Inspired by several ladies I know, (mostly Chris Emmer and Marva Goss), I’ve had a few moments to think critically about what I’m leaving behind in 2017. 2017 was one of the riskiest years of my entrepreneurial journey. Even scarier than taking the leap to entrepreneurship in the first place.
There were so many highs and lows and to be completely honest, there were times where I thought it wasn’t going to work out. But I stuck with it and saw my vision through and in the last three weeks of the year, it paid off.
Moving into a really exciting year in 2018, here is what I’m leaving behind.
Putting all my eggs in one basket
Early in the year, when I was still doing corporate consulting full time, I ramped up on one client and slowly winded down and handed off the rest. This went against my philosophy of multiple revenue streams. I like to diversify my income in the same way I diversify my investments to maintain financial security.
So when my ongoing consulting contract wasn’t renewed, I didn’t have my usual load of clients to fall back on.
On one hand, this was a blessing, because it finally gave me the time to launch this very business. However, if I didn’t have savings to give me a solid cushion to land on, I would have never gone down this path. Now that I’ve built up my client load once again, I am never making that mistake again. I’ve already mapped out 3-4 established and potential revenue streams for 2018.
Second guessing myself
Hey! Do you have an online business that exists in a fairly saturated market? Me too!
The comparison game is a beast. I fully believe in community over competition and supporting other female entrepreneurs, but there were so many times I’ve beat myself up over not being good enough, not communicating my offering effectively enough, not living an Instagrammable life and where did this leave me?
I just didn’t put myself out there.
How can I expect to grow if no one is aware of my offering? That’s it. I can’t.
So I’m going to stop trying to grow my business behind-the-scenes and step out on the stage in 2018.
Not treating myself as a client
I know I’m not the only one who does this, but I believe that if I stayed on top of myself the same way I stay on top of my clients, things would move faster.
When I get busy, I drop all the needs of my business so I can ensure I maintain the level of support my clients deserve.
So I’m doing the one thing I tell all my clients to do when they’re busy and not tending to their business.
Get help with implementation
And that leads me to the last thing I’m leaving behind…
Investing in courses vs. people
What Chris Emmer said rang so true for me.
Now, I’m not knocking on courses. There are so many great courses out there that can help you get up to speed on critical skills you need as a business owner. I’ve just found better ROI when I invested in other things for my business.
One thing I learned about myself is I can learn until my brain literally cannot fit another tip or lesson. But if I don’t want to do something, I’m going to put it off. (This is why getting help is so key!!!!)
I have found much better ROI investing in strategy sessions with experts, joining masterminds and really, any experience where interaction with other people is a key component of what I’m investing in.
I’m going to be real with you here. The $300 I invested in a 3 month mastermind with Reina Pomeroy (The Social Glue Sessions) did more for growing my business than the $5,000 or $6,000+ I’ve invested in courses over the last two years.
Interestingly, this realization led me to scrap my plans for the course I was building for 2018. Now I’m focusing on educating with interaction and implementation at the core of everything I teach.
Borrowing again from Chris, I’ll be back tomorrow with the investments I am making in my business in 2018.
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