Years ago a client friend asked me to become the marketing director of an adult education school. I had never before had the opportunity to be on the ground floor of a business except for my own free lance design, so I jumped on the chance thinking that all the pieces would just somehow fit.

There were 4 of us. 1 assistant, who was the true "gal friday" every day of the week; myself as marketing director; one partner who was head of the computer classes and also the liaison between ourselves and the teachers, and finally the other partner who wanted little of the day to day work, but was the cash flow source. The computer teacher partner had worked for a previous adult education school which was a success for 16 years. We thought that gave him enough credibility and knowledge. We even had the full database from the former place and a list of their best teachers. We truly believed the proverbial thought that if we built it, and announced it a few times, they would flock to us the way they flocked to the former place. How wrong we were.

We never built the solid foundation, nor did the proper demographic studies, nor the psycho-graphic research of our students that would have been necessary to determine if the school was worth starting in the first place. We never researched the where it was, only picking its location due to availability. We took the "less is more" approach to advertising, and then hired a PR person based on emotion, not hard facts. The mistakes kept piling up as high as the debt.

After 2.5 years, I had enough of the traveling back and forth watching the debt mount and the student base lessen. I cut my ties and we parted ways. The school never made it and died out completely 4 months after I left.

A little while later, while making body scrub just for myself, I was prompted to start my body care company. I decided to take all I learned about starting a business and use it to my advantage. Everything that seemed to work, I kept, but all the mistakes I knew had been made I tossed out the door and used that information to change the way I ran this business. It was the best decision I could have made.

Yes, I still make plenty of mistakes and am continually learning more and more on a daily basis. I am just beginning the streamlining and standardizing process and am doing my best at combining the entrepreneur with the manager and the production staff. I have come so far and yet have so far to go. But, 3 years later and I still love it as much if not more. I believe I have only just begun to scratch the surface of its possibilities.

Many people to this day will still call my former business a disaster, but to me, it was the fastest "what to do and what not to do" business education I could ever have gotten. So I believe, that in anything you might do, if you learn from it, it wasn't a mistake.

"You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however." - Richard Bach

Lately, I've been working on my business plans and strategies with my business coach, JJ Reich, and we have begun to break down the necessary things I have to do to make my business not only grow, but blossom to the next level.  While his suggestions are totally correct and right on the money, my business mantra has always been one of "fly by the seat of my pants". I kept wishing for it to just fall into place, but alas, this was not the case. (What, there are no business elves?)

I knew it had to happen, I just kept putting it off. Then the power of my wish came true!  A friend has spent years working in a field she didn't love, but needed the income and stability, so she stayed. Then they layed her off.  Turns out, so many of her skills are the very ones I need! Yes, I could learn, should learn, but I was always "too busy" creating the business and marketing, that I didn't learn. Not saying I won't, but at least now I have the chance of keeping the wish alive and getting things done the right way!

Wishes are like stars... There are billions, you just have to select a few of the special ones and find the power within them, no matter how hard you have to work to make them come true!

There are days that I wonder how I got here.  Then I realize that I am putting together this puzzle piece by piece.  I realize that my lack of fear in failure has granted me the ability to try new things. I realize how many hours and with total passion and abandon I give on a daily basis. I realize that hard work empowers not paralyzes me.  I realize that I got lucky in the development of a product people want and love.  How did I get here?  One jar at a time!

I was in the middle of optimizing a few things on my website last night, checking our listing in some of the search engines, etc. when I came across a blog written about Scrubz Body Scrub this past November.  (http://newyorkhabitue.com/2008/11/12/scrubbed.aspx) I recognized the name of the writer as someone who had purchased multiple times, but had no idea she had done an article. 

Her experiences both on the day she tried it, when she was told it was a 4 in 1 product: body/face scrub, moisturizer as well as as a pre-shave prep and shaving oil  culminated in her line, "... I have done all of the above for the past 8 months and I will never go back."  She also stated right off the bat that " I usually leave the beauty products (reviews) to others, but I must share this product with as many people as possible, as it is the absolutely best sugar scrub I have ever used."  She also commented, " I have been very active in petitioning friends and co workers to try it."

As I read on, my smile increased, my mood lifted, and I had one of those "AHA" moments. You know, the business one that makes you remember why you are in this business and making this product in the first place. 

Yesterday was a particularly stressful work day, one where I took 10 steps forward, then back about 9, and I was in "one of those moods" last night. Then I read Leah's article and it all changed.

I wish you many "AHA!" moments and lots of things that make your day.