One of the key findings of the DEAL project is that what is stopping people, and not just older people, from starting their own Digital Enterprises is lack of self-belief. Self-belief is essential for anyone thinking of starting a Digital Enterprise.

You develop self-belief by knowing your strengths and weaknesses and by not being afraid of failure. People who have self-belief see failure as a learning opportunity and not a reflection of who they are as persons.

Have self-belief but recognize your limits and work at pushing your boundaries to realize your dream! Remember it is perfectly normal to wonder if you have enough IT skills and business know-how to make a success of an online business.

DEAL is designed to give you the basic business knowledge and skills and with that the self-belief to help you on your way to becoming a successful Digital Entrepreneur. The door is opening for you: have the courage to walk through it!

1. We live in an online world.

2. It’s not about downloading a website template and hoping for the best.

3. It’s about thinking how going digital will increase your productivity, cost. effectiveness, customer base and grow your business.

4. It’s about knowing how to set up your online business, how to do your research. online, how to do digital marketing and how to sell online.

5. It’s about pivoting to enable you to start up or increase your digital capability, develop a competitive online offer and build a resilient, sustainable business in the domestic, European and global marketplaces.

6. It’s about KASH (Knowledge/Attitude/Skills/Habit).

7. Motivation is what gets you started: habit is what keeps you going.

8. Knowledge empowers you: it’s about having self-belief by knowing what to do and how to do it.

Navigate between risk aversion and overconfidence

Learn to use new digital tools 

Sometimes trust your intuition.

Talk to successful Digital Entrepreneurs making sure they give you a reality check.