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If you could start over again, what would you do?
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In each job I have had, at some point it became my duty to coach, advise or counsel employees. While at my last job before I retired to work for myself, my manager and I were talking after an office meeting had taken place. At some point in our conversation, he said, "you know what you are?, you are a coach." I am now happy coaching and writing. In my case, I did not know what I knew.
"who would have ever thought we`d be doing what we`re doing."
Up till now my ventures have involved computer programming. This is the
first business we`ve been able to do together. Our gluten free bakery
combines Carol`s love of experimenting in the kitchen (along with her
need to eat gluten free) with my love of problem solving in a way
we never could have imagined.
Right now I`m eating the best gluten free bagel I`ve ever tasted. I
call it "quality control." It`s a tough job but somebody has to do it.
We aren`t satisfied until it`s so good you`d never know it was gluten
free. This one`s definitely a keeper. Now if we can just get the dough
to go through a bagel machine without gumming everything up. That`s
where the problem solving comes in.
Just yesterday we got a call from our distributor telling us about a
store owner on the other side of the state excited about selling our
cookies. We feel like we`re creating the life we want to live, making a
product people need and want to buy, doing something we enjoy together.
Seriously, this is a great question and often when I speak to live audiences I tell them the my story that I`ve really gone full circle. When I graduated college, my first "job" was selling personal improvement workshops. After I freaked at the enormity of 100% sales commission (I was only 24 at the time), and got a "real job" I realized 10 years later that I`m truly an entrepreneur.
So here I am again, with tons more experience, as an expert in the field of getting entrepreneurs to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can get more done (AKA professional development.)
I related to what many said -- I couldn`t be where I am today if I hadn`t followed the path I did. I too had no early role models -- except what NOT to do -- and had to make a lot of mistakes and go it alone. But if I could go back, I would do a couple of things different.
I`d invest early. I was so caught up in actually having my own $$ at a young age that I spent it all. Woops.
I`d have gotten funding sources lined up for my business BEFORE I left my stable corporate job. I didn`t realize how hard it is to get a loan without a J.O.B.
I`d have mentored with a business building expert in my first year -- rather than waiting until I spent thousands of dollars on wasted advertising and I was broke, client-less and overwhelmed.
Oh, and if I could wave the magic wand to go back 10 years...I`d keep my San Diego house I bought when I moved to L.A. Talk about a good real estate investment.
Great topic! Thanks.
would definitely do it differently, especially I now know there`s a way
to make a better living and be happier with a new career as a business
man, which is what I`m trying to establish myself as one.
I`m 36 years old and only have just now realized that I was given a
"looking glass" by my parents when I was in college. I really love my
parents, but I was never given the option of considering starting my
own business either while I was still in college or after I have
completed my college degree. They emphasized the security of working
for someone else.
It is still not too late for me to take some of the money I``ve earned
and saved from working for a boss and start my own business, something
my parents still wish that I don`t do. They have lived their lives, now
it`s time for me to live mine.
If I could, I would begin my life as a retailer of some sort for a
number of years and then go into real estate business, and use some of
the profits to develop an invention and build a business with it.
Now I`m only on the first step, which is to start an online retail business. Good luck to you folks.
What other businesses would YOU start?
I had to learn accounting on the job, as I was responsible for financial reports for the accounts I managed. I literally sat side by side with my former employers accountant and learned all that she did, so that I could be successful with the promotion I had just earned.
I am thankful I got the chance to work in a company that knew my skillset and would arrange the development of the missing pieces to my education by partnering me up with mentors