I am noticing that there are a few articles coming out now that talk specifically about the need for individuals to have a “side hustle”, a piece of work on the side that could generate income for a few years. All you need to do to confirm this is look at the Bureau of Statistics and the articles about the numbers of men and women who have left their lovely paying role to try their luck in the roulette wheel that is a small business.
I was talking to a colleague last week who has a very successful small business, when we unpacked it further, she realised that the small business “just grew” and so, thinking “lets make hay while the sun shines” she jumped on board. Problem was, that she had not really done the thinking behind the scenes around what her goals were, both financial and non financial, what she really stood for and which parts were her sweet spot and which parts she could outsource.
Fast forward two weeks and I was sitting next to someone at a networking event and she was talking about the fact that she had so much work that she couldn’t keep up with the demand, I was thinking to myself “what a wonderful problem to have”, the only issue was that she had started her business a few years ago and had kept her prices very low, so she was doing a lot of work for not much return. She was unable to tell me what type of money she was making, bizarre or normal? I think normal, I think that the business gets rolling, you quickly get consumed by it and then before you know it, you haven’t come up for air in three years.
I love working with small businesses to help them either start up or help them grow beyond what they ever thought possible. Some of my advice is common sense, some of my advice is because I am arms length and sometimes my advice is so kooky that they look at me like I am a crazy person, but they give it a crack anyway – it’s those ideas that get the most traction.
Allow me to leave you with 3 thoughts:
- Make sure you value yourself and your time and then your clients will also
- Sales is part of the business, get out there and sell and if clients say no – as they inevitable will, you thank them for their time and move on, you weren’t meant to work with that person right at that moment.
- If you don’t love what you are selling, how do you expect others to love it?