10 things to remember in your first year of biz
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Something I always love is when a business mentor or even fitness coach who has 10+ years of experience can continue to meet the newbs where they’re at in their journey. They never lose sight of the beginners no matter how advanced the professional is now, in their craft.
To be clear I don’t consider myself to be one of those people, YET. But I am now five to six years deep in biz and my fav people to work with are (as of now) those in the first 1-3 years of building their online biz.
Thus, we have today’s episode. Where my goal is to give you some helpful reminders for your early years of navigating online entrepreneurship.
Let’s us begin with a prelude.
You’re going to mess up. You will say the wrong thing, send the wrong link, or no link at all. You’re going to offend someone. Your stomach is going to end up in your butthole more than once, for various reasons.
Okay? That’s your prelude. Being a business owner will undoubtedly humble you. It’s in the nature of entrepreneurship. In putting yourself and your gifts into the world. So, just prepare for that rough 20% of this journey. And as hard as it can be, let those experiences refine you as a human.
Now, 10 reminders for your first year of biz:
It’s going to take longer than you think
I’m really just lifting you up here. I know. But I like to keep things real. And not in a cliche way, but like ACTUALLY real.
My husband and I were blessed enough to let us know the realities of marriage before we got married almost eight years ago. It’s not a fairytale, we’re not here to make each other happy. We’re responsible for our own happiness etc. it wasn’t a downer. They just painted a real picture of marriage and it was SO HELPFUL for us.
I don’t depend on him to make me happy, vice versa. We’re on a team. He has his roles, I have mine and we keep our goals on the same page. With that, we’re not experts, don’t have kids, etc. but we had the same mindset before we got married that we do now, poor, well off, all the same.
Sooooo what the shit does that have to do with business? We’re in this for the long haul.
And you need to be in this for the long haul for your business.
It takes time to build a solid offer, find your niche and scale that to where you want.
That’s all very individualized. But where quick results are promised everywhere in the online biz space, I’m here to ask if you’re still down to build your biz even if it takes 4 years?
Only you know that answer. But realistic expectations go a long way in how you take action and respond within your biz.
You don’t know what you don’t know –
Don’t beat yourself up for not knowing something, NOW YOU DO.
Be willing and eager to learn. And remember learning means being wrong from time to time.
Have grace for yourself – there’s so much a solepreneur has to do from building sites and tracking numbers and setting up email automations. It’s a lot.
It’s never too early to start tracking numbers
The earlier you get in the habit of tracking profit and loss as well as Key performance indicators (KPI’s), the better.
Reason 1: you can build on your spreadsheets as you grow. Starting when you have less to track is just smart.
Reason 2: knowing and seeing your numbers allows you to make better decisions in your biz – where you spend your time and what you choose to focus on.
Just because Coach Karel did it doesn’t mean it’s a wise approach for you.
This could be a point in itself but the point here also goes back to sticking to your approach, gifts and what you want for your business.
Especially when we’re in an insecure season of our biz, or when we’re unsure about what to create, we can see what so and so is doing and think:
“Omg is that what I need to do?
“Am I missing out?
“Am I doing this wrong?
“Is that a better approach than I’m using?
5% of this is helpful because yes, maybe it is in fact a better approach.
But the point is that we can downward spiral when this happens, thinking we’re failing, behind, and everyone else’s approach is right, and ours is wrong.
Which is just likely not the truth.
Be clear on your offer and approach. Refine it. Yes. But don’t jump ship just because Karel shared her new program.
Calm down. Come to your senses. Look for truth.
Build your email list
Email is not dead. If anyone tells you it’s dead, they’re ignorant. Straight facts.
It’s not new. You don’t own social media. Getting people on your email list allows you have *more* control and security.
I have other episodes on growing your list. Be sure to check those out.
Nurture the person behind the business (you)
Any stress and or success in your biz will only amplify what already is.
Hilary Rushford once said “a business is only as healthy as its CEO” and I feel that in my soul. Especially as someone with a personal brand.
Here’s to boundaries, and breaks, and lifting weights, and saying no.
Taking care of yourself will always positively impact your biz. I hustled through the first 3.5 years of biz. Almost 6 years in I’m still working on this. It’s a challenge to stop the hustle when you’ve built that habit for YEARS.
Content is queen
People consume content more than ever in the history of the internet.
I highly encourage you to find what type of content you LIKE creating and find a way to produce it consistently. The more content you can create and the better you can get at it, the more value you’re feeding your audience, the more data you get back as to what’s landing, and the more know, like and trust you’re building with your audience.
That’s leads to the next point.
Free Free Free
Give literally as much free content as you can. No one is piecing it all together for themselves. People will pay you once they feel they’ve received significant value for free – this can happen via email, a free resource people download or daily content.
People are scared of giving away their gold. When that’s exactly what you need to do. Give the golden nuggets, something that will actually make their life easier, better, less painful, more joyful.
Customer service for 1 or 100
Customer service makes and breaks companies all the time.
You’ve had experiences where a company had amazing service, and the opposite.
Which would you continue to give money to? Or tell others to give their money to?
Whether you have 1 or 100 clients, look for ways to uphold solid customer service. Treat humans well. Period.
Now, the last one is simple but someone you will likely need to repeat to yourself.
Keep going
You’ll certainly not get where you want to go if you quit. That’s guaranteed.
Take a break and keep going
Have a cry and keep going
Write it out and keep going
Keep showing up. You WILL figure it out because you wouldn’t have this dream or passion if you weren’t equipped to make it happen.
Hear me?
Keep going. Expect challenge. Expect failures. Keep going.
This is not for the faint of heart.
That’s it. There’s a million more. But there’s my 10 for today.
If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to iTunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.
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Free On Demand Workshop: 3 Steps To Build a Profitable Online Health and Fitness Business
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