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My son is 2. He’ll be turning 3 at the end of February. He’s a sweet little boy, honest. Smart and funny as hell. The first two months of his life I had serious contemplations that I was not cut out to be a mother. But somehow he miraculously turned into the world’s most near-perfect child. He took his naps on schedule. He slept 12 hours a night. He. was. perfect.
Everyone talks about the terrible twos, so we buckled our belts. I put on my crash helmet and used my husband as a human shield. Then, nothing. He says please and thank you. He does what you ask him without needing a heavy hand on the discipline. Terrible Two’s? Pfft. Eat my shorts. Someone forgot to mention just how bad 3 was going to be. If you’re a parent, I’ll be you’re laughing right now. Maybe even peeing a little in your pants. Because we’re now in the throws of parental hazing. When you live with a 3 year old, your entire day is filled with …wassat mom? What rock chair say mom? No, mom. YOU go back work. Pen’er do myself.
Last night we were picking up a few groceries and something to pretty-up the fish tank. In true form, my kid grabs the cart and starts pulling it out into the busy aisle where people are tripping over him. I grabbed the cart and told him no (which used to end in a super cute awight mom) turned into both a screaming and pulling match. I really needed to get the rest of my groceries so I gave in, left without the fish bling, and let my child shuffle around with the cart under my careful eye.
What the heck does this have to do with business? A lot, and it all occurred to me later that night when I watched Dragon’s Den that showed one very passionate entrepreneur who, despite several yearsin business, just wasn’t generating enough money to support themselves. Sometimes you need someone like Kevin O’Leary to tell you to let the business dry up. Trying to force a business into something that it wasn’t meant to be is like trying to grab the cart from my kid.
So when do you grab the cart to get the fish bling, and when do you give up?
* If you still can’t support yourself after a number of years – or worse yet, your business has yet to break even – you need either quit your business or take the cart down another aisle. If people aren’t buying, you need to re-evaluate your business idea.
* What have you had to give up? (time, money, relationships) Is it worth the sacrifice?
* Does the idea terrify you? Good. Fear is known to push people in some cases, but it can also be a good idea to try something that you’re not familiar with as a way.
* Wha’ts your USP? If you can’t keep a competitive edge over other businesses in your industry you’re going to have difficulties giving your customers a reason to buy from you instead of Joe Blow down the road. By the way, if you don’t even know what USP means, you’re really in trouble.
What else has that little budle of wonder taught me?
* Do what makes you feel good. Drop everything else.
* No matter how much passion you have, you need a break once in awhile. Take a nap.
* Think outside the box. In his world, there is nothing wrong with a purple cow playing with a pink dog.
* Fight for everything.
That’s ma boy.
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By the way – my business is 1 year old tomorrow. What a long way we’ve come, baby!
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Do you ever get the feeling that Murphy is sitting around the corner just waiting to shove his law down your throat? That was my day. This week has been fab-u-lous and yesterday was no different. Clients are crawling out of the woodwork thanks to a fewgoodpeople and my recent mention of my photo on Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin. My kiddo has slipped out of that snappy 3 year old potty mouth phase (at least for now). And to top it off, my husband not only made dinner, but he did the dishes after. Without being told. Really.
In a meager effort to do my part, I grabbed the vacuum – it’s one of those bagless kinds – and started it up. Funny smell. Hmm. Keep going. Husband reminds me to empty the canister – check. Take the canister off and kitty litter showers the floor. @#$#. I tipped the little bugger over to get the rest of whatever was there out and that’s when I see … it. The biggest dust bunny I’ve ever seen. There’s carpet gnarled amongst cat hair and the string my kid was playing with. It took me over half an hour to cut it all out and really clean those little brushes.
Here’s the important part. If you don’t take care of things before they’re broken you’re going to be spending your evening on the floor fighting the dust bunnies.
Bet you think I’m talking about failure huh? Even though the statistics show that a lot of businesses fail in their first year, what you really need to watch out for is SUCCESS. With the 1 year anniversary of Monday Morning VA coming up in a few short days, I know all about the explosion that can happen when you’re not looking.
So here’s what you can learn from my stint with the vacuum and from some of the things I did wrong in my own business.
1. Be prepared. Whether it’s success or failure you need to be prepared. You can do this by actually writing some kind of business plan and having a plan B for both scenarios.
In fact, if you are only going to do one of those, prepare more for the success. No, I’m not talking about the fru-fru Secret type stuff.
Imagine my surprise when I thought it would take 2 – 3 months to get my first client and it only took a week and a half. My contracts weren’t really finalized, I wasn’t super happy with the way my website looked or my business ‘best practices’. The more successful I became, the worse it got. Yeah, it’s a horrible problem to have but it can r-u-i-n you. If your business is a flop you just dust yourself off and try again. If your business is a success and YOU flop, no one will ever trust you again no matter what you do. So be a good scout and be prepared.
2. Clean your vacuum. Or, look two steps ahead. If I would have been thinking, I would have been cleaning out that little sucker a couple times of year to keep it running smoothly. Don’t turn your head away from your business just because it’s doing well. Your business is fluid – at least it should be – and it’s always evolving.
Which brings me to something I did right.
1. I failed fast and ditched things that weren’t working. In fact, my original niche was supposed to focus on something that I used to do – direct sales. It’s pretty interesting to note that I have not had one direct sales client. Ever. I crossed that off the list within days of opening my business.
2. I keep my finger on the pulse of entrepreneurs. That helped me evolve my business and reinvent things. Sometimes what didn’t work two months ago works well now (like our new packages. We used to offer these 6 months ago and they flopped).
Do you need some tips on how to fend off the worries of success? Need ideas on how to create systems? Write ‘em down.
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