It Takes a Village to Start a New Business #GoodNeighbor {Sponsored}

Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of so-called businesses. They were more like moonlighting type ventures that I would create to make additional income for extras. I had a HR consulting business, an event planning business, a web development startup, and so many more—I must admit I was all over the place, but the problem was that I was lacking focus and passion which kept me from really trying to grow my endeavors. When I was laid off from my job at the end of 2009, I began to think of trying to launch my blog as a business. It was something that I had started earlier that year, and I saw so many others creating a nice income by sharing their voices on their own online imprint, I thought, why not?

That first year and a half of me going out on my own was brutal. As I’ve shared before on my blog, the financial struggle back then was real. I lost a lot (material wise), and had my family and I had to downsize. I can tell you that I was seriously contemplating if I was doing the right thing. It all turned out that after getting through that initial struggling stage, I finally began to see my hard work paying off. But it wasn’t just my work that was planting seeds in my business. It was the help of my family and friends, (and later, my blogging community), who became my village that helped me grow my blog and business. This would’ve been virtually impossible without their help.

It takes a village to start a new business.

The support, the kind words, helping me build my confidence for my abilities, and sending links out to everyone when I made new posts made such a difference. Just knowing that I had people in my corner rooting for me–this was critical for my success. And I use the word “success” loosely because I am nowhere close where I want to be in terms of my blog and brand. But I am so much farther than I was, and for that, I can’t take all of the credit. My village helped me get to this part, and I am forever grateful.

I learned that I am only as strong as my village. And with them in my corner, I feel like I can do anything.

To my villagers, I say THANK YOU! With your help, I’ve been able to live my dream—the dream of being my own boss and making my own moves my way. Without you, none of this would’ve been possible.

It’s important to have a positive team around you to help you every step of the way. Your village can be your family and friends, it can be a business that you trust, or it can even be online supporters who you may not even know in real life. With your village with you, you can do anything that you set your mind to.

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Disclosure: Compensation was provided by State Farm via Mode Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of State Farm.