{"id":3816,"date":"2022-02-09T11:46:38","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T10:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/self-belief-can-be-your-superpower\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T12:07:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T10:07:36","slug":"self-belief-can-be-your-superpower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/self-belief-can-be-your-superpower\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightbulb moment: Self-belief can be your superpower"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LoviisaThe American comedian W.C Fields coined the well-worn phrase \u2018never work with children or animals\u2019. He clearly would never have understood Finnish entrepreneur Loviisa Maasson, who happily admits that \u2018if a room is full of people, adults and children, you will find me sitting on the floor playing with the kids\u2019. In fact, she loves the company of children so much that her first business, N\u00e4pp, is a platform supplying babysitting and childcare services for international families around the Netherlands where she studied Creative Business.<\/p>\n

How the business idea was born<\/b><\/h2>\n

As a 24-year-old foreign student in need of extra cash, Loviisa found a part-time <\/span>job as a babysitter with a family who wanted a Finnish-speaking nanny for their baby. Seeing how much she herself gained from the arrangement as well as the linguistic and cultural benefits for the household led Loviisa to the idea that other expat families would also value having a native speaker looking after their children. Being uniquely positioned as a student, Loviisa began by recruiting other international friends and in 2018 N\u00e4pp was born \u2013 its purpose to help children connect to their native culture, no matter where they lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI approached N\u00e4pp a bit like a school assignment,\u201d she says. \u201cI had no limits to my dreams of what it could be. I went big immediately and imagined a large international company. I think this was a good thing because I realised quite quickly that the idea had potential and from researching the market knew it also had a chance to grow into something significant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Losing the joy\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

N\u00e4pp found early success but the company began to stall and Loviisa lost the initial \u201cfreedom and Joy\u201d she felt from its birth. For future growth and continued success, Loviisa knew that while her sense of purpose hadn\u2019t changed she had to make some changes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI needed guidance. I didn\u2019t have any business knowledge when I started out and I didn\u2019t know what to do or where to go for help. It was also difficult to balance between \u2018am I a student, or am I an entrepreneur?\u2019 This became particularly challenging after graduation when suddenly I was only an entrepreneur and there was more pressure on succeeding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for so many small and medium-sized businesses, Covid also proved to be a stumbling block.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wanted babysitters in their homes and finding new customers became difficult. This put the brakes on our good growth and all my future plans were put on hold. I avoided talking about the issues and felt a bit lost with myself and my own identity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get the right support to take the next step and begin to recognise what lies ahead and sometimes small adjustments can bring back freedom, joy and therefore, growth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So what changed? What gave Loviisa her lightbulb moment?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

\u201cI decided to leave my self-doubt behind!\u201d she explains. \u201cI remembered why I had started the business in the first place and how much potential it really had. I made space for what was important to me and how I could clearly translate this into my company again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI began to understand that the past is not the future and that N\u00e4pp had entered a new era of growth. It was no longer a start-up but an established company. This helped me gain self-confidence, especially with Julie telling me during the entry level to the <\/span>\u2018Your Journey\u2019<\/a><\/strong> training programme that I had everything I needed already within myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, with things back on an even keel and new clients coming in, what advice would Loviisa give to other young entrepreneurs?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it was a struggle sometimes to be a student and an entrepreneur, I still think it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I was quite risk free to start a business while studying because you didn\u2019t \u2018lose\u2019 any time and you could test out different business plans, while still building your knowledge in school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always tell other young entrepreneurs to just go for it. Then I tell them what my husband said to me back in the days when I was thinking of starting. He asked me: \u2018what if, in five years, you see someone else being successful with the same idea that you had. How would you feel?\u2019 I would have felt devastated \u2013 so go for it! Leave the self-doubt behind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To find your own lightbulb moment, why not start the entry level to \u2018Your Journey\u2019 right now? Click here<\/a> to find out more about the Lift-Off programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American comedian W.C Fields coined the well-worn phrase \u2018never work with children or animals\u2019. He clearly would never have understood Finnish entrepreneur Loviisa Maasson, who happily admits that \u2018if a room is full of people, adults and children, you will find me sitting on the floor playing with the kids\u2019. In fact, she loves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[60,36,37,38,71,108,152,41,42],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-business-growth","tag-entrepreneur","tag-female-entrepreneur","tag-female-leadership","tag-freedom","tag-growth","tag-loviisa-maasson","tag-purpose","tag-purpose-led"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4134,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions\/4134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}