Are You in the Wrong Business?

If you’ve left a career to start your own business, you’ve made what likely amounts to one of the biggest decisions of your life, next to getting married or divorced, or having children. That decision is not made lightly, I know. It’s a frightening yet exhilarating time when most people think you’re crazy, and you have moments where you wonder if they’re right!

Fast forward to a few years down the road. You’ve gotten past the early phase where your number one concern is getting clients and making enough money to make it worthwhile.

So you’ve made it past that point, and what happens next? You may feel as if you’ve fallen into a predictable routine, except that you can’t seem to break past the plateau you seem to be anchored upon. No amount of muscling through or trying umpteen new ways of doing things seems to work. You start to get tired of doing the same things with the same type of client.

I can describe this so clearly, because I hear this all of the time. And because I felt that way at times, when I mainly did corporate consulting in the early years of my business. You’ve basically built a business that starts to feel like the job you left. But you feel trapped because you’ve now invested your life, heart and soul into getting to this point.

If you feel this way, know that you aren’t trapped. In fact, you hold the keys to releasing yourself, and the good news is, the decision is usually nowhere near the scale of the major ones you’ve had to make up until now.

When I provide small business consulting services to people who find themselves at this point, I always go back to the basics. Here are some things we discuss together to explore whether the business needs a slight adjustment, or merits a complete redo:

• What matters most to you?
• Why did you want to start a business in the first place?
• Who do you like to work with?
• What do you love to do?
• What would you do all day to make you feel giddy at the thought of actually being paid for it?

This may seem a little soft coming from someone who specializes in diagnosing what’s working and what’s not in people’s businesses, and strategizing all areas of the business to make it work better. But here’s why I LOVE working with small business owners who want to design a business that feels good to them and makes money: they are emotionally invested in their businesses. This means there is little or no line between what makes the person tick, and what makes the business thrive. So before we can get to the hard core business and marketing strategies around target market, pricing and packaging, best marketing approaches, and the how-to’s of marketing and selling, we need to look inside first! This is where the magic begins (and it is also why I love working so closely with entrepreneurs).

So if you are feeling a little lost in the business you built, go back to some of the basics of you. Allow yourself to explore if the reason the business doesn’t fit may be because it was built on the old you. Starting your own business involves incredible personal growth and challenges you in ways you can’t imagine when you’re not there yet, so it’s 100% normal to feel as if you’ve outgrown your business. Once you get a handle on what’s missing, you can look to your business with a more honest perspective and see whether you want to adjust it or transition into something completely new. Most of the time, there are assets (such as your brand, your contact list, your network) that allow you to transition in a natural, evolutionary way, rather than a sudden severing. Make sure you don’t abandon what’s good without at least looking at it clearly, and if you lack the perspective on this, get an outside opinion.

Whatever you decide, remember that it’s your business and your life, and it is entirely possible to build it in a way that makes you money, and brings you much joy.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System™  for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Kelly O’Neil

This is the final interview of the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

Award winning Speaker, Author and Marketing to the Affluent Expert, Kelly O’Neil, is passionate about helping entrepreneurs think big and play bigger to build thriving six and seven figure businesses. Kelly O’Neil is no stranger to the good life. Having been raised in an affluent family in the Silicon Valley where private planes and luxury vacation homes were a way of life, she set out after college to create her own wealth…and succeeded.

In 2000, she left a thriving career in corporate public relations and founded UpLevel Strategies (now Kelly O’Neil International™) where she works exclusively with thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs as both a coach and consultant to help them design businesses where they earn more and work less through her Marketing to Millionaires™ programs.

While Kelly grew up in an affluent family, she did not always have the privileges associated with money. Listen to the interview to learn:

• The lesson she learned renting her first apartment after graduating from college
• How an unexpected reaction when she decided to quit her six-figure salary job made her even more determined to succeed as an entrepreneur
• Why she succeeded financially but failed miserably in other areas of her first business
• The one thing she would have done much sooner if she could start over again
• What an important mentor told her (this advice is invaluable, and one of the hardest lessons to learn)

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Heather Dominick

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

Heather Dominick, founder of the EnergyRICH Success System for Entrepreneurs, a proven step-by-step system that allows you to bridge your passion to 6-figure profit  by partnering Universal Energetic Principles with practical step-by-step “How-To’s” to  joyfully make more money in your business so you can better serve the world. Through her EnergyRICH® Business Boot Camp, Private Mentor Coaching Programs and products, Heather shows her students how to transcend lower level energies like fear and doubt to be able to build their business from a place of serving, joy and abundance.

Heather was a high school drama teacher for eight years in the New York public school system, and although she loved her work, she felt there was something more that she was meant to do. After her own “dark night of the soul” she left her job to create a business around her passion for nutrition and wellness. She filled her business quickly, but when in the first summer her sales dropped and others in the industry told her that was to be expected, she set out to learn about alternate ways to generate revenue and build a business. Listen to the interview to learn:

• Why you should listen to the “nudge” and not others’ voices who tell you that you’re crazy for following your passions
• What happened to her revenue and how she realized she had a much larger role to play in her business
• The major mistake some entrepreneurs make that severely restricts their growth
• How she learned there is never just one way to market or build your business

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Lara Galloway

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach is a sought-after business coach, speaker, writer and Blog Talk Radio show host in the mom entrepreneur world. Her work has helped countless mompreneurs define success on their own terms and achieve it. Her signature training program, The Mom Biz Makeover, teaches mompreneurs how to create a sustainable business that fits into their family life. Known for her pay-it-forward attitude and love of helping others, Lara uses her Engagement Marketing Strategy to take a passive approach to earning income and an aggressive approach to spending quality time with family.

Lara grew up in the Atlanta, Georgia and worked for IBM in the United States for several years before moving to Michigan, and then Canada, with her husband.  She quit her job to raise her children, and soon realized she missed working. Lara developed a coaching business that allowed her to work from home. Listen to the interview to learn:

• How growing up in Corporate America taught her the right way to do a lot of things
• How she reinvented herself as a stay at home mom, then an entrepreneur
• The difference between being an entrepreneur and someone who earns money from her own business
• The danger of being the Chief Everything Officer in your business

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Jennifer Bourn

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

Jennifer Bourn specializes in working with leading entrepreneurs, speakers, authors, and information marketers to support them in achieving big business results. As founder of the web design and online marketing management agency Bourn Creative, Jennifer offers full service design, marketing strategy, and implementation services to emerging small businesses who desire big marketing results on a small business budget.

Jennifer founded Bourn Creative 2005 to give her the freedom to stay home with her children and continue to build a career doing what she loves. She immediately jumped into the branding, web design, and marketing arenas to fulfill her passion for helping smart, savvy business owners create powerful brands, attract more clients and get found more often online. Today she is a savvy mompreneur and Bourn Creative’s Marketing Manager, Art Director, and Chief Strategist, and is constantly reading, experimenting, and learning to expand her knowledge-base, keep informed of the latest trends and tools, and provide a high-level of service to Bourn Creative’s clients.

By the time Jennifer graduated from college, she already had five years of full-time graphic design experience at an advertising agency, moving from production grunt, to creative services director. And, she had completed internships at a printer, a newspaper, a magazine, and a marketing agency. So starting her own business was a natural step, although it was not a simple decision to make. Listen to the interview to learn:

• Why it took her six months to work up the courage to quit her agency job, and what the idiosyncracy was that set her off to resign
• The challenges of working at home with children, and how she used to try to hide this from her corporate clients
• How wearing jeans set her free and turbo-launched her business
• Why you shouldn’t cut costs on your accountant or your website
• How little she used to sleep and how different her life and business became once she allowed herself to hire help
• A simple SEO tip to get more traffic to your website

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Linda Miller Zellner

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

A veteran of investment banking, fashion and publishing, Linda possesses the business savvy and creative inspiration that propels Hamptons Creative Group into a much sought-after advertising, marketing and special events firm serving the Hamptons and other niche markets with similar brand cache. Linda chose to exit a groundbreaking career as one of the first women to hold a position in the male-dominated firm Goldman Sachs in the 1970s to form a magazine publishing company which was eventually purchased by a well-known media giant. At the helm of Hamptons Creative Group, Linda’s skills as a community organizer, marketing concierge and “Brand Therapist,” leverages her call to action in a new way, benefitting like-minded businesses, solopreneurs and organizations.

After selling the publishing business, Linda worked with her husband Bob Zellner to publish The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, his memoir of being a white southerner in the freedom movement before she established Hamptons Creative Group. Listen to the interview to learn:

• What she learned from the “school of hard knocks” as a woman in the business world of the 1970s
• Her personal “24-hour rule” that she learned after making a bad business investment decision
• Why face-to-face contact is still so important in business in this online world, and how you can maintain this sense of connection and community
• How to stay true to yourself in your business

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Matt Arndt

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

After developing Internet marketing strategies for countless companies, Matt Arndt discovered a big need for social media marketing services.  He founded Turbo Social Media in 2009 to not just fill that need, but also provide a level of expertise and service offerings that are unparalleled in the industry. Matt has always been “the techy entrepreneur”.  While in college, he started a successful company called “PackMyDorm”, a full service moving and storage company that was virtually based and operated out of Davis, California in association with Bekins Van Lines.  He operates Turbo under the same principles he teaches, which is why you’ll see him all over the social web in blogs, articles, videos and networks.

Matt was determined to be an entrepreneur early, and established his first online business at the age of 15. After college, he took a job (something he swore he’d never do) and lasted six months before starting Turbo Social Media. Listen to the interview to find out:

• The valuable lesson he learned in his short tenure as a sales employee in a major international company
• How to get the most out of working with a mentor or coach
• The simple piece of advice he received to handle cash flow crunches
• His perspective on marketing and why doing more “stuff” doesn’t necessarily equal more sales
• Why it’s important to get the right help early and before you think you need it
• His best picks for internet marketing tools to keep you in front of your contacts

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Marie Guthrie

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

Marie Guthrie is an Executive Career Strategist and CEO of The Legacy Track, a boutique consulting firm specializing in revitalizing the careers of Fortune 500 Senior Executives with the complexities, pace and pressures of operating in the global arena. The Legacy Career System and The New Rules for Executive Careers help top executives in their 40’s & 50’s find a purposeful career no matter what the business climate, to earn the income they are worth and to provide a good life for themselves and their loved ones. Marie offers Coach the Corner Office Training for coaches wanting to work with Fortune 500 executives and their very complex personal and professional worlds.

Marie labels herself a “recovering executive” who reinvented her career five times due to mergers, economic downturns, market shifts and new bosses before she established a thriving business.  

Listen to the interview to hear:

• How the early days being her own boss were spent more like an employee than the CEO of her own business
• The two people she would hire immediately to help her build her business if she could do it over again
• Her ABCD list and why “Don’t Like, Don’t Care” items are deadly for your business
• How she reinvented her business using the same methods she did in her career
• Why she doesn’t call herself a coach anymore

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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Small Business Advice – Are You Tempted to Ride the Popular Wave?

Each and every day in the USA alone, more than 2,500 new businesses are started. Many of them are sole proprietorships created by people leaving careers behind and looking forward to a business that allows them flexibility and success on their own terms.

In 2007 I followed the same steps that many of you did. When I filed my business officially that year, I looked for knowledge and guidance to teach me what I needed to know to run a successful, home-based business. I went to the typical startup sources, like government agencies, local business development organizations, and the bookstore. I was disappointed to find that most of it really didn’t apply to me and was instead directed at a typical bricks and mortar or consulting businesses working in a typical office setting. On the internet, I found lots of information, almost too much, and it took me a lot of time to sort through it. I remember feeling overwhelmed and having to push down a rising sense of panic that I’d never master any of it, and would fail if I missed any important nugget.

It seemed like every second click led to “six figure secrets unveiled” and the “ten ways to make your fortune online.” As a business and marketing advisor, and someone who spent over 20 years in the marketing profession already, I remember thinking how fortunate I not having to learn it all from the beginning. But using the internet as a marketing tool to build a virtual business was new to me, so I signed up for more free classes, paid products and other offers than I could keep up with!

Since that time, I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs and I’ve heard a lot of discouraging stories of time, money and precious energy being wasted as a result of receiving overpromised, under delivered, inappropriate, ill timed or just plain bad advice. Here’s what can happen when you find yourself steered off your path:

• Your marketing can start to be really inauthentic, confusing your audience and making you feel like an impostor (or at the least, highly uncomfortable).
• You can develop a business that just doesn’t fit you, and feels like a chore instead of a joy.
• You can waste money on the latest hot ticket idea only to find it isn’t what your clients want, and it isn’t feeling good for you either.
• You create a business that sets you up to be your own employee, instead of your own boss.

So, here are some tips to help you stay focused and to navigate the choices wisely.

• Steer clear of anyone who tells you there’s only one way to do something. This is simply not true. It’s your business, and you have unlimited choice and possibility to create it the way that fits you.
• Watch out for the popular, hot ticket ideas. Like any other industry, there are trends and cycles. Evaluate these ideas carefully, and always measure them against what you want in your business, what your clients and market is asking for, and what they’re willing to pay for it. Riding the popular wave only works if you get on it before it peaks, and before it blends, indistinguishably, into the shore. If you’re not sure, invest in a second opinion before you go too far.
• Realize that throwing more and more money at a problem doesn’t mean you can fix it. If you don’t have a solid business idea, a clearly defined solution for a specific market, and a strong foundation for your business and marketing, no amount of window dressing is going to help.

And the most important of all? Entrepreneur, know thyself. Be clear about what you want, and when you seek advice or opinions, or learn from others, be sure you are “delegating” and not “abdicating.”

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System™  for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

Best Small Business Advice – Interview with Gina Bell

Until March 31, I’m running the Best Business Advice Ever interview series featuring successful entrepreneurs. I’ve asked each of them what’s worked, which mistakes they learned from the most, and the one piece of advice they have to share with you.

Gina Bell brings new meaning to the word multi-passionate entrepreneur. She is the founder and visionary of IAWBO, the International Association of Women in Business Online, host and producer of the Official Women in Business Online Podcast and creator of the Equity-Rich Women Online Blueprint, a step-by-step marketing and business-building system designed for multi-passionate internet-based women entrepreneurs. Gina teaches motivated women entrepreneurs how to create success online quickly with authenticity and confidence. Her equity-rich methods are a catalyst to the freedom-filled life and business her clients truly desire. A successful author, speaker, coach and teacher, Gina inspires women in business online around the globe through her electronic newsletters, teleclasses, in-person workshops and private coaching.

Gina is a former corporate employee from the media buying and advertising background who dipped her toes in the entrepreneurial waters first by purchasing a franchise.  After building up and then selling that business, Gina and her husband have created several successful enterprises. The common denominator is she is committed to helping women business owners succeed.

Gina recently established the International Association of Women in Business Online. Her work with the association and with clients through her coaching and consulting business brings together what she has learned and applied over the years. But this destination wasn’t always clear, nor was the journey free of obstacles.

Listen to the complete interview to learn:

• The early signs that she was destined to be a multi-passionate entrepreneur
• How choosing one path or the “niches to riches” model of business can either set you free or confine you
• The best advice she’s ever received to deal with rejection (and why you should trust Don too)
• Baby steps you can take to stretch your comfort zone

To get a complimentary download of this and other Best Business Advice Series interviews, enter your name and email here (it’s free and there are no sales pitches or upsells in these presentations – enter your phone number if you’d also like to get early notice of upcoming events). You will also receive a subscription to popular articles published by Corporate Fugitive and Sherri Garrity.

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