HOW NOT TO START A BUSINESS

1. Compare yourself to a designer / stylist / professional blogger / (insert your own type of business owner) that you see on the Internet / Instagram / etc. ("her life looks so glamorous!") while eating ice cream on your couch.

2. Decide that you want what they have, and you think that you could replicate what they do pretty easily.

3. Spend weeks on Pinterest, analyzing the important stuff, like what your brand should look like and who should design your logo.

4. Start a blog, and write posts that replicate your favorite blogs.

5. Hastily announce on all of your social media that your shop / site / services will be coming soon and that it's going to be amaaaaazing.

6. Get lots of excitement and encouragement from friends and family, which feels awesome. Realize that this whole entrepreneurship thing is going to be a breeze.

7. Waste all day at your real job, dreaming about and Pinterest-ing the glamorous life that you're about to have ("maybe I'll just quit...").

8. Finally start doing the work / planning your product offerings / designing your products ("shoot, this is harder than I thought it would be"). Realize that coming up with something original is tricky. Consider making something verrrry similar to what your glamorous idol sells, using it as...inspiration.

9. Work really hard on the project for a few days, realize that this SUCKS and it's going to be way more work than you originally thought. The excitement and inspiration that you had before is quickly slipping away.

10. Decide that your glamorous idol must have super powers or a team of people or something. Eat ice cream on your couch.

I bet you know someone who has been guilty of this spur-of-the-moment "business planning" method...maybe that person is you? 

We live in an age where everyone feels like they need to do something MAJOR. That, combined with the power of social media, can leave us feeling jealous and desperate to do what we see other people doing.

I'm all about taking chances, believing in yourself, and being brave, but there's a difference between a calculated risk and just jumping off of the cliff with no plan.

Starting a business is a serious decision that requires major financial planning and organizing. It takes a lot of hard work. Like, years of hard work. The super fabulous people that you see wearing super fabulous clothes and living in super fabulous homes have worked really hard for many years before getting there. 

More importantly, trying to replicate something that someone else is already doing is just not the way to go. Ever. Inauthenticity is so obvious.

So before you go starting another fashion blog or opening another Etsy shop, come up with a plan to make yours different from what is already out there, and don't be afraid to grow your project slowly. If you really love what you're doing, you won't be in a rush to "make it big" right away.