Tapping Into Potential

Author

Michele Morgan
March 30, 2024

One year ago today I presented my Tapping Into Your Potential workshop to a small group of women excited about making their dreams a reality. They had some amazing business ideas! Beautiful, community-impacting, legit ideas . . . but most of them didn’t pursue them. They had so much potential.

Here’s the thing: We all have potential. Potential to do anything we want. But potential needs action🎬.

Thought without action is fruitless. Action without thought is aimless.

Dose of Reality: 

  • Roughly 7-8% of you will actually do it. Now, I would like to think that everyone in CONNECT collective is in that 7-8% and that you all will succeed. 

  • Over 40% of people plan to start a business.

  • 48% of side hustlers want to turn that side gig into a full-time business.

  • 50% of businesses fail within 5 years.

  • eCommerce businesses have an 80-90% failure rate.

I can give you data on the reasons businesses fail but, more importantly, I’ve been a part of businesses (brick and mortar, corporate, nonprofit, eCommerce) and can give you personal knowledge of why businesses succeed and fail. Unsurprisingly, the statistics and my experiences align pretty closely. The data doesn’t lie.

#1 Reason Businesses Fail

We’ll start with a big one: The person with that potential business doesn’t even start.

According to a Zapier-commissioned Harris Poll survey of over 2,000 Americans, roughly three in five Americans (61 percent) have had an idea for starting a business, but an overwhelming majority of those people—92 percent—didn’t follow through with turning their idea into reality

That’s a lot of people not putting action behind their potential business. I get it; it’s scary starting something new and unknown. What if it doesn’t take off. What if people don’t like it? What if, what if, what if? Here at CONNECT collective, we take a pragmatic approach that removes a lot of the fear behind starting a business. This leads me to another big reason businesses fail . . . .

#2 Reason Businesses Fail

People don’t have a plan. Or, at least, they don’t have a solid plan. Only 35% of business owners have a plan. OMG! That is unfathomable, y’all. It is better to have a plan than no plan. 100%! Then, once you have a loose idea of what you want, take the time to tighten it up. 

Cliche but true:

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. 

Don’t let either of these reasons be the reason keeping you from launching (or maintaining) a viable business.

#1: Don’t let fear (or other blocks) keep you from starting your dream business.

#2: Don’t be the person flailing because you don’t have a plan.

Take Action!

#1 Flesh out business ideas by completing the CONNECT Exploratory Roadmap for Creative Ideas (on the CONNECT collective FB group under the “Files” tab). Complete what you can, and we will walk through the rest in the coming weeks. If you think future you will regret not starting your dream business, then at least take the time to write it out. It costs you nothing to do some research.

#2 If you don’t have a plan, get one. Use the CONNECT Exploratory Roadmap for Creative Ideas (on the CONNECT collective FB group under the “Files” tab) to get you started. Complete what you can, and we will walk through the rest in the coming weeks.

Master Your Mindset

The First and Most Important Step: Know what you want, why you want it, and how you will get there. You create your story. So, get crystal clear on what you want that story to be, and start moving toward it every day.

I’m the guide. The coach. The connector.

What’s your story?

Each week we will walk through challenges and solutions of starting, maintaining, and growing a healthy business that impacts your community.

Become a part of our community of passionate people building businesses by joining our CONNECT collective FB group.

If you are an established solopreneur or side hustler and need support with scaling your business, contact me for a coaching session.

Q: Did Michèle make this shiz up?

A: Data Sources: