A dream for a small business might be as simple as a sidewalk flower shop. Or you have an idea for a cozy four-table breakfast shop. Maybe your dream is to start up a concierge bookkeeping service. No matter what the business is, it began with a dream.
As a writer, I’ve been absent from Women On Business for awhile as I was working on redesigning my business blog and art blog; beginning a new direction for my art – into ceramic mosaics [my home-based business revolves around my art business]; and getting into the thick of the art show season. Now that the blogs are redesigned to my liking and I have three new mosaics done and on my gallery page and the season for shows is two-thirds complete, it’s time to pick up the pen again [so to speak].
I began a couple months ago to develop a list of 30 Entrepreneurial Tips. As I get one polished I’ve published it on Twitter. Today I’m writing about #1. Once all 30 are done I’ll put them into a book. This is a business plan, of sorts, for a bit of writing. My dream for writing has always been to approach it as a conversation and to share what I know, or what I’ve learned or what I find interesting. Writing fills one part of my personal creative quilt. The other part is filled by my art work. My dream with my art is to share my love for and passion for color – I believe that Life is full of color.
I once heard that a good definition for entrepreneur is:
- someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it
- a business independently owned and operated [could be a solopreneur business or one with many employees]
- a leader with the capacity to establish direction and influence others toward a common goal
- an innovator, someone who introduces something new
You hear a lot about people wanting to become entrepreneurs. Well I think the “want to” comes from first having a dream – the business then gets built by taking that dream and then organizing it, assuming the risk for it, owning it, establishing direction and going forward. But it’s got to start with a dream. Why a dream as opposed to a goal? I think within the term “dream” lives internal passion and drive…the kind and intensity that will see an entrepreneur through tough times and over rough roads. Along the way to building any business are roadblocks and boulders and naysayers. If you don’t have the passion of the dream chances are those negatives will keep the business in the chrysalis forever.
I read of a pair of entrepreneurs [Dana Arbib and Farah Malik] who began with a dream and pulled together a very unique business called A Peace Treaty. As I read their story I was intrigued because these young women, to my mind, are true entrepreneurs whose business plan includes a humanitarian element. They aren’t the first to do this, to be sure, but these two 30-something year-olds seem to be making it work in a big way. According to their story on their website: “…A Peace Treaty creates employment for skilled artisans working in places of socio-political strife, effectively supporting their craft while elevating their products to the level of high design for an exclusive, international audience….”
This is quite a business vision statement. Can you imagine dreaming of having a business where you combine beautiful fashion accessories with elevating the livelihood of talented women artisans in areas of the world where these artisans have no ability to reach a broader market on their own?
Writer Brooke Kosofsky Glassberg is the fashions features editor at “O, the Oprah Magazine,” and it was in the newest [September 2010] issue that I saw her story about A Peace Treaty. It’s only a one-page story but it was dynamic enough that it caught my attention and caused me to look up this duo’s business on the internet. In her short article Glassberg quotes Dana Arbib as saying, “…Just as the two of us have transcended our political and cultural differences, A Peace Treaty tries to transcend obstacles to create something beautiful….”
Whether your desire is start a home-based business or a small business located in your community’s downtown or at an address on the world wide web, it should begin with a dream, one in which you have invested passion and belief.
