be very decisive. Doing one thing well is a great place to start.
Know what that thing is an own it! Once you start becoming recognised as an expert in your field — the entrepreneur in you begins to flourish.
Hiut Denim are a small Welsh clothing company that — you guessed it — make denim jeans.
They have become incredibly successful at what they do and are known the world over for the care they take in doing it better than anyone. They are brilliant communicators and inspire startups and entrepreneurial individuals by hosting UK Do Lectures.
The company’s ethos is all about doing one thing well — they focus on it, they live and breathe it and it’s worked incredibly well for them.
They are also passionate to a fault about their town and the legacy of denim making that locals have worked hard to maintain for generations.
It’s not been easy, denim stopped being produced in Cardigan when the mill was shut down – but the passion still lingered.
David and Clare Hieatt founded Hiut — in their own words — ‘To bring manufacturing back home. To use all that skill on our doorstep. And to breathe new life into our town.’
There’s the first lesson for any entrepreneur – be passionate and know why you’re doing, what you’re doing.
Whatever you’re writing about, whatever services or products you sell — true success as an entrepreneur will be measured not just by profit and loss margins, but by the effort you put in and how hard you fight for it.
Make sure you’re fighting for something meaningful.
Never Stop Learning
They key to successful entrepreneur ventures is accepting you don’t know it all — and you never will. Every day is a school day so approach your business that way and you’ll never become complacent.
Read books, read other blogs, read newspapers, read the back of a microwave meal if it’s handy.
Understand what not to do. Get in the habit of identifying writing that is both good and useful and learn how to be a good communicator. Writing well is one thing, but to achieve a portfolio of relevant, useful content, that’s written well — that’s profitable.
Be inspired by others every day because if they can do it, so can you.
Move Over Dated Blog Site – Hello Shiny New eCommerce Site
If you really want to make money from your entrepreneurial blogging adventure, you need to act like it and you need to look like it.
I’m not talking about picking out a tie or shopping for heels – I want you to be comfortable. But for your audience to feel that same level of comfort, and to take you seriously – your website needs to look the part.
There are so many available options for bloggers, but for serious ecommerce writers, take it up a notch with an online store that showcases your skills.
You might sell your ecommerce writing or marketing skills as a service or you might be blogging about a niche you are passionate about, and selling associated products – like finger puppets – why not?
No matter what you’re into, show that you’re serious and create your brand with purpose and vigour.
Don’t Waste Time With Dated Platforms:Serious Entrepreneurs Know Better
Shopify has emerged as a market leader in this space with loads of templates and easy to integrate point of sale software – see here for a full guide on setting up your own ecommerce store.
Think about what you need your platform to do, and whether you’re drop-shipping or creating stuff at home – invest in something you’re going to find easy to use and customize.
Other online tools you need to be integrating with your site include analytics. Google is your friend in entrepreneur land.
Analyse your organic traffic, look at where your sales are coming from, and what content is working for you.
Give your site an audit every 3 months and track where growth is occurring, and where you’re dropping off. Ask yourself:
- Are your audience getting on with your payment system?
- Is your content still relevant?
- Are your keywords up to date?
- Are you keywords ranking?
- Is your content useful?
Do Start Now
As any writer knows — procrastination is a tiger waiting to pounce, stalking your every move — breathing down your neck.
To stop procrastination ruining your entrepreneurial spirit, make a plan and book in time to fulfill your writing and marketing strategy and your business goals.
If you’re starting a business, don’t be naive about what that involves. Your time is precious and now that you’re officially taking on a project, there will be less of it.
You have obligations to deal with, revenue to think about, a website to run and… what is it you do again? Don’t forget to give yourself the time to do what you’re passionate about and what you set out to do all this for in the first place.
Make a plan you can stick to you and create achievable goals you can reach on a daily basis.
Put pen to paper, needle to thread, print to press, hands to instruments – whatever your one thing is – do it every day. It’s easy to make excuses and to put things off, but part of taking that big risk as an entrepreneur is getting your hands dirty.
Take out the paintbrush and visualize yourself painting with big expressive strokes — you’ve taken the first step, now start creating the life you want — from the things you love.
This blog might not give you the key to making a million in your first year as an entrepreneur – but hopefully it will put you in the right mindset to begin a pursuit of something you’ll be doing for years to come.
Be inspired and inspire others.
Patrick Foster, ecommerce entrepreneur & coach.
I’m obsessed with digital content, especially ecommerce! I dabble in the kitchen but my skills are more adapted to online marketing for startup and business owners.
Hello Chris and Patrick,
This is a smart one indeed. Many bloggers are seriously stuck with just running their blog as just a blog instead of a business. That’s why they don’t give it their best shot, knowing that every single word they put out their gives a perception about them and their blog.
When one is committed to run their blog as a business, it’s at moment that I see that person as an entrepreneur.
Since I discovered that my blog is more than just a blog but a full blown business that should take care of me, I started giving more attention to it.
It’s an honour reading your thought on this matter, Patrick. And that’s Chris for having him around.
Cheers.
Emenike