My Journey To Entrepreneurship

I would like to talk about my journey to Entrepreneurship and, I will be surprised if it doesn’t resonate with most of the business owners out there. But before I get going, I want to mention that this is my first article on LinkedIn, so please bear with me if it’s not as polished or perfect as it should possibly be.
As you will see from my profile, I am an Instructional Designer and Developer and Facilitator amongst other things, and it never dawned on me to add Entrepreneur to the list. Why not? Well, maybe because I have been self-employed for many years and I’m not much for labels, plus I don’t feel any different as an entrepreneur today than I felt as a self-employed contractor yesterday. As you will see shortly, the two actually collided and changed my perspective quite drastically.

My First Love

I have been coaching, training and developing the potential of people of all ages for many years and seeing them get that promotion, achieve that goal, or take that opportunity have always been hugely rewarding as I am sure the many trainers and educators out there will attest to. This is why we do what we do, right? However, it was always when I met people who had incredible potential as entrepreneurs and did not achieve that goal or take that opportunity, that it really bugged me. I realise that not everyone is created to be an entrepreneur but there are so many that are, who just cannot bring themselves to step into that role. This really troubled me since I wanted to, but didn’t know how to help them over that hurdle.

Then something happened. I was asked a simple question. So why don’t you do it yourself? Almost immediately I recognised that gut-wrenching, paralysing feeling in the pit of my stomach. Fear. Leaving my happy place and stepping out from the comfort of getting contract work to design and develop training programs for clients, or to train their employees for which I got a regular income, was very daunting. And then I understood. I am not a risk-taker. I am afraid that it won’t work. I want guarantees, or as close to it as possible.

I knew it was now or never. I had to scale down on my regular work for other clients and start developing material for my own business. But on which topic? I have been developing training material on spec for other people for so long, that I had no idea what subject matter I was going to teach on except that it had to be something I care deeply about. There are already loads of really competent and incredibly successful professionals teaching on various skills in the L&D space and, although this is what I love doing, I really felt the world does not need another one right now.

Two Worlds Collide

And then the collision happened. I really wanted to help people who want to earn some extra money or start a small business to overcome that hurdle of fear that I felt. Like me, these folks may not be risk-takers or may not have a feel for how business works yet, but they are not incapable of learning. That’s when it hit me! This is something I know I can do; I can teach, and I can help fellow travellers gain the knowledge required to overcome their fear. In my opinion, it is a great idea, but how do I know how viable it will be?

I set about investigating the topic and created a curriculum for researching, analysing the data and validating a business idea to find out if it would be viable, feasible and profitable and then, based on the evidence, decide on whether to go ahead or not. Knowing is better than guessing, evidence is always better than opinion and making the right decisions depends on gathering the right information. I knew that, if I can help people make an informed judgement call before possibly spending resources they might later regret, fear would fade in the face of evidenced knowledge.

Putting In The Work

I tested every principle and concept for myself in the market before including it in my course material, in short, I’ve been there and done that! I tested my own business idea and based on the evidence, decided to go ahead. I had strategies in place for most foreseeable eventualities and plans to mitigate risks. I felt a lot better about my chances of success.
When I was satisfied that I understood what potential novice entrepreneurs will have to go through, the difficulties they will experience and the risks they will have to face, I started developing my short course. I wrote with the understanding that concepts, principles and strategies should make sense and not couched in jargon and mystifying terminology which I, as a novice entrepreneur myself, sometimes had difficulty deciphering.

Once the material was written, I registered my business LGP Eduserv (Pty) Ltd and published my course. This was another learning curve. Choosing the right platform; setting up payment portals; opening bank accounts, and other boring but necessary stuff had to be carefully investigated and mastered.
And ergo! I had a business and a product which I am confident will meet my goals: Provide an additional income stream and help others stack the odds in their favour before taking the plunge.