The decisions I made during years 5-10 are ultimately what led me to where I am presently. I'd say the first 5 years were all about learning, making plenty of mistakes and picking myself back up after each one. Then the 2nd half of the last decade was taking all those hard won lessons and compiling them into growth and successes.
By the time I was celebrating year 7 I had finally started to see some real change in things. That's about when I noticed that not only was I hitting major milestones but that I, myself, was growing right along with the business! And quite honestly, that's supposed to happen! We small business owners are close to what we started and the relationships we have with our businesses should continue to grow and be objective yet close.
One major choice I made in those next 5 years had the biggest impact on things and that was giving myself regular work weeks along with regular time off. When I first started my business I was working 7 days a week for several years and couldn't seem to understand that I was the cause of my own burn outs. I was constantly tired, frequently frustrated and always seemed to be spinning my wheels and gaining no traction.
And really, how could I? Not many people want to work with someone who's always walking around tired and wearing their frustrations on their face.
So, I started doing a normal 5 day work week and in year 5 gave myself my first week off.
Of course I felt really guilty at first but I still worked my way up to giving myself then 2 weeks off the following year and after that 3 weeks and last year I took 5 weeks off to take care of myself.
It was the best thing I could have done! And I no longer feel even a smidgeon of guilt!
I'm now at a place where I work 4 days a week, which is something I wanted to do for a while, and this year I'll be taking 7 weeks off as my gift to myself for making it through 11 years of business! We survived Covid, the first 5 years of serious mess ups, some pretty uncool meetings and lots of blood,sweat and tears; and in celebration of that I'm taking a full 7 weeks off this year.
If you're a business owner and struggling with some of those same issues I mentioned- exhaustion, burn out, frustration and feeling like you're not getting anywhere no matter how many hours you put in- I encourage you to take some down time and breathe. Just offer yourself the same grace periods you'd want a loved one to have when they're tired and worn out. Because we may be amazing business owners trying to conquer the world but we're also human with bodies and minds that occasionally need a break.
By the time I was celebrating year 7 I had finally started to see some real change in things. That's about when I noticed that not only was I hitting major milestones but that I, myself, was growing right along with the business! And quite honestly, that's supposed to happen! We small business owners are close to what we started and the relationships we have with our businesses should continue to grow and be objective yet close.
One major choice I made in those next 5 years had the biggest impact on things and that was giving myself regular work weeks along with regular time off. When I first started my business I was working 7 days a week for several years and couldn't seem to understand that I was the cause of my own burn outs. I was constantly tired, frequently frustrated and always seemed to be spinning my wheels and gaining no traction.
And really, how could I? Not many people want to work with someone who's always walking around tired and wearing their frustrations on their face.
So, I started doing a normal 5 day work week and in year 5 gave myself my first week off.
Of course I felt really guilty at first but I still worked my way up to giving myself then 2 weeks off the following year and after that 3 weeks and last year I took 5 weeks off to take care of myself.
It was the best thing I could have done! And I no longer feel even a smidgeon of guilt!
I'm now at a place where I work 4 days a week, which is something I wanted to do for a while, and this year I'll be taking 7 weeks off as my gift to myself for making it through 11 years of business! We survived Covid, the first 5 years of serious mess ups, some pretty uncool meetings and lots of blood,sweat and tears; and in celebration of that I'm taking a full 7 weeks off this year.
If you're a business owner and struggling with some of those same issues I mentioned- exhaustion, burn out, frustration and feeling like you're not getting anywhere no matter how many hours you put in- I encourage you to take some down time and breathe. Just offer yourself the same grace periods you'd want a loved one to have when they're tired and worn out. Because we may be amazing business owners trying to conquer the world but we're also human with bodies and minds that occasionally need a break.