Starting Your Own Business? – Things I have Learned

“Experience is the teacher of all things” – Julius Caesar

I have been blessed with a lot of great jobs, and a lot of great managers. I have learned a lot during my career as an employee. Every job, every project, has been a learning experience.

Running your own business is a learning experience unlike any other. You own all your failures and successes. Unforeseen events can bring great stress or great happiness. On any given day you can hit both peaks and valleys. Both can be great learning experiences.

In my short time in business for myself, I have learned some things that I need to remind myself of on a regular basis. I thought I would share a few with you today:

1. It is so easy to become obsessed over your business. We all want our businesses to succeed, and sometimes we end up sacrificing important things in life to get things done. It is important to remind ourselves that the work never really ends, and there is always tomorrow. When it is your company, it is easy to start work at 8 and keep going until 11pm. We all need to remember though that family is important, and taking regular breaks actually helps you to be more effective and efficient while you are focusing on your work.

2. When something bad happens, it is not the end of the world. When you are running your own business, you really feel the affect of making a mistake, whether losing a potential client, or incurring an unplanned expense, etc. It is easy focus on the one thing that went wrong today, even when a dozen things went right. Just calm down and work it out. Learn from it. Move on.

3. It is so satisfying to help your clients achieve their goals. Most of my clients are long term. I help them out on a monthly basis. But sometimes, a client needs extra attention, and there is nothing that makes you feel better than helping a client when they are feeling stressed out. It is those moments that really make you feel like you and your business are making an impact, and nothing really comes close to that feeling.

I just wanted to share a bit of my self-reflection today as I take a short lunch break. I hope your business is going well. Have a great day! Thanks!