Business Changes & Starting A Plan

In marketing, I meet people who are needing to start a business, change their direction, or go forward in a new endeavor.

Many things can be a great idea. Making sure that you do think it through is important. And extremely important is the support you build around yourself, your plan and making sure to keep fueling yourself to go forward.

Make sure to ask yourself with this new direction:

• Do I have the creative force and drive for this new idea?
• How do I create the fuel to help me keep going?
• What kind of support network do I have for this?

Be flexible with your ideas.

In building your business plans and goals, lots of things can be a great idea. As you find your motivation, your flow, your rhythm, you’ll find that focus and finances will change. So finding ways to keep both the personal reward and the financial backing going forward is an important step. Knowing that things change and that you’re going to be changing it as things go forward, helps you stay adaptable. You may see a huge need that people around you have, but they may not be receptive to it due to not having an understanding of the need and what they are missing. So you end up being a lighthouse facing the wrong direction in a stormy night. Finding ways to bridge out and connect with others and what feels good to them and good to you is part of finding your niche and specialty.

Start With What You Can Handle

If you are going to be building something from scratch, or you’re building into another level of your business/work/etc. You need to figure out what you can take on realistically. And I don’t mean pessimistically. This is not the stage to hand things over to well-meaning devil’s advocates. This is the time to hand an idea to people who can help you assess what tools, systems, and ideas you may be missing that are in you and whoever is involved taking things on.

Is This Really What I Want to Do?

If the idea leaves a sour note in your mouth, chew on the idea for a while and consider WHY it’s leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Is it because of insecurities? Is it because of it conflicting with your values? Is it something that you would enjoy to do, but not regularly? Is the motivation wrong, but the subject right? If it’s something that you can do in a way that you stay true to yourself, it’s likely something that you can go through a process to be able to do it. If it’s against your values, you will be better off not doing it. And then reapproach the idea to find something that fits or a new way to do it.

Building Support

If it feels great, and the thing getting in the way is a fear of others tearing it down, get yourself a good support group for it. And bring together different people for different things. As an example: Often a writer gets people who help critique their work, and they also get a separate group to help them on a more emotional support level, being their cheerleaders and telling them what they’ve done well, sharing and collaborating. Only doing a critical analysis of what you’re doing isn’t very fueling. So make sure to both seek excellence, and seek emotional support. New endeavors take a lot of energy and perseverance. So build your support.

Be Ready To Learn.

For those who are ready for a next step, be ready to learn. That’s a huge part in taking a new step. If you’re not ready to learn something, you’re not ready for something more. Because you literally won’t be able to take on more without learning. I know that sounds repetitive. But let me repeat this: If you are ready for the next step, be ready to learn. You don’t need to take on the Oxford Dictionary or the Encyclopedia Britannica. What you need to do is find a way to get to the useful things that help you function better, the concepts to be able to move forward, and the things you will need to be able to accomplish this task. This also includes finding the people and experts that can help guide you to what will work, and who will help you keep fuel in your dream.

Give Yourself Planning Time

Give yourself time in your plans and goals to plan. You’re about to do something big, right? So give yourself research and planning time.

Give Yourself Permission to Dream Big

Let yourself see a bigger picture, see the potential. And understand that it’s going to be a lot of steps to get there. So give yourself your long term goals and room for accomplishment. If others see a huge potential in what you’re doing, you can accept that and bring their energy into what you’re doing. If they seem to be going into another track from where you want to bring it, assess if this is your personal goal, or a business goal and whether that is a direction you want to look at. If not, then be direct and polite and hold your boundaries. You don’t have to cut any relationships, these people want your success and are dreaming with you. Allow that energy, and realize that they may be seeing more than you can at the time. And dreams don’t have to be small or linear. And they also can be small and linear.

Find Yourself Outside Support

Mentors, Collaborating People, Mastermind Groups, Life Coaches, etc. These are all people who are understanding of what it takes to succeed. Use these resources that they are leaving as low hanging fruit for your success. Often all you have to do is reach out to take that low hanging fruit to start your path to success.

Ask Your Family & Loved Ones to be Supportive

In doing something big and taking chances in things, it’s good to garner the support of the people we have close to us. So for those you know are already good with this, give them the what you need list. They can be the best support of you if they know what you’re working on accomplishing and what they can do to help. Keep your boundaries with those who are going to dive right into Devil’s Advocate mode, as that’s best after you’ve already done research and done with people who able to understand the work you’re doing and the industry you’re talking about. When you’re in idea mode, it’s not yet found enough of a form to poke holes in it. Instead, take the ideas in hand with the idea of shaping them like clay. Ask for feedback on what you can improve, or how they can see you using the idea. That way you can steer the conversations to being constructive. Critique is very important to use as you develop an idea, make sure that instead of poking holes in your boat, the people around you are helping you build a better boat.

Fuel Your Endeavors

We all need to feel like what we’re doing is worthwhile. To feel reward, to feel an understanding of successes. So give yourself the moments to fuel your success. Sometimes this is in reaching for positive reinforcement, others it’s taking a break for yourself, other’s it’s really celebrating the small to the large accomplishments. Reinforce yourself with the fuel of success being both big and small. Reinforce yourself through allowing yourself to stumble, so that you have the energy to pick yourself back up.

Support Yourself

Put things into writing, make a budget to pay for things, plan marketing (And know that if you’re not a marketer, you won’t have all of that together in the first round), plan what you can do with what you understand. Seek more info as you go and refine.