Nearly 20 years ago, I took a leap of faith, left my corporate job and launched my own business. Like many of you, I chose entrepreneurship because I craved the flexibility and time to spend with my family and my newborn daughter.
Now that she’s almost ready to graduate high school and I just turned the big 5-0 (what?!), I’m feeling very reflective about the many lessons I’ve learned. Here are my top four…
1. The Importance of Connecting With People Face-to-Face
I’m grateful for the ability to work virtually every day, in my sweats, without leaving the house. However, just because technology has advanced to the point we don’t have to leave the house, it doesn’t mean we should never get out!
Being around like-minded people and putting in some “face time” is so good for your mindset and your business. I don’t know about you, but I feed off the energy of other people. Sitting alone, isolated at my home office every day just doesn’t get it for me.
Even in the age of social media, it’s still so important to network face-to-face! There’s nothing like connecting with people one-on-one to build your know, like and trust factor. And we do business with those we know, like and trust – right?
Networking is still one of the top marketing strategies to build your business quickly. Not to mention, you’ll feel connected and supported being around other business owners, colleagues and friends.
2. Turn Lemons Into Lemonade
I’m a hopeless optimist. I can’t help it. I’m lucky to have a wise mother who always taught me to “turn my lemons into lemonade.” It’s a philosophy that’s helped me through many rough spots throughout my life.
Ask my husband or my kids, when they come to me with a problem or concern, I always say, “What’s the worst possible thing that can happen?” Nine times out of ten the worst case scenario isn’t quite as bad as you think it is. You can always turn a negative into a positive if you look hard enough. And part of being an entrepreneur is learning to live with the ups and downs.
3. Work ONLY With Your Ideal Clients
I’m so thankful to my wonderful clients who have been so supportive and understanding over the years! I haven’t always had clients like this. I can think of a few in the past who would’ve complained or fired me for having to reschedule an appointment. This experience reminds me of the importance of choosing ideal clients. Yes, you can choose your clients! You don’t have to work with just anyone with a checkbook.
It’s tempting, especially in the beginning of your business, to take any client that is willing to pay you, regardless of their values, personality or ethics. What I’ve learned over the years is it’s much better to hand-pick your clients, based on the personal qualities they possess and how well they fit with your style. In the long run, you’ll be happier, more energized and more fulfilled in your work and your clients will get better results!
4. The Importance of Having a Virtual Assistant
As a solo-business owner, I’m accustomed to doing everything myself. I’m the owner, the worker and the billing, accounts payable, customer service, marketing and administrative departments. I do it all! Sound familiar? It’s a business model that’s very common, but not very effective. There’s no time that this is more apparent than when something happens that takes you out of your business for a period of time.
Although I heard it time and time again from my coaches and mentors – I ignored the importance of having a TEAM. And it smacked me right in the face (literally) when I fell ill and wasn’t able to get back to work as quickly as I thought.
I have several virtual assistants whom I work with on occasion, but they are not really a part of my “TEAM.” By that, I mean I don’t have anyone who knows the ins-and-outs, procedures, systems and daily operations of my business. Take me out of the equation and the business pretty much ceases to exist. BIG mistake!
No surprise, one of the first things on my task list for next year is having at least one assistant completely trained and ready to take over my daily operations at a moment’s notice. Part of that means that I must document every aspect of my business and create my own “operations manual” that I can simply hand off to my assistant and she’ll be able to replicate everything I do to run the business in my absence.
And it’s not just important to have a back-up for myself either. It’s also critical to let go of some control and delegate more if I want to grow. Have you ever thought about how much more efficiently you would run your business if you were able to delegate the tasks and projects which are not your strengths (the stuff that you HATE to do)? Not to mention, how much happier you would be not having to do the stuff you dread in your business! Making the investment in getting the help you need frees up your time to do the thing you do best – work with clients and grow your business!