Hi, Folks! Today's topic is business. It's a topic I know well, since my husband and I are both successful entrepreneurs, and so are two of my daughters. It's a topic that's on my mind a lot lately, because every morning, when I wake up happy to be alive, get my first cuppa Joe, and sit down to read my email, I find at least one plea for money from someone's Go Fund Me or Kickstarter campaign.
This has the tendency to put a little hiccup in my happy mood, and here's why. It kills me to say no. It just kills me. My kids were spoiled rotten because of this flaw of mine (and all turned out GREAT, so there's probably a blog post in that little lesson titled, YES, IT IS OKAY TO SPOIL YOUR KIDS!) But back on topic. I hate to say no, but after donating yet again this morning, I've decided that I'm just not going to fund any more of these, because it's not helping the recipient in any way.
This is the wrong way to start a business. So is going to a bank with a business plan and asking for a loan. You don't want to start your business on borrowed funds. It's just the wrong energy. You're in the hole, owing others, either literally owing them if you've borrowed money, or at least energetically indebted to your online contributors. That's not a match for abundance energy. So you're off track before you even begin.
I started my business by taking care of my neighbor's horses while she went on vacation. It was a couple of miles away and most of the time I walked there, pushing a baby in a stroller, with another toddling at my side or riding piggy back. It was a lovely walk, in the summertime, and we enjoyed it immensely. The girls would play with the kittens, and I'd shovel stalls, move animals out in the morning, back in in the evening, feed them, water them, etc. I made enough money to buy my first typewriter, on which I wrote my first four novels. The fourth one was my first sale, and with the advance, I bought a computer. Onward and upward. It took many years before I was making enough to support my family, but that was because it took many years before I saw that as a possibility. I grew up in poverty, so this was a big step for me. Once I believed it could happen, it did. My daughters' businesses took off much faster, but they had me as an example, showing them what was possible, so they didn't have that obstacle of doubt slowing them down.
Here's a better way to start a business than a bank loan, and a far better way than launching a campaign on Kickstarter or GoFundMe or any of the next six to ten clones that will crop up in the near future. (Because trust me, the entrepreneurs who started those things are making WAY more money than anyone who makes use of them.)
1. Dream, and don't be afraid to dream BIG.
Don't think small, dream as big as you can imagine.
2. Believe in your dream as surely as you you believe in Gravity
Thoughts become things. This is an absolute truth. Everything you see around you was once an idea in someone's mind. Thoughts become things. But they're things you cannot see unless you believe. If you don't believe you can succeed, then you can't. But if you do believe it, then there's nothing that can stop you.
3. Take Inspired Action
Once you've imagined it and completely believe in it, once you are in tune with and aware of and alive in your dream, you will receive inspiration. Ideas will come to you, and the people, places and things you need to carry those ideas out will be drawn into your vicinity. This is the time to take action. Do the work you're inspired to do, and do it joyfully, happily and to the absolute best of your ability, and things will begin to fall into place.
Do not dive in and start working first. The dream has to come first, then the belief, then the inspiration. Only inspired action is going to get you anywhere. Working two hours a day when you're in tune with inspiration will produce more success that slaving ten hours a day doing something you hate.
4. Always give your customer more in value than you are asking from them in cash.
This tip is about the exchange of energy and has nothing to do with funds. Give a product that is so enjoyable, helpful, durable, so good at doing whatever it is designed to do, that the consumer feels it's worth well more than what they paid for it, and they will come back to you again and again. Give them a product that lets them down, that disappoints, that breaks or frays or stinks on ice, they're going to feel taken advantage of even if you only charged them a buck. And they will never come back again.
This is why my ebooks are usually priced under three dollars, and never more than five. This is why I give so many away for free. I want my readers to feel appreciated and showered in gifts and bargains, to bask in stories that move them to tears and stay with them long after they've finished the book, not to feel they've been taken for a ride or conned.
So there you have it. That's how to start a business. It's how everyone in my family started ours, and we are very successful. And if you're in a job where you work for someone else, and are not exactly an entrepreneur, the same exact rules apply. My girls who are employed are having great success as well, in jobs they love, jobs that are rewarding, and that pay beautifully.
Dream. Believe. Take inspired action. Give more in value than you receive in cash. No fund raising required.
For further reading on these matters, I suggest:
