Entrepreneurship 2023: Launching A Spectacular New Year

Happy 2023!

A new year is a great opportunity to hit reset and explore new possibilities. To reflect on the past twelve months and anticipate what’s to come.

Since last May, I have contributed a variety of articles to LinkedIn on a myriad of entrepreneurial topics. Much of that information was based on 20 years of experience teaching entrepreneurship, as well as a lifetime immersed in a variety of different venture experiences.

With the calendar flipped to a new year, I spent some time thinking about those contributions.

To kick off 2023, I would like to offer my readers some food for thought. Call it a list of potential new year’s resolutions, or just some things to consider as we enter this next phase of life.

This is my way of thanking my readers in the LinkedIn community. I appreciate all the support, reactions, and comments you provided. I look forward to more great conversations in 2023.

Now some things to consider.

Check Your Mental Health

I lead off this list by encouraging people to care for themselves. First and foremost, by taking stock of their mental health.

The past few years have been extremely challenging for a variety of different reasons. We are not superheroes. All those trials weigh on us and that heaviness can cause one to break.

Start listening to that little internal voice and stop paying attention to the voices that say we’re weak if we decide to get help.

Stop procrastinating and schedule that therapy appointment.

If it’s difficult to find a private therapist, most hospital systems have highly qualified psychological services professionals on staff. This can make insurance processing easier too. A family doctor can make referrals.

Beyond therapy, free the mind through exercise, recreation with friends, a date night with a loved one, or even curling up with a good book or podcast.

Entrepreneurs tend to put themselves on the back burner a lot and that can take a toll. Take some time to put yourself first in 2023.

Take Control of Your Time

Besides our mental health, one of the most precious commodities we have is time.

Entrepreneurship professionals are often pulled in dozens of different directions, all at once. This can have a major impact on mental health.

For 2023, making time management a priority can check a lot of different boxes.

Back in September, I shared with my readers a question I learned from time management specialist, Alan Lakein: “What is the best use of my time right now?”

I have tried to live by those simple words when responsibilities, and perceived priorities, are crashing down all around me.

Whether it’s a full email inbox or a pile of papers that must be graded for one of my courses.

Sometimes, time management also requires us to say “no.” Entrepreneurs are not very good at that.

Time is a finite resource that should not be wasted. Make the most of it by prioritizing what matters.

Open Yourself Up

I have talked about the human personality trait known as openness to experience or O2E.

Successful entrepreneurs leave themselves open to change. Whether it’s a customer desire path that surfaces or a radical shift in technology. Entrepreneurs must be up for whatever.

One way that I have left myself open is that I rarely question solutions anymore that, on the surface, seem to be completely crazy.

I remember 15-20 years ago, discussing a variety of solutions with friends and colleagues, convinced that they would never see the light of day.

Then, much to my amazement, there they are.

Resolving to open oneself to any and all possibilities, in business or life, can unlock a world of opportunities.

Embrace the Pivot

O2E also enables entrepreneurs to be ready to pivot at a moment’s notice.

Baseball great, Yogi Berra, allegedly once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That’s pretty much what embracing the pivot is all about.

We never know when technology, customer tastes, cultural shifts—or pandemics, will get in the way of our original vision for products or services.

In 2023, resolve to be ready for the unknown and embrace it when it becomes known.

Find Your Niche

In a recent article, I talked with a digital marketing specialist, Luke Eggebraaten.

The original intent of that conversation was to start unraveling entrepreneurial marketing. As with most pivots, however, I was hit with a golden horseshoe when we began discussing niches.

See, “niche” used to be an awful label for most ventures back 30-plus years ago. A niche venture was some cute little company that languished in some cute little space, unable to scale because they were, well, too cute.

Luke started discussing the fact that he gave up the “all things to all people” approach in his venture and chose to focus his marketing efforts on, of all things, construction excavation firms.

Narrowing his focus has brought him increased success because of his expertise in a more defined space.

Today, there are highly successful niche ventures everywhere. Examples include Harry’s Shave, Hey Dude Shoes, and Purple Mattress. Niche is not a dirty word anymore.

If a particular segment of your business is screaming out for more, embrace it and resolve to be the best in that space.

Drive Systems

One way to take control of your venture in 2023 is to recognize the power of systems.

Every great franchise, for example, was built on a set of consistent, repeatable procedures. It's why people line up around the block when a new restaurant, like Shake Shack, opens.

But every enterprise, big or small, has systems. Even if they have not been well-defined yet.

Define them.

Figure out what you do that makes people happy and keeps them coming back. Stop doing things by accident and turn what you do well into the identity of your brand.

Plan Your Wrap-Up

Do you know how to walk away from your venture?

The debate over business planning rages on in entrepreneurship. Yet, most business plan advocates avoid the topic of how to wrap up a business.

If people can spend time meticulously planning for retirement, why not plan the retirement of a venture?

Work out how to deal with assets and liabilities. What to do about surprises that come up. And don’t forget about a communication plan that defines who needs to know and when.

If you would like to make a move in 2023 either towards a new venture opportunity or, perhaps, a beach somewhere, don’t leave the wind-up of your business to chance.

Write the recipe now and save the headache later.

Effectuate Your Thinking

One of my favorite subjects, whether in the classroom or while crafting an article for LinkedIn, is effectual thinking.

There is evidence galore that truly successful entrepreneurs don’t forecast a list of goals and then work like hell to achieve them. This causal approach will leave a nascent founder tired and, often, broke.

Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, instead, found that most successful founders work with what they have, turn surprises into opportunities, form partnerships, focus on the downside risk, and only worry about what they can control.

This positive, practical attitude puts the power back in the hands of entrepreneurs. Instead of relying purely on markets or third-party entities, entrepreneurs learn to depend on themselves, their supporters, and their innovations.

Harnessing that independence is a great way to get 2023 started on the right foot.

Find a Solution

I have made a concerted effort in 2022 to stop using the word “idea.” Perhaps that was my resolution.

Instead, I have replaced it with the word “solution.”

Customers don’t buy ideas, they buy solutions. That point of view has completely, one hundred percent, transformed my philosophy and entrepreneurship classroom for the better.

No longer will students sit around, rubbing their temples, like a sage, trying to come up with a “Million-dollar idea.”

Instead, we talk about who needs what and how we as entrepreneurs can deliver it. And that’s a hell of a lot more interesting conversation to have.

Create Value

The reason customers buy solutions is that they have value.

Google Glass ultimately failed because it did not provide anything to customers that they found particularly valuable. Oh, and it made users look like… Well, you fill in the blanks.

Use available tools, like Porter’s Value Chain and the business model canvas, to find out how you can provide additional value to customers.

What are your competitors doing—or not doing, for their customers? Are there additional channels that could be expolited? What about an emerging demographic of customers?

Next to solutions, value is the other golden ticket to success. No matter how cool the solution is, if it does not provide value to customers, it will ultimately fail.

Figure out a way to provide value in 2023.

Happy New Year

Let’s make 2023 a success for everyone. Open our minds and our hearts to find solutions to nagging problems, big and small.

Continue to positively deploy technology to make people’s lives easier and more productive.

We only get one life. If entrepreneurs can somehow find ways for individuals to get the most out of that one chance, what better way to spend our time and talent?

Here’s to peace and prosperity for all in 2023.

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Immersed in a life of entrepreneurship, Tom Clement offers LinkedIn readers the insights of an entrepreneur, academic, contractor, author, venture coach, and consultant. Clement is an assistant professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He specializes in the “how” and “why” questions that help entrepreneurs discover their customers, business models, and passion.