Remember the dreams and goals you had, when you first started your business? I want you to fall back in love with those dreams. I want you to spend the next few minutes with me, using that power as a way to massively improve your business and your entire quality of life.
I once heard a business expert on stage, telling her audience that they needed to be prepared to pay the price for success. In my experience, it’s failure that we pay the price for. We enjoy the price of success.
Many small business owners are paying the price right now. They don’t really run their business. Their business run them. Many work extremely long hours, often because they underestimate the value of their time, sell it too cheaply, to the wrong people, and get stuck in the trap of not being able to afford the help they need. They are constantly under-resourced. They are paying the price and it’s a hefty one. But it’s not the price of success.
We enjoy the price of success
No one pays the price for success, at least not in the traditional way. Before starting my business, back in 1995, I was paying the price for having a highly paid job. By most people’s opinion, I was successful. I was in my late 20’s and was earning over 10 times the average UK salary. However, I regularly worked 14 hours a day and spent a lot of time away from home. I worked a minimum 6 days every week, often engaged in activities that were necessary, but extremely dull.
The days were too long and emotionally unrewarding. I used to feel drained and slept poorly. I hated it. I had I earned a ton of money, but I was not successful. I lost contact with many good friends. My quality of life was shit. I was paying the price of failure.
Turning it around!
Then, when I started my business, I decided to live by deliberate design. I chose to build a business where I was able to make the money I needed, by doing the things I loved and working with great people. I wanted to be there for my family and friends. In short: I wanted to be one of those people I read about, who LOVED what they did for a living. So, in 1995 I started my own business and began enjoying the price of success. Work ceased to be “work” from that day on. Yes, I worked some very long days (and still do occasionally), but it didn’t feel like work. I doesn’t honestly feel as if I have worked a single day since 1995.
Today, I’m enjoying the price – And you should be enjoying it too!
Falling in love again
Remember when you set your business up? You had dreams or at least goals, that you would enjoy a better quality of life and more freedom, right? If you are like most small business owners, you may love what you do, but you have lowered your dreams / aspirations, to fit the reality of how your business is performing. That’s the start of a cycle that you must break free from.
My suggestion is that you do the exact opposite!
My suggestion is that you fall back in love with the dreams that inspired you to start your business and rather than lowering your expectations to fit the limited resources of your current business, INCREASE the performance of your business, so that it provides you with the lifestyle you wanted to begin with. More free time, better working conditions, working with people who truly value your time.
It’s hard to be inspired, going to work each day worrying about money and feeling frustrated about the things you can’t have. Once you get into that trap, it can be like Ground Hog Day:
- You feel uninspired, so perform poorly – You then perform poorly, because you feel uninspired.
You need to break that cycle. You need to take a fresh look at your business, from the ground up and make some decisions. For example:
- Look at your workload. Are you working smart enough? Do you manage your time correctly?
- Look at your client list. Do you want to work with these people? Do they pay you enough for your time? If not, stop playing with your marketing and professionally market your services to people who WILL pay you what you deserve.
- Look at your systems. Can they be improved, so that you spend less time on unimportant things and more time developing your business?
- Look at your contacts. Are these really the people you need around you? Are they capable of giving you the top flight support and advice your business needs in order to succeed, or are they just people you met?
- Are you really committed to doing what is required for success, or happy to just keep your head down and hope things “just get better” some how?
The day you decide to INCREASE your expectations and make your business perform to your increased expectations, is the day you start enjoying the price of success.
It’s not always easy, but it is always possible.
No, it doesn’t happen in an instant. It can take a while. You can’t turn a ship around in an instant either, but you CAN change it’s course in a second.
Break the cycle. Fall back in love with those dreams or goals you had. Make today the day you start enjoying the price!