If you feel like giving up on your business, here’s what I want you to know

We have all, at some stage, felt like giving up on our businesses and I know that the first time I felt like giving up on my business, I felt very much alone. I felt like I couldn't talk to anyone about it. I felt like it was wrong to feel like I wanted to give up on my business.

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Today I am sharing a few things that I want you to know if you're ever in a situation where you feel like giving up your business.

 

It's a normal feeling

So, firstly, I really want you to know that it's normal. It's totally normal. I've been there several times and I actually did give up on my first business. I went and got a job after I ran out of money and I mean, I still did keep running that business for a while until I eventually closed it down and gave up on it because, in that case, it was a business that I had built and I hated. It didn't give me the freedom I wanted. It didn't earn me nearly enough money for the amount of work that I was putting in and I just wanted out. I needed to get out. And, that was a different case because the business model just wasn't going to give me the lifestyle I wanted.

 

Since then, I have obviously started a different business and there have been several other times that I've wanted to give up. Before I went to Europe at the end of 2017, my business was 100% client-based and at the end of the year, when I was about to go, I decided, you know what? I don't want to be dealing with clients while I'm travelling. I applied for a job. I got the interview because I wanted the stability of that income. I wanted to be able to not deal with clients, even if it meant working remotely. And, thank goodness I didn't get that job because I ended up pivoting and everything changed.

 

Then again, in 2019, I wanted to give up on my business when I had a launch fail. So, I went to run my live webinar and I had 700 people registered for it. I went to go live and it crashed and that kind of triggered this whole, “Oh, this launch has been a failure. Nobody's going to buy from me.” So, I gave up. I wanted to give up. And, I applied for lots of jobs and it wasn't until somebody called me to come in for a job interview that I actually realized, “No. I'm not ready to go back to a job just yet.”

 

So, as you can see, I've been there a few times. The key thing to remember is that it is okay to give up if it's for the right reason. I held on to my first business for far too long because I didn't feel like it was okay to give up. I had a lot of ego and pride wrapped in this thing where I thought, you know, if I give up on my business, everyone's going to say, “I told you so.” Everyone's going to be like, “Oh, yep. I knew she was going to fail.” So, I didn't feel like it was safe to give up. And, I really should have cut my losses a lot earlier, but I didn't.

 

Remember that failure doesn't mean the end of everything

Remember that giving up on one business doesn't mean you're giving up on business altogether. I knew that when I closed that business down, that wasn't going to be my last business. I just needed a bit of time to regroup, to feel confident again in going out there. And, I had the perfect job at the time. My boss had been in business for about 15 years and he eventually kind of… I don't know. Like, I… I think he kind of pep talked me back into starting another business. So, it turned out so much better than it ever could have.

 

Business ruts do happen

Maybe, on the other hand though, you feel like giving up because you're going through a rough patch. And, in this case, giving up is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Business ruts happen. Life ruts happen. They are temporary. They will pass. Some of them will pass quicker than others, but they will pass. I encourage you that if you're just going through a temporary rough patch, ask yourself what's not working right now. How can I change this? Because we do have the responsibility and the ability to change things that aren't working. This is the magic of running our own businesses, right? We can write the rules. We can change things.

 

Brainstorm and get clear on how you could change things up

So, getting really clear on how you can maybe change it. It might feel a little bit confronting. It might feel really uncomfortable. But accepting that you do have the power to change it and then trying to put that into action. Remember, your business gets to work for you, not the other way around. You get to intentionally design how you want it to look and ever since I started doing that, I have had a lot more highs and a lot fewer lows in my business by getting to the point of what is not working right now, why am I unhappy, and how can I change that, and then, implementing that.

 

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