… and how that’s changed now that I am one
If you’d have asked me 10 years ago, I would never have dreamed that one day I would be a business owner. I was a company woman. I believed in earning a good salary, working hard (but not too hard), climbing the ranks and having job security. I worked to live. I did not live to work.
When I thought of entrepreneurs I thought of Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the guys, and one gal, on Dragons Den (UK equivalent of the Shark Tank). In my mind to be an entrepreneur you had to be extremely clever, a risk-taker, addicted to work, extroverted, a polished orator with the skin of a rhinoceros and rich. Basically, the opposite of everything that I perceived myself to be at that time in my life.
When I set out on my career change, it took me a while to realise that what I was looking for did not fit the company mould. I desperately looked for options that would keep me in stable employment. Could I stay within marketing but do it for a not-for-profit or something more fulfilling, and work totally flexible hours, from home, with complete autonomy, no bureaucracy and no wankers?
What if I got out of marketing completely and entered a helping profession, where I could have a real impact on people’s lives and all my co-workers, and bosses were delightful? I’d have to study for maybe 6 or 7 years alongside my job (got to pay the bills), but this would make the day job more bearable and at the end I’d be gainfully employed with a few more letters after my name.
Both were valid options. But there was another way. A way of creation.
Yes, I studied but I did this in shorter bursts, and I applied my learning immediately. And I didn’t just study at college or university, I read books and articles and listened to podcasts, I spoke to others who were doing things that I admired, and I observed others at work.
I considered the problems in the world that really got my goat and I narrowed down the ones that I most wanted to solve. I figured out how I could do that and whether people, not all people, but some people, would pay me to do that.
And then I invested. I invested my time in training. In setting up a website, in testing my services for free, writing blog post after blog post, writing tools, networking. I spent money on a coaching certification, a graduate certificate in careers education, a photographer, web training, web hosting, professional indemnity insurance, advertising, graphic design, images … the list goes on … just ask my accountant. And up until this year I made a financial loss. I also missed out on a lot of Netflix programs.
I also took a risk in putting myself out there. Sprucing my wares knowing that some would ridicule my choices and my business. Turning my back on a well-paid career that I’d been working in since university with no guarantees of success.
There are many definitions of entrepreneurship on the internet. Too many to mention. Some define entrepreneurship as simply starting a business, or an enterprise. Others talk about risk taking. Putting money and time into something that could make significant gain, or, on the other hand, a significant loss. I’ve seen definitions that talk about the qualities of entrepreneurs, as innovators, people who see an unmet need in the world and strive to meet it, despite the uncertainty.
In none of these definitions does it say you must work away till the small hours of the morning to be an entrepreneur, it doesn’t say you must have angel investors behind you or that you have to dazzle a TED audience. Nowhere did I read that you must be an extrovert or a rich white man.
Yet these were all the things that I thought you needed to do and be as an entrepreneur.
Is this how you feel too?
As a girl growing up into a woman, did you believe the same things about entrepreneurship that I did?
Perhaps you too are coming to the realisation that in order to have everything you want you may need to strike out on your own? Are you scared that you don’t have what it takes? That you’re not made of the right stuff to be a business owner?
It turns out I had the qualities of an entrepreneur all along. But I didn’t know that until I got started. Until I took small steps to make my career dreams come to life. Like filing for an ABN, buying a domain name and invoicing a client for the first time. Maybe one day I will work my way up to the TED talk.
What small steps could you take?
It seems kind of fitting that the word entrepreneur is derived from the French word entreprendre which means ‘to undertake or try.’ My advice to you is remember that meaning, not the one that you’ve been carrying around in your head all these years.
I work with many mums who decide that entrepreneurship is the best way for them to get the balance between fulfilment and flexibility in their career. The barriers to entry are lower than they’ve ever been but, of course, there is a lot to consider. The risks are real, and entrepreneurship is damned hard work. If you’re torn about what is right 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.