Did you accept anything and lose your potency?
When people decide to take that leap of faith and open up their own business, they often do so with an idea of where they want to go, and hopefully have some clients to help them along. Yet there’s a time we may need to refocus.
As time goes on though, new entrepreneurs can often get caught by cash flow issues. The only way they feel they can combat this is by throwing out their initial goals and taking on business from everywhere.
We can safely say that many of us have fallen to this, especially during testing times such as global recessions or pandemics. We rack our brains and contact old partners or employers to keep things moving.
It often reduces your stress and keeps your business going, but how do we refocus into what we initially set out to do? How do we ensure we have the time to build back the business we wanted in the first place?
Revisit those initial plans
How many notebooks do you have with all those crazy ideas you had. The ones you jotted down on the beach on holiday, after a shower one day or in the middle of the night.
One of those crazy ideas became real, and that’s the one that gets you up first thing in the morning, puts a smile on your face and keeps you awake at night (for good reasons hopefully!).
Well find that book again, or find those early projections, strategies or plans. Look back in social media, look back in your emails, ask your nearest and dearest what you told them right at the beginning.
The security net you’ve created from taking on the easies and usuals, will slowly be torn apart by that initial adrenalin and thrill that is reignited as you reengage in these conversations and searches.
That’s what I wanted to do! You’ll exclaim. You’ll smile and then you’ll get back on that path you rightly veered from to endure, which all entrepreneurs do at one point or another.
Make time for the old ways
But what if you’ve overloaded your schedule with these customers or products you don’t really want. It’s almost like you’re back in your old 9 to 5 where you had to sacrifice your social, love and other lives to get the ball rolling.
This time though you’re your own boss. You can make those decisions and book those spaces in unapologetically. You can create that time to find the customers or develop the product/service that you wanted to.
Actually, that’s all ready to go and you just need to get that sales funnel moving again or reach out to those partners. You’ve done it before and you can do it again, so book in the time you need and drive it forward.
Be honest with yourself
Chances are to survive, you not only took on jobs you don’t fancy doing but you also undervalued yourself. Your hourly rate halved which is why you’re now doing twice as much to stay afloat.
Take a look at all those new clients or projects you took on and actually evaluate them. Are you delivering the impact you want to socially? Environmentally? Financially? What about the impact on your own life, health and finances?
Be frank with those you want ‘to get rid of’, more often than not their disappointment at losing you is replaced with support. You’ll probably inspire them, by following what you want to do. Their disappointment at losing you shows you how valued you actually are to.
Take this as encouragement, refocus your business and start delivering what those naïve notes always intended to.