I am passionate about supporting women become entrepreneurs and set up on their own. I believe it is the best way to create the work / life balance around your children. However, I am acutely aware (and know from personal experience) it isn't always a bed of roses.
Your response to a problem or in a stressful situation is key.
In my work as a confidence coach I help women develop the toolkit they need to feel better about themselves and I encourage them to become more self aware so that they can learn to identify triggers and respond to them. I also encourage my clients to develop an awareness of their own thoughts which are pretty much automatic. You can learn to control your thoughts which helps in stressful situations.
As an entrepreneur how you react when things go wrong is even more important. When you set up you are often working on your own so you need to become increasingly self reliant. In the past when you were an employee you could rely on others to help you ride out the storm or aportion the blame to someone else. Now you have to face it head on.
We all have an achilles heel and when you are working on your own, for your self this is highlighted. I wish now I had bothered to listen in those IT demonstrations and tried to find my own solutions rather than walk a couple of flights of stairs and get someone to do it for me. This has been my biggest test as an entrepreneur and it has kept on testing me pretty reliably.
The key thing is to move on from any issues as quickly as you can, making sure that you learn from them and thinking about what you are going to do differently next time. This can be hard especially when you have lost money, lost time or feel that you have been mistreated. However, this is the thing that will set you apart from your competition and keep your business going.
It is all about your mindset – about creating a positive mindset where failure is acceptable, failure is seen as learning. It is about seeing the positive in even the most dire of situations and believing in the fact that if you get it wrong today it doesn't mean that the same thing will happen tomorrow. This requires a certain resilience and a certain mindset.
If you find you struggle with setbacks and they can take you away from your business and fuel your self doubt you need to do some work on your mindset. This can be as simple as identifying your beliefs and changing limiting beliefs you hold about yourself, daily journalling or affirmations. It is this work that will create the mental toughness that you need to deal with things when they go wrong.
The whole concept of mindset work is in itself a mindset. When you have your own business the temptation is often to just work as much as you can. I find it lots easier to work all the hours when I know it is for myself and I have also got closer to burnout working for myself then I ever did before. This is because you are invested in the success of this venture so naturally you will do whatever it takes. Sometimes, it takes doing less.
My advise to you is to make sure that every day you are working on your mindset and allowing yourself time away from your business. If you have a family or partner spend time with them, see your friends, exercise, watch your favourite boxset. Whatever works for you. Spend time building this positive, resilient mindset so when the going gets tough you can bounce back.
If you know that working on your own can make you more vulnerable to stress take steps to avoid it, you could arrange to meet up with other home workers, invest in a desk in a shared space or schedule regular meetings outside of your house.
You need to anticipate how you could respond and train yourself to use positive strategies.
What I did is outsource all my IT so I no longer have to worry about what my lead page is going to look like, where my facebook pixl is meant to go and how to set up a bloody webinar ! I am glad I went through the pain as I now know my limitations and rather than dwell on them I can move forward knowing I will never spend another hour of my life trying to work out how to do anything IT related…
