Do you realize how many quotes and speeches are about dreams? Martin Luther King's "I have a dream", is only one of many. With the theme of this year's SSBI conference being "Dream the Work: Work the Dream", I started researching dream quotes and my favorite, and the one we adopted for the year is "If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.” I think that says exactly what I see as being the best theme for small business and entrepreneurs.
For many of us in the state of Michigan, we find ourselves in a role that we had not considered even just a few years ago -- thanks to the economy we've lost our jobs, we can't find new jobs and in order to make ends meet we have started our own little businesses -- and we've suddenly become entrepreneurs. And with that entrance into the business world, we have our hopes and dreams all tied up to our very souls. We so want this new endeavor to be a success.
Walt Disney's quote shows us that there are unlimited ways to make our dreams come true if we have the courage to just step off the edge and go for it. Sounds easy doesn't it -- well, it's not. Enthusiasm and energy focused on that dream and its goal are very important, but it is also imperative that you need to understand how to Work the Dream. You can't just say, okay this is what my business is, now open the doors and wait for the customer. You have to know about marketing, advertising, sales, customer service, finances, legal issues -- it goes on and on. How do you do that and still work ON your business? Go back to school and get a degree in business? Hire consultants to do all the work of running a business? Simply ignore the admin side in favor of the "stuff" of the company? None of that makes a lot of sense does it?
You MUST learn these things in order to move your business forward. And furthermore, you need to be active in relationship building with other business owners. Network, share your thoughts and ideas, create value for yourself and others. Isolation is a big problem for solopreneurs who work alone. They need to have contact with other, like-minded individuals who also have a dream and a goal. By regularly taking time away from the work OF the business in order to work ON the business, an entrepreneur gets the rejuvenation needed to go on. And, if they participate in training programs, networking events and just some plain old FUN once in awhile, they can go back to their work feeling stronger, with new ideas to work around issues they might be dealing with. It's a win-win and the "dream and the mouse" can then become the next Walt Disney World. Now THAT'S a dream we all have isn't it?
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