We’ve all heard or seen the saying “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” That’s a good example of a positive mindset. But as good as that type of mindset may be in inspiring and cheering you up, it isn’t the best mindset to have if you’re aiming for achieving professional success.

For that, you’ll want to develop a business mindset.

What Is a Business Mindset?

A business mindset is built upon the basic principles of a growth mindset, which is essentially the belief that you can grow and improve your current skills and abilities through hard work, dedication, and time.

If you have a business mindset or entrepreneurial mindset, you focus not only on improving yourself but also on making new opportunities for learning, business, and success — despite the problems or hurdles you may encounter. It also means having a resilient, open-minded, and go-getter attitude with your work.

Key Practices To Develop a Business Mindset

It isn’t overly difficult to learn how to develop a business mindset. Below are several key practices to help you get started.

Take Full Accountability

One of the most important things to learn as part of developing a business mindset is to always be 100 percent accountable. Accountability is essential if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. You need to take full ownership of your choices and actions, as well as whatever happens as a result of what you do. You need to learn to accept responsibility, especially for not-so-good events and failures. A large part of this is not making excuses for yourself and not blaming others — instead, you take steps to make amends, correct what went wrong, and use what happened as a learning opportunity.

Seek Self-improvement

Take a look at all the top businessmen and women in the world. It hardly matters what their industry is — one thing they have in common is that they’re all at the top of their game. They are all recognized experts in their fields.

They didn’t get to where they are because they were successful. They became successful because they kept on learning and growing and eventually became experts.

If you truly want to succeed in business, you need to keep in mind that improvement is a never-ending journey. You need to take initiative and seek out opportunities to hone your skills and be truly good at what you do.

Try To Master Different Skills

The saying “Jack of all trades, master of none” may sometimes be used as an insult but it can be a good attitude to have. If you didn’t know, the second half of that quote is, “... is oftentimes better than master of one.”

Don’t stop at mastering just one skill. Try to learn as many skills as possible, especially skills that are adjacent to those you already have. Having an extensive library of skills and knowledge will undoubtedly be helpful for your entrepreneurial career, especially when you’re just starting. 

Focus on What You Have

Yes, it’s important to stay on top of current trends and know what your business competitors are up to. But that doesn’t mean you should focus on what they’re doing. In other words, don’t be too concerned about what others have. 

Only focusing on others will just lead you down a path of envy and negativity. It can cause you to set expectations that are too high or impossible for your current status. In turn, this can slow down your progress and cause you to deviate from your real purpose or goal.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Mistakes are a part of life — they are unavoidable. When they come up, the most important thing is how you respond. You need to take responsibility for your or your business’ mistakes. Don’t dwell on your failures. Instead, use them as learning and growth opportunities.

Work to understand why the mistake happened and use what you learned to improve yourself and how you conduct your business. Mistakes will happen — the key is not to make the same mistakes twice.

Work Hard and Work Smart

People today love to say that you need to work smarter, not harder. But why not do both? In fact, that’s exactly the attitude you’d want to become successful.

You need to put in the hours to master your craft and build your business. Stay focused and consistent, not just with the work you do but also with your growth. At the same time though, you need to be smart about how you work and the time that you put in. This means learning how to manage your time wisely and finding more efficient and effective ways to achieve your goals. 

Focus on Performance, Not Outcome

Part of learning how to develop a business mindset is learning to set performance-based goals rather than outcome-based ones. This will help you focus on your journey to success and your overall performance. Essentially, don’t let the ends justify your means! 

It pays off to focus on the experience and the value such experiences add to you and your business. Focus on the process and not just the money. While there’s nothing wrong with making money — besides, it’s one of the main reasons businesses exist — it shouldn’t be your only focus or main goal.

Prepare for the Future

A successful entrepreneur is always prepared. While you may never know what’s going to come in the future, you can make informed decisions based on past trends and events.

Proper preparation is key to weathering the curve balls life may throw at you. Make it a habit to have a plan B (or even plans C and D) just in case. Work toward achieving your goals while also setting up contingency plans for the worst outcomes.

Should you need to use your contingency plans, always evaluate how well they worked afterward so you can improve them for the next time you need them.

Be Adaptable and Ready for Change

The business landscape and the world are constantly changing. Especially over recent years, the rate of change has been fast!

Since you don’t know what will happen in the future, it’s crucial to stay flexible. A lot of things can change from the time you make your business plan to when you implement it. Instead of trying to force your circumstances to change and follow what you planned for, you’re the one that needs to learn to adapt.

Adaptability and flexibility give you a competitive advantage as well. You will be more open to new ideas, foresee changes, and stay composed should something happen that you didn’t plan for.

Moreover, being adaptable and flexible will help you effectively put any contingency plans you may have into place when you need them!

Be Proactive and Take Calculated Risks

Having a business mindset also means being proactive in seeking new opportunities, challenges, and risks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? The more challenges you take and overcome, the more you grow as a business owner.

Just remember that being proactive and taking risks doesn't mean jumping willy-nilly into a good-sounding opportunity. You also need to weigh the pros and cons of the challenges you take.

It’s one thing if you’re the only one who suffers if you take a poorly calculated risk. However, things are wildly different when you run a business and have employees and partners to consider.

Become More Self-aware

Self-awareness is necessary for a business growth mindset. This is an essential quality to grow as a leader.

Self-awareness is what helps you monitor yourself. It’s what helps you stay impartial when assessing strengths or capabilities and be able to acknowledge areas of weakness or improvement. 

Practicing self-awareness also helps you process your emotions and the events that unfold around you better. It helps you identify your triggers, set boundaries, and be mindful of others around you. It can even help you avoid unnecessary conflicts and display empathy, kindness, and patience.