Business 101
I’m not sure that I am even qualified to write about this but recently I have been getting a lot of questions about what advice I would give for opening your own business, being your own boss, building your own brand, etc. Hopefully on some level I have a little insight here and that I have in fact begun to make a name for my businesses and most importantly my business practices. I cannot believe I have actually been my own boss for seven years, that feels a little surreal. Okay, rough start, this is already getting away from me, what was I talking about? Oh right . . . building a business. Business 101 if you will. Or at least my 101 . . .
Creating something that is authentic and true to you is absolutely by far the most important thing when starting any type of business at all. I see a lot of people miss the mark because of authenticity. If you are trying to duplicate or replicate someone else’s business I just do not believe there is long term success in that. If you are copying someone else’s work or ideas those ideas simply were not meant for you and therefore the success that is to come from them just simply cannot be yours. Recently I have struggled with feeling as though my own personal ideas have been hijacked to some degree and it has caused me to sit back and really look at what I am creating. And what I am creating, in my opinion, is pretty freaking dope. What that means to me is that the successes that are coming from the things I am doing, the products I am buying, the products I am creating, the brand I am building for the business, those are unequivocally mine. If someone else is trying to use them to create their own success, in the long run, it with not work. It simply was not theirs to begin with. So again, I repeat, authenticity is so important.
A big lesson I have learned, and am still learning, is to be less reactionary. Being calm, collected and taking time to think and digest information in business (and life in general), is such an important step to take. Running a business, brand, anything, can be beyond stressful and situations often arise that can have you feeling like you are ready to fly off the handle. Or at least for me I know that has been the case. I have made some poor decisions based off of initial reactions and that is something I am constantly working to improve upon. It is so important that we consider in business, and in life, what message we send with our reactions and interactions. It is something I am not perfect at, but I am working at, and it has absolutely been paying off in what I am getting back in return. By that I mean the type of attitude and effort that you put forth into the universe is absolutely what you get back in return. That might sound like I’ve lost my mind a bit but my goodness is it ever true!
If you are not being authentic in your business it shows and ultimately deters people from connecting to what you are trying to sell. How. you treat people matters. How you treat your customer matters. How you treat your competitors matters. How you treat your associates matters. It all matters. Being kind matters. So I guess what I am blabbering on and on about is that being in business takes guts and smarts and all of that but on a much grander scale it requires that you are a kind, authentic person with genuine intentions that connects with your customer or audience on more than just the base of selling them something. So whatever you are passionate about, chase it. Stop wishing for it and start making it happen. You’ve got this babe!
Be kind to one another always, oh, and a glass of wine after a tough day helps.
xo
P.S. These photos have nothing to do with anything but I took them while Chris was laughing at me from the window, and likely so were our neighbours, so I had to use them LOL.