NOW WE ARE 16
This month I celebrated 16 years of running my own business. I know!!!!!
That’s 16 years since I was made redundant and dared to imagine that I might be able to eek out an existence utilising the skills and knowledge I had acquired in my ‘real jobs’ that had gone before. 16 years of personal discovery and growth and 16 years of being 100 per cent responsibility for any successes and failures along the way.
2009 was a time of recession and uncertainty (the more things change the more they stay the same), but something made me realise that it was going to be ‘now or never’ if I was ever going to try to make the transition to self employment and that this was my chance to seize the moment.
For those of you who have trodden the, often solitary, road of self employment, I doubt I’ll be able to teach you much.
- Do you remember the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with the freedom of self employment, both liberating and debilitating in equal measure, as you set off with your Vistaprint business card and VOIP phone number?
- How about the day it dawned on you that the phone isn’t going to ring unless you get up, get out and shout about what you do to the people who are most likely to need your services?
- Or maybe, perhaps most importantly, the reminder that you are now in control of your own destiny and there really is a direct correlation between hard work and success.
To those of you, self employed or otherwise, who have been kind enough to support and share knowledge with me over the years I hope you understand just how grateful I am to each and every word of encouragement, every listening ear and every piece of business that you have either given or facilitated which has allowed me to reach this anniversary.
Milestones often bring about periods of reflection and this is no exception so what have I learned?
Hold your nerve. Keep the faith and believe in what you have to offer. If you don’t believe in your product, why would anyone else?
Cut yourself some slack. You don’t need to be excellent at everything. Exploit your strengths and shine a light on them. Play down your weaknesses.
Be true to yourself. In the words of Maya Angelou ‘Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better’
