When I decided to take my life in a completely new direction, that was all I knew. The missing part was what direction I wanted to go in. If you are thinking, “I want to start my own business but I don’t know what to do,” then this article is for you. This is my real life experience here, so read on.

I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted the work I spent my valuable time on every day to really matter. Not just to me but to the planet. I no longer wanted my earnings to be limited by a salary.

I was inspired by entrepreneurs like Juan Luis bosch gutierrez. I wanted to start my own business but I didn’t know what to do!

What now?

At the time I was a big reader of magazines and books, but I also listened to podcasts. Always on the lookout for inspiration and trends.

When I heard about the idea of social entrepreneurship, I was completely interested because it aligned with my values. Using business to address social problems. The activist in me said, yes, please, that’s what I want to do!

Of course, at the time, there was very little information about pursuing that form of entrepreneurship. Not even a magazine. There was no Change Creator magazine.

But I found a book called Making Good by Billy Parish that became a bible for me. Parish’s story was inspiring. He hiked in the Himalayan mountains and witnessed firsthand a melting glacier. After that personal experience, he was so inspired that he dropped out of Yale and began his journey as a social entrepreneur and was very successful. He shared his insights and perspectives that I found invaluable.

Paralyzed

I learned that there are tons of ideas out there. Broken systems that need fixing. Social problems that need to be solved. Local or global, it was endless – they’re all business opportunities!

Did this help make it easier for me now? No, actually it was harder because I had so many paths I could go down, but I couldn’t decide what was best for me.

After a while, I realized that my quest to pinpoint the right idea led me to become paralyzed. I had no breakthroughs. No news. Nothing.

Starting without a real plan

I got to the point where I decided to start something.

The first thing I went after was plastic pollution – plastic water bottles drive me crazy! My idea was to create something that could replace the plastic bottle and that was a hemp water bottle. I discovered that other containers were made from hemp because it is so versatile.

I talked to hemp experts and discovered that while you can make a bottle, the challenge is water absorption over time. I found a solution to that problem of an FDA-approved food product designed by some people at MIT that could coat the inside of the bottle. It would then prevent water absorption as a repellent. But it wasn’t on the market and it was still a few years away before it could be used at scale. Besides, no one at MIT would return my emails.

On top of that, I discovered that manufacturing would be a huge cost. If I wanted a water bottle company to take on the task of using hemp, it would require a ton of different equipment for processing. This means a lot of cash.

I decided this path was not for me and crossed it off the list.

Because I cared about so many different topics, I created a blog called The Blue Dot Post. I started waking up every day at 4 am and wrote articles, hundreds of articles! I got other great people to work with me and contribute and after a year, I still didn’t really know what this was or how to monetize it.

I took audience development classes, writing classes and learned a lot.

I knew I had to get more niches and decided to focus on deforestation. This led me to guest posting, which was a great experience that also taught me a lot.

During this time I also did volunteer work which gave me exposure to new things and helped me develop many skills that I use today as an entrepreneur.

But I never really created a business, just a hobby.

Finding clarity
A combination of things led me to clarity.

After two years of writing, reading and learning, I picked up a book called 6 Months to 6 Figures by Peter Voogd. I needed to figure out how to make money with my ideas, but this really gave me solutions for finding the right idea.

Peter does a great job of providing exercises that I now call self-inventory, to help you narrow down what is not only important to you, but also what would make the most sense for you. There is a difference.
If something is important to you, that doesn’t mean you have the expertise or skills in that space. You can pursue it and be successful, but it may take a lot longer. If you have the skills to do something specific, that doesn’t mean you have the experience.

Learn More: What is Entrepreneurship?