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Opening A Business: Lots to Do, Where to Begin?

By Amy Nielsen

Getting down to brass tacks, just exactly how and when do I start this business thing?

How do you open the doors of your business when you don’t have actual doors?

I am planning to teach classes later this winter and will organize my personal mentoring business into a teachable system before I start to look for clients in January – my projected launch date.

I need to just decide on the class I want to teach the most, find a place to teach it, contact the venue, set up the date and contract for the event and print a bunch of fliers. Easy peasy, right? But it feels so daunting!

I am feeling a bit stuck as I envision how this system will play out in practice. I have seen so many different ways to use it. I need to focus on one aspect. Something concrete, a bridge. I feel like maybe a class around the food link to chakras, a basic principle in my system. In order to do that I need to concentrate my own studies more.

I am feeling excited about contributing to the universe, to our family financially and to share my knowledge. And, to be heard and appreciated for it.

However, I set a certain amount of personal discovery and building time into my plan and I don’t want to rush it. If I take on my first clients or teach my first classes now, before my pre-set time, I feel like I might be cheating myself and my clients out of valuable processing.

That brings up a good exercise. I have to write a bio to put with my general public classes so people have a clue who I am. Sounds like a good place to start building my own confidence. Designing who I want the world to see. Do I have enough chops, enough credentials, enough time in this to be listened to? Would I take a class from me? If not, what do I need to add to my credentials?

Stepping up and stepping in. Every time I choose to introduce myself with my new title, in my new business, I choose to step up and into my self-created space. My circle. I become the center of the ripples. What do I want my pond to look like?

Listening to myself, it almost feels like I am listening to the introduction to my new self. I hear the words I say and it’s like I am testing out the language to see if I can spit the syntax out right. Sometimes I change it up a bit and stumble and find a new turn of phrase or a new connection I hadn’t made before.

As I introduce myself to others, I work to solidify my ideas. I am growing my own ideas. I am seeking out more connections for my circle. Sometimes, when I make a connection that person leads me to a new avenue to explore.

I have some interesting friends, who in turn have interesting friends. The universe has seen fit to place me in the path of some folks who can help me along my journey, if I take the time to connect with them.  I am enjoying that the people interested in deeper conversation are from a very wide range of disciplines and professions. It is helping me to learn new paths to take and in turn, teach me more options to offer to my future clients.

So back to where this all started, what are the concrete steps I am going to take to move forward in the journey to open my business? I need to make several appointments with friends who could be colleagues in a more formal context. I need to make appointments with some of the practitioners I have met to learn their systems and be inspired to create my own. I need to decide on a format for my class and find a name for my business.

And, I need to allow time to just be me, enjoy life, and not work on work all the stinkin’ time. I have quite a balancing act to figure out.

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