Starting your own business is a rollercoaster. Finally, you’ve taken control of your own destiny. You are the master of your own time and your own income. You make all the decisions and call all the shots. It's scary, exhilarating and thrilling, until its not. Setting up your business is also exhausting, testing and stressful. You’ve set up, got going and landed some clients. You have the business you dreamed of but suddenly everything isn’t as amazing as though it would be. The emotional highs and lows stay with you, whether it’s day one, year one or year ten.
When running your own business you have to walk a very fine line. Managing work and making space in your life for rest and proper downtime is one of the biggest challenges faced by business owners. Most if not all will have experienced those nights where they have laid in bed awake thinking or worrying about clients, work load or money. The business that started as your baby, your dream, that you nurtured and loved, poured your heart and soul into, has now become something that fills you with anxiety in the pit of your stomach and that you have come to hate.
In this blog we’ll be looking at how you can get rid of those negative feelings and turn your business back around so instead of being the slave you can become the master again.
Why you can’t take your foot off the accelerator
In business if you stand still you die. You feel like can’t take your foot off the accelerator because if you do it could all turn to shit. What you’ve created, you can lose. Being constantly afraid is toxic. It’s not helpful in anyway to your business or your health. Over time this constant fear and anxiety will eat away at your confidence and turn to resentment towards your business, your work and your clients.
I’ve worked with clients at this point and I’ve been at this point myself. It’s hideous.
Go Back To Day One
To fall back in love with your business you need to remember your “why”. Why did you set this business up? What made you take that leap? How did you feel when you had that fire in your belly to push yourself and make it happen? That’s where your passion is, why you do what you do.
When you are running a business you have to wear many hats and this means you don’t always get to do as much of what you are passionate about anywhere near as much as you thought you would.
What About Your Business Makes You Feel Good?
Take yourself back to when you originally had the business idea and write down how it makes you feel. It may take a few minutes to get a flow on this so don’t worry, just take yourself back and reflect. If you are struggling you could refer back to your calendar and remind yourself of all the things you’ve done since starting, if that’s not practical because day one was a longtime ago then go to a point in your diary when you last felt engaged and passionate about your business, what were you doing?
Reconnect With Your Passions
Now write it out, all of it, everything that comes to mind. It doesn’t haven’t to be a literary masterpiece it can literally be a list. It really doesn’t matter, what matters is that you get it out for you to remember it, feel your passion again. If writing isn’t your thing then try recording yourself, or drawing pictures. The important thing is reconnecting with those feelings, rediscovering your passion. You don’t need to share this with anyone, this is just for you.
You may find moments where you stall and that’s okay, in those moments, ask yourself this question;
“Why did I start this business, what was my mission?” This will get you going again.
Restoring Confidence and Recapturing Motivation
My passion is restoring and building confidence and motivation in others, I absolutely love it. It’s an amazing experience to work with someone and help them reignite their passions and fall back in love with their business and their life. Every second I’m working with a client I’m in my element.
However, I can’t coach every hour of the day because the business needs other things from me. Things I don’t love. Things I actually hate doing. Now to a point I outsource, of course I do, but even to outsource requires me to do some of it.
If you find yourself doing more of the things in your business that you aren’t passionate about it may be time to outsource and if you do already then it’s time to reevaluate your balance. Some stuff you don’t like doing just needs to be done, this is a fact of life BUT you have to balance your time between doing what you love with what needs to be done.
Keeping your focus on your passion, keeping that energy alive is how to balance the emotional side of running your business, to keep the love you have for it.
If you are ready to fall back in love with your business, regain the joy in the work you do and get your mojo back get in touch today.