After 20 years of retailing, just yesterday I closed the door on my golf business – Just Golf. I never really set out to be in retail or the golf industry for that matter, it just “happened” and the whole time I was in business my interest and passion has been for marketing.

It was always the part of being in business that I enjoyed the most, the challenge of trying to find out what my customers wanted and how best I could provide it to them. It lead me in many different directions including building one of the first online golf shops in the country. Soon, other retailers where asking me how I did it and if I could do something similar for them. The internet continued to fuel my passion when I found out how targeted marketing could be through email marketing and paid advertising. During my time in retail, I studied Marketing, Small Business Management and Web Design and found myself doing lots of jobs “on the side” for other small businesses.

In July last year I asked a friend who is a motivational speaker if he would mind mentoring me and we began meeting on a weekly basis. One of the first things he asked me was what my goals where and I told him that I would like to get out of retailing and run a marketing business full time. His response was “what is stopping you?” which was pretty confronting. After a bit of sole searching I realized, it was just the fear of leaving something that was comfortable and secure and taking on something new, but with his help (and my wife’s support) I started down the path.

Within 1 week I had a dedicated office, and soon after I employed someone to work in my shop 3 days per week to allow me to work on my new business. By the end of last year I was drawing a wage and as of today, I am now working full time as a marketing consultant in my new business Solutions 4 Biz.

The other uncanny thing about this article for me is Robert’s suggestion that you consider sharing your business. When I closed my retail shop I was left with around 2 years left on the lease and my initial thought was to sub lease it. Last week I decided that I would rather set up an office share arrangement for other small businesses looking to move out of home or start up in a commercial area. I figured if I partnered with a graphic designer or IT specialist we could certainly help each others business to grow and it would be far more beneficial to me than just a single unrelated tenant. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

I feel like I have “dropped my tail” (retailing) leaving me just “the body” which is marketing. It is a very satisfying feeling to be able to make this change in my life and business career, although I still am a bit apprehensive about the future. Luckily I still have my mentor visits and my goals on the wall in front of me staring me in the face, so now it is just up to me.

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This was posted on Flying Solo here in response to an article by Robert Gerrish