Before starting your own business, ask yourself this one question. Why do you want to be in business? Why do you want to start a business of your own instead of working for someone else?
Why I Swore I’d Never Start My Own Business
My parents have always had their own business. And not one they bought – each time they built it from scratch.
First came a carpet cleaning business, which took up most of my primary school years. Then during my teens, they ran familiarization tours around New Zealand for clients considering moving here. Later came Simple Signs — a vinyl cut sign business where Mum did the design and they both did the installations. Boats, cars, shop windows, you name it.
So with that as a backdrop, I made a firm declaration: I never wanted my own business.
I wanted to work for someone else – so I could call in sick and still get paid.
A rather questionable reason to enter the work force, I’ll admit.
But there you have it. That was my WHY to not work for myself.
What Happened When I Actually Did
When our eldest was just 6 months old , we moved back in with my parents. Tim went back to uni to complete a post graduate diploma in teaching – and with that, our busy little life got a whole lot simpler and a whole lot more interesting all at once.
I loved being a mum to Ruby, but let’s be honest — looking after a young baby is monotonous at times. Mum saw it before I did. “You’re an educated woman, of course you’re bored,” she said.
She was right.
So I looked around at where there was a need in my life and started a business called Blooming Beautiful – a name courtesy of my dad – where I sold secondhand maternity clothes on behalf of other women. They’d book a time to come to our house and try on clothes at their leisure. No rushing, no changing rooms the size of a shoebox.
It was a fantastic little business. Very low costs. Mum designed my logo, I printed flyers at the local Warehouse and did the rounds of preschools finding sellers and buyers. Back then, maternity clothes in NZ were only really found in designer shops – not exactly accessible for most women.
I set up clothing racks and a mannequin, and ran a completely manual bookkeeping system with handwritten tags on every item, each one coded back to its seller. Nothing online. Bear in mind, this was 24 years ago. 😀
It was simple – but genuinely fun to build.
When the challenge started to fade, I did what apparently comes naturally to me: I started another business. Lioness was born – breastfeeding tops I designed and manufactured myself, sold through our own website and retail stores.
The Question That Changed Everything
From entering a radio competition for small business owners, I won a printer and 6 weeks with a life coach.
She was absolute gold.
Her name was Margaret. She introduced me to the idea that before you start a business, you need to know your WHY.
Then use that WHY as your compass.
Margaret’s WHY for running her own business was simple: she wanted time with her boys. That WHY directed everything about how she worked. Her hours, her schedule, the clients she said no to. Even when saying yes would have significantly increased her income.
When I heard this, I stopped and thought about my journey of starting my own business and looked at my two honestly.
I started Blooming Beautiful because I was bored at home with a baby who largely slept. Lioness came next, born out of wanting a creative challenge on top of that boredom.
Those were my WHYs. And they had made complete sense at the time.
What Happens When Your Why Expires
By now I had two children. Ruby was three and Jack was one, and I was neither bored nor craving mental stimulation anymore.
Then one day I received an order back from the manufacturer and something looked off. The colours were around the wrong way – arms and body mismatched, completely out of balance – and these tops were destined for a retail store.
I sat there staring at them, working out what was wrong. And when I finally spotted the mistake, I broke out in a sweat and thought: I don’t need this.
That was the moment I knew.
I had started these businesses to give myself something stimulating and interesting alongside the joys of motherhood. They had served that purpose beautifully. But Ruby and Jack were filling that space now, and the businesses were no longer meeting the WHY that had created them.
So I sold them both.
After selling both businesses we bought our first home, had two more children and I eventually retrained as a landscape designer. My WHY then was simple: I wanted work that would fit around four kids. Something where, if someone was home sick, I could work from the kitchen table. So I studied online, got my diploma and Once Upon A Garden Landscape Design was born.
My Why Today (And Why It Matters For You)
For a really long time, I have wanted a working situation where I wasn’t tied to my location. I want to work from a campervan by the beach while Tim brings me coffee, then go for a swim.
So every time I find myself working from somewhere new, I am absolutely winning on the inside.
My kids are growing up fast. By the end of next year it is very likely that Tim and I will be the only ones at home. The idea of being free to travel, to visit them wherever they land, while still bringing in an income became more and more enticing.
So I created my online course Your First Steps.
Ready To Start A Business? Find Your Why First
If you are thinking about starting your own business, my very first recommendation is this: do some soul searching and get clear on your WHY.
It will become your compass. It will shape your hours, your clients, your decisions. And as I discovered, it will also tell you when it’s time to move on.
When I was looking for my next business, after selling the first two and welcoming two more children into the mix, I didn’t start with an idea. Instead, I wrote a list of criteria that any new business would have to meet. Being available for my kids was non negotiable and didn’t want to put them in preschool full time. After Lioness I knew I didn’t want a product based business or money tied up in stock. No room for that with four children anyway!
That list was my WHY in action.
When landscape design crossed my path, it fit. I am creative, I love making things work better and look beautiful, and I could largely work from home. It was the perfect business to build around my family. The WHY came first. The idea grew from it.
Your WHY doesn’t compete with your business idea. It creates the criteria your business idea must fit.
Want to explore your WHY before starting your own business? Come and join my free class where we dig into this together.
[Join the free class here]