I’ve spent almost a year working on preparing another project and business, and in the meantime almost completely abandoned :we are micro. I didn’t have time, and frankly, when you distance yourself from the work that you have been so passionate about and the topics you have been immersed in every day, you become afraid that whatever you do next is not going to be good enough. And you keep not doing anything new because you just don’t want to ruin what you’ve built.
To be completely honest with you, if you ever leave a project and decide to come back to it at some point, prepare to face the consequences. In my case, traffic to my website sored, my book sales dropped drastically, people started leaving. No, I didn’t work on this business from “behind the scenes” in the past 11 months, like you hear from other online business owners, I didn’t coach people except for a few friends and family members, I didn’t create products for this business and I even abandoned my social media profiles. If you’ve followed me before, you know I just stopped posting.
I didn’t abandon social media all together, I have actually been active on it more then ever before, but that’s another story I will tell you about very soon.
My revenue streams almost dried out. Why am I telling you this? Because it’s the truth. That is what happens if you abandon a project, if you’re not consistent enough. And believe me, it doesn’t happen only when you leave your business and your customers hanging for a year, it happens if you “quit” for 3 months.
What then? Then you start all over again. But you think how, if I already have a website and a ton of great content? Well, I do have that, but without readers and clients, it doesn’t mean much. You have to gain back your reputation, you need to produce more, you need to earn trust and respect from your (new) readership and work harder then ever to show yourself you can actually make this happen.
Looking back, I didn’t make many mistakes, but I did make a huge one. I stopped being consistent. Consistent in producing content, in marketing my business and in communicating through social channels. That almost killed my business and took away my confidence in creating new content that was of equal or better value as the old one. But probably the worst thing was that I couldn’t get as excited and as passionate about something that fueled my life for the past five years (a lot before :we are micro came to fruition). I kept procrastinating and not coming back to this project because I was afraid of not being able to give as much as I have before and of not having enough time to keep it at the same quality level.
That was just my mind rationalizing and none of it makes any sense. None of the fears we have in business or in life make sense.
Nothing stopped me from keeping it at the same level, but doing less. That way I could have been consistent with everything. Instead, another project, another experience and fear kept me away.
You could be assigning reasons for not succeeding in business or not growing as fast as you expect to something different. Maybe you have some of your own fears, like the fear of success and changing your life completely, or the fear of losing the money you would invest in your business or the fear of your closest friends and family criticizing you. That can all lead you to inconsistency and not moving forward, maybe even falling behind and getting convinced you can’t do it.
Any fear can keep you from being consistent in your business and doing all that you can to grow it and create a lifestyle you set out to create. But here is what you don’t realize because your fear messes with you perception; if you do everything you can to promote your business, to grow it and create the best work you can and still don’t succeed, an insignificant amount of people will attest to that and probably forget about it quickly. You won’t embarrass yourself, no one will talk about your failed attempt of success. You get out with a clean slate and some valuable experience. You can go on to the next thing if you want and be better at it because you’ve learnt a few lessons while failing first. It’s not a big deal.
What we always fear is other people’s reactions. An insignificant (small) audience won’t have a reaction, except maybe leave. Some of your friends and family might not be nice to you if you fail, but once you realize they are just saying that because they are too afraid to try starting a business on their own and because you’ve pushed them out of their comfort zone, failing or making a mistake is a piece of cake. Just another step in the process. So there is no reason not to be consistent in growing your business and giving it your best shot.
I would even dare to say that designers, artists and musicians know best that it takes being consistent and cutting edge as long as it takes to get a show, a gig and so on and so forth, until they get noticed and praised. And then they need to keep doing it and getting even better. The only way to do it is if it doesn’t feel like you need to work and put crazy amounts of effort into creating all the time. It should feel more like you want to share with others what you’ve created.
What’s closely related to consistency in business is choosing your niche or defining your business idea. If you research this topic online, you will find hundreds of articles that will tell you “do something that matters” or “start a business about something you’re really passionate about” followed by something ridiculous such as “you won’t be able to succeed if that isn’t your biggest, ultimate passion”. Yes, I’m pushing it a bit much here, but even I’ve heard this directly from some of my mentors and I’m not saying it’s bad advice. I’m just sick and tired of others putting so much pressure on people who would like to create something on their own by making it look so damn hard, when it’s not.
The truth is, you can succeed even if you don’t choose your biggest passion to build a business around it. I’m a person who is passionate about so many things in life and I’m sure most of you are, too. From starting businesses, marketing, to design, fashion, extreme sports, travel and foreign languages. And although I do all of that and am really good at all of that, I know I can’t start a business which involves all of those things, or start a business for each of those things and be as involved in it as much as I would like to. Neither I want to. But have I chosen to build businesses around things which are the most effortless and fun for me to do? No. I wanted to be challenged, too, and I saw my opportunity right here.
I admit that starting a business around fashion would have been the easiest and most fun thing for me, but I’ve also proven to be successful with many other things. You definitely shouldn’t start a business around something you saw someone else do. What’s important and the only condition as far as my experience goes is that you start it around something that comes natural to you. It doesn’t have to be the same thing you’re been building your career around for the last 5-10 years, it doesn’t have to be anything you’ve seen previously as work.
For example, ever since I was 6 years old, I’ve consistently learnt foreign languages. Today, I speak 5 of them really well, most of them as a native speaker. You could have had something similar in your life that you are excellent at and that you’ve enjoyed doing, but never saw as a business opportunity. I have a few ideas on how people could learn languages at least 10 times faster then they do now, and that’s an understatement. Do I see a business opportunity here? Of course I do, but for now I’m focused on something else.
Maybe you’ve had a deep interest in something for many years; something people have always complimented you for or gone to you for advice. This means you never received money for it, but you could consider yourself an expert at it. That is a type of thing you can also start a business around.
Be bold when it comes to your business decision. Dare to choose something you would never choose if you were looking for a safe choice.
Whatever drives you as a person and whatever you can keep creating on an ongoing basis is a good business choice. Making it a success takes some learning and skill, but if that can take you to creating a fulfilling life, it’s not even a question whether you will do it.
Keep creating and growing your business consistently. Do everything you can to get the word out and be the best you can. Then your success is guaranteed.
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What are the fears that are stopping your from starting or growing your business? Have you been consistent in your work and promotion?
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photo courtesy creature comforts
