How a Mom Starts A Business

Out of all the questions this is probably the one that I get asked the most. How do I start my business? This is a process, what you must remember is your first business does not have to be your last. In a perfect world we all have we would love to do what we are passionate about for the rest of our lives however sometime that is not a realistic approach. If you goal is to own your own store with a physical location, but you do not have the capital to get it started, that is an unreal expectation to try and start that store immediately. You must really self-reflect on the resources you have available and the resources you will need to accomplish your dreams. You must stop in think your lifelong dream should not take a short period of time to accomplish. I would argue that if you are able to accomplish your dream overnight then you should dream bigger.

The three questions you answer starting your business are, what is your niche? Who is your audience? Why would your audience buy your niche? There are obviously many layers as we think about our individual business and situations, however this should be the starting point for every one of us. The next thing should be what is my goal, and do I have the resources to reach it? The is a very important part because as I mentioned your first business does not have to be your last.

Niche

When I think about niche I characterize it as what do I specialize in and am I passionate about it. When I think about specializing, I do not mean are you better then the field. There is always someone out there that will be better than you. As a matter of fact, if you were the best, you would probably be doing it already professionally. I simply mean what makes you special. You must remember to connect with your customer you do not need to be exceptional. If you are a decent cook that is something you can build on, or maybe you are good at putting together outfits, or maybe you are good at being organized. This day in age people are not looking for the best quality they are looking for the best value. They know if they had to pay a professional to come out to see them, they are going to pay top dollar and many people cannot afford that. Now if you are exceptional or a top performer in the field by all means charge you worth however understand the volume of customers will be lower.

Audience

The next thing to think about is who is your audience. I would be very flexible about this. You may have a specific audience in mind however you may find that other people will flock to what you are offering. You should be specific but be prepared to change as you get more information. When I think of specifics, I like to envision my perfect customer all the way down to personality traits. I like to think of it like this.

How old are they?

Do they identify as male, female, or unspecified?

What types of things make them happy?

What types of things make them sad?

How much time do they have on their hands?

Does it matter if they are in a relationship?

Are they an introvert or extrovert?

There are thousands of questions you can ask yourself to identify them, however the more specific I am about my customer the better my offerings may match up to what they like for example. When I think about cooking, I may not be marketing to people who like cooking. I may be trying to teach people who do not enjoy cooking but must. To keep your customer occupied in the space the message you are delivering must be consistent. I would not want to offer a meal that takes 4 hours to someone who doesn’t enjoy cooking. This person might be a single mom with a full-time job trying to prepare a healthy mean for a family of 4. Long story short have a person in mind but understand that you may not know everyone who is interested in what you have to offer so be prepared to be flexible as more people approach the stage.

Why would my audience buy from me?

This is by far the simplest answer; however, it is easily the hardest thing to think about. People mostly buy to solve a problem or issue they have. The thing that makes this most complex is as your audience develops you will learn to understand that they are looking for more than one thing. There will be certain audience members that will start to appreciate things they had no clue that they would. This is what I mean by you must be flexible as your audience develops because you make attract someone and they might leave because you are not keeping them engaged.

Putting it all together

As I think about putting this all together, I must have a goal in mind and understand my resources such as, time, money, and skill set. What I mean by that is I must identify how much time a day I will be able to work on my business. If I only have an hour a day to work on my business or maybe I can only, do it on the weekends, I will not want to have a product that requires me to spend more time than that. I would build my audience and plan to deliver what I can. As you identify the hurdles for your ultimate end goal you can work on them. Another example is skill set. You may be able to cook but can I cook in front of a camera or maybe I am not good at instructing people. This is something you may want to work on before you present it to the work. So, if your end goal is to have a Patreon you might want to start off recording yourself and using Instagram to show the finish product. There are countless examples I can give but long story short is make sure you are able to deliver to your audience and work on the challenges later. If time and money is an issue maybe, you find a side hustle that is not as time are capital intensive. Build up your cash reserves and this can provide you the ability to have more time.

To sum this up do no go into this without a plan. I can’t tell you how important it is to write it down. You will have to build out a schedule. Whether your schedule is a part of your Morning Ritual or you do it at night. This will help you build Success Habits. Go into this with a Boss Mindset and I promise you success will follow.

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