As A Solo Business Owner, Are You Spending Energy On Things That Motivate You?
It can be difficult to continuously feel motivated as a one-woman or one-man business owner, especially when your time and focus is limited.
We can feel like we have lots of things that can distract us from what actually matters to us in our business. It can easily feel overwhelming trying to get so many things done as a solo business owner.
In today’s video, I share four powerful ways I have stayed motivated personally in order to bring more creativity, joy, and excitement to grow my business and thrive, my way.
Tip #1: Focus On Simplicity and Essentials
Learning how to focus and stay focused on the right things is a skillset Solopreneurs need to have. You have limited time and energy, and taking the time to understand how to simplify your efforts to your success is necessary for you to sustain your business.
I want you to ask yourself this question today: What nonessential activities are you spending time and energy on right now?
Are these activities truly getting you closer to the goals you’ve set out for in your business? How are you measuring your results? Are those things important for your goals or just ‘looks good’ or you feel obligated to do?
What activities actually give you traction, like better quality leads or conversion to customers?
We’ve all heard about the 80/20 approach, which focuses on the 20 percent of your activities that are producing 80 percent of your results.
As a coach and strategist, I know that some of my most essential activities that create traction are:
1. Educating and Teaching What I Know: I focus on things like webinars, videos, and teaching my frameworks as a podcast guest.
2. Building and Maintaining Relationships: My services are aimed at people who prefer intimacy and personalization, so my marketing needs to reflect this energy. Instead of wasting time fussing around with technical funnels or ads, I do more human-based activities to ask for referrals, check-in on my clients, and look for favourable partnerships to support other business owners so they can support mine.
Tip #2: Do Less Better
Doing more doesn’t mean you achieve more. Doing less but better doesn’t mean you sacrifice quality, but to focus your energy on quality things that move the needle for your business priorities.
It’s easy to get stuck in vanity metrics, like how many email subscribers you have, or how many likes your last Instagram post received.
The better high quality things to focus on are writing consistent emails to your subscribers and having better conversations with them. Improving how you articulate your concepts and giving value to them as a longer-term approach to converting interests to buyers.
If you actually focused on doing some of the these things better (and less focused on quantity-metrics), you’ll discover that one key focus done consistently will bring you much more successful results.
Another example of quality activities are making more meaningful connections with people rather than trying to gain more numbers on your subscriber list. If you’re someone who is great at live conversations where people actually get to know you and your work and resonate with it deeply, focus on having more one-to-one human phone calls!
You’re going to be further ahead in doing this activity and actually getting customers rather than just simply having more people subscribed to your social platforms or email list.
In a 2-Hour Intensive session, you’ll walk away with clarity and confidence on how to leverage your best skills to stand out and position your work in a niche that people will value and pay for.
Tip #3: Link Back To Your WHY
When I feel like I have a whole lotta stuff on my plate and I’m feeling disconnected with my business, I always ask this question of “Why am I doing what I’m doing?” to align myself back to what I really want to achieve in my business.
My purpose was always to help people “Start meaningful businesses to build the life they want.”
This grounding “why” is because it excites me to see people having autonomy over how they want to earn a living and design a way of working that aligns with their lifestyle choices.
So, whenever I get distracted by comparing myself to other businesses who are offering different things and feeling like I have to do the same, I come back to questioning myself on whether this is aligned with my real core purpose to do what I do.
To keep motivated to continue growing your business, YOU need to receive something from it too. Yes, we want to serve and create an impact for others, but how does your business need to fulfill your needs too?
The ‘Why’ needs to be clear on why you do what you do, and also how it fulfills you personally. Everything that I decide to create space and time for needs to link back to that that.
If it doesn’t link back helping me achieve my business purpose and ensure I feel inspired and fulfilled by my own work, it’s may not worth doing.
Tip #4: Stretch Your Creative Muscles
To ensure we continue to feel interested and inspired in our business, we need to use more of our creativity often to not stay stagnant.
If you’ve been marketing, producing, and creating in a certain way for some time, it’s a great idea to challenge yourself to try creative ideas that can help you fall back in love with your business.
You may want to consider spending time challenging yourself on how you can develop new skills or enhance hidden talents not always directly associated with the service you offer.
Maybe there’s a podcast you want to start that may focus on conversations that may interest your audience but isn’t directly related to the topics you always talk about. Interestingly enough, this can sometimes be a great way to keep your audience’s attention on something else you’re both interested in, and as a result, they grow more interested in your services.
This year, I’ve been spending more time being a student again, by enrolling in courses like Non-Violent and Conscious Communication in Relationships (that really benefit my life with my partner, but also enhances my ability to coach others).
I’ve started more conversations as a podcast guest on Minimalism and Life as an Immigrant Child because I’ve felt the need to talk about it, even though it’s not directly related to my services.
All this helps me to bring more ‘newness’ to my business. How can you stretch your own creativity muscle to instigate more inspiration for yourself in your work?
Takeaways For How to Reframe Your Mistakes
- How to look for answers in your challenges to grow and develop as a human
- Why you shouldn’t throw in the towel when you make a mistake and what to do instead
- Why failure builds the resilience and persistence you require to accomplish amazing things
- The gifts that our mistakes and failures give to us that you may have failed to see
- How to focus your attention on new resources and means to achieve your goals when you ‘fail’
