The beginning stages of your business are often all sunshine and rainbows, and rightfully so.
You’re bringing your dream into reality. You’re excited. Everything is fresh and new and fun.
If you’re still in that stage, that’s great and I don’t want to burst your bubble or try to reign in your excitement. But, there will be those days.
The ones where you second guess your decision to start a business, where you decide to quit, where being the night manager at McDonald’s sounds better than being owner of your business.
Today we’re going to look at five strategies you can use to help keep those days from ever happening, and to get you through when you do get hit with a case of the business blahs.
1. Physically Separate from Your Business
As a small business owner, it can be hard to separate business from the rest of your life. Part of being an entrepreneur means you’re “all in” and very passionate about your business.
It becomes even harder not to let your business take over your life when you work from home.
Most of us, at least in the beginning, don’t get the luxury of having a dedicated office that we can walk out of, shutting the door and leaving the business part of your life until tomorrow.
Instead, it seems that everywhere we turn, there’s something to do with our business staring us in the face. We can’t even resist the temptation to bring our work home with us because it’s already there.
Being available to work 24/7, whether it’s actually doing some work or just having work on your mind,
is a sure recipe for burnout.
It’s essential to physically separate yourself from your business to avoid this type of burnout.
It’s great that you can set your own hours, work when the kids are at sleep or school, but not so great when those hours translate into you being in business mode at all hours.
Make sure you put all business-related stuff out of sight and mentally declare yourself “off work” each day. While it’s nice to be able to work at different locations around the house, stick to certain physical spaces as much as possible so your mind has less trouble separating work from play.
2. Connect With Similar Business Owners
One problem most entrepreneurs run into is the rest of the world doesn’t exactly understand us.
So when you’re having one of those “I hate my business” days, your closest friends and family may not be of much help. Or, as is often the case, what they have to contribute may be unintentionally counterproductive.
Building friendships with other business owners, whether they’re in a similar or unrelated business, will save the day during the down times.
Maybe it used to be weird or creepy to have friends you met over the internet, but as much as we live online these days, you’re crazy not to develop these relationships, and wrong if you think they can’t be real and meaningful friendships.
The power of just having someone to listen and understand, to say, “I’ve been there and it will pass,” and to tell you why you should press on, can’t be overestimated.
3. Develop a Cushion
Nothing’s a bigger buzz kill to your business than financial pressures. Once you’re in a position where you’ve got to make money from your business this month or you can’t eat, the passion and excitement drains fast.
It will go a long way towards keeping your business fun if you don’t let yourself get into a financial crunch that only your business can bail you out of.
You can do this by either keeping a regular job that pays the bills until your business reaches a consistent revenue point that is triple what your expenses are, or by building a cushion of three months expenses in the bank that you know you can fall back on if there was some unexpected cash flow issue in your business.
4. Take Complete Breaks
We already talked about the importance of physically separating your business from the rest of your life, but even more than that, you need to make sure you’re taking days at a time — preferably at least a week — where you’re not working on your business.
It’s called vacation, and it’s something many entrepreneurs have a hard time with.
Not that we don’t enjoy having fun, getting away, and relaxing, but most entrepreneurs are cursed with the control freak bug.
You can’t imagine completely leaving your business behind because no one can do things exactly like you do. If you took a week off, your business may have gone under by the time you get back.
Rationally, you know that isn’t true, it’s just a matter of acting upon it.
If you don’t have an assistant who can maintain customer contacts while you’re gone, ask a fellow business owner to monitor your support desk for true emergencies while you’re away. Let people know you’re taking a little time off and when you’ll be back and available again.
When you force yourself to go completely cold turkey in your business, it helps to avoid burnout and allows you to return from your vacation with more excitement, energy, and creativity than ever.
5. Grow a Tribe
Work to develop an audience of people who are loyal to you. This can be through building an email list, connecting on any social media platform where you have a consistent presence, and/or having a private Facebook group just for “your people.”
Your tribe doesn’t just have to be paying customers. It can also consist primarily of people who have yet to buy anything from you, but find a lot of value in what you offer for free.
Your tribe doesn’t have to be thousands of people. Everybody starts with one, and you really only need about 100 people for this to be effective.
Engaging with your people, and seeing them come together because of you and form friendships amongst themselves will give you a real sense of community. A handful of these people will become like a family to you.
These relationships will keep a sense of purpose in your business, provide you tidbits of inspiration and warm fuzzies when you’re in a funk, and will help you go from funk back to fun.
You’ll find that your tribe cares about you and appreciates what you do. Which means if you’re brave enough to be vulnerable with them a little and let them know when it’s you that needs help, you’ll be surprised how eager they are to step in and give you the pick-me-up you need.
At Kids Party Characters we're inspired by our tribe every day. Whether it’s the smile on a child’s face at one of our parties, the appreciation from a mom whose life we’ve helped change, or a simple comment on social media, our clients and supporters keep the fun in our business on a daily basis.
And as always, owner Cheryl Jacobs and the team at Kids Party Characters is here to support you in every stage of your business, whether you’re just thinking you’d like to have a business “some day” or are in the active phase of building your business.
Cheryl offers free mentoring sessions for new entrepreneurs (grab your spot here) and has created a unique franchise opportunity with Kids Party Characters that’s perfect for stay at home moms (get all the details here).
Also be sure to connect with us on Facebook where we post daily updates on the magic we bring to children’s parties, as well as our best tips for working from home and raising happy and healthy kids.
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