Tying up loose ends

Ok I’m back at last. It’s been two months since I posted in my blog despite promising faithfully that I would write something every day, week, month, bi monthly- failed on all counts (lol). Many times I thought of writing something but what was going on with me seemed either too embarrassing or too painful to write about publicly and I really didn’t want my blog to just be me posting my pain all over the net for everyone one to see.

I started writing this blog to chart my journey from public sector employee to private sector business owner. Whoever said that business is about making mistakes was soooh right. I think I must have made more mistakes than most. For months I felt like I was all over the place trying to meet all the requirements, looking at all possible solutions, trying to find the unique formula that only I have, which will make me millions.

And guess what? So is everyone else! Which means that, very little if anything is unique? The amount of people I have come across that have exactly the same idea as I have about working with women, targeting public sector workers and helping people to start businesses and become entrepreneurs.

At first I was horrified. Every time I came across another one I felt like chucking it all in and either getting a ‘real job’ lol or changing my business model.

Then gradually I began to realise two things. First: If other people have the same idea then at least it is a money spinner or why else would they be trying to do what I am doing. Added to that look how much free information is now out there for me to use i.e. I can see what they are doing/have done and build on it. Second:- and this is the more important one – I can’t think of any area of business where there is only one person or one company operating in it. As that would be a monopoly and monopolies ( as Rupert Murdock knows) are illegal. Unfair competition!

When you think about it, how many hairdressers are there? Chinese restaurants, web designers, graphic designers, actors, singers,  you name it! There are always new people joining the game and fed up people leaving it. The trick isn’t to be the only one – would be great, but statistics are against you. The trick is to be bigger, better, badder than anyone else.

So what makes you shine out in the world of personal services – personality of course! Charisma, rapport, connection, all the things that tell other people that you are in it for them and not just the money.  AND the one thing I can, hand on my heart, say about me is that I am passionate about people, about making sure that people experience the best of me and I make a positive contribution to their lives.

I believe in meeting people where they are. That mean being with whatever they are experiencing without trying to fix them from the outside or pushing away the difficult stuff. Being with ‘what is’ as Bryon Katie says. It is not always possible to change ‘what is’ yet it is always possible to help someone have the best experience they can have in those circumstances.

I totally appreciate that this may sound all lovey-dovey and touchy-feely for some, well so be it. I know that for others it will be the what has been missing and they will want to work with me because I am authentic about being truly human and celebrating the caring and compassion that can be missing from business.

I believe what has been holding me back all these months is that I’ve been running away from this because I was afraid of being categorised as flaky. So many of the business Guru’s I spoke to tried to tell me that business and  for the want of a better word ‘spirituality ‘or you can describe it as coming from the heart, do not mix. I now realise it was because these gurus are so caught up in the old way of being they are not prepared to consider that there may be another way. And there is!

More and more people are questioning why in order to get ahead you have to trampled on someone else. When I worked in the public sector, the questions we always asked were ‘how can I help you? How can I be of service?’ ‘How can I make your life better?’ And we meant it. Yes everyone has examples of where the public sector failed to meet this but it doesn’t take away from the original intention.

The private sector is waking up to the fact that customers are interested in doing business with companies that genuinely care about them , who are interested in helping to make their lives easier and better more than they are interested in making a buck. Unfortunately (or even fortunately) genuine caring isn’t something that you can fake,  so unless you are able to connect to your sense of being part of the human community and really get that people matter you are going to be the ones leaving the entrepreneurial gene pool.

So fell with renewed optimism and purpose, I’ve decided to bring my internet presence together in a coherent whole. I’ve changed my blog title to Tycoon Woman and my twitter profile name. Don’t seem able to change my blog address so that will stand as a testament to the journey -  http://theadvanceguardess.blogspot.com/ .

For the second time I’m going to commit to regularly writing in my blog, hopefully this time I’ll actually manage to do it.  

PS some encouraging comments will definitely have a huge motivational effect