All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy
How true is this saying? Not just in business but in everything! I remember learning how to drive there was SO much to remember and that was just everything going on inside the car! Now I just drive.
Starting out and running a small business it’s so easy to think we should know everything even things we’ve never done before… everything is difficult before it becomes easy (not that running a small business is easy but what’s difficult now won’t be the same things that are difficult in a year!)
How much time do you spend on Google or YouTube or similar places researching things to do with your business that you feel like you 'should' know?
Do you find it hard to ask for help because you think you should know it, so you try to do it all yourself? (This is something that a lot of business owners I work with struggle with, impostor syndrome is a real thing!)
OR
Do you have an idea or want to do something in your business but before you do any research you ask as many people as you can (irrespective of if they own and run a business) what they would do or for them to confirm that what you're doing is right and how you should be doing it? So you might end up with a lot of differing opinions but no further along than you were when you first started?
I fall into both categories depending on what I'm working on, when it's things that I know are not my strengths I look to outside for advice but if it's something that I think I 'should' know I'll then spend hours online researching and learning instead of just asking someone that's an expert in that field and saving myself a load of time and usually money.
In hindsight it's easy to say I should have asked an expert however for a lot of my career I've felt I had to 'prove' myself. I never really fit into the 'right box' of a bookkeeper and then accountant - I'm too hyper, I love a good chat, I want to make figures easy and I'm just not a typical accountant (I've been told that by Clients - their words not mine) and now I'm coaching I don't really fit into the box of what I've always thought a business coach was - I'm not corporate (far from it), I do focus on the figures (it's an important part of business) but not getting everyone I work with to £1 million plus as that's not always the goals for the people I work with.
And there's nothing wrong with me not fitting into any boxes as that's what works for me and the people I work with but it's taken me a LONG time to be comfortable with that. Are you trying to fit yourself into other people's boxes because you think you have to be that way to run the business that you do?
Starting out and especially in your first few years of your business it's so easy to compare yourself to people who are further along than you and seem to have it all together It's then easy to go down the rabbit hole of thinking you're a failure because you've decided it's taking you longer to get there or they look like they were an overnight success but you've been at it for a while and you're only just getting by and not where you want to be.
Sound familiar?
If it does please could I ask you when was the last time you stopped, took a deep breath and then took a day a week or a few hours a week to take a step back, change your focus off of them and put it purely onto YOUR business?
Turned all notifications off
Got a blank piece of paper and sat down and really thought about ok:
Where am I now? (Be honest with yourself)
Where do I want to be? What do I want to create in my business? (Go into as much detail as you can)
Now here's the important part...What's the gap? What is holding me back from getting to where I want to be? What do I need to get me to that point?
For me, it's usually ME that's holding me back! I know what it's like to get so busy IN my business there was just never enough time to stop and take a step back and work ON the things that would drive me towards where I wanted to get to. I never made that time though because working on what I loved and moving forward was scary, what if I failed? What if I messed it up? Would I need to ask for help and then would I be judged because I didn't know that thing? Being caught up working IN my business was less risk and less scary because it was what I knew but I wasn't moving forward, I was stuck.
Sometimes you have to be a beginner and just take that scary step and start..
What's the worst that will happen?
No one will buy (ok are you reaching the people you want to work with? Is it easy for them to find you? Do you need some help with your marketing?)
Your idea sucks and actually when you really think about it and start to plan out how it would work you realise it won't work in your business? (This is great, you've looked at it, it might not be right now but it's cleared up head space to look at what's next and start looking at that)