Permission to Launch Your New Business

Guest post by OMC member Kelsey Marie Knutson, Business Coach, and Strategist

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Permission

I’m here to give you permission. Not that, that should be my job, but I feel like it’s time to talk about something important here. What I’m talking about is when to start. As in when to launch your new business.

Let me back up the train a little bit. If you’re catching this in the future, know that 2020 has been a crazy year. It’s left a lot of us feeling anxious, vulnerable, and stressed. But it’s also caused us all to pause and reflect. And in some cases dream. Today I’m speaking to those people.

Those of you who are dreaming of quitting your day job to go full time in your business. Those of you toying with an idea, unsure where to start. And those of you with a solid hobby you dream of growing into a thriving business. You. I want you!

You see, oftentimes we spend a lot of time in the “dream” phase or the “what if” phase that we neglect the “take action” phase. At a certain point, you have to put down your self-help book, tune out the business podcast, and get to work. And to do that we need to address a few things.

You need to give YOURSELF permission to take the next steps. If you find yourself unable to stop dreaming of this idea, do it. Jump in. What are you waiting for? There’s always going to be a reason NOT to start… if you let there be. Which is why step one has to be, decide to do it.

Map it out

And before you get distracted with making things pretty or branded, I challenge you to map out a plan. What’s the minimum you need to do to sell your product or service? If you’re opening a massage studio, does it really matter what your business cards look like? If you’re launching an online course, do you need to grow your Pinterest following first? Write out the bare minimum you need to get started.

If you have that little voice in the back of your head saying, “I’ll wait until we buy that house” or “after my husbands raise I’ll start” or “when the kids start school I’ll have more time,” I challenge you to ask yourself a tough question. If those factors didn’t exist, would you start today? If your answer is an emphatic yes, then the time to start is now!

Here’s where the responsibility falls on you. You’ll need to carve out the time to make this all happen. Maybe that’s 30 minutes each night before bed. Or devoting your Monday’s to business growth. Time is
precious, so when you’re working on your business, be efficient and focused. And a gentle reminder, scrolling Instagram is not working on your business.

Aim Big, Start Small

Lastly, aim big but start small. If your goal is to launch an online course, start with mapping out the course. Then make a list of small but specific tasks that will lead to your launch.

I share all of this because I believe in you and I understand how you feel! I started my business during a very uncertain time (literally financially supporting my partner and I while he was applying to
Engineering school). Whether your business has been impacted by Covid, you’re a new mom, or you’re just ready for a change, know that I see you, I believe in you, and I’ll help you get there.

As an added bonus, I want to give you this free guide to help you organize your thoughts, you can grab it here:
https://www.kelseymarieknutson.com/compass. Or you can join my free online community where I also give our tips and resources to help you start and grow, join the tribe here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kelseymarieknutson. But now it’s time for you to do some work, so let’s get to it!

Cheers,

Kelsey

You can follow Kelsey on Instagram!