The Leap Prequel
The business adventure doesn’t start when you launch your website, open your store or land your first client, although those are incredible milestones.
There’s a whole chapter of the adventure that takes place behind the scenes before you even get to that point, this is what I call the Business Prequel.
As they say, it takes a lot of hard work to become an overnight success and even though starting the business doesn’t guarantee it’ll succeed – starting it is a personal victory worth celebrating.
Starting out…
The road from the first spark of an idea to making that idea a reality is filled with a myriad of ups and downs, self-doubt spirals, elated happy dances, long hours, numerous idea iterations, research, research, and more research, and that indescribable feeling of joy when you start seeing this idea come to life.
The beautiful thing about a business prequel is that it is unique to every business – whether it is starting in your parents’ garage, growing your side hustle, throwing yourself into the deep end by rage-quitting your job, or being forced into it due to retrenchment. No matter how it starts, that prequel is unique, because YOU are a part of that journey.
My prequel…
My prequel started about 3 years ago while I was sitting in my lounge plagued by the idea of wanting to help people help themselves for quite a while. That in itself can mean anything and it took me three years and about 6 business idea iterations before landing on Leap.
The one constant throughout it all was the desire to help people be in a better position to help themselves. To build that positive ripple.
Each idea had its merits and I was excited about all of them, but they didn’t quite hit all the marks. So I went back to the drawing board time and time again.
I did a lot of introspection and looked back to see what the common thread has been throughout my life. What I (re-)discovered was that I’ve always had an interest in business and psychology.
I find business to be a fascinating ever-changing beast. It is complex with so many aspects working together and this is then all underpinned by people, who are fascinating, unique, and complex in themselves and that is where Leap was born.
Setting up my Leap…
Leap focuses on people in business, allowing me to combine the two aspects I find most fascinating and challenging. I focus on finding a way to help them to navigate the complexities of business and the complexities of balancing life as a business owner and business leader through coaching.
But that idea still took many many months to come to life.
From the outside, I had every ‘tool’ I needed to start the business:
- a business education
- experience in managing multiple businesses
- a business idea that didn’t require a lot of capital
- start-up funds
- access to high-speed internet
- a network of people with finance, design, web development, and legal expertise &
- a passion for what I want to do.
But still, it took me over a year to get to the point of actually taking that leap. Granted, major life events, work events, and a pandemic also played their part in that timeline.
The biggest challenge…
My biggest challenge was not external at all. I had to work on making my ‘leap’ as small as possible because the challenges I faced (and continue to face) were internal. And these challenges are not unique to me.
I was plagued with self-doubt, fear of failure, anxiety, risk aversion, perfectionism, and the ever-present threat of burnout and depressive periods.
I had to build the confidence and clarity to take that leap. I had to understand my struggles and then learn how to work through them (and with them) and I feel that holds for everyone. We all have our own personal struggles that can hold us back if we let them. And that is what I want to help business owners and leaders overcome.
Turning my leap into a hop…
I had to turn my ‘leap’ into a ‘hop’ because that is what I needed and I want to help business owners and business leaders turn their ‘leaps’ into manageable ‘hops’ as well.
Because with enough manageable ‘hops’ that once daunting idea becomes a reality.
Is my way of starting a business the best way? By no means, BUT it is the best way for me.
I needed to take my time to get to where I am now. It is my adventure and looking back I’m excited about every peak and valley that I’ve been through. And now, standing on the precipice of the next chapter of my business adventure, I can’t wait to see what is in store.