I had it in mind that the final group project was August 31st rather than August 30th. A day late is about par for the course for me this month. August went by FREAKY-fast this year. I will post separately about my overall goals for this year’s festival. For this group project post, I want to talk about great advice received and given.
When I started my own business several years ago, I took a few online classes. One of those classes was by Lauren Bacon, a person who had been on a similar path to mine and someone who clicked with me when I did some research about her. On her blog she talked a lot about avoiding the comparison trap. She is also very much into curiosity.
Her blog isn’t current and the online course I took was on a site called Lynda.com, which has since been subsumed by LinkedIn Learning, but her class is the reason why I stayed in business even when I wasn’t making much money at it. The course, Running a Web Design Business: Defining Success, has been archived, but I still remember the impact it had on me. Her advice was to decide for yourself what your definition of success is. Don’t let anyone else tell you what success looks like. This is good advice for anyone participating in one of life’s many endeavors. Those of you taking part in Blaugust this year get to be the ones who decide what you accomplished and whether your participation was a success.
Her process opened the door for so much personal growth and for my business to mean much more to me than just a way to make money. I realized that my definition of a successful business was founded on several things. Giving myself time to volunteer was one of those things. Staying the course in doing website design was another. Growing a network of wonderful women business owners was also part of the journey. Instead of just being a job, it became a source of personal and professional growth.
Simon Sinek talks a lot about Starting With Why. Rather than what we do, or how we do it, we should instead focus on why we do things. It is the passion behind our endeavors that gives us staying power. It is what makes us stand out from others. Some of the best advice I give to my business clients is based on his concepts.
When deciding how to tell the story of your business, don’t get caught up in just what you sell or how you work. Instead, talk about why you are in business. What problem or pain point did you want to solve when you started your business? When people look at two companies that offer very similar things, seeing passion and purpose will help them pick you over someone else. Purpose and passion give you staying power during tough times. Some people get so focused on sales when they should instead be focused on identifying the pain points of their customers and solving their problems. Help people, don’t just sell to people.
If we can avoid the comparison trap our lives will be much happier.
Thanks for this! I’m planning to try re-starting a small business I had started years back, but had to abandon for Life Reasons. That advice to *define for myself what success looks like* and *focus on the why* will be very helpful!