Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Business Owners: Tell your Story!

As entrepreneurs and business owners many of us work day in and day out doing what we enjoy, learning, empowering others and engaging with positive change. Well, at least that is part of what we do. The other part is, traditionally, working on our goals and following our dreams – or the other way around which will take us eventually to the same place. In a way, it will all feel very much like ‘doing what we enjoy, learning along the way, empowering others and engaging with positive change’, again and again.

Entrepreneurs are those amazing individuals that dare to take chances; that are creative while adapting and being flexible. And in the process, we need to understand that to many other people we can be a source of inspiration and motivation. This is why we need to tell our story; to show others that no matter what: ‘Yes! We have done it and you and they can do it as well; and even much better.’

Sharing our story is like giving a part of our ideas to other people, teaching them how to improve, explaining them how we began, or how many times we have done it. Yes I know we do not talk about it but we come up short sometimes; we fail in some cases; but the growing process is actually learning from all of those experiences. So get out there and tell people how we did it, and how we are constantly improving.

And in doing so, we need to go back to our beginnings. Usually we all have an entrepreneurial mind hidden some place until it wakes up. This entrepreneurial mind is the one that keeps us awake, that generates questions that need answers; that make us dream in many cases. When did it start? How did it start? Probably there is no concrete or specific answer as it may have been an evolution process; or maybe, as it happens to many other people, you know exactly when it all started.

For me, well, I started selling t-shirts and clothes after my travels; then it was a hot-dog stand and then a second one. I was working in corporate finance but doing other things on the side. And then the first big entrepreneurial move came, as I was the founder of a sandwich shop that grew into a 9-store fast casual hamburger chain. I started learning about franchising and about business management, plans, goals and the many interesting topics I work on today. And over the years, while having a successful career in the corporate world, I was also an entrepreneur.

Today as a business performance coach, I have the opportunity to share my story, my adventures, my journeys. And I invite you to do that as well. Share what you did and what you do; teach what you have learned, what you are doing and how you have improved. After all, we are here to teach and mentor others and what a better way to do it than through your very own story telling.

Dare to do it and inspire others along the way!!!

Luis Vicente Garcia
@lvgarciag