"I'm a business plan writer" does not sound so crazy when you reach this website because it showcases my career as a business plan writer. But many entrepreneurs are flawed because they do not self identify with the service they provide or the product they sell. After writing hundreds of business plans for entrepreneurs all over the world, a common denominator among the most successful clients I've had includes their ability to profess that they are in fact in the business they want to be in as opposed to wanting to be in the business.
What do I mean? I mean there are people that spend their whole day cooking and the whole day making new recipes in a kitchen somewhere. They will call me and say they need a business plan and state that they want to be a chef. In fact they are a chef, but they do not self-identify as a chef.
I have had entrepreneur's approach me to start a limited liability company or a corporation after years of providing a service and say that they want to start a business. When in fact, they were already in the business of providing a service and they did not self identify as an entrepreneur.
The most extreme scenarios are where an entrepreneur calls me and says
"I have an LLC" or "I have a company and I am looking to start making money."These are the same people that will say,
"I am trying to start a business"When in fact they have already started a business.
The issue in these scenarios is that these people are not giving themselves credit for what they have already done or are already doing. It is common among entrepreneurs. For example, I am a business plan writer, but I am also a real estate investor among other things. I graduated business school and Law School, so to say I am only a business plan writer kind of dilutes my worth. No one wants to dilute they're worth. This is why it is hard to self-identify as one profession, it makes an entrepreneur feel like they are being put in a box. And entrepreneurs do not like to be put in a box.
For a long time when people asked me what I did for a living I would say I am an entrepreneur. This was true. But for the most part of my week I am developing business plans for startups, established businesses and other entities. The fact that I was not self-identifying as a business plan writer did not help my business grow. In fact, it actually confused certain potential customers. A few weeks ago, after more than five years of writing business plans and providing Business Services to clients I made a video professing that I am a business plan writer...
Guess what happened when I put up that video? I got more business plan writing clients. Will I forever be a business plan writer? Well I am not currently just a business plan writer. As I stated before I'm an entrepreneur. I run several successful businesses. But that does not preclude me from telling my truth, which is I am a business plan writer, and the more I self-identify as a business plan writer, the better it is for the business, at least my business plan writing service business.
My point is, if you already do something, or you aspire to do something, then self-identify as such. I had a young woman approach me who was an aspiring music artist. She had recorded dozens of songs and played many instruments. She even had a YouTube page where she recorded performances. She spent a majority of her week as a music artist. When I visited her LinkedIn page and her Facebook page it did not say that she was a music artist. It said that she worked a part-time job at a donut shop. Now that was the truth, but it was not helping her music career. Not only was she not self-identifying as a music artist but she was not telling the world what she was doing, and this is a bad thing. How will people know to hire you if you are not constantly telling people what you do or what you aspire to do. The quicker and entrepreneur can self-identify as an entrepreneur, the quicker they will be successful. The faster they realize that telling someone that they are one thing, does not preclude them from being something else, the faster they will be successful at the thing they love most.
