In the past if you’d have asked me to picture an entrepreneur I’d have thought of Richard Branson, one of the judges on Shark Tank or a tech geek working out of a garage. I never would have pictured me.
I was a company woman. I always wanted the security of a pay cheque and I never saw myself as creative or driven enough to start and run my own business. A lot of the women I work with feel the same. They will come to me wanting a career change and if I ask them what they want they will mention stable jobs, working for an existing organisation or training to be in a profession.
Starting their own business is posited as a last resort option. They’ll do it if they really can’t get what they want, and the flexibility to do it, any other way, through an existing employer. I felt like that too.
I knew I wanted to help people have better lives and careers so I looked to professions where I could do that – psychologist and social worker immediately sprang to mind. I also thought about teaching. In the end I determined that coaching was a good fit for me. But this realisation terrified me because no organisation was going to ‘employ’ me as a coach without prior experience. Besides, coaches usually worked for themselves.
So I went and got my ABN and I guess you could say I became an accidental entrepreneur. I wasn’t going to get employed in my new field so I had to CREATE my own employment. But when I look back now, I can see that entrepreneurship was a deeply buried longing and something that I was absolutely qualified too. It just took me a little while to admit it.
Perhaps you’re in the same position and you’re afraid of being an entrepreneur because you don’t think you fit the mould. If so my advice to you is:
- Ditch the labels and the preconceived ideas – there is no such thing as a typical entrepreneur. You are creating a way of working and developing income that is right for you. You do not have to look, act or be a certain way.
- Keep some form of employment initially – if you’re in a job then see if you can reduce your hours to make way for your business, rather than giving up your job completely. This gives you the financial freedom to develop your business in a sustainable way and make investments in the training and systems you need.
- Seek mentors and support – speak to other entrepreneurs and learn from them. You’ll start to see there is more than one way to run a business and more than one way to earn income. You’ll learn from the mistakes they made and be inspired by their successes.
- Get going with small steps – get the ABN, set up the facebook page and spread the word about your business. You will gain confidence with every step you take.
- Remember that nothing is forever – I have a job now in career development as well as running my business. Turns out that setting up my business helped me develop the skills and experience I needed to be ‘employed’ in my new field. This could happen for you too or you might just find yourself loving being your own boss so much that you never want to be employed again!
If you’re trying to decide whether entrepreneurship is for you then contact me for a FREE Working Mum SOS chat. This free half an hour call can give you some real clarity about your options and steps to move forward. Book here today.