Discovering your WHYThis may seem like a silly question at first but believe me, it’s an important one. And it will be one you ask yourself over and over when things get tough, so you need to be clear on it right from the start. Owning your own business is not for the faint of heart so you must discover your WHY. WHY do you want to start your own business? Some quick ideas will bubble to the surface like freedom, control, money, time, and fun…but you do have to dig deep to figure out what this means to you. Everything you do will be influenced by it and you will come back to it time and again. So let’s dive in with some of the initial ideas and see how far we can go with them. I’ll start by telling you my WHY.My WHY has changed a lot over the years, believe it or not. When I started my first business, it was just my (now ex-) husband and me. I did it for him. He was a young chef and I was a young hairstylist. He dreamed of owning his own restaurant and one day I was chatting with the owner of a little coffee shop I would hang out at and he said he was closing up shop to go back to school. I biked home all excited so I could tell him that this little place was ours for the taking. And so our entrepreneurial journey began. Three months into our bistro opening, I discovered I was pregnant, so all of a sudden, success in the restaurant industry became a lot more urgent. So much so, that I quit my job as a hairstylist to help him full time at the cafe. I literally worked right up until giving birth and then was back to work there two weeks later, so certainly freedom and family time were taking a back seat, but making more money was even more important now because we were growing both a family and a business. We had to make it work. We continued with the restaurant for 5 years and in the meantime, I returned to my former salon to resume work as a hairstylist (my true calling). 4 years after my first son was born, I had a second son. I knew I didn’t want to go back to the same salon after having this baby so I was planning to open my own little studio above the restaurant. At this time, we were struggling with the stress of running a restaurant and we had a tenant from hell in the apartment upstairs and couldn’t get him out, so I was stuck. I needed to get back to work. We decided I would take over the downstairs space and we would just focus on catering out of the kitchen next door (we own 2 buildings). So 5 months after having Kayden I opened the salon, but during this time, my husband was suffering with mental health and addiction issues, so I was dealing with both businesses and two young kids and a huge mess at home. My why at this time was more about survival but I didn’t just want to survive in business and life, I wanted to thrive.
Then the pandemic hit and I thought I was going to have to go bankrupt. But I decided to get scrappy and that is when I became The Unstoppable Stylist This leads me to my new why… I know I have learned some valuable skills over the past 25 years of entrepreneurship and 49 years of life. I have been able to not only survive but pivot and thrive during really tough times in business and life. I want to share that wisdom with other female entrepreneurs who could benefit from side-stepping some of the obstacles I’ve encountered. You may just be starting. You may be several years in. Your situation may look very different from mine, or you may have been through something similar. But you’re here because you know you want more. More money, more time, more freedom, more purpose. Just to be clear, it’s okay if money is on the top of your list. Because it does rank right up there with oxygen. We need it to survive. But money is only the means to help you get what you want. Your wants and needs will change over time. Go deep on what having more money means to you. That will help shape your why. If it’s time freedom you crave, what does that look like to you? How will you spend your time? And with whom? Every one of us only gets 24 hours in each day so figuring out how you want (or need) to spend your time and manage your to-do list are essential business building tools. You will need to spend extra time and effort building your business to gain time freedom so it’s always a few steps back before you can move forward. You want to be sure you are doing the most important things to drive your success and not waste time on busywork. Having a roadmap to follow can be a time saver. And then, when you’ve got some of these other things figured out, don’t be surprised if PURPOSE becomes the biggest driver for you. All the money in the world doesn’t mean much if there is not some passion behind what you are doing and a purpose for why you persevere through tough times. So hopefully this helps you to see why you need to get clear on your WHY first. Before you do anything else. Because starting a business is all about the solutions you provide and how you can help people. Which will lead us to our next area of discovery. Who do you want to help? Tune into the blog next week to see how to define your ideal customer!
Working with a coach can help you gain clarity in your business so that you are not wasting time and money doing the wrong things in the wrong order.
Book a free discovery call with me to work out a custom road map to help you hit your business goals!
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AuthorI'm Sharon. I help beauty entrepreneurs style a life they love by teaching them how to make 6-figures (and beyond!) through my proven online and off-line strategies. Join me as I share my 25-year entrepreneurial journey to becoming unstoppable in beauty, business and life. Archives
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