When I left the family business and decided to work in the real world, I was astounded by the amount of people I met who wanted their own small business. Unfortunately, finances dictated that they work for someone else.
No matter how hard I saw these people work, they were still financially challenged. I saw many of these people working a full-time job as well as a part-time job.
Most of these people didn’t drive expensive cars or live in expensive homes. They worked hard and knew that unless they won the lottery, they would never have the chance to realize their dreams and open their own small business.
I left the small business world a few years ago after spending the majority of my life there. I left because I felt that my life had another purpose.
Shortly after I left, I began CareerLifeAttitudes. I began CLA to motivate and teach. I wanted to motivate people to go after their small business dreams. I thought, if their finances were standing in their way, I wanted to motivate and teach them how they needed to turn on their creativity and figure out a way around their finances. I also wanted to teach people about low cost ideas they could use within their small business. In a nutshell, I want people to know how you can use your creativity to start your own small business.
I decided all this mainly because I am a history freak. I enjoy reading books about American history and it intrigues me how history always seems to repeat itself.
Look at us now, as compared to those who lived during the Great Depression. Our problems today are nearly the same as they were back then.
One of the biggest differences between now and then is that in the last few of generations, we have raised our children in group settings. From daycares to schools to sports—everything they do is within the group.
Independent thinking and creativity is not encouraged. In fact, many people are no longer amazed by the amount of college students they see entering the workforce who must be told every five minutes what to do with their time.
During the Depression era people had the qualities of independent thinking and creativity. This gave them the motivation to discover new ways of life and success.
There are people today who have the qualities of independent thinking and creativity. Just look at the Pet Butler Company. Who would have thought that picking up dog poop would be a multi-million dollar business? How did this business get started?
Owner Matt Boswells states:” It’s kind of the only-in-America idea of Wow, anything’s possible. The service is very simple. We don’t incorporate any crazy technology to scoop the poop. We don’t look like a big Ghost Buster popping out of a van or something with all of this equipment. The service itself is very simple. We simply take away the worst hassle of pet ownership….so it goes back to the old adage, find a need and meet it, something no one likes to do and do it for a reasonable fee.
This business was started with an idea, not a boatload of cash. The business has a low overhead, low maintenance, and high profits.
One of the problems of society today is that it is too over complicated. People make too much out of the little things. Business plans are short novels instead of plans of action, credit scores have dictated a person’s value to society, HOA’s determine if you can park your car on your own driveway, and one politician can make the decision to close off Colorado’s Rocky Mountains to the general public.
I can’t believe I just wrote that. It sounds so stupid. But it’s true. We over complicate everything.
There were many small businesses built into large corporations during the Great Depression era. Those people began their small businesses with almost nothing, rarely had a mentor, and succeeded. They used their creativity to get their small businesses going.
Those people, like Matt Boswells, who can build a small business today with what they have instead of focusing on what they don’t have, are today’s true creative innovators.
