Join our club
Not many people are brave enough to start their own business.
People like us, we took a risk.
We made a stand.
(by the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, click these links - Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify)
We decided that we weren't going to put up with working for an idiot or being told what to do.
We were sick of working incredibly hard, only for the rewards to go to some high-up who has no idea what we actually do each day.
We've chosen flexibility.
We've chosen responsibility.
We've chosen working from home, so we can look after the kids.
We've chosen doing things the right way.
We've chosen being fair with the money we earn.
But it's difficult.
Most businesses fail within the first year.
If you've made it that far, congratulations. You're doing an amazing job.
Even worse, almost all small businesses die within four years.
So if you've hit that milestone and made it to five years or beyond, you're in an elite club.
The reason for this is simple.
The things that you have to do when you start a business are different (year one) to the things you have to do to keep that business running (up to year four), which in turn are different from the things you have to do make the business work without your constant attention (year five and beyond).
There are five areas where you need to make those changes - profits, operations, sales, marketing and time. Taken together, it's a big set of changes, a lot of learning to do all at once. But break it down, attack one piece at a time, and it becomes manageable and a natural part of building a business that gives you the life you want.
If you'd like to know what could make a difference for you, check out my quick and simple quiz.
It's designed to pinpoint the area of your business that you can make the most improvement on, for the least effort.
So you can actually get a bit of that flexibility, that extra cash, that free time and that freedom that we were all wanting when we started our businesses.
It only takes a couple of minutes to complete and could make a real difference to your business.
Photo by Miroslava on Unsplash
