Guest Blog Post by Simone Milasas

Business. Just the word itself can bring up so much heaviness. What comes up for you when you hear the word? Are any of the following familiar?

• Business is hard, it’s going to take long hours and a lot of money
• Even if you get your business off the ground, most businesses fail within five years
• You have to have a business plan with financial projections
• You’d better be organized or you’ll never succeed
• If business was fun and easy, everyone would be doing it
• Fun in business? Sure you can have fun, but you won’t make any money

Many people, when starting their business, look to others who have succeeded before them. If you’re offering a service such as coaching, you might take classes from “six-figure” coaches who present their system, stating that if you simply follow it closely, you too will soon have a waiting list of clients. Creating a business around a new product? Websites abound with theories about what makes a product successful.

While it’s fine to learn from others, most people approach creating a business from trying to get it right. Whether forming a business plan or following someone’s system step-by-step, every choice takes on significance, with the pressure on for your business to “succeed.”

Where’s the joy or ease in that? What if there was a totally different way to be in business, one in which business was fun?

Here are 3 steps to begin putting the fun back in business:

Step 1. Eliminate the significance from business

Whatever you do, don’t make business significant! When you solidify your business into a form and structure—defining what your business IS—you take creation out. Definition is a limitation and a conclusion.

What if instead of a plan and projections, your business could be a playground of possibilities?

Significance also shows up when you act and don’t see the outcome you think you should. “Oh, I tried using social media and it didn’t work.” “It was light to go to this networking event but nothing came of it.” Again, making meaning out of the outcome of an action is going into a conclusion instead of staying in question.

Whether you have a business or just an idea for one, notice all the significance, must haves and must dos, projections and plans, and turn them into questions. Instead of telling your business what to be, ask questions to create with it: “What energy can I be to create with you today?” “What can I contribute to you today?”

Step 2: Make a demand list for your business

What expectations do you have about what your business should be right now? People often have thoughts about what their business ought to be (I want my business to be BIG!), but they haven’t made the demand of what that is.

Write down your demand list for your business. For example, this might include things like:

• I would like 10 people at my next class
• I would like 3 private clients to show up per week
• I would like 20 new people a week to know about my business

Once you have your list, get the energy of the items on it.

Then, be willing to do whatever matches that energy. Ask questions such as, “What energy can I be to create this? What can I be or do different to actualize this right away?”

Don’t get caught in the how—remember you won’t know how it will show up! Play with the energy of your list, and allow possibilities to emerge.

Step 3: Be willing to receive

Once you have your demand list, you also have to be willing to receive. People often dream big for their business (I’d like to have a waiting list of clients! I’d like 50 people to come to my next class!), yet when they’re honest with themselves, recognize that there is relief in their world when they don’t achieve it. They are asking, while simultaneously refusing what they’re asking for. A question that’s helpful when you are refusing possibilities is, “What energy am I not willing to receive?”

You will receive more when you are being you, since being and receiving go hand in hand. When you’re being you, you are the space in which to put the fun back in business.

Being that space of you, asking questions instead of going into the significance, and following the energy of what you’d like to create allow you to play in the playground of possibilities that business can be. If you choose it, that is! Are you willing to be the person who is different? The one who has fun with business?

If you’d like to have fun with your business and invite others to do the same, check out more on Putting the Fun Back in Business!

Simone Milasas, is the Creator and Founder of Joy of Business. Learn more about Joy of Business and find upcoming classes facilitated around the world by clicking here.