Whilst sitting in my rather overgrown but beautiful garden, after a wonderful day at Action Petz. I was enjoying the glorious sunshine and feeling reflective watching my dogs bask happy, safe and loved, I had an overwhelming sense of joy and compulsion to write my first ever blog about starting your own business.
People that know me well will say that I am not very techy, so to me the word blog is alien. For you non techy folk out there like me, you will understand. This piece is really just a human-like sharing of thoughts, feelings and experience (Yes I do like humans as well as dogs! Sometimes).
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
So, with my ‘First Ever Blog’, I started out by wondering what on earth I could share that would help people? With my logical and rather male-like analytical brain, the most I can hope to achieve here is that I might inspire at least one person that is going through a similar process to me. If you are starting your own business or running a business, KEEP GOING! Steer your life in the direction of your dreams and believe in yourself!
So getting down to the point, and being tempted to just bullet point my experience (I won’t) setting up my own business has been the second most incredible journey of my life so far, the first being lucky enough to bring up my son and watch him grow into a wonderful young man.
STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS
It has been said to me ‘I bet you didn’t realise when you started out that Action Petz would be like this?’ Well, at the risk of sounding a tad obnoxious… Actually yes, I did! Once I had hit on something I was prepared to live, eat, breathe and obsess over and consume myself with night and day; to the detriment of probably ALL other aspects of my life. I was off; like an athlete on the starting blocks. I knew what I needed to do and I knew pretty much how I was going to do it.
HAVE A DREAM, CREATE A PLAN, ANALYSE THE MARKET AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Many of us know the stats about the massive percentage of businesses that fail (if you don’t – you can guess!). Many of these business articles will blame the lack of money for this. I disagree: this world is full of money. It is my opinion that to succeed in business you must believe in yourself first above all else!
LOVE WHAT YOU DO, AND WHY YOU DO IT
A wonderful human being that I had the pleasure of working with in my previous career inspired me in so many ways. He said that humans will only do things that they either want to do, or get something out of. For me it’s both, I love Action Petz on so many levels and I believe in its concept with every part of me. I have witnessed improvements to hundreds, if not thousands of dog’s lives which is directly owed to Action Petz. What do I get out of it? Happiness, joy and satisfaction, of course! Money? Not yet, but that will come in time and with money will come the freedom and ability to help others and animals, and as clichéd as it sounds, that is what I want to do.
My 15+ hours a day spent working often start at 4 AM, and last until late evening. Why? Because I want to, because I believe in Action Petz. My early mornings are spent emailing, responding to messages, reflecting on the business, strategising, and a healthy amount of watching and reading inspirational and motivational things. Is it hard? Is it difficult? For me no, but what I will leave you with is this.
If you are stubborn beyond all normality, have belief over and above all that is rational, you can absolutely achieve that which you are committed to, including starting your own business, like I did with Action Petz.
I will leave you with my favourite quote of the moment:
‘If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time’ Zig Ziglar.
