Renée Warren's Blog

Afraid to Take the Leap of Faith

July 7, 2008 at 3:10 pm Leave a comment

I made a trip home to North Bay, ON this weekend to enjoy the lake, the weather, and my mothers home cooking. Although my time home was short, it was well worth the 6 hour drive. I realised while sitting in the dining room and peering out the window through a beautiful stained glass piece my mother designed, that there was a great small business opportunity right before my eyes. The problem was that my mother refuses to take the leap of faith and go into business on her own. Age and lack of business experience has limited her motivation to start something new. But the skill and creativity she possesses defies all small business odds. If you have a great product offering then the business skill will develop over time with the proper training and consulting. Start small and expand with customer demand.

Her Story:
After retiring from a 30-odd year career in teaching, my mother has never been busier with Sorority meetings, gardening, supply teaching, travelling, and enjoying the lake with my father. But lack of routine and structure in her weekly tasks led her to rethink her ultimate life goals. She soon developed an interest in entrepreneurship and starting a small home based business. However, she could not decide what to do, where to start, or how to get going. Like most potential entrepreneurs she is afraid of taking that leap of faith.

Designing and selling stained glass pieces would be a hot seller in many cottage country markets. My suggestion to her was:
1. Create a business card and hand it out to everybody
2. Design an attractive sandwich board to place at the end of the driveway (high traffic street on the lake)
3. My mother often creates stained glass pieces for presents to those getting married, having a baby…I suggested she include with the piece she is gifting a bio of her and her work and an attached business card.
4. Send out a mass email to everyone in her database about her stained glass work
5. Approach local craft stores and offer a commissioned model to sell her work
6. Create a Facebook group
7. Attend craft shows
8. Periodically place little ads in newspapers and journals
9. Consider an open house
10. Write a media release and send it out to the local newspaper
And the list goes on and on.

Although taking that initial step in setting up shop is very intimidating, it has its rewards. Entrepreneurship is the spirit of our times. If you are thinking about starting a small business than just do it! Small business advice is readily available. BizLaunch.ca, for example, offers free small business advice in a ready-to-apply method. BizLaunch focuses on training as a holistic community and bringing to the forefront successful start-up business enterprises that will lead the way to innovation.

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