If you know much about Kids Party Characters, you’re probably familiar with the story of owner Cheryl Jacobs and how she came to be a successful entrepreneur.
Most people who looked at Cheryl’s life when she was younger would have predicted a life of struggle and poverty for her.
Married to her high school sweetheart at the age of 18, she was blessed with two wonderful kids by the time she was 19, but an abusive husband that clouded the picture of a happy family.
She soon found herself a young single mother forced to rely on the generosity of local churches just to meet the basic food needs of her family.
Many would have adopted this victim role as a way of life and ended up on state assistance with minimum wage jobs, at best, for the rest of their lives.
But Cheryl wanted more than that for herself and her children.
As a result of her hard work, Cheryl was able to land a modeling contract that set her life down a path of serial entrepreneurship and financial freedom.
Fast forward to today and Cheryl has owned 10 businesses, currently runs three businesses, and lives life on her terms in sharp contrast to the days when she had to eat whatever others could find for her.
If you’re an entrepreneur, or are at all familiar with the story of any successful business owner, you probably know that Cheryl’s “rags to riches” saga is not unfamiliar in the world of entrepreneurship.
Many successful business owners, in fact it seems most successful business owners, have overcome great obstacles and setbacks to get where they are today.
While we all love to hear these stories and commend the women and men behind them, it can leave you thinking, “Do I have what it takes to be a successful business owner?”
Let’s face it, it took some superpowers for Cheryl to do a complete 180 in her life.
And if you’ve never lived in such dire circumstances, you might wonder if the familiar refrain of, “If I can do it, so can you,” is really true when it comes to entrepreneurship.
Fortunately, you don’t have to have seen desperate times to build a successful business.
Unfortunately, being a business owner isn’t the right move for everyone, as appealing as the time and financial freedom is to all of us.
How do you know if it’s the right move for you?
Well, the best way is to schedule a call with Cheryl, who has a gift for mentoring other entrepreneurs, and let her walk you through how she can help you get started and be successful.
Before you do that though, let’s make sure you do in fact have the characteristics many don’t that are crucial for entrepreneurship.
While there are many traits that will serve you well as an entrepreneur, here are three of the biggest “must haves” if you’re considering starting your own business.
Passion
A lot of people who start a business go into it with more of a “hobby” attitude than a “business” attitude.
They’re going to play around with it and see if it works, basically.
It won’t.
You may have heard that you should start a business around something you’re passionate about if you want to be successful, and that if you do, you’ll never have to work another day in your life.
That’s partly true, but does over-romanticize business ownership a bit.
It’s great if you have a thing you’re passionate about and want your business to be all about selling that particular product or service, but it’s not required.
What is required is that you’re passionate about making your business successful, whatever your “why” is.
It could be that you really do love your product or service.
It could be that you’re like Cheryl was, and are desperately looking for some way to provide for your family.
Or maybe you’re doing okay, but just can’t imagine going your whole life without traveling around the world, something your current job will never allow for.
Whatever your “why” is, there has to be one that makes you passionate about finding a worthy product or service that you’d be happy to attach your name to.
Persistence
Now, about that “you’ll never work another day in your life” thing.
If only it were true!
You know, no matter how much you love what you do, building and running your own business is going to require some work.
A lot of work in the initial stages. And those “initial stages” could last a year or two.
If you’re the kind of person who feels like you’d like to try a business to see if it works, you either need to rethink things, or stick with your job.
No business bursts out of the gates wildly successful and never looks back.
It usually takes some time to get that first sale.
Or maybe you’ll have a $10,000 launch and zero sales in month two.
There are hiccups, failures, changes in circumstances, and unforeseen roadblocks in every business.
You simply have to be persistent in the face of these things, driven by your passion, or you might as well not waste your time and money getting started.
Without persistence, you either end up with an expensive hobby, floating from business to business with no real success, or quitting all together, broke and discouraged, at what you deemed a failure, but what likely didn’t have to be an ending point.
Sense of Adventure
Business ownership is not for the weak of heart, as you can probably already tell.
You’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone and do some things you haven't done, learn some things that seem too hard, take some risks that may not pay off.
This doesn’t mean you’ll have to live outside your comfort zone, who wants to do that?
But it does mean you’ll likely have to expand your comfort zone and welcome some new things into it.
Many new business owners are creatives, and are very uncomfortable with the techie side of having an online business.
While you can outsource most of that to other people, you’re going to need to have some basic understanding, at least, of some things you otherwise would have no interest in learning.
Of course this is not to say you should even consider doing anything illegal or immoral in your eyes, but you will need to develop a reaction of, “Sure, I can try/learn/do that,” with things that make you uncomfortable in the sense that you think they’re above you, they bore you, or they scare you.
Being an entrepreneur requires putting yourself out there, and that’s scary to most of us.
Do You Qualify?
If you see yourself in all three of these characteristics, you may be a great fit for the opportunity Cheryl has opened up with KidsPartyCharacters.com.
In an effort to cut down on the expenses and some of the scariness that comes with starting your own business, Cheryl is offering memberships to KidsPartyCharacters.com.
With membership, you get an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use our 200+ costumes, and access to our casting director and acting coach.
In addition, you get business training and support from Cheryl and all the team at Kids Party Characters.
If this sounds like it might be a fit for you, or if you have more questions, book a no-pressure chat with Cheryl right here and she’ll help you figure it all out.
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