Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in professional development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jeff Baker, owner of Positive Futures Career Coaching, located in Calgary, AB, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Have you met someone whose eyes shine when they talk about their work? Like when someone gives a TED talk. I'm a career coach specializing in helping people discover all the things that have people come alive and thrive at work. What has made you engaged and focused with curiosity and sometimes wonder? What makes you want to learn and develop expertise. And what has made you feel purposeful, coming home feeling fulfilled and looking forward to what's next?

Most of my clients are 28-38-year-old professionals who are successful on paper but feel flat about their careers. They're asking, "Am I really going to do this for the next 30 years?". They don't just want to work for a living. They want to actually look forward to going to work on a Monday morning. For their work to be a creative expression of who they are at their best, not something they have to do to pay the bills.

Tell us about yourself

I've spent most of my life trying to create a life of freedom and purpose. After graduating from Mechanical Engineering Technology, rather than getting an entry-level job, I sold everything and travelled in a 1974 VW Westfalia for a year, reading and exploring what made a good life.

I spent the next 15 years learning how to do work I truly loved, so I never felt like I had to work for a living. I founded five businesses, had several jobs, took years of workshops, and studied dozens of the best authors in the field.

After years of real-world experience and learning, I started coaching people on how to recognize what has them come alive and thrive and how to transition their careers to align with that. I worked for free at first as I learned and refined my program. Five years ago, I was ready to do this professionally. I've continued to learn and refine my program ever since.
What motivates me every day is seeing my clients go from stuck and frustrated to inspired and deeply motivated by the new future they get to live into.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Developing a product that actually works. People and their lives are complex. It's no small task successfully helping people safely transition their career and life to something new. It took many years to develop my Career Revisioning Program. I'm proud of what I've accomplished. It's the culmination of my life's work.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The uncertainty. There are many unknowns at the beginning that take time and money to resolve. It took a long time to find my business groove, and then life threw me curveballs like the pandemic.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Perhaps obviously, choose something you are endlessly curious to learn and engage with that matches your strengths and how you think, so you'll have the drive and interest to develop something valuable and ideally remarkable.
  2. Build a team of advisors/mentors/supporters, so in any area you might fall down in, there is someone or a system to back you up, so you never get stuck.
  3. Test and learn, test and learn. Don't take a long time building something you love expecting it to sell. Rapidly prototype something you love, test for market fit, learn, and prototype again. Success is not about having a great idea. It comes from testing many ideas until you find the ones that work in the real world.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://positivefutures.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PositiveFuturesCareerCoaching/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/positive-futures/

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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