The horrors of running a business
What with it being Halloween and all I’ve been thinking about the horrors of business. The things that keep us up and sweating all night!
Here are my top 2 horrors that I see time and again with my clients, I reckon you’ll recognise a few of them!
Business Horror number 1 – Time
Ahh, that old one. The thing that keeps on ticking regardless of whether we want it to or not.
Hands up who’s been busy at work and then looked up at the clock and thought shit, I have to pick the kids up from school, get to the dentist or meet my friend for coffee and almost missed it?
It’s a massive horror, because we always want more if it, but there isn’t anymore of it to be had.
Alongside just the day to day running of a business there is also all those things you want to do. Products you want to launch, lead generators you want to create, sales pages you need to re-write, websites to design.
Everything always takes longer than you want it to.
People are always saying to me, it’s taking me ages to get this done. In fact everyone says it.
Is time your horror?
You need to start prioritising and planning like a mo fo! As boring as it is, it’s the only way to get things done.
Don’t expect that admin to be done if you haven’t created any time to do it.
Running a business takes time, you need at least half a day or a whole day a week to answer emails, do your invoicing, create your marketing, respond to comments on social media.
Spend some time with your diary and block out the time needed to do the tasks you need to do to run your business.
And if you haven’t got the time employ someone to do it for you.
And if you still haven’t got the time or the money to employ someone to do it for you, or to do it yourself, you’ve got to put your prices up to reflect the fact that you need to be paid a day a week to do this stuff!
There, that felt a bit ranty!
Horror number 2 – Lack of confidence
This bad boy raises its ugly head all over the place and is responsible for so many things.
Feeling like you haven’t got anything interesting to say on social media? Confidence!
Not sure if you’re any good at your job? Confidence!
Looking at other people and wondering why you aren’t as amazing, beautiful and successful as they are? Confidence!
Feeling like an imposter? Confidence!
Scared of putting your prices up, even though you know you’re charging rock bottom prices? Confidence!
The confident people among us just move with ease, charge what they want, create loads of amazing social media posts, have queues of people lining up to buy their things.
What!
No, that’s just not how it is.
Everyone has to work at this stuff. Yes some people are naturally confident, but all of us have our insecurities and hang-ups. We wouldn’t be human without them.
One of the biggest downfalls I see is people comparing themselves to others. You never know where they’ve been, how long it’s taken them to get where they are, or what’s going on behind the scenes.
And do you know what? You don’t want to be them anyway. You want to be you.
The marmite version of you if possible. The most you, you can be.
You want to be brave, not perfect.
And just by starting a business you’ve shown how brave you are.