When I started my business, I dreamt of quitting my day job within a year. I ended up staying at my 9 to 5 job until 2018.
And I have since learned that certain businesses (ones in high demand) can take an even shorter time to get going.
Since 2011, I have started many different businesses, and over time, I have identified the ingredients that make a business work.
I have seen time and time again the places that are easy—far too easy—to get stuck.
And I have also seen too many women wasting their precious time, energy, and health on launching businesses that will not give them the freedom, time, and money they desire.
One of my biggest gripes is that women are so over-targeted with hundreds of crappy business ideas, and I know firsthand because I’ve gotten coaxed into too many of them!
There are hundreds of sugar-coated highly UN-profitable companies (you KNOW exactly what I mean! The “sell-expensive-shampoo-to-your-family” type-businesses), virtual assistant gigs, coaching, copywriting, and affiliate businesses. The list truly goes on and on.
While I understand that it IS possible to find a great community in some of these companies, the reality is that you have a high chance of getting the opposite of what you want, which is freedom.
A friend at the time introduced me to the “sell-expensive-shampoo-to-your-family” business world at the age of 18 years when she suggested we have a nice dinner. I was so happy I had met such a friendly person whom I got along with super well.
I was very disappointed to learn that my friend and her similar hobbies were just a façade. In retrospect, I learned she was most likely overly friendly because she wanted to sell me something and while I’m not against people selling me things, I like transparency and the lack of it made me feel uncomfortable.
Throughout the years, I bought into a couple of companies that asked me to do the same thing. The small hope of being the one-in-a-million to strike it rich motivated me to try it out (like buying a lottery ticket and just hoping this ticket will be the one).
In my experience, these types of businesses put too many women into prisons of expectation and false hope.
Instead, I focus now on teaching women skills for a lifetime – skills that are in demand and can be applied to any business (the skill of advertising, that is). Also, I want to point out the obvious: I am NOT a celebrity! My media features have been thin and I have had success anyway. Recently, however, I have been featured in the Entrepreneur magazine.
My clients are the ones who have been featured on shows like Oprah, Good Morning America, and Forbes!
So my most important lesson is to learn a valued skill like ad management. It will help you to be practical and proactive and acknowledge that there are some businesses where it is similar to digging for gold and hoping to strike it rich.
But if you’re careful about your research for some other businesses, it can be the equivalent of selling shovels during the gold rush.
That’s what is so wonderful though; to be truly successful, you do NOT need to have all “the stuff.”.
A fancy website isn’t even needed to get clients to pay you very well!
Sarah, xo
