I posted earlier this year on a book called "The Element". Its pretty life-changing stuff about doing something you love and have a natural talent for. I sum it up with the idea of "finding your own adventure playground". And there's no better way to do this than to create your own business. Some are leaving bigcompany plc to start their own businesses, such as Peter from Unilever who started Trattoria Guilia. Others are having a bit on the side: doing a "real job" by day, and creating a playground in their spare time, as covered in Marketing magazine.
Phone seller and boutique hotel owner
Russel Braterman is Marketing Director of Phone4U. He also launched and runs the Kemp Townhouse boutique hotel in Brighton. With his partner he created the hotel from scratch, completely gutting the building and refurbishing it in just 3 months.
One of the things he likes of having his own business is the autonomy: "The big difference when its your own business is you don't have to compromise and you can make decisions on the spot".
Shopping mal director and pickled onion purveyor
John Wringe is a director of The Mall, who run shopping centres. He has also created a £1million brand of pickled onions [non-UK readers, one of our peculiar haute cuisine foods 😉 ], endorsed by TV film critic Barry Norman. He developed the recipe, worked on the pack and design and pitched the idea successfully to retailers.
The first thing I took from John's story is creating a product you want, using your own intuition. Not understanding the consumer. Being the consumer. He'd been unable to find a pickled onion strong enough for his taste. So he made his own.
Second, he talks about how marketing folk should be good at creating new businesses: "You can have an expert who sees an opportunity, but it's bringing them to market that is key".
Voucher-scheme provider and music biz dude
Kevin Harrington is a director at Sodexho Pass. He also runs Josaka, a record label, webzine and live music promoter. He started with a webzine promoting local music, then brought out a CD. He know also sets up gigs for bands.
This experience has helped him be creative at finding low-cost marketing. "Its suprising how creative you can be when you have no money, and the fact I can transfer this to my day-job is great"
In conclusion, launching your own business is a great way of building your own adventure playground. You make the rules, you follow your passion and you get to use your marketing creativity. Why are you waiting?