It’s easy for those not bitten with the Entrepreneurial Bug, working hard at their job, to feel envious and downright jealous of what appears to be the glorious, oh hail to the Business Owner.

DON’T BE!

Let’s just be brutally honest with each other right now.

Whether it’s working a job or running a business, it can all suck at times.

You know it, and I know it.

In reality, be it a job or business owner, they are just titles.

They each require different things from us, there’s no doubt, but at the end of the day, what’s important is the “What Yous.”

What You love.

What You hate.

What You are good at.

And

What You are bad at.

For so many business owners, myself included, the last 3 years have been a rollercoaster filled with plenty of “What Yous.”

You may have heard we’ve nearly tripled the size of our team, expanded our reach to serve international clients, expanded our service offerings, earned 3 awards, and increased our revenue year after year (all during a pandemic).

All sounds great, doesn’t it?

Yeah, it’s been a bed of freakin’ roses … Not hardly!

Much of it has been great, but I would be lying if myself and my partners haven’t also felt insane amounts of anxiety, panic, and fear, mixed in there with some excitement.

We feared letting our clients down.

We feared letting our team down.

We feared failure.

We feared we would succeed too slowly.

We feared we would succeed too quickly.

We feared we would not be good enough.

We feared we were too good for some.

So much fear.

So what keeps us going?

What can keep you going?

WHAT YOU | BUSINESS TRUTHS

When is enough enough?

Trust me, you will know.

In the moments you want to run away, and maybe you do for a short bit (AND THAT’S OK), if you don’t have to convince yourself to go back, then the game is still there to be played.

If you are a business owner or have a job, the Truths of the “What Yous” are critical here!

What the heck are the “What Yous”?

Well, for starters, they will help you be a better leader, a master delegator, an excellent communicator, and help you succeed no matter what your title or position is.

What You love: Keep doing.

What You hate: DELEGATE.

What You are good at: Decide if you want to continue to be responsible for these things or delegate.

What You are bad at: Delegate from the start if at all possible.

You may not have such freedom to execute on these truths as suggested if part of your job description includes things you hate or are bad at.

HOWEVER, this doesn’t mean you can’t express your concerns with management to possibly make some adjustments.

At the end of the day, the team you lead, or the one that leads you, wants a happy and effective crew surrounding them.

Digging yourself into a bottomless pit with a to-do list of things you hate or are bad at doesn’t serve anyone.

WHERE ARE YOUR KID’S SHOES?

So many new entrepreneurs are stuck for many years in the Manuership of business … deep, like neck-high-deep in shit, wearing too many hats, trying to do way too much (and it all never seems to get done).

Now don’t get me wrong, I feel for most, this is the reality of what it takes to start most businesses, but no one wants to stay there too long if you can help it. I know from personal experience, so I empathize if you are in this space right now.

Finding good people to take those less-than-optimal “What Yous” off your shoulders will lift you out of the crap you’ve been muddling through.

Yet, even when you have the best team in the world, as I feel I do, the Cobbler’s Shoe Syndrome can still be a thing.

The proverbial cobbler would send his kids to school with less than impressive kicks, holes, and chewed-up soles.

Even though the cobbler was known in town to make the fanciest, best shoes for their clients, their children can’t say the same.

For the professional house organizer, they may have the most unorganized house on the planet.

For the best sign maker, they may have the worst-looking sign on the block.

Likewise, award-winning marketing and web firms have outdated websites.

Yeah, that last one may be a bit personal to the reality of where I sit and what I can say about this very website you are on right now.

Gravity Junction has Cobbler’s Shoe Syndrome, without a doubt.

One of the collective “What You” underpinning truths I know my team has is we LOVE building brands, and we love the creative process.  We love producing wins for our clients, sometimes at the detriment of our own needs and wins.

For the past 3 years, we’ve been hyper-focused so much on our clients’ websites, marketing campaigns, and brand-building strategies that ours have fallen to the wayside.

We know how to design and develop high converting websites, we know how to help websites rank in the world of organic SEO, we know how to craft email campaigns with high open and click-through rates, all of which our clients appreciate, and we love that we can make it happen for them.

We are meticulous with our clients’ websites and meticulous in producing web analyses for them, but we have admittedly, from time to time, dropped that ball for ourselves.

Our own campaigns and websites have suffered. #ruhroh

We have holes in our soles, metaphorically speaking.

Why do I share this with you?

To let you know, much like parenting, the adventures of business ownership are imperfect.

At the core of business ownership, we are problem solvers. Yet it seems much easier to fix other people’s problems than our own.

REALITY CHECK | MENDING THE HOLES

I had a friend recently reach out to me to review his website that he built himself as a professional residential builder—a hellaciously talented one, to say the least.

He knew every business needed a website. So being a solopreneur on a budget, he built one himself.

After going through the web analysis with him, his comment to me was, “It sounds like to fix all these issues is a full-time job, and I’m not sure I know how to do it or have time to.”

All of which is accurate; that’s why agencies like Gravity Junction exist.

My friend is now acutely aware that building his website with zero background or knowledge in that field was probably the biggest waste of his time.

The reality check for my friend is that he’s not good at developing a website that will organically reach customers, much less convert.

He’s not an experienced SEO expert, web developer, or UX designer …. He’s a master carpenter, so this isn’t shocking.

His “What You are Bad at” has been revealed.

He has “holes in his own shoes.”

Now what?

Once you’ve become aware, like my friend, of whatever hole you are trying to fix, then comes the plan to rectify the situation.

Accounting for the time, team and funding you have available, map out the plan to “mend the hole.”

You may be shy on money, you may not have a team, and you may lack time, so it may take more time than you had hoped, which can be frustrating.

But at least you have a plan.

In my friend’s case, he knows he’s got to beat the streets for some business and not rely on his site organically ranking. When he turns some profits, he can then rely on the professionals to give him a great website.

“You are either green and growing or ripe and rotten.” John Addison

Business is an evolution, a journey, an environment that’s fertile ground for growth, and there’s always room to grow just a little bit more.

Stop growing, and you are dying.

Know your “What Yous”!

Be real with yourself.

Be real with your team.

Remember the power of delegation.

Remember, it’s never going to be perfect, and that is perfect.

Embrace “Wabi-Sabi” … Find perfection in the imperfection.

That’s perfect!