Owning a personal business is a dream of many people.

Personal business is an option to consider if you desire true freedom. Almost everybody working as an employee wants to be liberated from the dictates of their employers. They want to do things in their own ways if only they are the owner of the business.

But unfortunately, this remains an unachievable dream till they reach their retirement age. Some believe that they would start their own personal business after attaining retirement age but they soon realize that what stopped them from starting their own personal business when they were active in employment still prevent them from starting the personal business after their retirement. This is not to say that people do not or cannot start a personal business after retirement but these are exceptions. Why is it that starting a personal business remained a dream and not a reality for many people? Why would somebody work on a job he doesn’t enjoy for the greater part of his life? I have found out that only few employees actually like what they do.

The truth is that you cannot be your best doing what you don’t enjoy. One of the secrets of millionaires is that they enjoy what they do. They are not working for money. That is not to say that they don’t have making money as part of their objectives but that is just by the way. It is a product of engaging in activities that actually drive them. Money comes naturally to them after they had invested their times and energy doing what give them fulfillment. That is why you see many of them still working after they must have created great wealth. They have passion for their jobs. It is their lives. You can’t take it from them. In fact, they don’t retire from their jobs. I don’t want to mention names of anybody at all but if you look around you, you will find some people who are millionaires. I am not talking about those who that engage in illicit businesses. Those people I call millionaires are the people who actually work for their money.

So, if you don’t enjoy what you are doing, you are only working for money and it is likely you may not have that money enough as you want it. My mentor has told me several times that it is difficult to create wealth working for somebody. In essence, he is saying that one cannot be truly rich living on paycheck. If at all you have the money, you may not have the fulfillment. An author called it a rat race. He stated further, “if you win the race at the end of the day, you still remain a rat”.

What am I saying in essence? If starting a personal business is your dream; you know that you derive joy in doing it and you know that doing it will give you joy and fulfilment, it is high time you considered starting it now. Don’t wait till all lights are green. If you wait, you will discover that the lights will never be green. The best time to start is now. Don’t procrastinate!  Procrastination, they say, is the thief of time. Doing what you don’t like is like cheating on yourself. You will not enjoy your life and at the same time, you will rub yourself of fulfilling your dream.

As a potential entrepreneur, taking the following steps will help you in starting and running your personal business.

Identify Your Gift.

Everybody is endowed with a particular gift. There is no one that is not gifted in a particular area but not everybody is able to identify his gift. Some may identify it but refuse to develop it. The irony of it is that you see people leaving their areas of strength and start copying another person. They want to be someone else. I am not saying that it is a crime to model your life after somebody you respect. What I am saying is that you should not try to become somebody else. You cannot be that person. You can only be a photocopy.

How can you identify your strength? Identifying your strength start from looking inward and recognize those things you naturally do with ease. I hope I am not misleading you. Traditionally, people believe that you should go to school and obtain degree. But in most cases, those people that follow this path live their lives working for people. There is nothing wrong in going to school neither is there anything wrong in working for people. After all, I went to school and I worked as an employee too.

The point is that your journey to creating wealth start from the day you are able to identify your strength and you decide to leverage on it.

Read Also: Benefits of Starting Business Small

Develop Your Gift

Don’t be surprised if you discover that your gifting is entirely different from what you are doing presently. Having recognized your gifting which can be called your talent, you have to be committed to developing it. This might require you going to formal school; it can be a vocational training. It can even be by becoming a protégé under a mentor.  Whatever it requires, it is good you go for it and give yourself to it.

Take A Baby Step

Starting a personal business is not as complicated as some people think about it. That is not to say that starting personal business does not have its own challenges. Why it is difficult for many people is that they want to start big. They want to compete with the multinationals having forgotten that road is now built in a day. Starting small has its own advantages. If you read the history of these multinational companies we see around today, it will shock you that some of them were started in a back yard. But today, they are no more a back yard business. Some of them have become a household name. I refuse to mention names of companies again. This is the assignment I want you to do. When you find out some of these things yourself, it becomes a motivation and driving force to start your own personal business too. You can boldly say to yourself that if this is the way these companies were started and they are what they are today, you too can build your own.

If you are working as an employee, you don’t necessarily need to quit your job to start your own. You can start by utilizing your free times, especially weekends, to start working on your idea and test running it. This ensures that you still maintain your current source of income.

Destroy Procrastination

People say that it is easier said than done. When you have identified your business opportunity, you need to get started as I mentioned above. Planning is not the same thing as implementation. A good plan not implemented is as good as no plan. Don’t be caught by ‘analysis paralysis’; a situation whereby you analyse and analyse and at the end, nothing is done. A player is better than a commentator. A player can make mistakes, he can even fall but the truth of the matter is that, every mistake or fall he experiences is what makes him to become a star.

But a commentator who is sitting down analyzing the game will hardly learn anything except how to criticize. You need to take action.

Read Also: How to Choose the Right Small Business Idea

Starting a Business