I hear people saying all the time that they’d love to have their own first business but for whatever reason, they don’t believe it’s doable for them.
Some of the excuses/reasons I hear fall along the lines of “I don’t have time…” or “I don’t have the money to get started”, but honestly the biggest reason I hear for people not starting a business is they simply don’t know what kind of business they could even have.
I know this was something I dealt with at one point and as frustrating as it can feel sometimes, it’s much easier to decide on the perfect venture idea for you if you know where to look for inspiration. With a little bit of thought, you’ll see that inspiration is all around you, just waiting for you to act on it. In the meantime, take a minute to mull over some of these things:
–Your passions.
It’s important to have a real passion burning behind your business idea. It keeps your focus on WHY you started your business in the first place and let me tell you, money shouldn’t be your answer. Maybe you really want to help improve the lives of people with a humanitarian effort like providing clean water and you want to donate a part of profits to clean water efforts or you’re passionate about kids being more involved with the arts and it leads you to create art-centered programs for the community. Whatever your passion or why is, keep it in the front and center when you make decisions in your business and you’re sure to build an authentic, heart-centered business that you LOVE.
–Things you love or already use.
An easily recognizable example of this would be MLM style businesses. People sign up to be representatives or distributors after seeing and trying the products and liking them so much they feel the urge to spread the word to other people. I mean, how often do you find someone selling essential oils that doesn’t actually use them or think they’re useful? Probably like never.
You have to believe in whatever you’re selling and the best way to show that is to be your own customer. Such is the case for how our garden business was started. We had excess products that we sold in small amounts via marketplaces like ebay and it grew into a multiple six figure online business selling a small variety of organic soil products. The key to growing the products we offer is to only offer products we actually use, trust, see results from and that align with our values, like being natural or organic.
–How you spend your free time.
Is there something you always find yourself doing, even if you’ve got other things to attend to? I remember a quote along the lines of ‘whatever you find yourself doing in your spare time is what you should be doing full time’. Having your own business isn’t for the faint of heart and it takes a lot of work, especially in the beginning stages, to make things work and it’s far easier to do it when it feels like fun instead of work.
–Your talents.
Not everyone recognizes what their talents are, or at least I know I had a really hard time targeting it and sometimes I still kinda do because my talents are always changing and evolving. Maybe you’ve always liked doing a little painting in your free time and you could wither create custom paintings or just sell the ones you enjoy casually creating. You can even sell digital or physical art prints of each painting to increase your offerings and income potential. Not all talents present themselves as blatantly so if nothing comes to mind, try asking a few people that are close to you what they think your top 3 talents or skills are–you may be surprised at some of the answers!
Leave a Reply