The rise of athlete owned businesses is a welcome sign that the commercial power of sport is swinging back towards those closest to the spirit of the game.

If you're an athlete and want to start a business, especially in sport, go for it.

Just make sure that you are taking advantage of your situation, your network, your expertise and your platform.

Media channels this month including Women’s Sport Alliance shared the amazing story of Ellia Smeding with her partner capitalised on their community insights around coffee culture, found a solution that fit the needs of globe trotting athletes like them, served their peers first and found a distribution model to scale and fund their athletic careers.

Need an idea? First off we suggest just sell for you. That's right fix something you need. Is there a product, resource or service you wish was available to you, now or earlier in your career? Chances are, that your peers would also identify with the same need - this is where you will find your demand.

Remember, it's easy to make observations for very few people have inside. Brands will observe what's happening as a trend and create a product, but in those terms it means they are already late.

As an athlete working from within the inner circle, you will have the benefit of insight, this means you will understand consumer motivation and be ahead of the game already.

Knowing the problem personally, you can really obsess for the best and efficient solve, find a fix that works for you and something that can scale. Then it's just a case of finding a method or a partner who can help you produce and distribute the solution in cost-effective ways.

If this sounds really simple, well that's because it is. The point of the example with Ellia Smeding is not that they invented some amazing new business model, it was simply that they followed a process that would ensure that they had success.

Below is a great example of the ideal steps to starting a business -

𝟭. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱
𝟮. 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁/𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻/𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
𝟯. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
𝟰. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗳
𝟱. 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁!

If you've got an idea we'd love to help you bring it to life