Do you ever wonder when it’s going to stop being so damn hard?
Wondering when your business is finally going to take off. Wondering when the clients will start showing up without you having to work so hard for each and every one?
Do you wonder when the money is finally going to come in and you can start living that comfy life you actually envisioned when you started?
The truth is, 99% of entrepreneurs have wondered this at some point (or many points) and the other 1% are lucky or lying.
It would feel cliché to call entrepreneurship a journey, but in truth, it’s what it is. There are great days, there are ok days and then there are some really super shitty days you hope you’ll never repeat.
In the early stages of your business, these highs and lows are much more pronounced. It can be an hourly battle of the wills – the excitement of finally mastering a piece of technology, with the low of getting no uptake on your latest offer.
It’s thrilling at best, and devastatingly disheartening at its worst. A roller coaster of emotions tied to your self-worth, self-esteem, sense of success and of course, bottom line.
And nobody gets it. You turn to your spouse hoping for a little support, and while he may give you a big hug and tell you you’re doing awesome, it’s not enough to cure what ails you. It just feels like platitudes and not nearly enough to fill the hole.
You check in with yourself. Why isn’t it working?
Is my brand confusing? Maybe.
Are my offers enticing? Not sure. You like them – but that’s not working so well.
Is my list/community big enough? Engaged enough? Well, it’s never enough in your mind but you’re doing the best you can.
Am I visible enough? Does anyone even know I exist? Traffic is up on my site, but it’s not converting.
Are my prices too low? Too high? Will I ever make any money? I mean REAL money – not just a few dollars here and there. Money I can count on and support my lifestyle without worrying if I can afford this month’s cable bill.
Should I give up and get a job at Starbucks? They have benefits and free coffee. That’s sounding pretty good right about now…
This is the struggle of entrepreneurship. And you are not alone.
Yes, there are those who hit it out of the ballpark right away. There are those who have the luxury of not worrying about how much money they’re making. But they are the minority.
Most entrepreneurs I know – at all stages of success – have struggled, still struggle and will continue to struggle until they give up their biz or die. It’s part of the process.
This is not to bring you down. It’s meant to remind you that you’re normal. That it’s ok to want to give up sometimes.
It’s ok to wonder if you’re ever going to turn this ship around and actually be successful.
And it’s ok if you’re tired of the struggle.
I want to normalize this for you so you can identify it for what it is.
Entrepreneurship.
Want the struggle to stop? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
1. Like attracts like:: I’m no LoA coach (Law of Attraction), but I DO know that what you put out into the universe comes back at you. So, if you’re spending your days and weeks wallowing in how hard things are and beating yourself up for being a failure, you’ll simply bring more of that into your life. And even if you don’t believe me that like attracts like, think of it this way – you’re wasting your life feeling miserable and it’s doing nothing to change the situation anyway. You might as well feel good.
2. Celebrate success:: Take five minutes right now and free-write a list of ALL the accomplishments you’ve made this past year. EVERYTHING. It can be big or small. E.g. you brought in $100 this month on a promotion, you finally got the courage up to email your list, you set up your blog, you went to a networking event – whatever. Don’t stop until you have a list of 30 things at least. Remind yourself how successful you truly are.
*Yes, I know. You don’t really want to do this one. It sounds nice and all, but you’ve got worrying to do – you don’t have time to celebrate. Whatever – just do it already and THEN tell me it was a waste of time.
3. Re-adjust your expectations:: Are your goals and expectations even remotely realistic? Are you a busy mom of three hoping to build a 7-figure empire in the next year? Hey sweetie – anything’s possible, but really – are killing yourself to reach some crazy self-imposed goal? Redefine success – you may just be doing better than you think. Or at the very least, maybe you can stop beating yourself up for not being further ahead. Wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace eh?
4. Turn up your hustle:: Are you doing the work that needs to be done to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself? Or are you on Facebook half the day and then complaining about your results? What highly-successful people do that others don’t is take consistent action and hustle their butts off. They don’t wait and hope and wonder. They act, test, re-test, hustle and do it all over again. Stop watching TV, stop posting benign links on Facebook, stop over-analyzing everything and JUST DO SOMETHING. You’ll get momentum quickly and start feeling better (and getting better results). It’s time for you to Go Pro – no excuses.
5. Get help:: Don’t go it alone. It’s so much harder that way (trust me, I learned that the hard way). Build a support network. Hire a coach. Join a mastermind group. Whatever it takes to build support structure so that when shit hits the fan, you’ve got people there to hold you up and champion you on.
And finally, let go of the idea that the struggle stops. Let go of the word struggle completely. Reframe the moments of confusion, uncertainty, resistance, procrastination and doubt as just a part of your entrepreneurial experience. It’s there (if you use it) to push you to be better, to be greater, to encourage you to test your own capabilities.
You can do this. I believe in you.
Just keep going.
