How about: do it now, start small. Take little, meaningful actions until you get your own "chunk of change."
Get ready for the hardest, most challenging thing to get your entrepreneurial self to the next level: Change as a lifestyle. I’m so sick and tired of all the "gurus" telling you it will be easy, only 10 steps or better yet "24 hours". Nope.
The good news is, you can do it in baby steps. Just like a child stepping out for the first time, those steps are the most life changing. Why? Because it’s a brand new perspective on the possibilities paired with an incontrollable appetite for doing it. If you have the drive in you to make a change, to get your business growing, then you’re in the right place.
You have a 70%+ chance of succeeding. Those are good odds, right?
Let me help you take steps toward your vision. One option? Start where the heart is.
Home-based businesses used to be for those that were not so serious or not "good enough" to have an outside office or retail space. Many picture the part-time real estate flake or home-based cosmetics pusher. What an outdated notion! Today, there are more than 38 million small home offices. It’s no fluke—and they don’t miss the corner office.
After a successful run leading several web ventures at large and medium-sized companies in-house, I chose to start a small creative agency in 2004. A couple of years later, we grew and I had a hard decision to make. Should I get a larger space, hire employees, invest heavily in this growth? Isn’t that what everyone dreams of? Then, I came to the realization of the time that would be usurped from my growing toddler and schedule flexibility that would be lost. Really, did I need more money and recognition? No. Instead, I went through a painful breakup with my business partner, brought in an extended network of crazily talented and trusted colleagues, and got to work. Nine years later, we’re going strong and literally have to turn down work.
So, enough about me. How about you? Getting more used to the idea of becoming a home-based entrepreneur—stigma–free? I believe that if everyone opened their eyes, if they took advantage of this unique time in history, they would choose to balance rewarding work with being close to those that mean the most to them.
My trusted resources (who I work with daily) are a gift and I believe they signal a big shift in our economy. Good people are not hard to find. Yes, you heard me right. Those "hard-to-find good people" would have previously been available to me only in my larger roles, not as a home-based entrepreneur with a string of smaller projects. Now, I have an extended network of dozens that I can call upon, and they are only a click, Facetime, or lunch away.
Ready to start today? My passion is in helping small business realize what makes them different, and providing tools to empower even the home-based entrepreneur. Communicating what makes you unique, boldly, to the marketplace and then living a lifestyle of progress is the foundation of Chunk of Change. Clarity and oomph trump everything.
As humans, we are wired to pay attention to the stand outs, the anomalies, the weird ones. In short: You, as your best, authentic self, should serve the world shamelessly in the way that only you can. If you have a hard time communicating your unique value proposition to potential customers, you are not alone. Here are some posts to get you started:
Why Value Isn’t Enough…Being Different Is Everything
Finding Your Small Business Support Structures
FREE Unique Value Proposition Worksheet (a little something to get you started!)
I look forward to hearing about your journey! Keep in touch. Remember, you can always Ask Olga! I’m honored to be part of your extended network. We good people need to stick together.
-Olga
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives…nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." ~ Charles Darwin
Here are some other places you can find me (I’m most active on Twitter and Facebook):
- YouTube — for my “living in videoooo”
- Facebook — for my “business community side”
- Twitter — for my “live tweet the ish out of stuff side”
- Linked In — for my “businesswoman side”
- Google+ — for my “geeky early adopter side”
- ohso! design — for my “design maven side”
- Triiibes — for my "give back to the triiibe" side
- BlogDash — for my "pitch the business blogger nerd" side