The inspiration came to her while she was sitting under the dryer at a local beauty salon marveling at how much idle time, money and chatter surrounded her. Before you could say, "I've-got-a-great-idea-for-a-new-business," she'd lined up a slew of wholesale jewelers to lend her merchandise on consignment, negotiated permission from local salons to let her set up shop in-side from time to time, printed business cards and declared herself a jeweler. Over the years, the idea has even been copied by others.
While her business stayed small, you can choose to grow yours bigger. Many a successful company started out as a seedling in someone's kitchen, living room or basement.
When the Hopmayers started baking scones for Chicago-area grocery and department stores, they were operating from the basement of their Wilmette, Illinois, home. They hired their 22-year-old son Jeffrey to help them bake and learn the business.
Original American Scones may have been a hobby to his parents, but the ambitious younger Hopmayer saw his future in that little company. While no one imagined that he could actually run a successful manufacturing company from the basement of a suburban home, Jeffrey Hopmayer exercised remarkable flexibility and resourcefulness, pressing bathroom scales, laundry sinks and neighborhood kids with bikes into service.
Eventually, Original American Scones outgrew its rec-room roots and moved into larger quarters. In the process, though, Jeffrey Hopmayer developed it into a $93 million business with national distribution.
While entrepreneurs like him are obviously exceptions to the written rules of success, they're also proof positive that given the right idea, the right time and the right inclinations, the sky really is the limit.
Acting Self-Employed
Perhaps your ambitions don't include a desire to head up an in-credibly high-growth company, but you'd like a little money and a lot more freedom. If so, Northbrook, Illinois, human resources consultant Lou Ella Jackson advises bringing more of a self-employed attitude to your current career. In practical employment terms, that means greater self-reliance and better collaborative partnerships.
When evaluating the viability of your business concept, it's important to ask yourself the right questions. Inc. magazine suggests the following queries:
- Can you clearly articulate your idea (in 50 words or less)?
- Where did the idea come from?
- Do you really know the industry?
- Have you seen the idea used elsewhere?
- What will you do better than your competitors?
- Has your idea passed the time test? In other words, will you still love it tomorrow? Next month? Next year?
- Are you ready to commit yourself to the idea for the next five years or more?
- Do you know the difference between a product and a business? (Hint: Having a good product is only one part of business ownership.)
- Is this an idea for you, or would it be better for someone else? Do you really have the skills and desire to make it work?
- What are the potential rewards-monetary and otherwise?
- Are you plugged into the right networks to pursue your idea?
His new role requires Herculean organizational skills and an extraordinary facility for remembering where he's supposed to be when and what he's supposed to be teaching to whom. Still, he's loving every minute of his new work style. Since his ultimate goal is to land one full-time instructorship at a college, his current itinerary is a wonderful opportunity to gain experience with a variety of different schools and students to see what fits him best.
As part of a new cadre of workers who are temporarily self-employed, this 50+ executive is taking a very aggressive stance toward his vocational future.
This is the new advice that career experts everywhere are touting. If you want to be successful and happy, manage your career as if it were a company of one. Because no matter whom you work for, your career is your business. Even if you never get to be the official Big Kahuna, you're still the CEO of your own life.
Few questions to ask yourself before taking the plunge:
- Would you like to be your own boss?
- What kind of business would you like to have?
- Do your skills and experience lend themselves to any particular options?
- Would you describe yourself as a risk-taker?
- What kind of risk do you feel most comfortable taking?
- Does this have any implications for your future as an entrepreneur?
- Do you see yourself as someone with a lot of energy and persistence?
- Are you good at creative problem-solving?
- How do you normally deal with failure?
- Do you often motivate other people?
- Of the examples cited in this chapter, who did you admire the most? Why?
- In the past, how much responsibility have you taken for your own career development?
- Can you picture any ways you can take more responsibility?
- If you did manage your career like a company of one, what improvements would you make to your business plan right away?
- What are you waiting for?
