How do I know all about this Start a Business stuff?

Let’s take a detour and talk about a rocky journey.

The story of when I first tried to start my first business. (pt.1)

Let me know if you know the story…

I had an amazing idea but I couldn’t get it off the ground.

(That could be the story of just about 50% of all first time founders you speak to. Maybe even more.)

I left Corporate America and if you’re anything like me, after being in a corporate career for many years, starting my own business on my own was a very new experience. Though, I totally thought I was going to ace it. (Turns out, that was very much a naive thought.)

There will be many discoveries on this “adventure.”

Including: the fact that one idea leads to an avalanche of so many ideas and decisions that have to be made when you’re ready to go off on your own.

And: if you have an idea you want to share with others, most people don’t really care. (Trust me, this is true for 100% of founders. I am almost positive of that stat. Though I didn’t research it.)

Where does it start?

For many, this “great” idea is born out of a discovery you had in your own career. You’re ready to move on and you think: “this is going to be so helpful for some people.”

Maybe the idea is developed after you had a need that you couldn’t find a good enough solution for, so you fixed it by yourself, and it worked. That one time.

Or maybe you just have a desire to start your own business because it’s time to launch and income-generating Venture with positive impact and difference.

Because you already know “so much…”

That’s because you’ve been in the business for awhile, so you know how to manage operations, processes, teams, money.

You know how to put the work in to get things done.

You know how to design, create, produce and or sell something.

So, of course you think you could manage the start of your own business idea and sell your idea to the right buyers. In fact, maybe you already have made a sale or two. Or maybe you have talked about your concept to a few friends and many like where you’re going with it.

So, where are you going?

Did you say I’m going to where success is?

Great answer. You are already on the right path. Hopefully.

Let’s VISUALIZE it.

Can you see it? Close your eyes. Visualize your successes. What does it look like?

Stay right there for a moment and let that come in clearer.

Maybe success is thousands of happy people feeling a weight has been lifted, thanks to your solution.

Maybe that “Success Vision” is showing you a group of confident women hugging each other saying thank you.

Maybe that’s a “Success Vision” is you sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a favorite drink parentheses mine would be a rose a most likely. With a smile on your face and feeling the weight off your shoulders and giving yourself a hug you have launched your first business.

Stay with that vision for another second.

Now, back up just a bit and look at the path that got you to that Vision.

Can you see it?

Wait for it… wait for it….

Um… hmmm. That’s harder to see, isn’t it.

For some you may see bits and pieces of that path; you may see some people on that path you were helping you along; you may see yourself talking to customers; you may see some of the production getting done (and that’s awesome).

Take a step back again.

Can you see that path leaving your feet right at this moment?

Can you see it?
Can you follow it all the way along to your Future Vision.

Look down.

Step one is right here.
Can you see it? Can you see the next step?

Well, I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t see the path.

I had a little of the vision and some bits and pieces. Some bits were more clear than others.

But, I didn’t see the path.

I didn’t see the rest. No sequential steps. No yellow brick road. I wasn’t sure how to start exactly and get to those clearer “bits.”

And that’s when I realized I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. And, mind you, I come from a Brand and Business strategy background.

Yet, when faced with doing this on one’s own, without all the “others” (where my team at?) in place: without access to research group (yoo hoo?!), Creative (are you there?), Design (hello?), production (is this thing on?)… I was feeling a little overwhelmed, but thought:

“Okay this is getting crazy. Let’s just get started and it will all fall into place.”

This is because I had, over my 20 year career, launched products, ran events, hired people, worked on a production, manage processes, balanced budgets, surveyed customers, run focus group, figure it out positions, and positioning words with distribution models, brainstorm been tested profit models, strategize, build strategy strategic plans, created customer personas, file paperwork, followed up with contract, Etc. I knew how to do all this stuff! When I had others to help me juggle it all.

But doing it on my own, was super hard.

Surely, I could do this I told myself.

(Has anyone noticed a jumble of thoughts? Yeah? Because that’s what happened. Over the next year. *insert ‘eye roll up’ emoji)

No matter how much I tried to push myself, told myself I was making progress and continued to execute all of my ideas over those next few years, I would get stuck.

And when I would try to reset, it always came back to
“OK, I missed something. Where do I start?”
“How do I start over?”
“How do I proceed?”

And all this time, I did what every well-seasoned executive would do. I Googled.

And Googled.

And went to entrepreneur events.

And Pitch sessions.

And seminars.

And Googled some more.

And I, like everyone before me, cobbled together a business plan.

Using outline templates, suggested tools from other people, I dug deep into my marketing and event planning background, and created a plan.

I designed a website and sales pieces and flow diagrams and rode out budget assumptions.

And then one day, months later, when I was at an event… this is 2010… someone was telling us about the future of apps.

And soon enough, I was developing an app concept. Creating wireframes and prototyping user experience flow. Because that’s what everybody else was doing.

All while working my day job because I needed to pay the bills.

Stop me if you’ve heard how this story ended….
To be continued….