I remember after my first launch in 2018, I thought I had this business thing DOWN.
I had a $10k launch, was quitting my job, and feeling like my million dollar revenue was coming my way in just a few short months
But what woke me up from this dream wasn’t the sudden drop-off of clients (“it’s ok, I’ll just change my strategy”).
It wasn’t the constant working over holidays (“I need to do this in order to keep momentum up.”)
It wasn’t even the lack of boundaries I had between very demanding clients (“It’s not that hard for me to do…I’ll just take care of it so they’ll leave me alone”)
It was the lack of safety and confidence in the operations of my business. I was running everywhere in my business to get things done, I was too frantic to really see if how I was operating was sustainable.
Which it wasn’t. And I ended up fully burning out and prepared to quit by Feb 2019.
What I failed to realize, and what I see is missing in this online business space, is how to navigate operating your business from a place that supports you and your capacity.
A PSA: Business operations are not what happens after you get a client. It’s not your launch strategy.
It’s how your business moves, maintains and grows. Think of it as the engine that keeps things running.
So when that engine’s FUEL is only your energy, that engine is going to be working on very conditional terms.
And it’s why running your business can feel panicky; you are literally the only fuel going into this thing.
Which is exhausting.
We’ve got to start first with YOU. Where is your energy going in your business?
Let’s separate them into 3 buckets:
Income-generating: tasks that are directly related to earning income (payment, lead generation, etc.)
Operation running: day-to-day tasks that are required for the business to operate (content creation, following up with leads, client work, onboarding, etc.)
Business Leading: tasks that dictate the direction of the business (market research, new product creation, etc. )
Then, how can we build supports for that in your business, so it’s no longer just YOU that’s running everything?
What takes priority, and what needs to be taken off your plate.
Or, for those who don’t have a team right now, what isn’t a priority, so needs to take less of your energy to do?
If you do not have anything in your business to support you, you have no way of being sustainable.
From there, we can start to make processes that take the pressure off of you constantly fueling the engine.
It’s here that systems really shine.
The tea: The more you can audit your business to look for these areas you need supports, as opposed to trying to add more onto your own plate, the more confident you are going to feel in the direction you are leading your business
And the kicker is: the more confident you feel, the more your people are going to feel that and experience that, because you aren’t panic posting or forcing yourself to show up in a way that doesn’t feel authentic to you
We all have to start with what first feels good to us so that we can construct a business that supports that.
If you need more support in this, I have a few resources for you:
If you are looking to streamline areas of your business to shift your energy to priority things, onboarding is a great place to do so! I wrote about why (and how to do so) in this article here
If you need an outside perspective of where to begin putting systems and supports in your business, my Pimp My Business Intensive would be your best bet
If you are looking for a simple to use (and simple to learn) software to manage your leads and your client projects, Dubsado has been my best friend for the past 3 years in doing so. You can check out their services here.
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