5 THINGS I’D NEVER DO AS A BUSINESS OWNER

I'm jumping on this trend from TikTok where specialists talk about 5 things they would never do in their area of expertise with retrospective knowledge.

I've been working for myself full-time for 5 years and prior to that I also worked in startups really closely at the top tier of management looking to build and grow the company and also strategizing for the future.

These five points are definitely not exclusive these are just the top 5 things that I can see would have really shifted the needle in my business if I had employed them from the get-go, I'm also reflecting on where I see a lot of my clients doing harm to their business and giving themselves much more work than they need.

When I work with female business clients and founders I am really eager to give them a life of freedom and spaciousness so that they can achieve all of their goals while also having a really healthy lifestyle creating the ability to balance and maintain all of their little self-care rituals that they love as well as raising families and just honouring their identity.

ONE.

KNOWING YOUR NUMBERS

As a business owner I would never allow myself to go through a period of avoiding looking at my financials and when we say numbers we could also include tracking your audience and tracking your Analytics here as well.

I understand for some people looking at things like profit and loss is or balance sheets is really scary and stressful hard for them to understand. 

I am someone who finished maths in year 9 because I got my mum who is a teacher at the school to swing something so that I didn't have to keep doing it because I'm so terrible at it and I can read a profit and loss and a balance sheet trust me, you can too.

Personally, I know that when I'm going through a period of avoiding all of my numbers it creates underlying background stress contributing to hormonal imbalance if you're a female founder. This is actually much less healthy than just eating the frog and setting aside time once a month to really go over all of your numbers and have a big picture CEO ritual.

An understanding of your numbers will help you to work out where you need to be directing your energy and efforts and it might stop you from pouring a lot of time and energy into things that are just not worthwhile from a financial perspective.  Of course, making money might not be the only reason to create or Produce work in your business we often want to create a lot of value to build trust which might not have an immediate monetary result but we do want to ensure that we're not pouring tons of hours into something that is not going to be helpful in any way shape or form.

TWO.

MARKET RESEARCH

This is the biggest problem that I see my clients doing it is something that I have done myself on a couple of occasions and I refuse to ever do it again because of how much of a loss it was to me in terms of money time and energy.

Either studying or spending money on an inventory (of products) without doing the market research to find out if your ideal client, if the community you already have, are even in need of or interested in that product or service.

People tend to want to do things that they think are trendy or they think are affecting their identity in a certain way but at the end of the day if that certification or that product will not sell or doesn't have anyone interested in it you're really wasting your time.

Of course, you can study something for personal development but that's not what we talking about here we’re talking about business and I see it so often especially in the realm of holistic Wellness.

Yoga teachers doing training after training after training thinking that that it’s going to make their business successful and what they need to do is actually work on their business and their marketing skills rather than getting more lines on their list of achieved studies.

Take a step back understand that you are being marketed to with these trainings and ask yourself what is it that I really need? Do I need to have more knowledge or do I actually need more clients?

THREE.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Again this is one that comes up really often and it's something that's very topical at the moment with the algorithm changes on Instagram. 

I was recently sent an email from a furniture company that I really loved and that I was actually saving up to buy a piece from in that email the owner of the company was complaining about the fact that algorithms had changed on Instagram and that was affecting her sales. 

This email was unprofessional and actually very embarrassing and they have lost a potential lifelong client in me from sending something like that.

If you are a business owner it is your job to work out where your ideal clients hang out and position yourself there.

It is also your job to be available anywhere and everywhere that your potential clients might be looking for you.

That means posting on multiple social media platforms, having multiple ads and marketing projects. 

Never put all of your eggs in one basket expecting one single platform to give you all of your clients in a continuous, sustainable and stable stream that is absolutely insane!

You do not own your social media following it can be taken from you at any point in time without cause or explanation so never base your whole business on your social media following especially just through one platform.

FOUR.

RELYING ON YOUR BUSINESS FROM THE START

This one is tricky and it's probably not what you want to hear but this comes from my experience and the things that I've watched in many other women over the last 5 years you never want to rely on your business as your sole full-time income straight out of the gates.

You need to have a strong community who trust you and a steady stream of clients who are ready to invest in your offers before you put that much pressure on your business. 

This is especially important if your business is any form of creativity because creativity requires a lot of effort and energy and is also very close to our hearts. We need to make sure that it's in a supported container and it has all of the financial backing that it needs to not feel pressurised.

If you are just getting started on your business I strongly suggest that you have a full or part-time role and that you save up enough money to support you when you make that transition to working for yourself full-time. 

Any income outside of your business will just support your business to grow and it can also also be the kitty fund for your business development ventures!

FIVE.

HAVING A STRATEGIC PLAN

This one might sound a little bit boring and if you are a creative type you're probably going to ignore me but please do me one solid and actually take note of what I'm saying here. 

Having a strategic and really well fleshed out and thought-out business plan ideally created with a Business Coach like myself will not only give you a plan for the years ahead but it will also really direct where you put your attention and energy. 

Having a strategic business plan will not only help you plot out your months and your weekly schedules but it will also filter into a strategic marketing plan letting you know who you're creating for who you're speaking to and what kind of products and services they actually require.