The Lost, Confused & Frustrated Entrepreneur
I am going to be completely honest and transparent with you, well not that, that is anything new. I am always being transparent, right? Right!
So in my usual way of doing this I want to share with you that I too get a little bit frustrated, well not a little bit, a lot, a lot more than I would like to admit. But that’s fine. Entrepreneurship is like anything else its a journey, that only us can travel. It’s unique to ourselves. It won’t be like anyone else’s. What works for others, may not necessarily work for you. And that’s okay.
This past 2 months working as a mompreneur I took lessons from the previous year in business to be able to one step or couples steps ahead of the game and I can see how taking notes on your own journey can help.
For me as an mompreneur who is living lean to achieve some major financial goals this year, opted to keep the kids home while I worked. Funny enough, the first month went by a lot less stressful than usual. Usually I am ripping my hair out and complaining daily. Don't judge me, if you are a full-time mompreneur of small ones I am sure you can relate.
From the get go I decided to have a positive attitude. I thought maybe things are hectic because:
I did not plan (adequately) each day around my life
I have a whiney was of approaching the issue
My life is less stressful since I removed negative elements from my life that kept me back from making my own decisions…
So what I did different and learned this year is the following:
Plan
Always have a plan for your day, before I used to plan my day seperate to my actual life. I changed that sometime in early July. For those of you know have worked with me know I do consultation calls on Mondays and Thursdays, so that left Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to do anything mommy related, kids related, errands related. Anything personal I left for those days and left my days clear for Mondays and Thursdays to focus on talking with clients and potential clients. Ever since I did that I felt so much less stressed, structure does make a difference to your stress levels. I also started getting up earlier so I was prepared for the day, so if I did not plan my work for the next day, I would do that first thing in the morning, write it all out on my whiteboard and then hunker down to work til about 6, then start breakfast because my kids are early risers.
Show Up
Next is to show up...When I say show up I mean, get out there whichever way you know is tried, true and tested for your business for the least and as a bonus try something new, but at least start with what you know that works. July was a non-income generating month.
Thankfully, I am smart and have a business model where I have recurring clients through retainer. Other than that there was work but no new clients. Why because I did not show up. I did not market and not because I was lazy but because June month was so crazy in the business and in my personal life that it took over and I was not being visible and continued active marketing activities. And because I was busy I was not even talking to people because I was too tired to talk to anyone. I only had time to barely keep up with the work I already had so by the time things settled down it was too late. But then in July all it took was me showing up again for only two weeks consistently to be back in the game and now the next few months are booked.
Now luckily I have always been nurturing my audience through newsletters, blog posts, social media groups and fb live streams so when I showed up I think that pre-work before “going missing” is what helped me when I returned. Now it was just to get on those calls and close the deal. This is why it is super important to always be giving content and value to your audience as often as you possibly can, people are always watching you and contemplating to work with you. This is why I am not a big fan of gauging success by FB likes and comments only. To conclude planning, you just need to be consistent, its the rule of thumb to any successful Brand anyway, be consistent not just with your colours, patterns etc, but you have to be consistent with the activities in your business.
Surround Yourself with Cheerleaders
Its a real stunt to peace of mind when you are surrounded with parasites and negative thoughts from the people around you. It’s not bad enough that we all personally have to deal with our own negative self talk but when you have a person or people in your life compounding your own thoughts its easy to feel defeated and frustrated. Relieve your business and your life of these people. Your life with that you for it and also your business. You may or may not heard of the term Business Besties before but we all need them to keep our sanity on this Entrepreneurship journey.
You need people who will be supportive yet poke holes in your ideas, you need people who will encourage you and who understand what you are going through because there are days you need to just do some old fashioned venting to a small circle of fellow entrepreneurs that you TRUST. Having positive people who are on this same journey has made life overall so much better and less stressful and as I like to say, if you are not good to yourself you can be of no good to anyone else, be it family or clients. So make sure you surround your life with positive good vibes only.
Now when it comes to being confused and frustrated in your life where your Website and Brand overall is concerned, what I do recommend is getting a Website + Brand Audit Done. If you would like to learn more about what it can do for you head on over to http://bit.ly/cdbaudit and find out about the clarity and areas you can improve your Brand and Website on your own or with the help of your current web designer.