Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Elizabeth Ribons, Founder of Next Career & Life, located in Westlake Village, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
As a lifelong entrepreneur, launching and growing businesses that answered a need - either by product or service - taking ideas into reality, speaking, consulting, and enjoying mentoring others in their own life and career journeys; I saw a need, and I launched NEXT Career & Life. I share the same "life-centered" principles, tools, and practices I used from an early age to utilize my best abilities and to create businesses, answer unmet needs and live my life as it evolved. I have worked mainly with young to middle age women in the past, but I am broadening my reach through speaking and educating. Currently, with many uninspired by the workforce and realizing a job is not "everything," the need for tools, skills, and a framework to draw on is highly valuable for people to continue to find fulfillment in life and their career.
Tell us about yourself
I am an entrepreneur through and through...Starting businesses throughout my years in school and beyond. Typically, I would create something or provide a service that was noticed by others, and then it would turn into a business. I have a long history of utilizing design principles and have used design thinking for decades to create the life and career that worked for me. My knowledge of design, as well as reading trends in business, has been a useful resource to businesses that I have consulted for as well as providing individuals the framework to balance life and work.
It is important too, to recognize what we want at 25 is not usually what we want at 35..and so on. Securing the knowledge to continue to manage change, continue growth and assess our life journey is valuable. I am doing this because it's time for a new game plan that goes the distance and manages the changes everyone is experiencing in life - more rapidly and as we live longer lives.
Additionally, not everyone is suited to become an entrepreneur; however, I encourage the idea of being one's own entrepreneur. Seeing the needs (yours included) and how to design the answers, products, or services - whether in your own business or within a business or social concern. In fact, corporations are seeking this type of mindset within their employees, aligning with the trends of hybrid work and availing employees of better options. Learning the skills, tools, and framework I teach continues to be a valuable resource. That is "my why" and a desire to share a process that has worked so that others may thrive.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
- It has always been: The truer I am to my own principles and core values? The better the outcomes.
- Seeking out wise counsel has been vital.
- I have had outstanding opportunities, and they all happened when I was fully doing what I know I am best at and being true to myself.
- The most rewarding experience has been to envision something, and then it becomes real. Ideas to reality is a wholly satisfying accomplishment - and it develops the ability to take risks.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
It's all you. You are responsible for many things, people, products, and decisions that can alter so much. Others are involved, but at the end of the day, it is you. It can be incredibly stressful because there are no "absolutes," but I have always reminded myself that being an employee is not a guaranteed path either.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Ideate, test, assess.
- Seek wise counsel and network - highly valuable.
- Be sure you 'work to live, not live to work.' Your business and life will be better for it.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.nextcareerlife.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NEXTCareerLife/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextcareerlife/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eribonsnext/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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