The #1 BUSINESS LESSON I learned the HARD WAY!

I love this time of year! Truly love everything about it….  the beautiful lights wherever you go, the merry music and when you have kids, the train rides to see Santa, cookies, hot cocoa, holiday cards and more….    But I know this time of year tends to be busy with all.the.things!  So, just a little reminder to be gentle with yourself and take time to slow down and ENJOY your people (and the things too!).

But speaking of holiday cards… I have to share this picture of my little guy, my youngest son  – this picture didn’t make the cut to be on our family Christmas card so I am including it in a package I am preparing to mail out…

It got me thinking about him, his surprise arrival into our lives and how that ended up completely rocking our world and changing how I approached my business!

Wanna hear the story? Well, here’s the short version :) ….. 

I was fully immersed in running my art studio business – and had my hands full with our other three little ones, ages 6 and under at the time -  when my husband and I got the best SURPRISE!

Baby #4 was on his way!

And let me tell you, while we were super excited to have a little man join our clan of girls, our world was definitely rocked!  

I, like most small business owners, was hustling – I was always on the go and flying by the seat of my pants most days! So we just couldn’t even imagine another child into the mix!

You see, the truth was that I had not been operating with much of a structure and shooting from the hip for far too long! I hadn’t taken the time needed at the beginning of launching my business to set up the necessary systems and processes that were needed to scale and for long-term sustainability.  I had jumped in head on (having just quit my full-time job in Corporate America) and gone into hustle mode, focused on strategic action to grow the business with the help of my team and family. And it worked. 

We took off like a rocket!  And we grew so fast and there was a lot to do and I got sucked into doing ALL THE THINGS just to keep up and get things done.  While still taking care of my home and family.  And so while the business was doing great, it was not the best way to do things for sure, and it certainly was not sustainable long term in terms of having a healthy balance between the business and the rest of my life. Continuing down that path was going to lead to burnout or worse. 

Cracks were already beginning to show and so when a new baby – and one who rarely slept more than 2 hours at a time at night – was added to the mix, there was just too much to do and I couldn't keep going the way I was. I hit a breaking point.

     I realized that if I was going to keep the business running WITHOUT sacrificing my family and home life, i.e. have some balance - which WAS THE REASON I HAD STARTED MY BUSINESS IN THE FIRST PLACE - then I had to take a step back, determine what I desired for my business and life, what the important priorities were and then make some serious changes! 

And that was the #1 lessson I learned in business and one which is key for small business survival and longevity.

In business, it is necessary to have the right structure and systems in place.

Sounds simple, but so much easier ‘known’ than actually implemented! And having the correct methodology to follow helps!

Because, what usually happens is you start your business, and then there are all the things that come up daily that you need to deal with – you get sucked into those day-to-day operations just to keep up and get things done. Those things tend to be urgent but not necessarily important. So given their apparent urgency, it becomes even harder to stop doing them and make the time to implement those more important and much needed foundational systems that ironically would actually alleviate the overwhelm you find yourself in.  It can be such a vicious cycle! Also important to note is that, small business owners for the most part are having to learn functions that are not within their wheel house from scratch!  For example, you have someone who may have started a business because they are super creative and great at designing the cutest baby clothing (or t-shirts) so they open a retail store selling those things.  However, now in addition to the creative process which they LOVE, they are now tasked with all the other functions like HR, taxes, operations, supply chain, finance, marketing and so on that they are now in charge of handling. And these are things they may not be passionate about or worse, not good at. Running a business comes with such a steep learning curve, and so when you add the enormous pressures and mental load entrepreneurs face – AND on top of that taking care of a home and a family for mompreneurs – well, THAT is the reason more than 80% of small businesses fail in their first year!

But it doesn't have to be that way.

As a business owner, there is the need to determine what your values and priorities are for your business and yourself and then, develop the right structure, systems and processes to align with that. That is the key to sustainability and being positioned to scale your business without sacrificing the rest of your life.

I will continue to blog more in the coming weeks about these systems and structures, as well as the routines needed to sustain them.

In the meantime, you can click here to read the LONGER version of my journey to entrepreneurship to find out the change I made that turned out to be the REAL GAME CHANGER!

As always, email me: [email protected]and let me know if you have any questions or topics you’re interested in learning more about.

I look forward to connecting with you.

Efe xo