The Glamour Myth And The Reality

Millions Start But Few Understand

Wearing Every Hat Early On

Selling Without Feeling Icky

Time Energy And Self-Leadership

Coaching Help And How To Reach Me

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Well, hello friends is Kimberly's episode 345, and I am so happy that you are here today because we're talking about the topic of are you actually cut out for business ownership? That is the big question. Some of you are in the idea stage, some of you are maybe trying to get things together now and you want to start soon, or maybe you even already have a business, but you're questioning whether you're actually cut out for this. Y'all, it is a different kind of experience than any other job you've probably had. And I think it's important that you analyze who you are and the person that you're gonna kind of have to become here if you want to build a successful business. We're gonna talk about those today because I think it's super important for you. And I'm so happy you're here. If you're new, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's gonna help you along your business journey, maybe your podcasting journey too. I have been doing this for over 25 years and I have loved running my own businesses. And what I'm here to do is share with you all the tips and strategies and get you thinking strategically so you can build a successful business and maybe a podcast as well. If you're new, make sure you hit subscribe right now. If you're in Apple Podcasts or maybe you're in Spotify, make sure you've fit hit follow or subscribe, whatever the button is that they have right now, because I know it changes sometimes. Make sure you do that because you don't want to miss out on any future episodes that I know are gonna help you along your journey. And if you've been listening a while, thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. Would you do me a favor today? If you have a friend that is thinking about starting a business, someone who has said, you know, I've thought about doing that or is starting one now, will you share this episode with them? I know that it can totally help your friends, your friends, your family, your coworkers, anyone who wants to start a business. I know this will motivate them and get them started in the most simple and confident way possible. Well, that's it. Okay, on to the episode. Hello, friends. I am so glad you're here. Now, this topic is near and dear to me because I truly believe that you have to consider whether you're actually cut out for business ownership or not before you start. I think it sounds very glamorous to a lot of people. And I think a lot of of what has been shown on YouTube and social media is that this is a brave thing you can do. And why wouldn't you start a business? And sometimes I have mixed feelings about that. I think they've really glamorized business ownership. Now, don't get me wrong. I think it's amazing. I think if you're cut out for it, it's a win. You can start out on the side, you can start small, you can be making this income plus your full-time income, and then you can grow it and hopefully quit your full-time job, right? All these things are possible. My clients have done this, you can do it too. So I'm not saying that it's not possible, but sometimes I think it almost, I don't even know how to explain it because I was talking to my husband about it the other night. It like it almost makes you feel like you're a wimp if you don't start your own business. And I don't think everyone is cut out to be a business owner. I really don't. And so sometimes it just rubs me the wrong way because I'm like, not everyone is meant to do this, right? It's like, is should every single person be public speaking? Should every single person have a podcast? No, it's only for you if you felt called to do that, and it's something that you feel in your soul. It's not something that you necessarily should do just to prove that you're some kind of amazing human, right? Now it is challenging and fun. And I know someone, some may out there argue with me. You may not agree with this, but my point is I think you need to think about it before you start a business. It's kind of like before having a child or even adopting a dog. Like there is so much to consider. Now, it will be one of the greatest things you ever do, but it is stress. And this is dealing with income for you and maybe your family. And I think you really need to think about it. Now, of course, I'm always advocating for starting imperfectly and starting simple, and that's the only way to get going. At the same time, you have to consider this before you take the leap. Okay. So let's talk about this today, real quick. I was looking at some of the numbers, and it says that in 2023, over 5.4 million people filed to start a business. And it was an all-time record in 2023, so 5.4 million. Then the following year in 2024, another 5.2 million started, so a little bit less than the previous year. But last year in 2025, 5.6 million people applied or filled out the paperwork and everything to start a business. But here's what nobody is talking about. Wanting to start a business and actually running one are two totally different things. I know this because I've started four businesses myself. And I've helped hundreds of people start their businesses. But I know that this is a whole different ball game when you get rolling, right? Like starting a podcast. I don't think it's for everyone. I think that if you have felt called to start a podcast, meaning you felt a yearning in your soul and you're like, I have something I want to share. Maybe you just want to do it on audio like me or audio and video. And you want to help people, you want to enlighten people, you want to share something, teach something. If you really want to do that, of course you can do it. But if you're just doing it because you want to say that you have a podcast, I think you're going to be in for a real treat. And I don't mean a treat in a good way. It's going to be hard. There's work you have to do every week for a podcast, right? So when I'm talking about a business, it's way more than just starting a podcast, right? Starting a business entails a ton of things, right? And so you have to really think about it. Today we're going to talk about three things that I think you should consider. There's a lot more things you can say you should consider than just this, but I think these are three really good ones that will hopefully help you decide whether you're cut out for this or not. Okay. So here we go. Number one is to consider the fact that you're going to be wearing many, many hats. Okay. It's not like where you get a job somewhere and you're like, okay, if you get a job at Taco Bell or McDonald's and you work as a, what do they call it? A wine chef or a wine cook, or I don't I guess they're not chefs because they're not actually cooking. I don't know where the stuff food is coming from. Is McDonald's food just frozen? Anyways, if you're a cook or you're doing something in the back, you will have one job. You will be putting the fries in the little bag, you'll be wrapping up the burgers, or maybe you're back there actually cooking the patties, right? You'll have one job. You're not doing all the jobs, right? With a business, you're doing all the jobs. So, like when I started my first business in this, it was called in this very room, and I had it online in 2003. I took the business online. Amazon was around at the time, but Amazon was known for books, if you can imagine that. Amazon was known for books at the time. I think there was like a books a million online. And gosh, I can't remember what else. Was Barnes and Noble getting online at the time, possibly? And Amazon was in the mix. Now, little did we know what was coming, but they were known for books, right? So I'm a dinosaur when it comes to this. But when I started that business, I had two little ones at home and I was juggling everything, right? And so once I got started and I had my products that I was gonna sell, set selling home accessories and gifts, and a lot of them were monogrammed and personalized. I was building my website. Okay. I had a Yahoo store. So no one probably even knows what that is, but Yahoo had a store platform. I built it on a Yahoo store. I had to take all the photos. So I had to be a photographer. I had to be the web designer. I then had to get a logo made. So I had to hire out to get someone to make me a quick logo. I had to then update all the product descriptions. We didn't have AI, we didn't have all of this accessible. I had to write them out, put the dimensions or size or washing instructions for whatever I was offering. So I had to do all that, okay? All the tech stuff behind the scenes and get the website up. Then I had orders come in and they would be emailed to me. I would log into my platform. I was processing orders every day. Okay. I was processing orders, I was packaging them, shipping them. Then I was contacting people if their order was out of stock and I had to let them know it's going to be a little while longer because it wasn't as sophisticated back then with your inventory levels that were easily updated on there. So it was kind of a manual process. So I had to deal with all that shipping. I had to know how to print shipping labels, weigh it, package it. So I was a packager. I shipped all that. If there were issues, it was customer service. I had to do email marketing. I also had to deal with my financials and my accounting. Y'all, the list goes on. This is the reality when you start a business. And you will probably have to do all of it. And then you'll start figuring out I think I need to outsource X, Y, and Z, right? I ended up helping or hiring my sister-in-law who started working for me and started holding inventory. It was shipping things for me because I had to get all that off my plate. I couldn't keep the website updated, all the emails, putting new products up, getting photography, all of that. Y'all, you wear a million hats no matter what business you're in. My son, who, as I've talked about a lot, you know, started his own power washing and then moved on to fence staining business to earn a whole bunch of money so he could travel around the world, which he's been doing, which is fantastic. But he has had to wear many hats. And he's like, I can't keep up with all this. I'm like, I know you're gonna have to hire out. You're gonna have to have somebody that's really good at your bookkeeping and your financials. Like he's about to pull his hair out, you know, doing taxes and getting all the documents together. I'm like, just hire a bookkeeper, right? You can get a person that's in college, an intern, somebody you don't have to go to the most expensive bookkeeper, all that stuff, right? He's good at sales and actually completing the job. And he would actually hire other people to work for him, to pass out flyers, put on door hangers to do the work, right? So these are just real life examples. I like to share his business with you because it's relatable, because it's how a young person gets started and they they realize as well, like all the hats that you have to wear. So you have to be ready. If you've got ADD or anything like that, you're gonna have to wrangle yourself because there is a lot that you are gonna be responsible for, and you're gonna have to get very organized and get ready to outsource to the things that you know you're not good at. Okay. So you have to be prepared for that. You are not going in for just one job to be in sales or to be my tech person and keep my website up and all that, or a social media marketer. You're not just doing that job. That is the good thing about going to find a job and getting hired by someone else, is that you're gonna get paid all the time, no matter what, and you just stick to your one job, right? So there is an advantage to working for someone else. It's very clear what you need to do. There's expectations. You're not wearing every hat of a given business. I know I had a friend, and I think I've told y'all this several times before who told me she was starting a business. I was so excited. It was a neighbor. I'm like, that's awesome. And she did it for a while and she was doing it. I had seen her a couple of times. She was doing her business. And then later I started she's doing, she goes, you know what? I quit my business. This is not for me. She goes, I wanted to go back to my normal job where I got paid every week. I didn't have to worry about it. And I just stuck to that. And I was like, more power to you, sister. You got to do what you got to do. So everyone here, you may not know whether you're 100% cut out to be a business owner or not, but I want you to realize that you are about to wear a million different hats. You are gonna be doing all sorts of things and you're gonna have to get ready to learn how to do that. Okay. So that's number one to consider. That's all the hats that you're gonna have to wear at least at one point in the beginning before you outsource, right? Okay, number two, are you willing to be a salesperson? Now, this one rubs people the wrong way because you're like, what? I'm not salesy, or I don't want to be icky. I don't want to be a salesperson. I didn't say you had to be an icky salesperson. I didn't say you even had to be obvious that you're selling someone on something. But you have to come up with a way that sells people and you have to learn how to analyze that and look at your numbers and look at how you're doing it, right? So if you have an online store, like I had my online gift boutiques, at the time, my way of selling was simply getting exposure on Google because at the time in 2003, everyone was using Google and you had to be findable. And they were using like Bing and maybe even did AOL like have a search engine. I can't remember if it was just was it a search engine? I I can't even remember. There was a lot of search engines at the time, right? And I had to be found on the first page. I I focused on Google and I wanted to be found, right? So I had to know enough about SEO to get my website ranked on the first page of Google. And luckily, I knew just enough to get on that first page. And it was the wild, wild west of the times, and it wasn't that hard. Okay. Nowadays you have to pay for placement. That this isn't even in the realm for most people to get ranked on Google. You're doing other things like on social media, podcasting, YouTube to get found, right? For me, I wanted an online business. I didn't want to be schlepping stuff around my area. I had two little kids, and it was just too much. I wanted to manage it from home and I wanted to be home with my children. So for me, this was the way that I was going to sell. That's why I decided to go online, right? And so that was my way of selling was getting found on Google, number one. Number two was when they came to my website that it looked cute and it was trustworthy and it matched the vibe of what I was selling. It was feminine and pretty. And the site for the time looked really good compared to a lot of sites. I just made it feel girly and I had ways that they could easily contact us from the website. And I made it where it built trust and excitement right away. That's how I sold. And then if someone called, like I had a phone line, would pick it up, y'all. I would have a phone at my house. They would leave voicemails. Some of them would email. But when I started, it was still people calling on the phone because they wanted to buy. Right. And so when I would talk to them about my products, I would be like, yes, it's literally the cutest bag. You will love it. It's my favorite bag. The monogram is huge and looks amazing. And me just talking about products that I actually loved was not selling to me. It was doing them a favor and saying, this bag is so darn cute. Your friend is gonna love it. You need to get this for your bridesmaids' gifts or whatever it was. And I, that's how I sold. But you have to be ready to do that. You have to be either enthusiastic about what you're selling, smart about how you're getting people to you, helping people build build trust in you so that they actually buy and hand you the money. Like this is real. You have to be willing to sell, however, that is that you are built to sell, because I think everyone has their own gift in the way that they sell, right? They're very knowledgeable about their product. It means something. They get very excited talking about it. Like when I've talked about podcasting for before to people who were considering starting a podcast, you could just feel how much this podcast has meant to me. And I think that's contagious because people were like, yes, I want that. And it was just so wonderful to be able to share. And in a way, that sold the program, right? Which I still have, by the way. I have a course that you can take, helps you start your own podcast. And we can do one-on-one coaching with that. And I can help walk you through all the steps so it's not so overwhelming, right? There's things that I do to sell, right? And you have to be willing to do that. So ask yourself today am I willing to sell in a way that feels comfortable to me? And if the answer is yes, then green means go and you get to move forward to the next one. Okay. So the first one is be prepared to wear many, many hats. Number two is be willing to sell, okay, in a way that feels comfortable to you. And number three, you have to be able to manage your own time and energy. And I know this sounds silly. People tell you this all the time. You have to be good at time management. You have to know how to work with your own energy, right? I mean, you hear this, but here's the fact there is no boss hovering over you telling you this has to get done right now. Or no boss telling you, listen, we need to take a new direction. You need to be able to adapt. We need to have this new product, you need to take this one off. There's no one telling you you need to work till midnight tonight because some nights you will need to work late or on the weekends, things will happen. There is no structure. Nobody is making you show up, no one is bossing you around except you. So self-leadership is the job underneath the job. You have to be able to lead yourself and show up in a structured manner for you and for your customers and clients. You have to be there for them. You can't just go a-wall and say, Well, I'm available to talk to people from 4:30 to 445 on Tuesdays. I mean, no, people need you. They need to hear from you on email or however it is that you allow people to contact you and work with you. Can you manage your time and energy? I see a lot of new business owners who do have ADD, and this is no knock on ADD people. I think we all kind of have ADD in our own way. Let's just be real. I can get taken off on tangents of things that I could create for y'all in podcast episodes. And sometimes I've got to sit down and go, no, like you actually need to get the episode done right now. Like you have to come out of your body and boss yourself around, right? I have to do this every day, but I do have a set schedule. Like I know how my days are and my days are structured. When I had little kids, things were around their nap time, right? And I would know, like, I'm gonna have two hours to work. And so I would work in the afternoon during those times, right? As they got a little bit older, I had to get a babysitter because they were so active. I had to get someone to help me a little bit at certain times, right? I'm like, I'm gonna have to work, you know, I need help a couple days a week or whatever it may be, because I've got to be there for my clients and I have to be there to keep the business running. Now, you can always hire someone to help you, a V a virtual assistant. They call them a VA. Some kind of assistant can help you and it can help you structure your day and take some of those tasks off your plate. But you have to have a set schedule. For me, every day I get up, I have coffee with my husband in the morning. We watch the Today show, we sit on the couch and do that for a while, eat breakfast, get up and moving. I usually go on a walk or do some kind of exercise that I can do. And then I shower and I sit down to work. So for me, a lot of times it's late morning before I actually start. But then I'm pretty busy all throughout the day, right? But it depends. It depends on what programs I have running at the time. Cause when I was doing a lot more live teachings and I had my group programs, I had to be there. I had to be preparing slides and doing all these things, right? Now I've shifted more to the courses and having one-on-one coaching with new podcasters and new business owners. So it's it's easy for me to structure. And I've also had to look at my season of life. Like I have more freedom. I play pickleball now, too, with my husband in the evenings. He's totally obsessed. And we have other things. I have Bible study and certain things like that that I'm doing now that I've been freed up because my third child, my youngest, is about to be a senior in high school. She can drive herself. So I have been freed up massively than what it used to be. So my day looks different. And I have the freedom too to work a little bit in the morning and work it a little bit in the afternoon or whatever I need to do. But I have to manage that. I have to be my own boss. So you have to be able to manage your time or your energy, or you're going to get exhausted. You're going to be grumpy. You are not going to get the things that you need to get done, or maybe they'll be sloppy, or you won't be able to do what you want to do to grow your business. You have to manage your own time and energy. So again, there are a whole bunch of other things that I could be talking about today, but I think these are three big ones that you should consider. Can you wear every hat? Are you willing to sell? And can you manage yourself? Can you manage your own time and energy? And I think if you can do those things, you're going to be well on your way. Because if you've got a product that you believe in and you're willing to sell it, you're willing to work hard to get it out there and get it up on the website or post on social media, sell it to people and manage your time, I think you're going to do fabulous. I really do. And I think this will be one of the coolest things that you've ever done in your life. Especially if you've been dreaming of doing this. And I believe you already have a calling to do it. You just need to get real about what it takes. And if you're sitting here today and you're trying to start your business, maybe you're offering a product, you're offering a service, or you're starting a podcast, know that I'm available for coaching and we can sit here and just go through real quick, even in one power hour, and get you structured so you know what the heck you're supposed to be doing next, what you should focus on now, and how to move forward. I think sometimes we just need that clarity, and it's hard because you may not have someone to talk to about your specific business, right? We can get a lot of generic information out there, but your situation is unique. Who you are, your skills, your season of life, and what you're selling and how you want to sell it all matter. And I'm happy to talk to you about that and help you get moving so you can actually fulfill this dream of yours. So I'm so happy you're here. I think these are great things to consider. Again, if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me. There's a contact form on my website at Kimberlybrock.com, or you can DM me on Instagram, start with Kimberly Brock. I would love to help you. I'm so excited you're here.

Stay Connected After The Outro

SPEAKER_00 23:11

And until next time, bye now. Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com. And yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.