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Have you ever thought that having a business requires you to be a certain type of person?
A born leader and doer who has got their act together and a fire in their belly to change the world?
I did too. Therefore, my business, Talking Shrimp, could only have happened by accident. Otherwise I would never have dared to start it. At least in my mind, I was never meant to have a business.
No. 1: I didn’t see myself as an “entrepreneur.”
In my mind, years ago, an entrepreneur was an innovator, an industry disruptor—someone with an epic vision for a world-changing app, or a line of gut-busting shapewear, or hard cider. Someone who would ring the opening bell on the trading floor. This may interest you : Study: The worst place to grow old in the US is California. I was none of those things.
I had no “Big Thing” I wanted to build. When my business started, I was a TV promo copywriter creating tune-in spots and sales tapes for networks and production companies. When I created my first website, my sole intention was to get more of these customers. I started saying “I have a copywriting business” instead of “I’m a freelancer” because the former makes a better impression. But I didn’t see it as starting a business.
Corporations were for people with a “business plan,” a thing on oversized sheets of paper they rolled out of a tube and leaned over with a group of investors wearing reading glasses. Maybe I’m confusing “business” with “construction site.” To be honest, this mental image includes hard hats. It’s just so foreign – and also masculine – it was to me.
No. 2: I’m not a “born leader.”
I joke that I don’t even like telling people where to sit at a dinner party. See the article : Marketing on TikTok? Free 6-week tutorial series for business owners starting July 11th. It is true.
I never wanted to be a camp counselor or the one at the convention with a megaphone. I never said the words, “My group, let’s go!” or wanted to be the CEO who presented a pie chart and then had the audience stand up and chant the company’s name at the company’s offsite. I didn’t discover that I can actually lead — and quite effectively, if I do say so myself — until I started running writing retreats in Italy and later started my group business and copywriting mentoring program/business champion, Shrimp Club. It is a great success that is now entering its fifth round. But years ago, one thought that kept me from even considering a business was, “Don’t you have to be the person who always takes the lead?”
No. 3: I never wanted to be a boss.
Although I am my own boss, I am not a girl boss, lady boss, boss bitch, boss babe or even just plain The Boss – not at heart anyway. Like my fellow “unemployed” people who can’t stay within the lines, run ideas up the flagpole, or show up at 9, I was pretty much terrible at working for a boss and always preferred to work on my own terms. This may interest you : Governor Murphy, lawmaker criticized for killing votes on bill to offset business tax increase. However, unlike many of them, I did not fantasize about being a boss. I don’t long to be in charge of people.
Other business owners in my circle always seem to be reading books on management, hiring and creating company culture. None of these endeavors appealed to me. Fortunately, I discovered that I didn’t need to be a boss or hire a team to have a successful business. It is lucky because of the number four:
No. 4: I hate hiring.
Thank God someone recommended my business manager, Sandra, in a Facebook post at just the right time. What a stroke of luck, because I probably would never have actively gone out looking for someone to help me in my business. I can’t even hire competent people to grout my bathroom.
Apparently not hiring a great team is not okay, not if you want to be truly successful. I just watched a video of an “Instagram growth guru” yelling that if your business dream doesn’t require you to hire a large team of people to help you execute, you’re “NOT dreaming big enough.” Guilty. Big dreams are good, but what’s wrong with smaller ones?
No. 5: I didn’t have a “big dream” or “mission.”
Most business owners claim they started with a mission to change the world, one ____ (life, lawyer, loan, pair of socks, greeting card, meatball) at a time. Although I enjoy helping people, I am not like that. You’re not supposed to say this, but my mission, dream, goal, fire under my butt, has always been to make good money doing something I love.
No. 6: I’m not a “go-getter.”
Successful business owners tend to be “go-getters,” also known as “self-starters” from their stories of starting in the mailroom and working their way to the top: naturals at taking on tasks, going the extra mile, anticipating the boss’s needs, always taking the initiative.
Meanwhile, in one of my first jobs out of college, an internship at a magazine, the editor-in-chief took me to lunch and told me, “You know, you can take initiative.” Having to be reminded to take initiative is the very definition of lack of initiative.
The final chapter of my upcoming book, “Tough Titties,” is ironically called “Company Woman.” It’s about how I ended up owning a business, and the title is ironic because, as the book shows, I was far from a “business” type. I am neither the type to rise through the ranks in a company, nor the type expected to start and run a business, much less a successful one.
No. 7: I’m lazy.
Of course, I’m always out walking or going to dance classes, and it can look like I’m a hard worker. I like exercise, at least in those forms. And I will write for hours without looking up or checking social media when it’s something I want to write. It’s because I’m not lazy about things I want to do, only about things I don’t do. And if you think that’s all, then allow me to defend my laziness:
Many people I know are good at doing things they don’t want to do. Paperwork. Cleaning tasks. Homework. When I think about those tasks, I just want to lie down. Fortunately, I’ve managed to design what I call a “no homework career.”
On the plus side, unlike colleagues who find their self-worth in how busy they are and how much they do, I feel no guilt over resting or over an empty space in my calendar. The empty space is what I crave most.
No. 8: I’m a massive procrastinator.
Let’s call it a “marinator”. I tend to marinate on an idea for weeks, months, even years. All my most successful colleagues, meanwhile, seem to be quick takers. My best, most lucrative business ventures have come from fighting my nature and “beating the sh*t up” as I like to call it.
So I have that person in me. She just doesn’t come out of the binge-watching rabbit hole as often as I’d like.
No. 9: I hate looking at numbers.
Correction: I love updating sales figures, especially when they are doing well. But balancing a profit and loss statement (P&L)? Not my jam. I still don’t, even though I’m sure it would serve me well to do so and I’d probably increase my profits.
Pro Tip
If you’re allergic to numbers, use an online accounting tool to track your money while keeping the time you spend staring at spreadsheets to a minimum.
No. 10: I don’t have an “inner voice.”
Have you ever noticed how all these success stories start with the person hearing “a whisper” or “the still small voice inside” that told them what to create? I’m here to say that if you’ve never channeled ideas from above or heard ideas as if a divine voice spoke them right into your ear, you’re not alone. You’re also not alone if you’ve always been jealous of the people who hear a voice.
No. 11: I do things wrong.
Some people are good at following the plan. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Success. I envy them.
They do what has been proven to work, and it does (well, sometimes). For better or worse, I’ve always gone my own way, whether it’s breaking grammar rules to be more conversational in my emails and writing (which served me well), or refusing to have a morning meditation routine (which I could use) .
And yet…I did it anyway.
Despite (and perhaps because of) all of these shortcomings, I’ve managed to have a business for 13 years and counting – one that’s been making close to a million dollars a year in recent years. Not bad for a lazy, unemployed, small-dreaming procrastinator who doesn’t want to be the boss!
If you dream of making a living on your own terms but think you don’t have what it takes to have a business, take a note from my story, take action – even if it’s small – and give it a shot anyway.
Sometimes “everything wrong” is the key to getting it right.
