Not everyone should

own their own business.

Ooh, I know,

controversial, huh?

Well,

I just don't think

everyone is suited to

having their own business.

You might think you are,

you come out of corporate,

you've got this idea,

you want to make

a difference,

you want to be in

charge of your own time,

you want to have

flexibility,

all the things, but

the reality and the

dream can be two really

different things.

Don't get me wrong.

I love having my own

business, but I am seven

years in and I've done the

hard grind and I am not

interested in that anymore.

I reckon there's

a few things

people don't necessarily

realise until

you are in the thick

of business ownership.

And I thought I'd talk

to you about them today.

If you're thinking about

starting a business, you've

got your own business

and you're like, why

isn't it working for you?

Maybe some of these

tips might help.

, number one is no budget.

My goodness.

In corporate, you're

normally working with

bigger budgets, so it's

much easier to get stuff

done and to work on

bigger projects, right?

When you're running

your own business,

Your capabilities, in

terms of resourcing and

time are a lot less.

Sometimes you need

to be okay with doing

things on the cheap

scrapy, non-perfect,

et cetera, et cetera.

When I first started

out, I was on the train

and I thought, I do

need a web presence.

So I got on GoDaddy.

. I registered my business.

I'm not proud of

this by the way.

I registered my business.

Bob's your uncle.

I had a website.

I had a rule with myself

when I first started my own

business that I would not

spend any money until I had

made money, which meant I

didn't spend any money for

fair amount of time, right?

Number two, You don't

have anyone to answer to.

Woo hoo!

You don't have a boss.

Well, you are the boss.

No one is going to

validate your choices

or hold your hand when

the going gets tough.

You don't have the office

network, although co

working spaces work just

as well, for building

some camaraderie, but you

do not answer to anyone.

That is a pro and

that is a con.

I don't answer to anyone.

I could procrastinate

all day and no one's

going to fire me.

But also I'm probably not

going to make any revenue.

Number three, the hours

aren't as set, especially

in the beginning.

You'll probably be needing

to work some nights,

some weekends to get your

ideas off the ground.

You need to prove yourself

in a new market,

in a new way,

in a new business,

and that takes work.

When I first started out,

I was offering coaching

sessions in the evening.

Cause I'm like, I'll

take anything that I

can in the evening.

And do you know

what happened?

Everyone wanted

evening sessions.

When I stopped

offering evening

sessions, guess what?

They all moved to

daytime sessions.

Amazing.

Amazing.

It does get easier over

time, especially if you

set it up correctly or if

you've evolved differently,

but going into business for

yourself, thinking you're

always going to be working

less than your corporate

hours isn't always the

case to begin with.

In fact my first

year in business,

we had a great year.

We actually had a really

good year from a revenue

perspective because I knew

what the family needed.

I was very clear on what

I needed to bring in from

a revenue perspective and

how much profit we needed.

I knew all of those things.

I worked my butt off

and my husband was like,

this is not sustainable.

I'm like, yeah,

you're right.

Well, I didn't tell him

he was right because

why would you say, tell

someone that they're right,

that you have to live

with every single day.

The other thing about,

the flexibility of hours

is yes, I had flexibility

of hours, but I had

to work really hard on

getting my mindset out

of, I sit at this desk

from nine to five, Monday

to Friday, even if I'm

the most unproductive

I've ever been.

I had to shift that mindset

to say, Hey, if I get

these three things done,

I can go have a coffee.

I can go for a walk

around the block.

I can take my 16 year

old dog and we can

go have some fun.

But it took me a while to

get out of that corporate

nine to five kind of got

to be sitting at your

desk, smashing through

stuff, spending every

minute being productive.

That's just not

how it works.

And now I don't

even do that.

Now I have a nap every

single day and I love

it and that's the

flexibility you get for

having your own business.

Number four, you are in

charge of your paycheck.

How much money you

make is in your court.

I find this liberating.

I am in charge of

my own paycheck.

Don't you reckon

that's amazing?

I mean you need to

do things to get that

paycheck but you're

still in charge of it.

You have to also

organise payments.

I found that a drag.

Tax.

We love the tax man.

The tax is the privilege

of doing business.

There are more bills to pay

as a small business owner.

So many more bills.

Don't even get me

started on subscriptions.

And then the need to

be across all of this.

So you don't get

pounded by the ATO.

Shout out to Jamie Juraski.

he is my bookkeeper from

Oak Business Solutions.

And, , I just talk to Jamie

and I get it all sorted.

It's lovely.

Number five, you have to

do business development.

Oh, I know.

When I tell people that

their face drops and I'm

like, what's the matter?

Business development,

it means you get to

go out and build

relationships and get

connections, which might

lead to some amazing work

and meeting some

amazing people.

Oh my goodness.

If I had a dollar

for everyone who

said to me, can you

just do my BD for me?

I would be very

rich I need to put a

PSA

out for business

development.

It can be fun.

I promise it can be fun.

We overthink it.

We overcomplicate it.

We don't realize we

necessarily have to do it.

But if you're the CEO of

your own business, who

else is going to do it?

Yes, you can outsource

it, but they are not you.

They don't bring your

vibe and your vibe

attracts your tribe.

So you have to do the

business development.

At the moment, we are

smack bang in the middle

of a challenge with the

thriving women gang.

The challenge is to

do one hour a day.

of business development

for the entire

month of October.

I get so excited

about this.

Now everyone's doing

a different one.

We can all see

each other's plans.

We all have a plan.

I think that's

really important.

You don't want to sit down

for your hour of power of

business development and

be like, who should I call?

No, no, no.

You want to do all that

thinking beforehand.

So if you're in the

corporate market,

you would spend a lot

of time on LinkedIn.

If you're in the

business to consumer

space, you might spend

the time on Facebook,

Instagram, and LinkedIn.

If you're anything like

me, you want to get

personal with people.

And that means belly

to belly, face to face.

I love meeting people.

I also love picking

up the phone.

I know, I know

I'm a dinosaur.

I can't help it.

I just love picking

up the phone

and love talking to people.

BD.

We all have to do it.

It is a non negotiable.

I recently told a

group of people that I.

counted up the

hours I'd done VD.

So I've been in business

for seven years.

Now, to be fair, I work

about 40 weeks a year,

not 52 weeks a year.

I work about 40

weeks a year.

Every day for seven

years, I have done an

hour of power a day.

So you do the math on

that, five hours a week

for 40 weeks, times seven.

I know I don't want to

do the math on that, but

anyone, if you're listening

to me and you're doing the

math, tell me what that is.

It's a lot.

It's a lot of BD.

And as the CEO or as

the director, we need

to show up and do that.

If you don't have

the want, or the need

to be the face

of your business,

you cannot go

into business.

You need to be visible.

You need to do

business development.

Yeah.

And number six, I reckon

some people are just

more suited to clocking

in and off on an, in and

out, in and out, right?

They get the job done.

They get a regular pay.

They clock off.

They don't think

about it anymore.

I just don't know how

many jobs are out there

like that anymore.

Really?

Even when I worked

in an organization,

I didn't click off.

but some people

just like that.

Some people feel like

they can have more impact

working in an organization,

especially our beautiful

not for profits of which

I spent 12 years in

World Vision Australia.

And I loved my job and I

gave everything to my job.

And I love the impact

my job had, but I love

this one even more,

because we're impacting

in a different way.

Now we help women be

financially secure.

And I couldn't be

more happy with that.

It sounds really exciting

to start your own business.

I get it.

But I want you just

to think about the

factors around.

Are you prepared to

do those things that

we've talked about?

It is not suited

to everyone.

In fact, I've had many a

clarity call when they have

been in consulting roles,

normally consulting gigs.

And so I'm thinking

about going out on my

own and I say to them,

are you prepared to do

business development?

And they're like, Oh

no, I'll get someone

else to do that.

Who else will you

get to do that?

I'm super curious.

Who else will you

get to do that?

Don't do that.

You don't give

away your power.

You don't give away your

business development.

If you want to start

your own business,

go for it, but just

go in eyes wide open.

What do you think?

What have I left out?

Have I left anything out?

And by the way, if

you're listening to

this and you're leveling

up your business,

same thing applies.

It's just leveling

up, right?

Anyway, I hope you've

enjoyed this one.

This one's been a fun

one because they've been

a bit heavy up until now

over the last little while

because we've been dealing

with some really serious

situations and I don't

want to make light of it,

but this one is a fun one.

And if you're thinking

about starting a business

and you're already

in an organization,

come chat to me.

Let's have a clarity

call and let's see if

you would like to do your

business development.

Take it easy.