What Really Happens In Your First Year of Business
I’m so excited to be welcoming people to The Money Club our yearlong business training program (check it out here – http://www.revenuebreakthrough.com/moneyclub) that kicks off in July and August. Many of the Money Clubbers are either new to business, new to taking their business seriously, or ready to take a plateauing business to the next level.
Getting through that first 12-24 months of taking your business seriously can be painful (that is, putting a conscious effort into it and learning how to run it as a business, not a hobby).
Here’s why. You are actually working on three different sets of skills at the same time – I call these three areas skill buckets. I thought it might be helpful for you if I laid them out one by one. That way you can see where you are now, where you are going and which skill bucket trips you up the most.
Skill Bucket One: Learning How to Sell and Market Yourself. In this bucket you are learning business skills. There are million different discrete skills that fall into this bucket, everything from learning how to walk into a room and talk about what you do, to speaking on a stage to writing to selling.
At Revenue Breakthrough, I teach my clients these skills specifically so that they can monetize their businesses as quickly as possible and start putting money away for their own security.
The key in this bucket is to stay in action – keep practicing and keep adjusting with each new skill. Know that with every practice and adjustment – it gets easier and easier. And you get the reward in terms of clients, money and freedom.
Skill Bucket Two: Talking Yourself Off the Ledge. If you are learning the skills in bucket one, chances are that most of your “stuff” is coming up. Everything from frustration, overwhelm and confusion to that insecurity that started when you were 12 and those girls didn’t let you eat at the lunch table with them.
Running a successful business is the best personal growth tool out there. It is the reason that really successful entrepreneurs are often also emotionally mature.
To be successful, you are forced to face your stuff. And to sustain that success you’ll have to deal with your stuff.
So the skills in this bucket are everything from dealing with the voices in your head, to coping skills, time management skills, processing skills, and learning what triggers you and how to avoid it. It’s all mindset.
The good news here is that a little goes a long way. You just have to walk towards your fear a little bit, just do one uncomfortable task – and the universe will take notice. The rewards are palpable.
After Money 2.0, one of my clients came home, organized her finances and talked to her financial planner. Within 7 days, a lawsuit that had taken over three years got resolved and she received a letter stating that she would be receiving money soon.
Skill Bucket Three: Getting Good at What You Do. OK, so you are managing skill bucket one and skill bucket two –you’re doing the sales and marketing and you are able to talk yourself off the ledge and keep going.
Chances are then that you’ve got clients, are selling products, and the money is flowing in.
Then you are faced with skill bucket three – getting really good at serving those clients. You’re burning the midnight oil and googling problems that your clients are having. Or you are creating new handouts, reading new books, dog-earing your program manual.
You are also learning how to manage clients and vendors here. You are learning skill sets like how to set boundaries, how to communicate, how to deal with conflict, and how to ask for what you want.
Getting the clients was step one. Now you want to keep them happy. And then there are those doggone voices that keep saying that you need to read more, know more, do more in order to serve them well. That fear that has you terrified that they will quit.
The beauty of this bucket is that you automatically get better at serving your clients or vendors over time. With each trial comes an outcome and you learn to deal with issues. The key here is to be open – to listen to what your clients are telling you and shift when necessary.
So you see – that first year of your business is full of learning: learning how to be a great business owner, learning how to walk through your fears as they come up and learning how to get better and better at serving your clients.
It’s like jumping into a pool and learning how to swim over and over again every single day.
Know that it does get easier. Skill bucket two and three get easier over time as you get better at managing yourself and you become more confident at managing your clients.
Be patient with yourself. Give yourself time.
Know that you’ll stumble and that chances are you won’t do everything perfectly. It’s OK. This is the path of the successful entrepreneur. Everyone stumbles.
The best action you can take is to get support and ask for help when you need it in all three bucket areas. And know – there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
PS: In the Money Club (http://www.revenuebreakthrough.com/moneyclub), I help my clients in all three areas – business fundamentals, mindset, and client management. If you need support, please reach out to us at support@revenuebreakthrough.com.
