Mae Chan, a business alignment coach, helps Sarah, a part-time pet groomer, navigate the process of starting her own business. They discuss the challenges of entrepreneurship, finding joy in your work, and exploring low-risk options for testing business ideas.
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Quick takeaways
Identify the joy and passion behind starting a business to ensure genuine motivation and fulfillment.
Diversify income sources and develop a realistic financial plan to mitigate risks and ensure business feasibility.
Deep dives
Exploring the Desire to Start a Small Business
The podcast episode features Sarah, a dog groomer who contemplates starting her own business. Sarah expresses her dissatisfaction with her current job and the desire to make more money and have more control over her work. She discusses her love for working with dogs and her vision of owning a grooming salon or a dog sanctuary. However, fear of failure and concerns about finances hold her back from taking the leap. The episode emphasizes the importance of examining motivations, balancing joy and financial feasibility, and finding support through networking and community.
Examining Motivations and Sparking Joy
May Chan, a business alignment coach, advises Sarah to identify what sparks joy in her work and to differentiate between the desire to start a business fueled by joy and passion versus dissatisfaction with the current job. May encourages Sarah to envision her ideal business operations, consider scalability, and focus on sustainability in the long term.
Mitigating Financial Risks
May emphasizes the importance of diversifying income sources to mitigate the financial risks associated with starting a business. She suggests that Sarah continue working while launching her business, explore options such as renting a table at a grooming salon, or even using her parents' garage temporarily. May highlights the need to balance dollars and time while developing a realistic financial plan to ensure the feasibility of the business.
Finding Support and Overcoming Fears
May advises Sarah to seek support and guidance from entrepreneur communities or business networks. She encourages Sarah to network, connect with like-minded individuals through platforms like Instagram or local business associations, and take advantage of tools like scheduling software to streamline operations. May also emphasizes the importance of addressing fear of failure and building self-belief through journaling and self-reflection.
Sarah is a part-time pet groomer who dreams of opening up her own business. Having worked long hours for low wages, she can’t help thinking that she could earn more money and control her schedule if she starts her own pet salon. The only problem? Sarah has no idea where to start. On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace brings in Mae Chan to guide Sarah. Mae is a business alignment coach who helps entrepreneurs figure out their dreams and scale their businesses. Her questions for Sarah will help anyone considering a leap into self-employment think more about what they really want—and how to achieve it with minimal risk.
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Podcast production by Derek John, Joel Meyer, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
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