Dream Sharing

Building Your Dream Business – Going All In

September 13, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

Ok – so now you are at the place in building your dream business where you have begun to see three things:

What works and was doesn’t work.
How much time and energy your definition of success is going to take.
Whether your dream is really a marketable business.

Let’s assume that the answers to these questions leads you to the conclusion that you can build a successful and solid business based on your life dream. Let’s say that you can see where improvements can be made and you are moving to make those improvements. Let’s say that you are both excited and confident that you have struck a perfect balance between life and business.

Now what?

Now is the time to go “all in!” You see, up to this time, the bets were small and the losses were manageable. If things didn’t work out you could just chalk it up to being a grand experiment that didn’t pan out. But, just as the costs and risks were manageable, the results and benefits were also limited. If this is in fact your dream business, it deserves your full time and attention.

As you finish up the last days (years) of the first chapter of life and move on to “Chapter 2″ you need to hit the ground running. Hesitating at this point would be worse for your life, business, and dream than not having started in the first place. This is where the rubber meets the road, where you’ve hit all your marks and now it’s time to race on to the finish.

By directing this kind of time and attention to your dream you are bound to succeed in the way that you have chosen in building your dream business.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurialism, Retirement, Second Career Tagged With: Business, Business model, Dream, Dream Sharing, Interpretation, Psychology, Retirement, Social Sciences

Building Your Dream Business – Research the Possibilities

September 6, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

Marine Institute Ireland, Strategic_Planning_S...

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Ok – if you followed the advice in the first article in this series, you have spent some time considering what your dream business would look like. You have worked your way through your life dreams and have narrowed your thoughts down to those few things that excite you the most.

Now comes the hard part! Researching which of these dream options can meet your criteria for success. Remember the definition of success is fluid and you must define it before you choose which dream to pursue. (For me success has three parts: 1. The ability to work from anywhere. 2. The ability to help people change their life circumstances for the better. 3. Generate enough income to pay my bills and care for my family.)

So, define success as you see it and then “Let the research begin!”

Your research should be broken down into three major parts:

1. Is there are market for your dream?

Let’s say your dream is photographic art and that your “specialty” is native flora. The questions you must ask yourself would be:

Are there buyers for this kind of art?
Are there galleries that will display my work?
Are there online options for selling your art?
How much competition is there in my specialty?
How much time and resources can I put into the development of this dream business?
What level of profit/success do I have to reach and how long do I have to get there?

Making the right choice here is critical to any definition of success!

2. Do I have/can I develop the skills necessary for success?

Using the illustration above about photography:

What kind of real skills do you have and/or are you willing to learn?
Do you have the time/motivation to take classes, read books and trade magazines, and practice your skills on a daily basis?
Are you teachable and willing to learn from someone with the kind of skills you are trying to acquire?

3. Are you willing to learn how to create a strategic plan to sell your skills in a profitable way?

One of the most difficult things for “dreamers” to do is to work through the operational side of their dream business.

What will be your base operational costs?
What kinds of new equipment/processes will be necessary for your business to be successful?
How do you set up a workable budget and business plan to assure the financial side of your success?

Without this strategic planning your business will never be more than just a hobby (which is fine if that is all you are looking for) that generates a hobby sized return.

Building your dream business requires more that most people think. Are you willing to research the possibilities?

Filed Under: Entrepreneurialism, Retirement, Second Career Tagged With: Building your dream business, Business, Dream, Dream Journal, Dream Sharing, Interpretation, Possibilities, Research, Retirement

Start at the Beginning – Building Your Dream Business

August 30, 2011 by Dave Wellman 2 Comments

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At the beginning of every football season, I remember the famous quote attributed to Vince Lombardi in which he would gather his team together, hold up a football and say, “men this is a football.” You can’t get much more basic than that can you? But every year these big, strong, professionals would hear Coach Lombardi remind them that he was holding up a football.

Today, I want to start a series about building your dream business. And, in the spirit of Coach Lombardi, I want to start at the beginning by saying, “A dream business starts with a dream.”

Remember when you were a kid, you had no inhibitions about dreaming. You and your friends would lay around in the summer sun and talk about what you were going to “be” when you grew up. Those dreams were usually pretty extravagant and unlimited in both scope and nature. Some would even say that they were unrealistic, but they were your dreams.

Now, fast forward 40 years or so. You are now ready to “retire” but like so many you see that supplementing your retirement income is either a necessity or something that you want to do to remain active and productive. The only question is “what do I want to do?”

My suggestion: Re-start that same “dream machine” that you used on that hot summer day so many years ago. Find a quiet place (I like the outside seating at my favorite coffee house), take a brand new blank journal, and just start dreaming again!

Ask yourself questions like: “What really makes me happy?” or “How can I turn my favorite thing to do into a profitable business?” Don’t forget to ask, “How can I create a business model that lets me live the retirement life that I want to live?”

Keep asking questions and writing down your thoughts and expanding them with little care for time, the amount of stuff you write, or what other people might think about your dream business. (There will be plenty of time for other people to shoot down your dream!) Right now you are just dreaming; just letting your mind and your essence create. Time to let your thoughts and your dreams mold something out of nothing. Time to start at the beginning. Time to ask, “what would I do if ….”

When you have dreamed all you can dream for one day, shut your journal and start your “normal” day. But, take the journal with you and add to it anytime thought about building your dream business comes to you. Before long that business will begin to leap off the pages of your journal and begin to make sense.

When it does, you will be ready for step 2 … evaluating your dream!

Filed Under: Second Career, Success Traits Tagged With: Building your dream business, Business, Dream, Dream Business, Dream Journal, Dream Sharing, Psychology, Retirement, Social Sciences, Vince Lombardi

A Dreamer’s Dream

May 23, 2011 by Dave Wellman 2 Comments

3. Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights act...

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On August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the world heard the famous “I have a dream” speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King. It was a dream that spoke of throwing out the stereotypes of the past and looking forward to a brighter future. To me the most powerful line in his speech was when Dr. King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

While I in no way consider myself to be the man that Dr. King was nor am I trying to “make hay” through the use of his words, I am also a dreamer, and I have a dreamer’s dream.

My dream is a very long and complicated one and I will not try to explain it all in this one post (I bet you are thankful for that!) However, I really need to say something today because I must.

The basis of my dream is my faith and, without getting into the details of that here, suffice it to say it is the driving force in all that I do. My faith teaches me that I have an obligation to live with and to treat with dignity all of mankind whether they agree with me or whether they do not. Now within this obligation of showing dignity, I do have the right to like or not like who I choose. However, my treating someone with dignity is not determined by whether I like them personally or not.

In the realm of business, my dream is to find and work with a group of people and businesses that see the opportunities of business not just as a way of enriching themselves, but as a way of making the world a better place. I dream of a future where business owners really care for their customers/clients again and where the care of those customers goes beyond product/services and includes things that benefit their communities as well. (Philanthropy, conservation of natural resources, and care for people in need are examples of such things.)

My dream is to bring the “small town” approach back to the urban world I live in and to teach that approach to new businesses/entrepreneurs before they get entrenched in the business for profit alone mindset. I want to be able to talk to my customers, clients, and other business owners as friends and fellow members of a community rather than just those who allow my business to grow and profit.

My dream is that when I or others I have the privilege to teach treat people and the community with dignity, that the dream will spread. I dream that people will respond to this way of being treated by treating others the same way. Where conflicts exist now, they can be worked through. Where the foolishness of hatred exists, it can be defeated. And where those who refuse to see a brighter future to come will loose their positions of power and influence on those who current follow them.

I don’t know why I needed to say this today, but I did. So, there it is … the skeleton of my dream. If you would like to comment, please do. If you would like to talk about the details of the dream, I would love to do that. Just let me know.

Now, go out and live your dream!

Where are the dreamers? (doulosmarketing.com)

Filed Under: Social Entrepreneurship Tagged With: Dr. Martin Luther King, Dream, Dream Sharing, Dreamer's dream, Faith, Faith based dream, Lincoln Memorial

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Building Your Dream Business – Going All In

Building Your Dream Business – Research the Possibilities

Start at the Beginning – Building Your Dream Business

A Dreamer’s Dream

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