Who Knew Building a Business Was Child’s Play?

I decided it was past time to get serious. For three years, I’ve known that I needed to make a career change. For the last two, I’ve debated what that should mean for me. Should I get a different job in a different industry? Should I stay close to my professional roots and do similar work as a freelancer or consultant? Should I try to do both by building a side hustle after I get a new J-O-B?

My thoughts of a career and job change stalled in 2020 and early 2021 as the pandemic meant, as it did for many others, adults working from home and – more the issue – children learning from home. But as spring rolled around and my sons returned to in-person classes, I found myself drawn more and more to figuring out how to make my own business work.

Like I said, I was finally prepared to get serious! But a strange thing happened along the way. In those 21 days, the more serious I got about completing the Challenge, the more I found myself recalling my favorite playful activities from childhood. I started thinking about why I enjoyed those activities and how this challenge of building a writing business could be surprisingly similar!

Take, for instance, Ilise’s advice to be a business detective. Discover prospects and what they need by doing the research. Use advanced search features on LinkedIn to find potential connections and (fingers crossed!) future clients. Look at websites and begin to listen for the tingle of instincts that says, “Hey, I could help this person in this way or that way!” When I did the work and began to put the pieces together, well, I felt just like my childhood literary heroine, that famous girl detective, Nancy Drew!

But you know what I both loved and sometimes hated about Nancy Drew? She was just so gosh darn perfect! I mean, she was pretty AND smart AND could draw well AND could play a musical instrument AND had great friends AND a handsome boyfriend. Oh, and don’t forget about her cool blue convertible. “How could anyone ever be as cool and perfect as Nancy Drew?” I asked myself during my tween years. And like many business owners starting out, I found myself asking similar questions as an adult. “How can I ever do this? Can I really find clients, do the work, and still learn all those things I need to when I feel like each day shows me just how much I don’t know yet?”

But here’s where another childhood memory pops up. Remember playing in a sandbox or building with Legos or Lincoln Logs? It didn’t matter if what you built was perfect. The whole point was experiment. Build, fail, tear apart, and try again.

Those building blocks of childhood have now given way to the tools and ideas I’m using to start my business. As Ilise reminded us as often as she could, our business is where we experiment. It’s a place to play and use those tools – those building blocks – to try things. If they don’t work, we are free to tear them apart and do something different. Whether we have clients or not, whether work comes in regularly or sporadically, my business is mine to make the rules and build as I see fit.

Like any journey through childhood, I wouldn’t be where I am today without a few life lessons I learned along the way. Just as my parents and teachers taught me to share my toys with playmates, Ilise’s 21 Day Challenge stressed the importance of generosity, with the added bonus of learning how to use it authentically as a marketing tool.

The concept of generosity has long been part of my work. As a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations, I’m keenly aware of how much charities depend on a community’s generosity, and I’ve often been on the receiving end of that generosity representing my then-employer. The notion of using generosity as a market tool for my business, though, was a new idea that was reinforced coincidentally during the Challenge.

A colleague in another city, who I had never met, posed to a Facebook group of nonprofit professionals a question about evaluating program outcomes and eventually reporting back to a grant funder. My background as a fundraiser includes a lot of grant writing, so I offered as a favor to hop on a call with her and talk through her situation. When we set up the meeting, I didn’t mention my business, but in the middle of our conversation, she asked if I ever do contract or freelance work. “As a matter of fact,” I replied. And thus, a new relationship with a prospective client was born.

Now, I don’t consider myself naïve. I know it will take a lot of work to build this business and reach my goals for it. But as I take the time to slow down (as Ilise also reminds her students) and to enjoy this process, I’m discovering that growing a business is a lot more like child’s play than I would have ever imagined.