The Expensive Mistake of Starting a Shop You Don’t Believe In
4/30/20266 min
What happens when you pour your heart and money into a business you’re not truly passionate about? In this episode, we hear the candid story of Louise, who launched a bricks-and-mortar craft shop while juggling three kids and a career in IT project management.
She opens up about:
- Growing up in an entrepreneurial family in Northern Ireland
- Why she started a business that never really aligned with her interests
- The hard lessons she learned running a shop with no profit
- The turning point when a mentor helped her see her real talent: social media
- How following that spark led her to a business she genuinely loves
It’s a raw, relatable conversation about the risks of chasing the wrong business, the importance of passion, and the power of pivoting when things don’t work out.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re on the right business path or how to recognize when it’s time to change direction this episode is for you.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Norton· Host0:00
I've just got a question about your... You've, you, you said in your- [laughs] ... in your feedback to us that you, one of the, obviously Embracing Marketing Mistakes, people share their mistakes that they've made in business. Um- Mm-hmm ... on LinkedIn you could make loads, but, um, one of the ones that you said that you'd made, um, was you started a business, um, that you weren't interested in.
Louise· Guest0:19
Yes.
Chris Norton· Host0:21
[laughs] Can you, can you please tell me more about this? I find it fascinating. How do you start a business that you're not into at all?
Louise· Guest0:27
So I grew up, so I live in Northern Ireland, in Belfast, in Northern Ireland, and I grew up with a father who ran his own business. Now he, his business started in the 1970s. Northern Ireland's a very different place then. Very, very hard to have a business, uh, in Northern Ireland in the '70s and '80s. And he said to me, "Never work for yourself. Never." But entrepreneurialism runs in the blood. Like, my cousin has a business, my little sister has a business. It's something, if it's in you, it's in you. So I, uh, I start, I started selling Avon to my mom's friends when I was, like, 16, so it was always something in me when I look back at my, my, my life. But- You were the Avon lady? I, I was the Avon lady, yeah.
Chris Norton· Host1:14
The youngest among people's doors?
Louise· Guest1:16
No, no. I used to be in, um, a church organization and I would literally go on a Monday night and hand out my little things to all the, the moms and the other adults there, and they would buy. Anyway, it's a whole thing. Yeah.
Chris Norton· Host1:28
You were pre-thinking networking.