Keeping the ball rolling

Some people dream of being rock stars. Some dream of being professional athletes. But for others becoming a successful entrepreneur trumps both. This has been the case for me. For as long as I can remember I have always dreamed of starting my own successful business. The thought of being in the drivers’ seat of something that is bigger than you fires me up and motivates me more than anything else, and I know I am not the only one.

Starting your own business is a dream for many people, although very few are able to follow through and make their dream a reality. Why? Because it’s a huge and ugly task. It requires mountain loads of planning, paper work, cold calls, number crunching, and constant criticism from others that love to shoot down your ideas. So in order to help other entrepreneurs move from the idea to startup, I am going to provide two tips on how to move your idea forward.

1) Take a Dream Break

It’s easy for entrepreneurs to get intimidated and overwhelmed by their project and sometimes lose the excitement they had about their business idea and let it slip to the back burner. This personally has been the hardest issue with me. I begin a project, start the process, hit a road bump, get frustrated, lose my excitement, and then the idea fades.
There were points in the early planning stages with Chakra where I would loose interest and progress would slow. Although this time instead of letting the idea slip, I would take a step back from the task I was involved with and just let my mind wander and dream at a high level about where I knew this project could go. By just dreaming and escaping the current issue I was facing I was able to regain my focus and excitement about the project and then logically come up with a solution to the problem I was facing. At times you can get so consumed with one silly detail and forget about the whole picture. So next time you feel like you are loosing interest and momentum, take a deep breath and reward yourself with a dream session. You will be amazed at how well the actually works!

2) Set short term manageable goals

Over the last number of years I have had loads of different business ideas, some of which I though were pretty good. I would get excited about the idea, start the business plan, and as soon as I realized the size of the project and hit my first hurdle, I would stop and convince myself the idea would never work. Although, when starting the Chakra project things were different. Instead of looking at the amount of work that needed to be done in order to bring the project to life, I would divide the project into smaller more manageable tasks. For example, in the beginning I gave myself one week to find a manufacturer, bottle supplier, and solidify an ingredient list. By giving myself these three manageable but important tasks I was able to move forward with the project and also felt like I was making ground. Once this task was completed our team moved on to the branding of our product, another step forward. Soon we were noticing that all of these small goals were resulting in major momentum for our business which provides us with further confidence and focus.
Building a business is not an easy process. It takes commitment, focus, and a ton of work. There will be times when you will get frustrated and overwhelmed with your project. When this occurs take a step back, realign yourself and develop a few small tasks that you can complete quickly to help you regain your focus and momentum.

Take Away’s

1) Believe in your idea
2) Have a dream session
3) Make short term manageable goals