First Day Bliss

And, oh yeah, why ARE you in business?

Oh, the FREEDOM!  That glorious first day, after you’ve left your J.O.B. and started your own venture!

I remember mine—several of them, actually, since I’m a serial entrepreneur. And on the very first day of my very first business, my body felt like a fully-charged mobile, with a constant ping of notifications firing in my brain for to-do’s, and dreams.

I was rolling in to-do’s. I was plenty busy… even without much ACTUAL paying business, LOL.

Little did I know that “busy” would soon take on new meaning!

This post shares a few stories from MY biz journey, along with a few takeaways that might be helpful if you’re getting started (or bring back memories if you’ve been underway for a bit!).

And please DO let me know if any of this resonates, and/or share some of your story, in the comments!

Concrete or Quicksand?

I was fortunate not to be a total newbie: I came from a successful entrepreneurial family. Both my father and sister were ad agency owner-managers, and I had worked at my Dad’s business from teenage summers through full-time roles ‘til I was about 30, until leaving to get a taste of how other agencies worked.

So when, years later, I left my high-paying agency job to launch my own consulting firm and away from leaders that demanded I spend 12+ hours in the office each day just to prove my worth… away from a world that seemed more concerned with posturing and job titles and profits, than the people on the receiving end of our work… I was walking out onto solid ground.

I was prepared. I even already had my first client’s check in hand. 

TIP: Your supercharged startup energy may help attract an early flush of clients, but it’s best not to build projections based on that initial blip. Your paved path to the future might really be quicksand if you slip too quickly into comfort. 

To avoid trouble, make like a mountain climber and tap in some pitons so you can secure a safety line:

• Financial reserves, (and more financial reserves).

• Skilled labor that can have your back in case of emergency (illness, injury, overwhelm that threatens client satisfaction).

• Prioritized target list of services/projects you want.

• List of quick-income projects in case a large client walks or you otherwise take an unexpected hit.

• Be slow to spend, (take on overhead and team members slowly; get paid in advance, don’t “pay” to bring on a client on your own dime). 

Oh, the Unexpected Challenges of Being Self-Employed

Despite having worked in a small biz before, as the months unfolded, I found myself always on the run, trying to catch up with the many, many hats that I now wore. Simply offering a service to someone who needed it was the EASY part!  But perhaps most of all, I was alone, with no one to collaborate with (or enforce) critical decisions about:

• visibility (this first biz was pre-social media—but getting, and staying, in front of the right people is still a challenge for owner/operators),

• putting guardrails on “work” (separating work time from family time; home from home office),

• setting fees (“wait—with no team or overhead, isn’t the fee really just what I’m worth? Am I really worth that? If I charge what I’m used to making, won’t I just be like the posturing, profit-seeking system I dislike?” Oh, the limiting beliefs I had yet to discover!)

and so much more. There was a lot to work through!

So, I did what I always did when faced with a challenge: I worked harder, longer, came up with more ideas, tried more things.

The life I was living—though miles better than the world I’d left—was not the life I envisioned or dreamed about.

Where was I going wrong?

What I didn’t realize until many years, and a few businesses, later, is that no amount of energy or productivity will get you past the challenges of being a business owner unless you have clarity on a few key points (zero in on them NOW if you have any degree of fuzziness, or if you have employees and need to get on the same page).

• WHY you’ve gone into business,

• WHAT you expect from it, and

• HOW it will dovetail with your values.

Throw some light on the blind spots

In my situation, I let my fears (and willfulness!), create blind spots for me.

I knew, logically, but had never fully embraced in my gut some critical truths that I highly recommend every start-up assess (and re-assess at regular intervals!):

• be sure your “why” dovetails with the business you’re in (AND how you operate it);

• remember business is fundamentally an exchange of value for money (don’t get it tangled with your worth as a human being);

• consider if your goal is to DO the work, or RUN the business. Just because it’s your business, you needn’t be the expert at every part of it (even if you’re a freelancer or solopreneur).

And that barely scratches the surface! That’s why we’ll be working to help you with more tips, strategies, and tools to help you thrive on YOUR Biz Journey.

Are you a business owner? Do you serve business owners? Let’s connect!

Comments ARE moderated, but if you’re a real person with a real business and positive content to share, I’d love to hear from you: your questions, your ideas, your stories.

Together, we have the potential to make the world a lovelier, livelier place for us all.