I want to start my own business. Any ideas?

You are in a position where you want to make changes.  Wouldn’t it be great to have your own business?  You become your own boss, nobody is telling you what to do and you can make all the decisions needed for successful development of the enterprise.Many of us dream of our own business, but only a few follow this path.  ‘Why is that?’ you might ask.  Is it the financial instability, the fear of failure or is it the comfort of a monthly pay check from a company you don’t necessarily feel responsible for?  The answer is: None of this is the real hurdle.  Instead it often is a lack of passion – a not knowing what you really want, what you really enjoy and what you are really good at.  A lack of passion stops you from living up to your full potential and might be the reason for living an unfulfilled life.  If you agree and if you want to dig deeper into this topic, I want to lead you to step one of changing your life into a possible entrepreneurial adventure and a meaningful life.

The Passion List

We all have a long list of strengths and weaknesses, but unfortunately we often get stuck with our weaknesses instead of focusing on what we can do and what we are really good at.  As a start, put your inner critic aside and contemplate for a while on your passions.  The way you do this is quite simple.  Make a list of 10 points capturing your passions.  Do not yet prioritize, just list all of your passions.  These can be hobbies, skills and also family and friends can be on the list.  Just name whatever crosses your mind that is something you are passionate about.

In the next step, you begin to prioritize and try to figure out what the three strongest passions are.  This is the hard part.  For example if you have cooking, gardening, family as your three strongest passions on the list, you now must find out which is number one, number two and number three.  To make this step even harder, I want you to ask yourself the following question: If you can only rescue one, which one would you choose?  If you can only choose cooking by never getting the chance to do gardening again, would you still prefer cooking?  I know this is not how life works, but for best results it is unavoidable.  Of course, we can follow various passions in our life and there is nothing wrong with that.  But in order to find the strongest passion as the basis for future business ideas, we must go through this process.  There is only one answer and it can take time to get there.

The purpose of this exercise is to find your strongest passion which will then lead you to what you want to do to give this passion shape and make it the foundation for your business idea or for looking for employment in the market.  Take your time for this exercise and be honest and gentle with yourself.  What is the one thing that drives you and gives your life meaning?

The Vision

It is one thing to say you want to have your own business, but what exactly do you want to do?  You have ideas which change as often as you change your clothes.  There are ideas that simply don’t stick with you, even though they seem to be strong ideas with a good chance for success.  I remember after we relocated to the States, I woke up every morning with a new business idea. By the next day or after a few days, the same idea that seemed to blow my mind had simply dissolved.  It simply did not stick with me and I went on to explore the next idea.  What I was lacking at that time was clarity about my passion and a lack of vision.  In those days, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life professionally.  I had no sense of purpose and I did not know in which direction I wanted to go.

Without a vision, there won’t be a business.  A business without a vision is destined for failure.  Once you know what your passion is, you can continue with the vision on the way towards future business success.

Here is a definition by Wikipedia:

Vision: Defines the way an organization or enterprise will look in the future.  Vision is a long-term view, sometimes describing how the organization would like the world to be in which it operates.  For example, a charity working with the poor might have a vision statement which reads “A World without Poverty.”

You are passionate about fashion and you love designing.  Now imagine that you are the enterprise and you want to develop your vision such as “feminine fashion at affordable prices” into a business idea.  Getting so close to what you really like, you might want to start a retail business in fashion or maybe you begin to design clothes and sell the designs to bigger manufacturers.  The list of options is huge as soon as you know what your passion and your vision are.  Allow all your business ideas to arise and be with them for a while and give the whole process some time to find a shape that sticks with you.

The Business Plan

Now that you have come this far, the next step is almost easy.  You have arrived at the point when you must do the due diligence, the planning and the marketing.  I recommend seeking professional support to work your way through this process.  You must make sure to find the right area for opening your business; you must clarify the finances and investment, and you need to do some research to find out where your target market is.  The business plan is important for your negotiations with a bank and it also includes business goals to keep you on track.  You will find free business plan templates online if you want to work yourself through the process at this point.

It is a lot of work, but it is a straightforward process once you are clear about what you want to do.

Final thoughts 

If you do not intend to start your own business, but you are looking for purpose and direction you can go through the same process.  Then ask yourself the question if the company you are working for and the industry you are working in is what you really want to do.  Knowing about our passions and finding a vision is the basis for living a meaningful life, and this does not depend on whether you work for yourself or for somebody else.  It is all about what you do for yourself and what you do with your life that allows you to live up to your full potential.

Be a woman and act like one.  Please share your story with other women and let us learn from each other.

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