There are literally an infinite number of entrepreneurial business possibilities available to you.  For each business concept there are dozens of business models and a virtually limitless number of strategies and tactics to choose from.  In the truest sense of the expression, the variety of possibilities for creating the perfect business for yourself is positively mind blowing. 

What makes a particular business perfect for you at any given time in life is actually not what you might think though.

Business-school principles and conventional wisdom would suggest you find the perfect business for yourself by, amongst other things, evaluating market and economic trends, creating uniquely differentiated competitive products, writing a good business plan, and finding and securiing favorable financing. 

Indeed these are important considerations and, depending on your individual circumstances, to a greater or lesser degree have bearing on how you decide to build the perfect business once you know what it is. 

To the extent that these activities make a useful contribution to fulfilling your vision for the perfect business then you should do them. They are not, however, the most important beginning place, nor are they necessarily determinant of your ultimate success.

I have built several wildly successful businesses without consideration of some of these.  I have met hundreds of others who have as well.  You can too

To be clear, I am not advocating that you not attend to the adminstrative and planning basics for your new business, however, from the perspective of finding the perfect business for yourself, there are more important and immediate considerations.

What makes a particular business perfect for you and what guarantees your astonishing success is how well it aligns with you, your purpose, your passions, and your true inner-most commitments and desires.

The Perfect Business for you is one in which you are free to apply your true passions to the pursuit and successful accomplishment of your greatest life purpose.

Whether you consider yourself a business person today or not, the knowledge, skills, interests, talents, and past experiences you command have prepared you to build many kinds of businesses.  

For instance, in my life I have worked as a cabinet maker, a carpenter, a statistician, a satellite communications engineer, a salesman, a sales manager, a “C-level” executive leader, strategic planning advisor, a writer, a champion athlete, a professional trainer, coach and mentor, to list a few.

While any of these can be (and have been) turned into a successful business, what made one or another the perfect avenue to success for me at a given time in my life was how well it matched the personal lifestyle desires, passions, and purposeful commitments I had at the time. 

For instance, when I was 13, the perfect business for me at the time was lawn-care.  I grew that business an average of 100% per year and employed a crew of over 20 laborers.  I ultimately sold the business for a handsome 6 figure sum when my father accepted a new position requiring us to relocate.  Throughout my years in high-school and college I was constantly innovating new ways to earn money by providing products and services that people needed or wanted. I share many of these stories in my forthcoming book

Later, the perfect business for me was a cabinet & fixture shop.  I quit college at the age of 19 and started a cabinet making business and was ultimately awarded a number of large scale exclusive contracts for high-end furnishings and fixtures throughout the eastern seaboard.  That business expanded into a general contracting business which grew an average of 200% per year and, when I was ready to return to school, financed an undergraduate degree and the majority of a masters degree at one of the top ten private universities in the country.

Still later, it was a series of 6 computer technology ventures netting investors an average of 500% ROI, followed by several consulting practices, a personal training, fitness and nutritional practice and a successful network marketing (MLM) business.  Each of these was the perfect business for me at the time.  Each has provided me an experience of astonishing success and accomplishment. 

I started out as a regular kid just like you.  Over time, each of these experiences has challenged me and equipped me with new knowledge, skills, and experience.

All together, they have contributed to preparing me for this, the most meaningful and significant entrepreneurial business endeavor in my lifetime.

Now, creating information products and providing coaching programs that apply all I have learned from each experience combined with all of the training, coaching, and mentoring I have received throughout to help you create the perfect business for yourself is the perfect business for me. 

It is clear to me that the journey I have taken in life has lead me right here, right now, for the expressed purpose of delivering what I have learned to you. 

It is clear to me that my success in accomplishing this committed purpose will be measured solely and exclusively in relation your success.

Whatever your indiividual interests and experiences, where-ever you are starting from, the question is; which will create the perfect business for you, right now?

Because we are each completely unique individuals, while your desires may indeed be similar to those of another, somewhere within you there is something that uniquely differentiates you and your motivation for the pursuit of a given business idea.  It is this uniqueness within the infinite sea of possibility that makes the business that is perfect for you possible, and, when you find it, guarantees your astonishing success

As you begin the process of finding the perfect business for yourself, realize that you are opening a universe of new possibilities.  You may have a vision for success which includes a suite on the top floor of a high-rise office building downtown.  Or, perhaps your vision is a home-based business with no employees and which allows you a casual work environment and ample time for family, hobbies, or travel. 

Before you can begin the process of finding and planning the perfect  business, you want to be crystal clear about what you really want out of this new life you are about to create.  

You will clearly be more fulfilled and experience a greater sense of satisfaction and accomplishment if you create a business that draws upon what you really enjoy doing.  You are also going to invest a fair amount of time and energy into making your business a success.  If you are truly passionate about it and enjoy it, it will not seem like work and you will not regret investing the time in it.

 This is the most important thing for you to know at this juncture:

 Regardless of the business you choose, in order for you to ultimately experience it as a success, it must be in service of your individual life purpose, align with your vision of success, and support the life you truly want to live.

Before you can really generate a meaningful list of options to choose from, you must get clear about what you want and why.

A good starting place is to be crystal clear about what success is and how you want it to show up in the life you love to live.

I will continue with this series next Thursday with a terrifc new exercise which will help you get clear on what success means to you. 

I welcome your questions, comments, and feedback.  It is my sincere desire that the products I create provide real tangible value to you and help you experience the success you desire.

Your Success Champion,

Steve

There has never been a better time to start a business. 

There are more viable opportunities for you to pursue than at any other time in history.  There is an infinite variety of business models, strategies and tactics to choose from. 

Here’s why:

1. Technology has leveled the playing field between you and well established big business.
2. The internet has matured to such an unprecedented degree that literally anyone can start a fast-growth profitable online business at minimal cost.
3. Home-based business has come of age and no longer carries the stigma of being more of a hobby than a business.
4. Corporations increasingly outsource key functions to smaller businesses creating an abundance of opportunity.
5. Professional people from all business disciplines accept that the days of corporate job security are gone completely.

According to Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration (US-SBA):

“Statistics paint a compelling picture of just how important small business is to America. They show that small entrepreneurial businesses are America’s job-creators, innovators, and the path to mainstream economic activity for all segments of our society”.

Here are some other pretty compelling stats to consider.  Did you know that:

• Small entrepreneurial businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms in the nation.
• Over the past decade, small business net job creation consistently grew between 60 and 80 percent.
• Small businesses employ 75% of all private sector employees.
• Small business accounts for over 51% of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• The US small business economy is greater than the total economies of France, Germany, and Great Britain combined.

And these statistics do not even account for what is probably the single most significant future trend; the arrival of the baby-boomers on the entrepreneurial scene.

The leading edge of the baby-boomer generation is approaching traditional retirement age healthier and more energetic than most in any previous generation. Many in this generation are not looking to stop working and in practical terms while they have typically accumulated a substantial retirement asset based, many have portfolios that are unfit to provide for the financial demands of 40+ years of post career income. 

People in the trailing edge (45-50) of this most economically influential generation are seeking more gratifying lifestyles earlier than their senior contemporaries.   Rather than saving in midlife to finance outright retirement in their late fifties, people now save in their middle years to buy an extra measure of freedom to swap income for careers which make an impact.

The Gen-Next-ers, witnessing the boomer dilemma, are choosing to leverage the internet and other technological innovations to pursue radically different, more entrepreneurial vocational choices earlier in life.  They are literally restructuring life cycles so that they take more leisure earlier in life.

And get this….

According to the Kaufmann Foundation for the past five years the number of new business start-ups has increased by nearly 30% with the people age 50-62 being the fastest growing group of new entrepreneurs in the U.S.

And that’s not all!

According to the most recently published US-SBA figures an astonishing 66 percent of new businesses prosper at least two years after start-up and 44 percent thrive at least four years.

These are pretty impressive statistics and these reports only include an accounting of those businesses created by people who have already made the decision to pursue the entrepreneurial dream.  There are clearly millions of others who may sincerely desire a change but who are not yet underway.

But even more importantly than all of these statistics is the one fundamental truth that small business ownership transforms lives. 

All around the world people are awakening from the circa 1950’s belief that they must sacrifice life-quality to accommodate a chosen profession to the refreshing more enlightened awareness that in order to live a satisfying and successful life their  vocation, what they ‘do’, must support and enhance the life-qualities they desire.

This emergence of this social awareness and acceptance has catalyzed a powerful demographic shift that has created limitless opportunities for those willing to learn, grow, and succeed.

This article marks the begining of an 8 week series of articles.

As a special gift to you and as a free preview of a brand new amazing product launch scheduled for August 26th

I am going to give you a simple, sure fire, step by step, formula for finding THE PERFECT BUSINESS FOR YOU.

A business that capitalizes on these extraordinary demographic shifts

A business that is tailor-made to meet your personal passions, time freedom, and economic wishes.

A business that is a perfect genetic match for you and your inner most desires.

A business that is 100% guaranteed to deliver the successful, accomplished, and satisfying life you want to live.

If you are considering the possibilty of starting your own business, OR

If you have already started one and it is not everything you want it to me, OR

If you don’t want to be in business for yourself but know someone who does,

then stay tuned to this article series each Thursday evening for the next 8 weeks.

I am going to give you a simple, sure fire formula for finding the perfect business for yourself.

Keep Learning,

Steve

Your Success Champion