Reena Vokoun, former Google employee and founder of PassionFit, shares four tips for starting a business as entrepreneurship surges. One in three U.S. adults plan to start a business in 2026. She recommends identifying a real problem first, niching down to understand your audience deeply, building a detailed business plan you're willing to pivot, and using AI tools like Google's Gemini to run things efficiently.
From side hustles to full-time passion projects, entrepreneurship is experiencing a major surge this year, and one of our favorite entrepreneurs, Reena Vokoun, is here. Nice to see you.
Thank you, Ashley. It's great to be here.
You know, I love having you on because you're so much more than a fitness expert to us. I mean, she talks about overall wellness, you know, if you watch the show regularly, everything from mental health to our physical health and everything in between. And today you wanted to focus on entrepreneurship.
Yeah, I think entrepreneurship is really booming right now. Um, 1 in 3 adults in the US are intending to start a business this year, which is a 94% year-over-year increase according to QuickBooks. So I thought it'd be fun to talk about entrepreneurship because there's so much opportunity. I've been doing it for 12 years now with my company PassionFit, and I always love to share.
Well, she has some great tips for us today, and the first one is to really kind of determine what problem you want to solve, right?
Exactly. I think when you take a look at the market, it's important to understand what What problems are out there and how can you create a solution, whether it's with a product, a service, or content? Really by understanding the problem, you can help create a viable business. So take a second to understand, are you looking maybe to create a business around digital marketing, workplace productivity, household automation? Maybe you wanna build a community or create something within technology management. Having that understanding can really help get you started with your business plan.
You know, I think a lot of people have great ideas, but sometimes the ideas are too big, right? So you really need to determine who your target audience is.
Exactly. I think one of the biggest mistakes is to try to serve all people, and while that's a great intention and we want to be inclusive with our business, it is important to niche down and have a target audience and not only understand who they are. Are you serving moms? Are you serving young athletes or for men and women alike, whoever it is, understand what their pain points and challenges are, because when you can make your customers feel seen, heard, and understood, you're gonna create a very healthy customer-centric business, and that's gonna help create that emotional connection and that brand loyalty and retention.
You know, I have to tell you, I think I'm really good at the creative side of things, but I'm not so good sometimes at the planning part of it. So you really need to come up with a business plan.
Yes. The business plan is really your blueprint, and I think for anybody out there that has been an entrepreneur, there really is no blueprint, which can be kind of daunting. So you do need to create your own and understand things like what does your financial and revenue model look like, right? What are your operational expenses going to look like? What is your product and marketing and service development strategy gonna look like? How are you gonna market people, and what is your sales process going to be? And by having some of these core those 4 pieces of information documented, one, it's gonna help you get started, but it's also gonna help you determine during your path as an entrepreneur if maybe you need to change course, and that's okay, right? Some businesses might be full steam ahead and they'll stay with their same mission from day one. Others may twist and turn and change. So I think it's important to recognize when you do need to change course, but at the same time have the patience because most business— businesses take about 3 to 5 years to really get off the ground.
What do you think about AI? Because I think a lot of people are fearful that AI is taking over, but it can be used to help us grow our businesses.
Absolutely. We are now in the second half of 2026 and AI is everywhere. And I think we have to look at it as if we don't adapt to it, we're going to get left behind. So not only do we want to understand how to use AI tools in our professional life, maybe our educational life, but also for our businesses. Having been a former Google employee, I'm a huge fan of Google's suite of AI products like Gemini for AI Businesses, Gemini AI for small businesses, Google Workspace, Nanobanana, YouTube Partner Program. These are all great tools that are really helping me manage my business. Whether you use Google or somebody else, I think the key is just to learn how you can create operational efficiencies. You can use AI for market research or competitive analysis or even financial management.
You know, and on top of all of your great tips, I think something that people should keep in mind is like, you're never too old. I mean, I used to think like, oh, you missed the boat on something. But I've been reading up a lot of these like millionaires didn't start until they were in their 40s.
Exactly. The average age of people starting their businesses is usually 40 and up, which is really exciting. I think we're seeing, according to Forbes, 12.6 million employees actually come from women-owned businesses, and it's creating a huge economic value of $2.6 trillion in total revenue. So having, you know, experience and maybe being a little bit older is not a bad thing because then you're kind of going into it having some good, you know, experience in the business world behind you.
Okay, wonderful. Reena, thank you so much. Reena, of course, is the founder and CEO of PassionFit. You need to head to her website and get all of her great resources. And you have any podcast episodes coming out soon?
We do. We're on a bit of a summer hiatus, but we will pick back up with our first new episode for season 2 starting in September. Awesome. And I have some really exciting guests coming. I cannot wait to share.
Very cool. Okay, great. Reena, thank you so much. Thank you. Don't go anywhere. We have free family fun events coming up on the other side of the break.
