Ignite your Entrepreneurial Spirit

Unlock the secrets to entrepreneurial success and ignite your business potential with our latest episode, "Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Spirit." Have you ever wondered what separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest? We reveal the essence of entrepreneurship, from spotting opportunities to innovating within established markets. By sharing practical tips on boosting your services through enhanced customer care and communication, we’ll show you how motivation, risk-taking, and resilience can transform your business journey. Get inspired by real-life success stories that underline the importance of hard work, effective communication, and relentless drive.

Unleash your true capabilities with "Discover Your True Passion and Strengths." Reflect on your own strengths by asking, "What comes easy to me?" and learn how these innate abilities can lead to fulfilling career opportunities. Personal anecdotes about skills like bookkeeping and organization illustrate how leveraging these strengths can benefit others and open new doors for you. Think about the legacy you wish to leave and envision your future to create actionable steps toward your dreams. Discover the deeper meaning of passion, one that resonates beyond financial gain and aligns with your inner self.

In "Overcoming Challenges and Finding Success," understand that money isn't the ultimate key to happiness or business success. Learn the importance of purpose and perseverance in navigating business setbacks, and gain insights into effective strategies for starting a business, from brainstorming to solid business planning. Explore various idea generation techniques and the importance of listening to others to uncover solvable problems. Our discussion on "Navigating Business Funding and Mentorship" emphasizes the value of mentorship and diverse funding strategies, including personal experiences with bootstrapping and securing loans. Finally, get inspired with "Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Podcast Mentoring," where we share motivational stories and strategic advice to keep you ambitious and focused on making impactful deals. Embrace love and faithfulness in your entrepreneurial journey, and stay connected by following and sharing our podcast for more inspiring content.

Episode on Market Research: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/embracing-market-research-for-entrepreneurial-edge/id1707867380?i=1000663258025

Say goodbye to overwhelm and self-doubt, and hello to confidence and success. Join the Faith Filled Coaching family today and step into the abundant future you've always envisioned.
Visit FaithFilledCoach.com to schedule your free 30-minute consultation. Let's make your business dreams a reality, together.

Chapters

• 0:01 Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
• 7:28 Discover Your True Passion and Strengths
• 11:28 Overcoming Challenges and Finding Success
• 19:29 Navigating Business Funding and Mentorship
• 25:02 Empowering Entrepreneurs Through Podcast Mentoring

Transcript

Tammy: 0:01

Welcome to the Light Up your Business podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of small businesses. I'm your host, tammy Hershberger, and each episode will bring you inspiring stories, expert insights and practical tips to help your small business thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out or a seasoned business owner, this podcast is your go-to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Two-sorts for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Hello everyone, I want to welcome you back to another episode of Life or Business podcast. On today's episode, I want to talk about igniting your entrepreneurial spirit. You know, if you're like me and you own businesses, or you want to own your own business or it interests you to own your own business, it's a great time to go ahead and start doing that. It's a great time to break free of working for someone else. It's a great time to break free of you know that time clock that you have to punch for someone else to build their dream. Let's talk about building your dream. That's what entrepreneurship is about. So in today's episode, we want to dive into the world of entrepreneurship and discover the ins and outs of starting your own venture, whether you have a burning idea or you're seeking inspiration, this episode is tailored just for you. We'll explore practical tips, share some success stories and discuss overcoming challenges on the entrepreneurial journey. So let's get ready to unleash your creativity and embark on the path to entrepreneurial success. So you might be sitting there saying, well, what is entrepreneurship?

Tammy: 1:27

According to Investopedia, their definition of entrepreneurship is when an individual who has an idea acts on the idea, usually to disrupt the current market with a new product or service. And sometimes it doesn't even have to be disrupting with a new product. It could be just taking a service that's already out there and expanding on it or improving it. If you're like me and in this town, there's certain services that are, you know, home-based services, such as window cleaning, power washing, gutter cleaning, you know that's a space I was in, and you can take what's there already and then turn into something better, because I know for a fact there's some window cleaners in this valley that are sucky. They don't show up, they don't treat their customers good, they don't always do a good job, and so you could take their customers by going and just treating the customers right, showing up for the jobs, charging what's fair. You know all that kind of stuff so it could be just taking a service and expanding on or making it better.

Tammy: 2:21

Baps in college has kind of an interesting definition of entrepreneurship. They state that entrepreneurship is better described as a mindset that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach and leadership balance. This new entrepreneurial definition is about innovation, about seeing problems as opportunities and about changing the world. And that's really what owning your own business is is finding what is the problem that people need help with, right. So, whether it's window cleaning, they need storage, they need a house built, they need a new pavement put on their driveway, they need new concrete, they want a pool. Like you know, you need therapy. Whatever it is, there's always problems to be solved, and if you are a problem solver and you do it to your best of abilities, and then if you throw God in the mix, you could have one hell of a business. So keep in mind that the entrepreneurial mindset is unique in that one must be creative, communicative and highly motivated to succeed, yet open to risk and failure.

Tammy: 3:18

So I've had some conversations with different businesses lately, and I mean communication. I say it all the time. All the businesses will tell you you have to communicate between yourself, your employees, your management. You know your franchise or your employees, whoever it is, and your customers, Because if you don't communicate, things are going to turn into a complete crap show and then the customers are going to be unhappy, your employees are going to be happy, your business partners can be be unhappy, and it's amazing to me how some people cannot get it. They just don't understand that you have to communicate. They think they can do whatever the heck they want not communicate. Not communicate to the customer that you're not showing up or you're not going to be there on time, or sometimes you don't even communicate the price clearly or whatever it is, and it just turns into a total mess and then your business should go out of business because you're doing a crap job, and so you also want to make sure you're highly motivated to succeed, and I think that's something as you listen to each entrepreneur that I bring on here with their own business.

Tammy: 4:15

You cannot be lazy. You cannot expect to work five hours a day or three hours or have banker's hours. Especially when you're starting your business. You have to be willing to work nonstop and unfortunately, you know balance is hard at first because there's so much to do. You're wearing all the hats. You probably don't have enough help, you probably have no help, and so you're doing it all yourself. So you have to be willing to be motivated. You have to be able to get out of the house, get off the couch, turn the TV off, you know, get on the computer, go out and find clients, whatever it is. If you don't have that drive, you will not make it. You might as well forget about it because it's not for you.

Tammy: 4:53

And then you have to be open to the risk and failure. I mean, as I talk to each person that comes in here, we have risk, we have failures, we have things that don't go right. I mean I will be the first to tell you that I've had business failures. I've had partnership failures, hell, I think we've all had friendship failures. We've had family failures I mean financial failures, like we experienced those. But you have to be able to pick yourself back up. I know someone that is just struggling and their business is struggling and they're personally struggling. And you know it doesn't seem like no matter how much help you offer someone, they don't always want to take it and they don't want to pick themselves up. And that I struggle with that personally because I it frustrates me. I'm not one of those people that are going to lay on the floor forever and cry about I'm going to cry and then I'm going to pick myself up and I'm going to go again, and that's what life is about.

Tammy: 5:32

And so entrepreneurial spirit is one of like get your a off the floor and get moving. You know what I mean. Get out of the house, go find those clients, stop whining and complaining and change what you don't like. And that's why owning your own business is so great because you are the glass ceiling. There is no limit. You are your own limit. And so if you're very much struggling with self-limiting and no drive and procrastination, owning your own business is going to be a crap show. I'll tell you what. It's not going to be good for you. You probably won't even be successful, but if you're the opposite of that, then you could be an amazing business owner.

Tammy: 6:07

So if you're thinking about venturing into entrepreneurship, there's usually a discussion around finding your passion. There's a Ford's article that we ran into that says you don't find your passion. You ignite it from the inside out, through internal and external work. So this approach to finding your passion leads to more inward journey instead of an outward journey. Right, you want to take the time to really get to know yourself personally, find what lights you up, what makes you excited, which can lead to create a sustainable business that lightens, that lights others up. So, like when I'm talking to people in here, I can tell, like a lot of people, the financials is boring or bookkeeping is boring to them and you can tell they don't really smile, they don't really care. Then you talk about customer service or creating a product or whatever it is, and they're they light up and they get excited. Their voice raises. That's how you know that is something that lights you up. Right, which is the name of this podcast let's light up your business. Let's get excited about it again.

Tammy: 6:59

Um, I believe that if, if you or I or all of us, know our why and what we are doing, then it acts as our compass to carry us through the ups and the downs of being in entrepreneurship. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. I mean, there's days I'm not sure how I survived some of the things I've been through, but I did. And then I get up every day and I'm like I'm going to go do it again and I'm going to do it better. That's the spirit, the fire in your belly that you need.

Tammy: 7:28

So some questions you can reflect on. If you're still searching for your passion, maybe you're out there and you're like Tammy, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't. I have a job. How much your family friends shrinks? Whoever you talk to, they encourage you. You can't do anything if you don't do it right like I can. Let's not say you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink.

Tammy: 7:56

So questions, what are they? Well, here's one. What comes easy to me? Ask yourself that. What comes easy to me? Things that come naturally to us. It's a great way to play to our strengths and help others who may struggle or find it difficult within a certain area of their lives. Bookkeeping, organization, office work that has always come so easy to me and I enjoy it. Time flies when I'm doing it. It's not tedious or boring to me, even though I look at a lot of other business owners on my podcast here and they look at me and they're like hate that stuff, cool, that's see, that's my opportunity because I do that stuff, I am good at that stuff, I enjoy that stuff, so I can take that off your plate if you're one of those that hate it, and then you can go focus on doing the things in your business you love, which will also move your business. Now I've heard people say well, I don't have to, I'll just forget the books. Who cares? Well, you're a freaking idiot.

Tammy: 8:47

You need to track your payments. You need to track who owes you money. You need to track who you owe money to. You need to know what your profit loss is. You need to know if your business is growing or dying. If you go to get loans, you need to know financials for your business, because the banks are going to want to. I don't need that For the person. If you're listening, you know who you are. You need to fix it.

Tammy: 9:09

What other questions? What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind? So we've talked about this kind of in other podcasts, but when we are clear on the legacy we desire to leave behind, it puts us in the seat of our future self and allows us to craft the life you want to live. But in reverse, we think backwards from the future, envision the life you desire to create and then take the steps to get there. You know we can dream all day of like I want a million dollars, I want a big home, I want to live here, there, wherever, but if you don't know how to get to that, you're never going to get there and you have to make steps that you can actually do, one by one, to get there. It it's like if I had to go to the store. Well, how do I get to the store? A couple options I can Uber, I can drive myself, I can walk, whatever. So none of those are going to work if I don't get a car, or call in a car, an Uber, or get on my bike or get my shoes on and start walking. Every step gets me closer.

Tammy: 10:01

Another thing you can ask yourself is there any overlap between what I am currently doing and what I want to do? Maybe you, you know, work for someone. You want to do something similar, you want to start your own business, or maybe it's in the general field of what you're doing. Well, you've already got some training, so now go out and do it. So you want to make a list of the things you want to do in your current job and then the things that you can do or are doing in your current job and then you look at it and you look at that list and you see what's the common thread between the two, what's consistent.

Tammy: 10:33

Then begin to make the transition to more of what you desire to do, take what you have learned from previous jobs and apply them to the business you want to create. You know that's me. I didn't go to school for business, I went to school for office administration. But as I've worked for different companies and for other people and started and closed businesses and whatever I've learned things all along that I can now take and use into the businesses I have now, take the mistakes, take the lessons and then, if there's things I'm lacking, I can go take you know classes or take a college course or whatever I got to do to learn the things I don't know or, worst case, hire them out. If I have the money I'll hire them out.

Tammy: 11:09

And then ask yourself what does passion mean to you? Dive into what passion looks like and it feels like for you. You know it's a little different for everybody. This way you know what you're pushing forward towards in your heart and it's not that, it's not just something that you think others expect of you or just because it will be, you know, profitable. It has to mean more than money.

Tammy: 11:28

Money is necessary, I am not saying that, but money is not everything. Money I've seen money come in it doesn't make people happy. If anything, it changes people. It makes them greedier, makes them grumpy, like they buy more stuff and they just need more right? Or they can buy more drugs or whatever the heck it is. It does not fix the problem, especially in business, because it's a grind sometimes to get up every day and keep doing the same thing. And when business is great it's great, but when it's down it's tough, and you have to be able to get up every day and face it and sometimes dig yourself out of a hole. So just remember that you will still face challenges and setbacks, even when following your dreams and passions. Nothing worthwhile comes easy in life, in friendships and relationships and business. You have to know your why, because it'll keep you going when times are tough or when you feel unclear in the next step.

Tammy: 12:19

So once you know the direction you want to take in your business, then you need to develop a plan. So when you develop a plan, you want to brainstorm ideas for your business. The idea should be able to solve a problem and be fairly easy to execute. So I do recommend that you perform extensive market research within the industry and I have a separate episode. It's called Market Research. If you look at my podcast list, you will see it, where I talk more in depth about the essentials of market research. If you look at my podcast list, you will see it where I talk more in depth about the essentials of market research and we'll also link a episode link to it in the notes of this show.

Tammy: 12:49

So when generating the ideas for business or a product within a business, the process will look different for everyone. First, you must know the problem you're trying to solve. So again, are you trying to clean windows? Are you trying to clean people's homes? Are you trying to deliver groceries for old people? I mean, what is it? What is the problem you're solving? Then dig into your market, like, is it a necessary thing here? If you have a tiny town, well, that might not be sustainable there. You know, if you ever live in a big city and it's a huge demand for it, or you're the first one in town doing it, or is there 700 other businesses doing it, because then you have a lot of competition. So you need to look at all that and see what's going on. Look at pricing, look at cost, look at where do I? What kind of building do I need? Where do I have to have my location? You know what kind of when you're looking at locations what kind of traffic foot traffic, car traffic, all that stuff right, is it a scary neighborhood? These are the things you got to think about when creating your business.

Tammy: 13:39

So then, once you find a creative solution to the problem you're trying to solve, and decide which idea is the most suitable for creating a sustainable business, execute it, go for it. Now you're saying, well, how do I do that? Well, there's some different options. You can do mind mapping, which is a visual way to organize the ideas and information, like a heroc heroc, I can never say it herocracy. It shows the relationship among the pieces of the whole puzzle. Right, I'm not a big mind mapper, I just kind of I'm a note taker more and I just draw things out.

Tammy: 14:09

Um, there's reverse thinking. This is basically asking, asking strategic questions around a problem, but you do it in reverse. So you find out what is, what not to do, and then you find out what you need to do. Right, I'm more of a brainstormer myself. It's really good with a group of people and you want people that you know are invested in what you're trying to do, or have experience on what you're doing, or you know not these dream killers, as I call them that is just going to be negative about what you're thinking. So if you can get other people's thoughts about an idea, you can brainstorm discussions that can lead to, you know, creative ideas and solutions.

Tammy: 14:47

Listening People can be very good resources when generating ideas. Listen to the problems or issues that come up in a conversation with friends or family or someone beyond your social circle. It can really help. You know where there is a need and then you can come up with a way to solve it. And then there's the five W's who, what, where, when and why of a topic or problem you'd like to solve. So think about that.

Tammy: 15:08

So when you're generating these ideas for a new business or a new product within the business, it's important to keep an open mind and then try to think outside the box, right? Because sometimes we don't always think these great ideas. Sometimes they just pop up or you're solving a problem over here and then you realize oh wow, I can't even fully solve this because I don't have the option of this right, whatever X, y and Z is. And then you want to create a business plan. So before starting a new business, it may seem unimportant to have a business plan, but it is a good step in getting the foundation of your business. It kind of gives you like a roadmap of where you're going right. It's like when you're traveling, you get your map out and you figure well, I'm going to take this road to that road, and because if you just haphazardly did it, you could end up in who knows where, spend all your money on fuel and have no way to get home right. So when you begin and run your new business, you will face obstacles on your journey and a business plan can help steer you in the right direction. It also helps you make decisions that are grounded in the vision and the goals of the business, keeps you from getting distracted.

Tammy: 16:05

As an entrepreneur, it's important to have a mindset that's positive and creative, seeing failure as an opportunity to learn, to grow and then use what you learn to create a more successful business. You cannot have success without failure, so you must rewire how you see and think about failure. Keith Crotch I'm not sure what his name is, it's a Forbes article. He said people don't succeed without experiencing setbacks along the way. Resilient entrepreneurs can turn failure into success, pain into insight and fear into bravery. As an entrepreneur, you must learn to embrace failure. Henry Ford said failure is just a resting place. It's an opportunity to begin again, but more intelligently. Failure is an opportunity to stop, to reflect, to reinvent yourself, to use wisdom and hindsight to be able to go to the next step and do it better. Like we said earlier, knowing your why, knowing what your vision is and where your business is going is crucial, because when failure comes and it will come you need to have a clear vision that will help you move forward and cause correction in the areas that you need it and course correct man. Learn from your mistakes, turn failures into opportunities.

Tammy: 17:18

Failure is just the construct of the mind. One person's setback could be viewed as a gift in the eyes of someone else, a gift of opportunity to find creative alternative solutions. Right, I know someone that when failure comes, they just sit in it and it's the most depressing thing to see because they won't try, they won't fight, they won't fight for their business or their friendships or whatever. They just lay there and die in it and it's disgusting to watch. I hate watching it. It's not how God made us. It's not how God made us. It's not how we're supposed to be. We're supposed to take that failure and learn from it and do better right. Every time I mess up, I try to do better, I try to fix my friendship, I try to fix my business. I try to, you know, not make a mistake financially and or definitely not spend my money on something that was a mistake last time or whatever. Like, learn from it.

Tammy: 18:00

People, failure is just feedback. The best course of action is to learn the lessons and move forward. So in the past, like we had employees, you know, in my window business that would quit and we do an exit interview and they would tell us the reason they were leaving. And those are good opportunities to look at your business and be like, okay, we're unorganized, we're not communicating, we're not, you know, supporting them, we're not meeting their need, whatever it was. We can take that opportunity and we can look at our business now and say, okay, we are going to fix this problem, because I don't want to keep losing people to the same problem.

Tammy: 18:35

A few of the common obstacles face the young entrepreneurs. One they don't have the finances to start it or they don't even know how to start looking for the money to start in. They don't have a network of people to go to to either help start it, help get business, help get questions answered, and then they lack the experience in their industry or business right, because they've never done it. And it can take a while to build a reputable business that people know and trust, and I think it takes. Well, once you've I'm just going to say it Once you've built the business and you have a great reputation, you better damn well do good things to keep it, because people will talk when you treat them terrible. Word spreads fast, especially bad news spreads quick. So get that good reputation and then do what you can to keep it. And if you have the wrong people that are ruining the reputation, get them out of your company. If it's you, you need to course correct, you need to get some help figure out what you're doing wrong as a business owner.

Tammy: 19:29

I do recommend finding a mentor that you can go to with questions and guidance. It could be a friend, another business owner, a business coach like me. You know a coaching group, somebody that you can talk to, because you cannot do it by yourself. You have to have a mentor in your corner, someone that is invaluable, someone that has years of knowledge and has overcome many challenges, and by tapping into their wisdom you gain insight into effective strategies and pitfalls to avoid. That can be massively helpful. Having a mentor is also helping when building a network. Usually they know a lot of people and can help open doors to new opportunities or partnerships that you otherwise might not be exposed to.

Tammy: 20:09

And I will say this you know you can talk to your friends I'm not saying you can't, but if your friend has never ran a business or never had employees, never managed people, never known the struggle of payroll, and you can talk to them. But their advice you're going to need to take with a grain of salt because they've never done it. They have no idea. It's like coming to me for parenting advice. You know I can give an opinion. I have never done it. I don't know what it's like to be a mom. I don't know what it's like to be up late at night with crying baby and you're stressed out of your mind. I know other stress I've done business stress, but I can't really give you solid advice because I've never done that.

Tammy: 20:40

Now talk about marriage. I've been with my husband 24 years. I can tell you what a marriage is like a strong relationship. I can tell you what that looks like. I can give you some advice on that. What's worked for me, what did not work for me? I can talk about business all day long. I know what it's like to be a woman and a female. I can't tell you what it's like to be a man. You come to me. I have no idea. I can that in mind when you're talking to people. Okay, let's talk about one of the hardest things, the two things businesses never have, no matter who you are. You don't have enough time, you don't have enough money. So, funding your venture.

Tammy: 21:13

Quickbooks did a blog post about the best way to seek funding for your business and in 2024, and this was their top three ideas. So one is bootstrapping. You might be like what is that? That's the most popular route new business owners take for funding. So, according to this blog, 73% of business owners plan to self-fund their business. So bootstrapping means that you use your own personal funds, such as savings and credit cards, to jumpstart your business. It allows you to maintain full control and ownership of your business. A benefit to bootstrapping is it allows you to maintain full control and ownership of your business. A benefit to bootstrapping is it allows you to test how successful an idea is before relying on outside sources for funding.

Tammy: 21:48

The drawback to this funding strategy is it can limit the scale and speed of your business. If you only have 50 grand, you can only buy so much material. You can only buy so many products. You can only create such a certain professional website. You know you have a budget. Basically, you're going to run out of money quick, so you can't go big maybe as fast as you should, or you can't hire the people you need, which slows the business growth. Then there's crowdfunding. This strategy involves raising money from many individuals who contribute small amounts, so crowdfunding platforms serve as intermediaries that connect businesses with potential backers. Platforms like Kickstarter, indiegogo provide different types of funding than any other avenue can be, and it can be faster.

Tammy: 22:32

Now, I personally have never done crowdfunding, so I'm not going to give anyone recommendations or advice on that. I've never done that. I have started my own business with my own money. I've also gotten loans Angel investors, again, something I've also gotten loans. Angel investors Again something I've never done. These are individual investors or a group of investors that provide financial backing and support to startups and early stage businesses. I hope someday to be able to become an angel investor. I'm not there yet, but that is one of my hopes and my dreams for what I want to do. These investors usually take an equity stake in the company, so you're giving up a part of your company for their money. And if you're looking to find angel investors for your business, create a pitch showcasing your potential or your new business's unique selling points, market potential and growth strategy, because you're going to want to show them what your business can do and why they should invest in you.

Tammy: 23:26

So, again, like I said, my my own personal experience I've used my own money. I've used my own savings. I've put um one time to buy a trailer for a furniture hauling business. I I went and put my paid off car up and got a loan on that because it was cheaper interest than the trailer itself was, and then I took that money and invested in my business and bought the trailer. You know, I've gotten loans, not SBA loans. I've gotten regular loans on businesses. I've gotten lines of credit. The barnyard we bought through the owner self-funding, so he carried the loan for five years and then we paid him off.

Tammy: 24:07

There's different ways you can do it, you know. You just have to kind of see what works for you. Just remember when you bring investors on, there's pressure now because the people are going to want their money right. And if you get loans, there's pressure because you have to make those payments and people expect you to pay them back. So remember these things.

Tammy: 24:23

When you're starting a business, failure is inevitable. Learn to embrace setbacks and obstacles as opportunities for growth. Perform market research and develop a solid business plan for a career path forward. And find a mentor to help guide you and connect you to a greater network of people. And remember you can do anything you set your mind to If you have an idea and you see a solution to a problem that people face. I strongly encourage you to develop a plan to make your dreams a reality.

Tammy: 24:49

I hope this podcast episode inspires and empowers you, as a new entrepreneur, to pursue your dreams and provide you with practical advice, insights and encouragement to embark on your entrepreneurial journey with confidence and determination.

Tammy: 25:02

You got this and please share this episode with anyone looking to start a new business, as well as follow this podcast on your favorite platform so you never miss a future episode. Thank you all for listening today. I invite you to share your own experience of starting your business by visiting us at wwwlightupyourbusinesspodcastcom. Remember to like, share, follow and subscribe. We'll see you guys next time. And remember in the world of business, every success story begins with a passionate dream and ends with a strategic billion dollar handshake. Stay ambitious, stay innovative and keep making those deals that reshape tomorrow. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time remember. Proverbs 3, 3 says let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. That way, you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. And remember if you like what you heard today, click the follow button so you never miss an episode.