Dec 1, 2017
Todays episode is a follow from last Fridays episode of Join Up Dots, where we answered some listener questions. Jenny Kimble and Jorge Uribe both wrote to the show asking for advice, as both wanted to build their own businesses but didn't know how to start. So asked these questions: Hi David and friends! I am literally listening to you most recent podcast right now, I love it and all of your other ones are so inspiring as well. I need help please! I am an artist, and I want to be an artist full time or have a shop or something that I can do that is creative, where I can paint all day and sell my work. I have been evolving with my art and I feel that i know who I am as an artist and I continue to grow. My full time job is very draining and stressful and I sit in an office all day and people that come in are 90% rude to me all day long. My son and husband and I are living with my mom ...my husband can't work due to many health reasons and we are in a big time rut. It's making me mean and cranky and depressed and I dont want to be that person ..to my family especially. You said to just make it work and change your life...but i just need a little advice or something to get it going. I'm willing to do anything to be happier for myself and my family. Help! (Please ♡) thank you! ~Jenny Kimble~ Well in today's episode we follow on from what we advised due to Jenny sending us a follow up email, discussing the progress that she made when she advised us Hi David! Listened to you show today where you read my email and gave me great advise! Thank you so much. I really appreciate everything you said and will definitely be taking your advise and using it very soon I also have listened to the podcast you sent me about the amazing lady who makes the framed quotes to make a living. It was great! Funny enough, a few days ago a friend of mine quit her job (same place as me) and as a going away gift I painted her a small canvas with a sarcastic remark that a few of us in the office as friends said to each other a lot, and it was kind of an inside joke. She liked it so much and the girls thought it was so funny that they encouraged me to start the etsy shop where id sell sarcastic, vulgar, funny and nice little canvases with funny quotes on them. The next day, another friend of mine said I should do something similar and I took it as a sign to maybe just pursue it and see what happens. i have also looked into Amazon. I will say that i am going to cancel my gym membership (since i've only gone three times lol ) and will use that money to get an amazon membership or a personal website. Just wanted to keep you updated! Thanks again for your support and I will definitely be in touch! ♡Jenny♡ And now for Jorge Uribe, who first connected with us by saying: I hope everything is great. I love your show! I just started to listen to podcasts about 2 months ago because I was looking for a way to not get bored at my cubicle. That is how I found Join Up the Dots and even though my native language is not English, let alone that for me the British accent is more difficult to understand, I got so engaged with your show that I can't stop listening to it. I have been dreaming of having my own business since I was a kid, the funny thing is that I have never gone that way in my life. I am born and raised in Peru and about 5 years ago I was getting bored with my job and I thought that I should try to challenge myself and pursue an MBA abroad. That is how I came to Canada, where I am currently living and working. After finishing my MBA last year, I tried to get a job in my field, a task that ended up being very difficult. I couldn't get any job offer in my field and I was running out of money so I had to be creative and do something to earn some cash. I was doing some temporal jobs where I had to do about anything, even whipping floors. In the meantime, I kept applying to different positions and one day I saw a job posting to do administrative work, I thought that I could leverage my knowledge of working with MS Office and decided to apply. Fortunately, I got the job and after 2 months, due to good performance, I got hired for a full-time position there. The salary just allows me to survive, I cannot save money, but at least I can eat and pay my bills. The thing is that I still have the same dream of creating a business, I don't see myself working all my life for someone. I want to create jobs and opportunities for other people and I, of course, want to own my time and life. I am a hardworking individual and don't care if I have to work 80 or more hours per week in something I like doing. I am very creative, I have good ideas all the time, but my problem is that I don't know how to execute and take action, maybe because I have been working for someone so long. The reason for me to write to you is because, as I commented, I listen to your show every single day and I heard you saying that you can help people like me to unleash the entrepreneur inside. I don't know where to start, what to do or which of my ideas I should pursue and unfortunately I don't have money to invest because I spent my life savings in my master degree. I read, breath and eat business information every day and I am very passionate about entrepreneurship and small businesses. I hope you don't find this email so long and please excuse my bad English, but it was hard to comprise all my story here because there was even more information I wanted to share. I also hope this email is part of my first step to take action as the call you did to one of your favorite shows some years ago where you tell the host your feeling about his show and your desire to become an entrepreneur. It would be great to look back and found this email and see my entrepreneurial journey with proud as you see yours now. Since advising him on the show, he has now got the thoughts rushing around his brain which he shared in this response What you mentioned about me of being a niche, is just great! Among the ideas that I have been evaluating there is one that is very similar to what you mentioned in the show. I would love to help people from South America to improve their education and at the same time to experiment what living abroad is. Some friends from Peru, have been asking me about my experience here, and one of them even told me that she wanted to study here in Canada. That's when I thought I could create some kind of consulting service. Some days passed by and I told her that I could help her, I didn't tell her I was going to do it for money, just as a friend, but she told me that she had new challenges at work and she was going to focus on that now. What I thought could have been my first customer ended up to be just an illusion. That is why I didn't continue developing the idea but now that you mentioned it, I think there could be something there. I still have some doubts about how to start. I know that if I want to create a business using the internet I have to create an online presence. Here is where I get lost, should I create a blog, podcast, website, YouTube channel and how can I start bringing people. And what about the legal aspects, should I incorporate, open a sole proprietorship? or should I just start with an online presence until I get customers and see if it works. The doubt is also because I don't think that a business can be taken seriously by customers if it is not a legal entity. I know you are busy and I don't want to monopolize your time with so many questions but any thought you might have about this is very appreciated. Again thank you for your help. I listen to your show every day but I never imagined that I was going to be part of one. I am extremely grateful for that. So are you ready to follow suit and start your own business?