A question that I get asked a lot is — something that goes along the lines of — I want to start a business, but I don't know what to do. Help! and this spell it HALP, which I love. I would encourage you to go back to your childhood and your formative years and think about what used to make you happy.
And the reason why I would encourage you to go back to your childhood is because I think the older we get, the more we are socially kind of bullied into doing stuff that makes us money and that if we have money, we will be happy. And so we start to think in our late teens, clear into high school, definitely college...most of us generally choose stuff that is going to make us money because it's the responsible thing to do.
And of course, yes, you want to make money. That's the whole point in owning a business. You aren't doing stuff for free. But in order to be happy and owning a business, because let me tell you, it's not all fun and games. It's not all just doing whatever you love to do. There's a lot of embracing the suck and doing things that you don't want to do.
And so to get you through those rough patches, you need to be obsessed with your craft. You need to be, it needs to be something that you actually enjoy doing. Otherwise, you guys, it gets really, really hard. And so I would encourage you to think back whenever you were younger and think about what you liked to do. For instance,
for example, I was a kid who would make bracelets, like those like little loom bracelets for like, you know, it cost me like 25 cents. And I would sell them on the playground for a $1.75. So I knew for me that something that has always made me happy is being creative. And also I'm making something to wear.
It was expressing myself through bracelets, through jewelry, through how I dressed myself. And I knew that that was a key ingredient and what caused me to have, to feel those happy butterfly feelings, to feel joy, to feel like I was expressing myself. And so that is the main ingredient that I have for you whenever you are thinking about what you need to think about to have a successful business. Go back to your roots and think about what used to make you happy and go from there.
The second suggestion that I have for whenever you're thinking about what you could do to start a business, is to think about what need do you have that needs to be filled? Or what need do you know that other people have that needs to be filled?
I started my business on the premise that women have body image issues. Now my goal was not to set out and solve that problem. I am not a therapist. I am not a psychiatrist. My desire is not to reach down into the foundation of someone's being and figure out why they are the way that they are.
My job, my desire, my goal is to make the simple task of getting dressed in the morning easy, non-stressful and that makes women feel proud, confident, and comfortable whenever they leave. I want them to feel like they can do anything, that they are worth everything, that they can conquer the world. And so your desire to solve a need
doesn't have to be, you want to solve all the world's problems. It could be something that is as simple as helping someone feel better, helping someone do better. What is something that you could contribute that would make what they do easier? So fill a need, fill something that you know is a need of others. And that is a key ingredient into having a successful business.
The third and final suggestion I have, whenever you're thinking about what kind of business you might want to be in is to embrace the suck. I know that that part doesn't sound like it's very fun, but I feel like a lot of people go into business thinking that it's going to be all fun and games, because you're already doing something that you love.
Which is fantastic. I hope you're not going into a business doing something that you hate. I would hope that you would just stay with your normal day job if that's the case, because at times it's going to be much less stressful to do so. I want you to be completely open and honest with yourself and with people around you. Do not be afraid to ask for help.
You are not going to know everything. And the things that may come off as easy might pose themselves to be more difficult than I had originally thought. And that's okay. It doesn't mean that you're a failure. I'm happy and excited for you that you even started. But don't give up whenever things go awry or whenever things aren't going as fast as what you thought that they would,
Consistency is key, but also, so is knowledge. So don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be afraid to educate yourself. It doesn't mean that you're a failure or that you got in over your head. It doesn't mean any of those things, just be persistent, consistent, and just be open to the possibilities of the unknown.
