Most women business owners that I know don’t begin their business with a full-blown business plan. They have ideas, concepts, dreams and a desire to spend more time with their family. And so they begin. I did the same.
Like many women business owners, I began my business while I had a full-time job and took the leap when I felt business had built up enough to support me. I began by focusing on the retirement niche, believing that their would be a ton of people who needed to figure out with all the time they had on their hands after they retired. In spite of a discussion with Howard Stone advising me against the name, I chose “Radical Retirement” as my company name, developed a membership site and launched….I gave up about a year later. (But I still have material, which is why I’m selling my remaining copies of Howard’s book, Too Young to Retire for 97 cents.)
I stuck with life coaching, but began to add one or two business clients into the mix. My next niche attempt was relationships. I worked that one hard, even getting on some television shows in Sacramento, with disastrous results. Fortunately, I did help some women through some tough times, learned a lot about relationships that still come into my work today (Women business owners bring everything to work!) and produced a great product which will be showing up on my sales page soon.
Business kept calling me and finally I decided to pay attention, this time focusing my niche on women business owners. I’ve learned a lot in the last 3-4 years about the unique way that women approach starting a business.
The result? My meandering approach is pretty typical. How about you? Leave me a comment below.
