If you are a female solo professional, chances are that your business is not making as much money as you’d like it to. Perhaps when you got the thought to go out on your own you held a vision of more flexibility, a freer schedule, and making at least as much money as you were making working for someone else. Perhaps you even secretly thought that you had the chance to make it big, pulling in much more money, paying off your mortgage, easily paying for a child’s college education.
Let me ask you…..where is your business now, compared to that vision? Where is it compared to your secret thought of making it big? Have you given up on that dream?
I read a story about makeovers in a recent edition of O magazine that made me think about how women so often put their business at the bottom of their to-do list. We do it to ourselves and our businesses, actually. We think we’re being unselfish and giving, taking care of others before ourselves. But are we, really? Listen to one comment from the O makeover article:
“With the new looks came a new attitude. What a makeover does for all of us is point out that there are BIG possibilites for us all. Maybe we’ll get the idea that from a makeover, we can take another step toward change in other areas of our lives.”
Lack of attention to one’s self is no way to teach our children to stand up and be counted, is it? Making sure that everyone else has new clothes while we schlep around in last year’s sweats only makes us both look and feel at the bottom of the barrel. Paying for private lessons for our children while refusing to spend the money to take a workshop for ourselves sells ourselves and our business short.
Think about it. If you fail to give yourself and your business the nurturing you both deserve, you send a silent message that you are not worth your own time and care, and that your business isn’t important enough to make a difference in anyone’s life. Is that the truth? I doubt it. But you are showing how little you believe you can make it really big when you continue to play safe and small. You are refusing to serve others with your business, in a way that only you can uniquely serve.
When you really tune in to your business vision what does it look like? Have you forgotten about your early enthusiasm? How can you get it back? And if you did, how much cleaner and better would you see the way to that secret vision you have? How much more freedom would you have to be with your friends and family? How much less worry over financial matters would you have? What kind of example would you set for family and friends and other entrepreneurs if you kick-started your business again and made it provide for you at a high level? It would be a powerful message, wouldn’t it?
That’s just not going to happen if you take care of everyone else’s current needs first. Take care of yourself and your business, so that you have the wealth needed to take care of those you love. You aren’t here to serve your family and friends everything on a platter. In fact, if you do, they will learn directly from you to lean on others rather than themselves. Is that what you want? I heard a quote last week that really made me stop and think. “A strong focus now creates a different future later.”
How do you focus now on your business, so that you can have that different future? Here are three ways:
- Change your lifestyle and your schedule around so that you are spending at least two hours every single day building your business. No excuses. You are in business for yourself, right? Two hours a day is a bare minimum. Otherwise, your business is nothing more than a hobby. You can work part time, but you can’t work no time. Two hours, minimum, every day.
- Create a calendar for the entire year. Plan in your vacation weeks, at least three long weekend retreat times for yourself to focus solely on your business, and time for learning what you don’t know and need to know in order to build your income. If you are running out of hours in the week, get help for the low-level stuff and keep your eye on the stuff that creates future income.
- Get a mentor or a coach. Do I say that because I am one? Nope! Virtually every single wealthy business owner works with someone who can pull them out of the weeds when they need it, give them perspective, and save them a lot of time in mastering new tasks. No excuses. Don’t tell yourself you can’t afford it, tell yourself the cost of doing without is much higher than what you’ll pay. Think return on investment, not cost. That’s how a business owner thinks, after all. Are you one, or not?
Twitter: authenticbuzz
says:
What a wonderful reminder, Sue. I struggle with the balance between my business and client work. Spending two hours a day solely on marketing my business is completely doable. What a great idea. Thanks for such a valuable post.
Well said Sue. I’m actively working steps 1 and 3. Step 2 is a bit of challenge. I’m someone who doesn’t like to commit to next week. LOL, This tells me it is a good step to incorporate.
Thanks,
Julie
One thing that I’ve learned from you that has made a big impact on my business is to invest in myself. I’ve started spending money on workshops to bolster my knowledge and it has paid off for me.
Thanks for that, Sue!
Sandy Rees
Fundraising Coach
http://www.getfullyfunded.com
Glad you have learned that, Sandy. My own experience is that it pays off, many times over!
Sue P.
Sue, this is brilliant stuff. Thank you so much for the 3 steps, the reminder to reclaim the enthusiasm, and the little bit of a kick in the pants at the end. Yes, I am a business owner! Hooray!!!
Grace
Great tips Sue! I have the opposite challenge, my business is first and my kids….myself and my hubby fall in after that somewhere…
I do book vacation weeks and seminars and do have a yearly calendar for planning every year in advance. Thanks for the great reminders!
Twitter: getunstuck
says:
What a helpful reminder, Sue! We often put everyone else’s needs before our own, and end up paying the price when we ignore those things we need to do to keep our businesses growing and thriving. Love your concrete suggestions! 2 hours, hmmm? I guess I’d better get busy!
Sue,
Great post as usual! While I don’t have a family to care for, I do find that I sometimes put too much effort into taking care of my clients. What I mean by this is that I violate my business development and personal time to work with my clients whenever they need me. Often I am completely exhausted and have no energy to work on my business or take care of myself as I should.
My take away is to allocate and honor the 2 hours per day for working on my business.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Ellen
Spot on advice, Sue. I remember the first big investment in my business was hiring a housekeeper! I had to go through all kinds of machinations in my mind to make that ok! Now, I can’t imagine trying to do it all on my own. PLUS, I’m supporting another woman in HER business!
I also totally agree with you about visioning time. I’m looking forward to our mastermind retreat time to look ahead to my next grandest vision of the next grandest version of my work!
Excellent advice!! I have made a decision to “work on my business” not in it one day per week and I have seen a dramatic switch!
Thank you for laying out such a great plan for any entrepreneur to follow. If we stay on track, our businesses will definitely become our vision!
Thanks as always for your incredible wisdom, Sue!!
Terri
http://tastingtheinternet.com
Sue,
This is fabulous advice for female entrepreneurs.
I know that personally and professionally, I have continued to evolve. My business inner workings don’t look anything like I originally envisioned as I had to adapt and change — however the success continues to climb and I feel so blessed.
I find it’s helpful to schedule in time to “vision” and work ON the business each week. BIG things happen.
Write on!~
Lisa
Sue – as always, this is just brilliant. I know in my own practice, I deal with women who put themselves last, or think they have to do X before they can reward themselves with Y. Yikes!
While I have done the annual calendar (one of my favorite exercises) – I didn’t think to put in long weekends for ME to focus on the business. Or, rather, those that are in the calendar are part of coaching programs I am participating in. But that time to just think! Wow – going to revise the calendar now.
Sue I hired a house cleaner years before it became a popular thing for people in the middle class. I figured, I didn’t enjoy doing it, I’d rather spend the time on my business and give someone else a job!
I like the idea that a new look brings a new attitude! We can always improve what we do. Planning and taking the time to devote to our business are so important. Good job Sue!
Linda
Sue,
I think it is important for me to remember not to ‘serve my family everything on a silver platter’. I am a servant by heart and want to do ‘things’ for the people I love and do it well…sometimes to my own detriment. I think I need to make some changes. Thanks Sue.
Kiyla
So many great points in this article. Taking a couple of long weekends a year to just get away and plan…implementing that alone would make anyone a lot of money. Thanks Sue.
Dr. Robert Fenell
Katherine, I absolutely know that the self-love thing is a HUGE barrier to having a wildly financially successful business. It’s one reason I know that the work you do is so crucial to entrepreneurs.
Sue Painter
Great reminder, Sue! You are so right – and thanks for the opportunity to regroup, re0evaluate and reset priorities!
It’s all about priorities.
It is funny though how our priorities are set at such an unconscious level.
this article brings to the surface what is really important!
thanks Sue
Twitter: _iaLOAp_
says:
AWESOME, Spot-On post, Sue! I especially like when you say: “If you fail to give yourself and your business the nurturing you both deserve, you send a silent message that you are not worth your own time and care, …”
As you know, my biz focus this year is Self-Love. I believe it is the very CORE of what allows us to be successful in ALL areas of our lives. Thank you for pointing out it is NOT a negative form of selfishness to take care of yourself. It is ESSENTIAL to the success of your business — and your LIFE!
I love myself enough to take care of ME! ♥Katherine
Life Blossoming Systems