6 things I wish someone had told me in my first year of business

The reality is that business is not always fun and shiny. Sometimes it's boring and unsexy, but building a strong foundation is so important for your long-term vision. In today's episode, I'm sharing 6 tips that I wish someone had told me back in my first year of business.

– Why being discerning with your “yes” and with your “no” will help you to make the best decisions for your business while also learning what you don't want.
– Why spending your time creating Canva images etc won't grow your business (and how doing what *will* may seem unsexy and boring!).
– How scaling your business starts with an intentional offer suite with your long-term business vision in mind.
– The importance of looking after *you*—your most important resource—above everything else
– Why imperfect action is the only way to overcome the fears and the doubts.
– How selling the transformation is key—and why it's so important to articulate your offer in this way.

 

 
A couple of the things that I wish somebody had told me back when I first started my business. So I'm going to share with you six little things that I wish I'd known in the hopes that they make your business journey just a little bit better.

 

#1: You don't have to say yes to everything that comes your way.

It is okay to say no to that client, to that collaboration, to that opportunity. You only have a certain amount of hours in your day, in your week, and everything that you say yes to means you then have to go and say no to something else.

You can't just keep filling up that day, filling up those hours with more and more things. Eventually, you're going to run out of hours or you're going to get exhausted. You're going to burn out and it can be really easy to say yes. 

It's okay to make those mistakes.

Most of the things that I now say no to, I had to learn by saying yes to those things and then realising, Oh, I don't enjoy doing that or that doesn't yield any actual results in my business. It's not a good use of my time. So now I say no to it. So it's okay to make those mistakes and learn through it but I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't want you to feel like you have to say yes to something or yes to everything, just because it seems like it's such a good opportunity and you can't pass it up now.  It's okay to say yes to something and realise that it wasn't the right choice.

 

#2: The stuff that leads to growth can be boring.

A lot of the time, right? The unsexy things, the foundations of your business, the systems, the structure, the consistency. These are the things that lead to growth and it's not about what you do when you're feeling inspired or motivated, right? That's not what leads to growth. It's what you do time and time again, even on the days when you don't feel like it. 

 

#3: What you sell determines the kind of business you create and the sales that you will make.

Now, when you are working one-on-one with clients, you will probably hit a point where you will struggle to scale without hiring more people to do that work for you, and then at that point you become a manager. 

For example, if you want to build a business where you work 20 hours a week and you make 200, 000 a year, then your hourly rate needs to be 192.

Assuming that all 20 hours a week is client work. If half of that time is admin, well, then your hourly rate needs to be 400. The rate that you are charging to your clients, you can have the best marketing in the world, you can have the best followers, the best podcast, all of the things, you can have a massive audience, but you're going to struggle to scale beyond this point and you're going to struggle to make those consistent sales if you don't have an intentional strategy behind your offers suite. 

 

#4: I am the most important resource in my business. 

So that means looking after myself, that goes for you as well. You are the most important resource in your business. And so you need to look after yourself, not money, not software. Those things aren't the most important resources, you are. Your health is important, but most business owners tend to put themselves last. 

I have so many people that I've met and friends as well. They'll prioritise all of the work, they'll burn themselves into the ground rather than take some time to rest, right? They'll build up so much stress, they'll choose work over healthy eating and exercise, and then this just leads them to burn out which is not a great place to be. Your business can't keep growing your business probably can't even run if you are not a hundred percent, right?

 

#5: You can't think or plan your way to success. 

Imperfect action is honestly the only way to overcome those fears and doubts that are standing in the way when you're building your business. Once you start taking that action, you have no choice but to figure it out. So you just have to trust that you will figure it out along the way, planning and overthinking, that feels comfortable because there's not much at stake. There's no risk involved but pretty much anything worthwhile in your business, that's going to come with a risk. Same with life. Anything worthwhile is going to come with a risk. 

You might fail, you might make a mistake. You might embarrass yourself but if you don't do it, then you're guaranteeing that you're going to fail anyway, like failing to start, that's failing at it as well. 

 

#6: It is so much easier to sell something that solves a problem or delivers a transformation.

And if you can't articulate the problem that it solves or the transformation that it delivers, your ideal customer, isn't going to join the dots either and that's going to make it a whole lot harder to sell to them. You might have a really exciting idea for an offer that nobody else has ever done before and maybe you've fallen in love with that idea. 

I know I have done that before, but if you can't articulate why it should be a priority for your ideal client to spend money on, they won't. And when it comes to selling an offer like coaching or a done-for-you service or a course or a digital product, somebody is buying that transformation, right? 

They're not buying because they are excited about it or because it's unique and it's a cool idea that nobody else has ever done before. They're buying because of the problem it's solving for them or the transformation that they are going to receive. 

 

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