Many people start a business because they are trying to escape something in their life that makes them unhappy. And then they discover that the demands of their business are also making them unhappy.
True happiness comes from within and we have to decide for ourselves how happy we will be but here are some tips for being happy as you grow your business.
1. Remove toxic people from your life. The biggest obstacle that gets in the way of our success are people who want to bring us down. Surround yourself with positive and motivated people because that energy and support will push you forward. That can be difficult if those negative people are family members and friends. You can’t remove a negative husband or mother from your life, In this situation, it is even more important to have positive people to turn to when you need encouragement.
Many of you avoid Facebook groups but they are a good way to get reinforcement and validation of our choice to start our own business. Joining a Facebook group isn’t enough however. As with anything, what you get out of it depends on how much you contribute and share. If you aren’t already a part of our Facebook group, join us today. But don’t just join. Participate.
2. Create a morning routine. You may think of this as not very important but all the successful people I have talked with have a morning routine. By creating a routine, it takes the guesswork out of planning your day. Your routine doesn’t have to be complicated and depends on your personal life as well as your business life.
My own routine is really very simple:
- Get up in the morning and let my three dogs (Delilah–the red always-hungry Dachshund, Grayson — the lovable terrier-poodle mix born with three paws, and Molly — the mini poodle who is the old lady of our pack and has dementia) out and back in.
- While they eagerly wait and cheer me on, I prepare their breakfast.
- Next I have my morning coffee and read my local newspaper before having my own breakfast with Ron (the man beneath my wings).
- I turn my computer on and check my orders that came in overnight and add them to my list of “things to do today.”
- Reading email in all my different email accounts and answer any that needs immediate care is followed by checking out my Facebook groups for questions that need comments.
Then my “to do list” for the day kicks in and that is different every day.
What is your morning routine? Share it with us in the comments below.
3. Focus on your strengths. We tend to worry about our weaknesses and what we just aren’t good at doing. But we also tend to forget that we can only improve so much on our weaknesses but there’s no limit to what we can achieve with our strengths.
Once you uncover what you’re good at, practice those skills regularly so you can maximize your potential.
If there are things that you just absolutely hate doing or aren’t very good at, you have three choices:
1. You can just continue doing them, grumbling under your breath during the process.
2. You can educate yourself so that they come easier to you.
3. You can hire someone else — or delegate them to a member of your staff — to do them so that you can concentrate on things that you are good at.
Using myself as an example, I know where my strengths and weaknesses are. When starting my gift business, I couldn’t even tie a decent bow. But I knew that I would have to learn and perfect the techniques to create a decent gift design if I was going to sell them. Today, I can say that I have accomplished that and actually enjoy it.
But that is not my strength. My strength is creating and building a business and that is more than just creating an LLC, opening a bank account, and saying “Here I am.” Marketing is essential and effective writing is an important part of marketing. This is something that I love and am fairly good at. I have used that strength to build my several businesses.
As an introvert, I don’t particularly enjoy networking and interacting in person with people. But this is another area that I know is essential to building a successful business and I also learned many years ago that it is a skill that must be learned to succeed in a sales business. I’ve even written an ebook – A Business Networking Field Guide for Introverts – about how I learned to do exactly that.
I could continue listing my own strengths and weaknesses and there are more of the latter than the former but now it is your turn.
Think about your strengths and weaknesses and share them with us in the comments below along with how you have learned to use both effectively.