00:02

INTRO: Welcome, my name is Christy Fechser. And you are listening to All In The Name Of Growth. This is the podcast for women who are seeking inspiration and advice on how to design their life on their terms. We cover relevant topics like mindset shifts, setting boundaries, growing a business, overcoming limiting beliefs, plus the timeless topics like life, business, relationships, and money. After 20 years of marriage, raising a family building several businesses as an entrepreneur, and mentoring women for over a decade, I have a thing or two to share. I love helping women see their life with a fresh perspective. So thanks for tuning in.

00:42

Hey, welcome back to All In The Name Of Growth. Super excited to have you today. Like we talked about last week, we’re going to be covering business again. So last week, we talked about five reasons why every woman should start a business. And this week, we’re going to talk about different businesses and just kind of give you an idea of the different types of businesses that you could consider starting to help you be able to be more independent and free and like to find yourself all the things we talked about last week. 

01:10

So if you missed that episode, definitely go back and listen to that one. Okay, so I just want to dive in, I have lots of business ideas of things that you can do to get started in creating your own business. And this doesn’t have to be like, let’s not get confused here with the term business, right? Like this doesn’t have to be like you becoming a CEO of this gigantic Corporation. And I think that that’s what a lot of people think when they think of starting their own businesses- that it has to be this really big, overly complicated thing. and it doesn’t at all. It can be really, really simple, actually. So I want to just be able to go through a little bit of these. And some of them, you can start with basically no money. And some of them, you can start with a mid-amount of money. And then some of them are obviously really expensive. 

01:49

But it really depends on what you’re drawn to and what you’re excited about and what kind of interests you. So we’re just going to jump right in and start talking about the differences in business based off of your own interests and the things that you are kind of passionate about. So if you are a creative person, then doing something like if you like to bake, or cook, or do art type stuff, if you own a cricket- if you like to do design type things, there are a couple of places where you can sell your services. And that could be on an Etsy shop, you could do it on a website like Fiverr, which is F-I-V-E-R-R dot com. Or you could also do it on a freelancing type site, depending on the kind of creative that you are. So freelancer and Fiverr are more geared toward like tech-savvy, creative people, web design, voiceovers app creation of like, if you’re like into software engineering, all the kinds of technical stuff, that’s where you would go is really onto like a Fiverr or freelancer. 

02:51

If you’re more into the artsy creative type things, then you would go onto Etsy. And that is a really great place. And one of the things that I want you to be open-minded about and consider is if you go to Etsy, and you see oh my gosh, the thing that I really enjoy doing is already a huge hit on Etsy, don’t use it as a reason to not start, use it as a reason to start because your services are obviously needed. And people are paying a lot of money for them. So don’t get discouraged by what’s already out there. Recognize what we talked about last week- was that if there are people already in the market, it just there, it doesn’t matter because there’s so much space for everyone. So don’t don’t let that sidetrack you. 

03:34

The next one is really if you’re like into shopping or like following trends, you really love that kind of stuff- that is not my jam. so bless you if it’s yours- you can easily start like an E-commerce shop where you could buy like vintage stuff and resell it or even watch on like Facebook groups and things like that where you could get newer things that you could resell or repurpose and resell. I know of a teenage boy, literally a teenager that’s in high school who started his own shoe collection. And he wears them for a little while. And then he sells them for what he bought them for basically. And then he repurposes that money that he earns to buy more shoes. And he’s like, built up this huge shoe store in his town for all the other high schoolers to be able to enjoy their different varieties of shoes. 

04:26

So literally anything you can think of can work. This is like- this doesn’t have to be like something-somebody else has already thought of. So you could do your own e-commerce store or you could also do it on Etsy. So those are two really good places to be able to kind of follow that stuff. Instagram would be a great place to be marketing, your kind of stuff. And then if you have things that are more like service-based, if you know, you’ve already been in the trade business of or you’re interested in getting certification for something more service base like being an aesthetician working on like people’s hair, or nails or like doing eyelashes, that’s a huge thing right now. 

05:11

Massage therapy- you could even look at becoming a real estate agent, or a mortgage broker, or mortgage agent, yes, you can work your way up to being a mortgage broker but these are all really kind of independent things that you can do on your own. You don’t have to be part of a company in order to be successful at these things. My sister-in-law, started her own eyelash business years and years ago, and actually ended up starting to manufacture eyelashes, like eyelash products, and built this incredible business out of it. So it just, it’s all about just getting started on something that’s interesting to you, something that interests you. 

05:48

Okay, so if you really are more geared toward the education or teaching modalities, if you want to teach, just think of something that is something that you like to teach about, something that you’re good at. So I actually had a neighbor, not too long ago, who was trying to figure out how to start their own business. And they sat down husband and wife and they sat down and they brainstormed all of these ideas of things that they knew that they had, like, been raised doing or had expertise in from college or work experience. And she had taken dance forever and ever. And so they ended up opening up a dance studio. And it’s been like incredibly successful for them, they have a ton of students every year it grows, and it’s just been really great for them. And for her especially to be able to have something that’s kind of her own. 

06:44

So you could teach instruments, you could teach dance, you could teach art classes. And you can do that in your local area or you can also start a YouTube channel. In addition to that, you could also create a course, I know a lot, of course creators that are teaching like lessons in piano and dance. And I mean, the corona, when that whole thing happened, it just opened up this online world of education, because so many people are stuck at home. And so it’s all out there, it’s I mean, just as I’m doing what I’m doing, you can easily do what you want to do over video and then charge people to be able to learn from you. So or you could even just do zoom classes, and be able to help people in that way, my husband during the whole COVID thing was doing voice lessons with his teacher that he had previously been doing in-person classes with and he ended up switching that over to just doing it via zoom. And it worked out really great for them to be able to continue doing classes. 

07:42

So when you have that kind of technology, it opens up literally the whole world to you. You could teach classes to people all over, which means that you could teach English to people that are interested in learning English, or whatever foreign languages you speak. So that is another really great option of being able to do something that- you know, maybe you hadn’t thought of. I also- if there’s let me go back to kind of the creative aspect. I know a woman here locally who started her own little organic greenhouse-type thing, and year after year just continues to grow. And she sells vegetables at her or- organic kind of garden area. But she also sells plants and all of the things like all the gardening tools and all of that kind of stuff. And I love going there and supporting her. It’s a really cool little business.

08:32

And that’s the great thing about like the the hair schools and cosmetology and aesthetician and the real estate and massage therapy, all those kinds of things like you could just start over again. And that’s the same with real estate and mortgage too. So there’s a lot of things that you could just like start over and it doesn’t take a ton of time to get through them. But it gives you an opportunity to do something different that maybe you’ve been interested in but haven’t dared taken the leap on. And they’re all things that you can kind of call your own hours and be able to still create an income from so.

08:32

But that’s the kind of thing like when you think about like what would I really like to be doing in my day, what I like to be walking dogs or taking care of animals? What I like to be how sitting for people? What I like to be working in a greenhouse? What I like to be teaching people how to play the piano? What I like to be helping people design their logo?  Like there are so many things that you can be doing, based off of skills you already have, or skills that you’ve acquired along the way, or things that you have been interested in. And maybe you just want to change it up completely and you want to bail on what you’ve been learning and learn something new. 

09:42

Now, if you’re into entertaining, if you love entertaining people, then you could also look at doing a YouTube channel or podcasting like I’m doing, blogging, social media. Now with these kinds of things, it’s easy to get sucked into like the world of social media and YouTube and blogging, and podcasting, and that kind of stuff, without having a like, set, what am I, how am I going to actually make money from this plan. So you do want to kind of go into it with a- an idea of how you’re going to actually make money from that particular thing. But I will tell you, there are people that are on YouTube that make a small fortune, okay, some of them make a large fortune from doing YouTube channels. And it’s awesome. But that’s their craft. That’s what they do. I mean, this is that’s their life is it’s all YouTube. So if you’re comfortable being on camera and entertaining people in that way, then that’s an awesome place to go. 

10:40

You could also if you’re already in like the real estate industry, you could look at starting a YouTube channel, which helps to funnel people to your other business. So you want to use social media smartly. You want to use it as a content creator, not just a content consumer. So most people just use social media as a content consumer. And that is where we usually end up in the black holes, doing you know, like down one rabbit hole or like in a scroll hole. And we don’t want to be in those places, because that’s just like wasting our life away- what we’re trying to do is be productive, and change our life so that we don’t feel like we need to scroll our lives away because we are excited about what we’re doing. 

11:26

Now, there’s another business opportunity or option that a lot of people actually are like about and I want to talk about that one for just a second because it is actually really legitimate. And that’s network marketing. Network marketing has created the most six-figure income earners within the women’s bracket than any other organization or industry, anywhere else. It- I know that it gets a bad rep because people think that it is a pyramid scheme or like a Ponzi scheme, or like they have all these scheme terms connected to network marketing. And obviously, you can get scammed in any aspect of your life. But it doesn’t have to be in network marketing, you, you just need to make an educated choice. 

12:14

And so when you’re going into network marketing, you know, you just want to look at the options that are available to there, find a good reputable company. I like recommending companies that have more than one owne so you’re not one that’s debt-free, the way that they encourage people to represent themselves, there are some companies out there that are very encouraging of you going into debt, and buying high priced vehicles and acting like you’re always going on vacation and like making it into this like fake facade on the outside while you’re not doing really well on the inside of your business. And there are some companies that require that you start with a lot of money down- you don’t want to go into those kinds of companies, you want to stay away from that, a lot of times those companies actually only have a business, and they don’t have a product and you don’t, you don’t want to get into a business that is just selling a business that’s selling a business because there’s no actual customers for you to be able to make money off of. So you want to make sure that you’re looking at it from a business perspective. 

13:20

And like, what are they selling? Is there a need for it? All of those kinds of things. And like, is there a good opportunity for mentorship and just all of that. So when you get into the right company and network marketing, it is actually a really great opportunity to make a side income or to replace your income. So definitely don’t, like overlook that aspect of what business opportunities are out there because that is actually a really legit business opportunity that is available. Another one is franchising. And this is going to be literally the most expensive option that you could even look at is buying a franchise. So the thing about franchises is that they’ve already kind of gotten a proven system and like a business model for you to just follow. And generally, franchises are successful, if done correctly, and you make sure you have good staff that’s representing you well. 

14:17

The thing about a franchise though, is that in the beginning, I don’t know that you’re going to have a whole lot of that freedom that we’re talking about and being able to call your own shifts and your own schedule and stuff because you’re gonna need to be in there like working it. But as time goes on, it could create something really magnificent for you. And being able to have employees creating the income for you while you no longer have to work in this space. But again, same thing with network marketing and franchising, you want to make sure that you’re getting into something that is going to be lucrative and is going to be legitimate. And it’s going to be in line with something that you believe in and can sell. So there’s no point in getting into a business that you can’t sell. I mean, if you hate coffee, there’s no point in opening a coffee shop that would be miserable. 

15:01

So you want to be aware of kind of what that is that you’re that you’re really kind of drawn to and that you feel like you could sell. The other day actually, we were in a, we were getting, it’s kind of like frozen yogurt, it’s kind of, it’s called ever bowl. We were getting an ever bowl the other day, and this woman came in, and she was looking at the menu and she didn’t. So if you’ve never been it’s kind of like a yogurt land or something like that. But instead of her having yogurt, they just have like frozen, like coconut cream or ice. It’s kind of like a smoothie bowl, but a little bit more like cold stone-ish. Anyways, so this woman came in, she had never been in before, she was kind of confused about what it was. And I was like, Well if you’ve never been here, let me just like the employee was trying to explain it but she was explaining it like an employee rather than like a consumer. And so I went over and I was just like, okay, so if you haven’t been here, this is like the ultimate best flavor ever. And you can choose which side you want. And then you could choose the toppings that you want. And there are these different kinds of toppings and she’s like, Oh my gosh, okay, awesome. And we were leaving, and my husband had made some comments about how I’m a good salesman. But that’s only true about the things that I really love. 

16:15

I also one time walking through a grocery store sold brio- brioche rolls to somebody to a guy because I was sitting there looking, debating on which ones I wanted to get. And he was like, Okay, what are those? And so I was like, Well, let me tell you have a brioche. And I gave him my big spiel about brioche bread. And he’s like, Well, now I have to buy some because you did such a great job selling them. So think about those things like what is it that you’re passionate about that you could like, do that you want to do, though. So other story, so I’m sure that many of you have seen those really fancy sugar cookies that have the royal icing on it, and it like, melts out into this really great and then they decorate it like I mean, it could be like Mickey Mouse’s or flowers or whatever. Okay, I love making those. I actually do it as it really is like a fun kind of relaxing pastime for myself. 

17:10

And I was actually making some recently for like Mother’s Day, my mom’s birthday. And I was showing my sister, these cookies that I had been making and she’s like, ‘You’re so talented that this you could make so much money from making cookies.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t actually. I can’t make any money from making these cookies because once somebody has an expectation from me that I’m going to be doing it and they want a certain desired like outcome and they want in a certain timeframe, then it like takes all the fun out of it for me.’ So you don’t want to recreate that kind of a situation, you want it to be something that you enjoy doing that you can actually make money for that you see the value exchange and what you have to offer. And you know getting that value exchange from a customer or a client. So make sure that you’re doing something that you can see yourself doing long term, not just something that is going to be like, you know, your 10-week gig, and then you’re like, ‘Man, I hate this, I have created myself a nightmare.’ If you’re doing that you’re going about it all wrong. 

18:11

So you want to give it some consideration before you just like jump in all willy nilly. And the thing that I have to help you is a quiz that is going to help you kind of walk through like what might be best for you in getting started based on the amount of hours that you have to devote to it if you already have a full-time job, based off of your interest levels. So it’ll just kind of walk you through and you can find that quiz on my website. I’ll put it in the show notes or you can just go to christy fechser, F-E-C-H-S-E-R dot com forward slash quiz. And that is going to take you to a page where you can fill out this quiz and be able to I guess learn more about yourself and what it is that you’re really wanting to do with your business opportunities, and is this a good fit for you? Is this something that would be good for you to pursue? 

19:03

And last but not least, the last one that I wanted to highlight is a brick-and-mortar business. And this is something that you know, you see everywhere. The thing that’s nice about brick and mortar businesses is like that if you really liked that relationship, kind of like in-person, person-to-person dialog, communication. And also it it’s really good if you have kind of a niche that you really like. So a coffee shop or if you really like baking artisan breads or you are super into like finding vintage jeans or you know something like that, that there’s something that people can’t just like pop on to Amazon and buy because I’ve found that a lot of the businesses even like the major players like Dillards or JC Penney’s or Macy’s, those kinds of stores are getting less and less traffic because people want to be able to just go online and get it. 

20:01

So if you have something kind of eclectic, that people are like, ‘Oh, I love this store, I love what it represents. And I want to support it.’ You know, whether that’s in like crystals or like, it could be literally anything, I see them pop up all over, and I love them. And I love supporting them. I think it’s just really great when people do like, it’s a small business, I love supporting small businesses. And so that’s something that you could consider as well like branding your own clothes. And then I sing about that if you did your own clothes, and you could sell them online and in your brick-and-mortar store. Um, if you like cooking, you could open up a food truck, that’s always a fun idea- that’s actually something that we’ve talked to our oldest about and our middle child. 

20:49

So our oldest has always worked in since she was 16, her very first job was waitressing, it’s the jobs that she’s really always worked and love because she loves that personal interaction. Every job that she works, so she’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, management, oh, I could totally run this place better than they can.’ And my middle child, my oldest son loves cooking. So I’m always like, you guys could totally do a restaurant together, whether that’s a food cook, or just like a brick and mortar type restaurant, that would be really fun. So anyways, I just- there’s a plethora of ideas. And there’s at least 101,000 more ideas that are out there that I didn’t talk about. 

21:29

But I just wanted to spend today just kind of getting your mind cranking in a direction because I know that for a lot of people, especially women, it can be really scary to think of starting your own business. And I want to take away like the mystical aspect of what starting a business actually looks like and break it down into something that’s easier to be able to digest mentally, because a confused mind is always going to say no, and it’s always gonna, you know, like, if you’re scared, there’s like, no way you’re going to keep walking generally. And so I want to take a little bit of that scaredness out of it and a little bit of a complication out of it and make it into something that you can just start with baby steps. This doesn’t have to be like quit your job and starting a new business. 

22:14

You need to do it at the level that you are comfortable with and that is wise for you, both mentally, physically, and financially. So let me just give you a couple of examples from my life. So when I was in college, we had been, I was taking an entrepreneurship class. And there was a competition that our teacher put out that whoever could make the most money that semester with a brand new business was going to, like, get an A-plus, right, like they got the 100%. And then it like scaled down from there based off of how much money you could make in your business. And so we had to start a basically like you couldn’t have been making money from this thing already, it had to be something that you were kind of launching. 

22:59

And so I sat back and was really thinking about, like, what could I do. And at that time, my husband and I already owned, and we’re running a successful web development business. And an effort to support that business, I had actually started a women’s networking group. And so we met as a group about once a month. And I was trying to figure out like, I couldn’t charge for web design, because it was a business I already had. And so I was thinking about like, what could I do to earn money that isn’t already web development. And I ended up actually turning the women’s networking group into a paid service where they could get listed in a directory and be able to have that kind of support at you know, online and be able to like be able to network in a different way. I was able to it it was like, seriously a super minimal fee. It was like 20 bucks or something like that for a whole year. So it wasn’t I mean, it was like nothing peanuts. But I ended up getting a really good grade in that class because I was able to turn something that I was already doing into something successful. 

24:06

So I just- let’s see, there was that one and then our web development business, actually, my husband had been working for an airline, doing computer repair and he did not want to do that anymore. And he saw how much the web developers the software engineers were making, and he really wanted that job. But they were like, there’s no way you’re gonna get hired on to that because you haven’t really done like big things. And so he was like, ‘Well, I don’t want to keep working in corporate America.’ So he ended up quitting that job and we started his own side gig as a computer repair guy and he didn’t really like doing that- that was just the things that people consume on their computers that get them large amounts of viruses on their computer was not something he wanted to be part of. 

24:50

So his computer repair business actually morphed into a web development business. And as we started doing that business – and it just made sense at that time I was working, but we had just had our second child. And so it made sense for me to quit my job and be a mom, but also help him with his business. So we ended up doing web development. And that kind of morphed into a full-scale kind of marketing business where we focused on SEO and like business cards, and marketing materials, and, you know, like letterhead, and branding, and all of that kind of stuff. And then there just came a point where I was like, that isn’t really what I want to be doing. And like I love being able to help people’s like dreams come true as far as their business goes. But I want to be able to do something a little bit different. And so I actually started in network marketing, and it was incredible. And I made a ton of money. And I have, I still actually have that business on the side. But this is the thing that I want to do. This is like my real passion- is really encouraging women to do the thing, whether it’s starting a business or a new, just like going back to school, or moving to a new country, or learning a new language, or whatever that is, I just want to encourage women to like, do the things that scare them, like take their life to that next level, and be able to like, feel empowered, and purposeful in their own lives. That is what I really, really love doing. So that’s why I’m here now. 

26:16

But like, back when my daughter was really little, like I made jewelry, I tried out sewing, I addressed envelopes for a company- like I’ve tried so many things. And like over the years, my husband and I actually when she was little we started this little- it was back before the internet was really big. And so people were still like primarily handing out business cards at that time. And so we were like, well, this would be like totally amazing if we could make these little DVDs that could go in people’s computers that had their business card or portfolio information on them. And we could sell them to like homebuilders or like to Oh, what is the chambers of commerce- that kind of stuff that have like something to showcase. Because websites weren’t like super huge back then. And so we ended up doing that for a little while. And I look back on that business. And it was so it’s like comical- how ridiculous that one was. But we were trying. And it is because we were trying that we were able to step into the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And you’re able to take all of your experiences from your past things and move them into the next thing. 

27:27

And that was actually why network marketing works so well for me, was because I had done web development first. So I knew everything online like I knew how to connect with people because all of our clients were spread all over the country. And it was just easy for me to move into a situation where I could help people be able to, you know, with the thing that the product that I was selling, doing being able to do that over the airways as well. So it just like my whole point in all of these stories are kind of a breakdown of you know, like where I’ve been and where I am now. So that you can see that it’s really in the getting started, that is going to make the difference. And as soon as you decide like, ‘I want something different, and you start taking baby steps in that direction, and you don’t quit like I talked about a couple episodes ago, and why you’re not achieving your goals. 

28:21

If you don’t quit and you keep moving forward like success can only come eventually. And I’m not saying that the first endeavor that you try is going to be like, you know, Elon Musk’s successful. That’s not at all what I’m saying. But I, I know that along the way, you get a lot of growth out of it, you learn a lot about yourself, and you’re able to be able, you’re able to be able to, yes, correct grammar, you are able to be able to dive into something that you’re passionate about, and that lights you up that’s like makes you have purpose that you’re excited about. So anyways, if you’re interested in taking the quiz to just look a little bit further at what kind of business you can get started in, definitely go over to the website, christy fechser, C-H-R-I-S-T-Y, F as in Frank, E-C-H, s as in Sam, E-R dot com, forward slash quiz. 

29:20

And it will take you to a quiz that you- and it’s not too complicated, it’s pretty simple, but it helps you just kind of like funnel down into maybe the things that are most beneficial that you could pursue. So hopefully that was helpful. Hopefully, it was just opening up your mind to some ideas and things that you could pursue. And like I said, there I gave five really powerful reasons last week and why you should consider starting your own business. So if you haven’t listened to that, go back and listen to that one. Because it was also a really good episode. So all right, that’s all for today. I hope you guys are doing well and I will catch up with you next week. Bye! 

30:05

OUTRO: Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of All In The Name Of Growth. If you felt like the content shared today was helpful or inspired you in some way, please share it with your friends. And be sure to tune in again for a fresh perspective on growth mindset shifts and leveling up your life and business.