I recently had a conversation with a new client. They built their business several years ago and achieved a level of success but now they were burned out. he looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “I thought I was building my dream but instead I built a nightmare.
At that moment my heart sank because it reminded me of when I first started my business and the journey I went on. I left the corporate world and dived feet first into owning my own business, a retail store with a friend of mine. At the same time I wanted to build my consulting business. I felt like I was living my dream and slowly realized I was also living my worst nightmare at the same time.
At first it was super exciting. I loved creating my own schedule and having a creative space to work instead of a windowless office with birds in the ceiling. I loved learning and growing. I loved meeting new local businesses and working in a space that felt inspiring and light. I loved being finally free from my micro managing boss, free from planning sales meetings and worrying whether there was enough Diet Coke (I don’t even like soda let alone Diet Coke). I loved being out from the unrealistic expectations and days of sitting at my desk asking “is this it, is this all my life is about?”
I loved every minute of being my own boss. In the beginning, anyways. And then everything started to spiral downward. Just as quickly as I experienced excitement, I began to feel overwhelmed, a fear of failing and being a workaholic after I just recovered from being one in my corporate job. I remember getting up every day super early because that’s what I thought I needed to do to be successful. I did “all the things” that successful entrepreneurs do, or at least what I thought they did just to try and get things up and running. I hustled and worked myself until exhaustion late into the night because I was told eventually I would “get everything done”. I booked back to back to back appointments to stay busy and build my visibility. I told myself I couldn’t afford to get help, I could handle it all and that “I can figure anything out”. I got this far, I can totally do this!
I focused on random tasks more than a strategic approach to the day, trying to “do it all” and be everywhere for everyone. Every day I looked at my growing schedule and my decreasing revenue, energy and passion and all of a sudden I felt like everything was breaking down. I was so focused on achieving my dream to be “successful” and what I found was that I didn’t know what success really meant to me anymore, I was losing my creativity and running on empty. And then one day it all changed.
I stopped everything. I decided to stop all the “busy work” and decided to create a vision for my own business. I got clear on exactly what I wanted and what I didn’t want and from there I could build a blue print to make it all happen. Deep down I knew there was a better, much smarter way to build a successful business, much better than how I started that wouldn’t lead to burn out.
You can be successful without working yourself into exhaustion and building a nightmare for yourself. After all, we build a business from our passion not to make us miserable. You can make more money without adding tons of products and services into your business and you don’t have to sacrifice your personal life, your health and your happiness to be able to thrive. I was determined to figure all of this out so I could help others.
Fast forward to today – just a few years later – I’ve been fortunate enough to help many small business owners build thriving businesses without adding more hours to their day. To maximize their profits and build a team that innovates, connects and creates meaningful transformation with customers.
If you are wondering “how is this all possible?” I have some answers to help you out.
- There is no magic solution. It requires doing the hard work (but not working harder) to figure out what is vital to the business and what isn’t…and guess what happens to what isn’t.
- You can’t and shouldn’t do this alone. Building a focused team that aligns with your core values and empowering them to take action is key.
- Create a clear, compelling vision that aligns with the mission and purpose of your business. It’s more than just the products or services you sell but how you make things better by making better things and building a community around the difference you are making.
- Everything that happens in and to your business is your responsibility. This makes deciding what to do and not do very easy.
- Small steps lead to a BIG impact. Don’t try and change everything all at once and don’t try and take big steps all at once. Small incremental steps on a consistent basis lead to major advancements.
Spending hours and hours trying to “figure things out”, wishing for more time, more energy and to be able to focus. These things won’t help, but what will get you on the right track is to:
-Define your vision for what you want for your business and where you want to go
-Build a customized growth strategy
-Create an executable plan which allows you to build your community and increase revenue and profitability
And most importantly, believing you can do this! It’s time to create massive growth in your business and accelerate your results.
Here’s to your future success!
To hear more on this topic and others make sure you tune into the Your Next Best Step podcast and the following helpful episodes:
Episode 2 – Why having a vision for your business will excel your growth
Episode 3 – 7 things that will help you achieve success faster in your business
