Well. Finally.
This website, this company, has been percolating in my mind for quite some time. I registered the domain name almost 10 years ago, because something about the words — Creative Implementations — struck a chord. Hadn’t done anything with it or about it since, but it’s been in there, percolating.
For a long time (that same 10 years!) I’ve been doing web development through my company Wild Rose Websites. Well, I’ve been getting PAID to do web development. That’s what I told clients I offered. That’s what my proposals were geared around. That’s what I delivered, and that’s what they paid me for.
Except somewhere along the way an odd thing started to happen. I may have been hired to build or refine a website, but what I ended up doing was educating clients about online marketing and offline marketing and business processes and accountability and strategic planning. Those activities can take up a LOT of time — and I wasn’t getting paid for that time.
Several years ago (three? four, maybe?) I made the decision to really grow my web development business. So I started finding mentors and coaches to help me get past what I perceived as my sticking points. (The fact that my perception of those sticking points was a little skewed is a story for another post.) I worked with a marketing consultant for a while, and joined a women’s life/business coaching program.
I learned a lot from both. I also learned that while both taught me how to GROW my business, neither taught me how to sustain what I built. The business grew quickly, too quickly for it to be manageable, and my health started to suffer.
I took a big step back. And I took a long hard look at what I had been doing, especially what I liked and didn’t like about what I was doing. And I realized that while I will always love the techie geeky side of web development, what really fascinated me, what drove me, was helping small business owners grow their businesses.
So I started planning how I would do that as the major focus of my business. Which soon led to the realization that the name Wild Rose Websites just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
(Side note: I reinvent myself periodically. I think men have a mid-life crisis and they go out and buy a motorcycle or a little red sportscar. Women reinvent themselves.)
I enrolled in a coaching certification program offered by Valerie Young called “Profiting From Your Passions”. I’ve just about completed the course work and will start my practicum in September after I return from a much-needed and repeatedly-delayed holiday with my husband.
I attended Ali Brown’s Coaching Business Intensive conference in Los Angeles in July. What an amazing event! It showed me as nothing else has that I am sooooo on the right track again. I was so impressed with the depth and breadth of content that I applied to join her Millionaire Protégé Club in the Platinum tier; I’ll start in January 2011.
Those two programs form the foundation of what I want to build. I want to work with women business owners or wannabe business owners who want to grow their businesses online. I’ll use what I learn from Valerie and Ali (and a vast number of other people) to grow AND SUSTAIN my new venture.
I found my name again, my identity! That Creative Implementations name, that’s been sitting there gathering dust, was just waiting for some attention to come alive again. The Creative part? That’s when I help people uncover their passions and discover the possibilities that spring from those passions. And the Implementations? That’s the action step: working with people as they turn those possibilities into profits.
Hence this business, this website. They are works in progress. I’m learning as I go, how to use specific tools and processes to build MY online presence and make it work FOR ME (instead of the other way around). And as I figure it out for me, I will offer it to you in the form of ebooks and teleclasses and webinars and consulting and ongoing coaching.
So stay tuned. There are a lot of holes in this website, because I’m madly building. There are bits and pieces that will change, some sooner rather than later, as I make the transition from Wild Rose Websites to Creative Implementations. (Oh, and did I mention that I”m moving in October? My husband has been transferred from Edmonton to Calgary; we take possession of our new place October 15.)
One thing (of many) that I took away from CBI in July was the phrase: “Think big. Start small. Move fast”. Words to live by, as I grow this business.
Cheers,
Win
