Dream Business

Have you ever taken time to figure out your dream business?

You know, the one that floods your mind as soon as you wake up and leaves you daydreaming about the new products you’ll create when you just get a spare fifteen minutes? The one that you spent months planning, or maybe plan to spend months planning in the future? The one that fills you with an explosive passion and leaves you ready to take on the world?

Whether you’re currently chasing that dream or waiting for the perfect time to do so, have you ensured that it’s YOUR dream business that you’re chasing after?

Each entrepreneur, and every shop owner, and every person with a dream to create, has their own dream business. It’s one that’s carefully crafted to fall in line with their beliefs, their hopes, their dreams, their wants, their needs, their abilities, and their story. It’s one that doesn’t follow all of the so-called rules that everyone else has created and it breaks the mold with the products and ideas that stem from the brains behind the business. It’s one that meets their needs, not the needs of the society we’re catering to.

There are certain aspects that help craft these delicate dreams and help shape the business structure. It may be part time, or it may be full time. It may be a hobby, or it may be a career. It may be a one woman show based out of the home, or it may be retail space that’s filled with tons of employees that you can guide to help you run your perfect business. You might be famous and hitting newsstands everywhere, or you may be just a name behind a popular brand. There might be popular accessories in it that are made around the world, or it may be something simpler and entirely unique to you.

There are so many variables that fit into making it your own perfect company and because of this, every single dream business becomes completely different from the next one. It makes each and every dream business vary in the goals, the plans, the mission, the strategies, and the beliefs behind each brand. So when you try to fit into the shoes as the owner of someone else’s dream business, do you think you’ll truly succeed? Can you run it like they do, with the same end goal in mind and the same drive for growth, if it’s not stemming from your blueprints for your own personal dream business?

I doubt it.

So if you’re running your business now, and it’s not entirely fitting your mold . . . have you asked yourself if it’s someone else’s dream that you’re trying to fulfill? Maybe even your own dream that has changed over time and no longer fits your current mindset? If you are chasing someone else’s dream, step back from it. Look at the pieces of the puzzle that don’t quite fit. Find a way to rearrange them to create your perfect picture. And then ensure that your business evolves and grows as you do. Only then can you fulfill the role of a dream business owner.

Ashley Wagner — After Nine to Five

Ashley is the creative force behind the After Nine To Five blog and shop. She’s a self-employed consultant/blogger/graphic designer that is determined to live the life that she used to believe would always be just a dream. You can follow her journey along with her husband’s journey as they make their transition from being Wisconsinites to Floridians on And a DIY Life.

She is also the founder of The Better Blogger Network – a community dedicated to helping each other grow as a person and even more so, as a blogger. She is also the founder of RevolutionizeHer – a project that is dedicated to encouraging and inspiring women to live the life they dream of living, especially through self-employment.