Take Thea Mendes, for example. The first time she launched her business she definitely had ambition in spades, but she lacked the support she needed to weather the tough times. In other words, her ambition wasn’t insured, and because of that she almost lost it.
Almost.
Let’s go back to the early days of Thea’s business:
“Really, my son Marcus started all this because he wanted a dog. Neither of us could have imagined, at the time, that this crazy idea would turn into a successful business.
“When Marcus was 11, he convinced me to make a batch of donuts that dogs could eat. He was going to try and sell them at our local market, and use the money he earned to buy his own dog. We cooked up a batch of two dozen doggie donuts, calling them Domuts, and carried them to the markets on Saturday.
“To our surprise, they sold out immediately, so I made more the next time. Within weeks, we were selling around 250 Domuts every weekend. I could tell we were really onto something so I launched a website to take orders from all over Australia, and cafes and dog groomers started stocking our Domuts too.
“From there, things just got bigger and bigger. We started thinking about new products. Doggie ice cream! Doggie pizza! It was an exciting time and I was really motivated. The media started paying attention to our idea, and I couldn’t believe it when a major supermarket chain reached out.
“But as it turned out, all that growth was the easy part. It’s kind of ironic that our big success was also our biggest hurdle. I was working full time, caring for my family, and making Domuts on the side. Something had to give and I just couldn’t keep up with the demand. Then the oven blew up, and that was the final straw. I was ready to pack it all in.
“Looking back, I can see that I really needed help, but my business had grown organically, not strategically, and you don’t know what you don’t know. You know? Where was I even supposed to start?”
How Thea got back on track is another story, which we’ll share next.
(And you can also find out how you can reignite your business ambition.)