#160 5 Lessons Learned From 5 Years In Business
Today’s episode is very special for me, as we’ve just celebrated our 5 year business birthday! It's been a wild ride, but one of the absolute best things I've ever done.
As I’ve been reflecting on all that I’ve learned so far, I thought I would share the 5 key lessons I’ve learned with you, so you have the best chance at success in your own business
1. Who You Surround Yourself With Matters
We all hear this, and it can sound cliche - but I know firsthand how powerful surrounding yourself with the right people is. While it's crucial to create a support network of people who have a positive impact, it’s also important to find the power in letting go or moving on when things aren’t right. I talk about how changing seasons call for a different level of support, and the importance of allowing ourselves to move on from the wrong people - swiftly and guilt-free.
2. Know Your Numbers
I get how hard this one can be, but trust me - knowing your numbers is a game-changer. I talk about the difference between revenue and profitability, and how busy doesn’t mean profitable. Remember - getting comfortable with knowing the numbers can be the difference between surviving or thriving in business.
3. Be Authentic in Your Messaging
I don't know about you, but I find the noise on social media and all the messaging constantly coming at us to be exhausting. It took a lot of hard work for me to work out how to step back from that and tune into what was really authentic to me and my messaging. I explain how I learned to be anchored to my ‘why’ and how fundamental it was for me to show up consistently as myself. My advice to you? Pause, take a step back, think about your authentic self and messaging, and stick to that.
4. Embrace the Different Seasons in Business
For so long, I thought I needed to be consistent all day, every day, week in and week out. But the reality wasn't that. The reality was that at times, I needed to hustle and other times, I needed a break. It took me a while to learn that there are seasons in business and it's okay that sometimes we're hustling and working hard because that's the season the business is in, but there are seasons when we need to step back from that pace and have things a little more relaxed. It's more than okay to take our rest.
5. Find Your Niche
This one is big. And I know it is, because I've experienced the power of niching firsthand. And yes, the idea of niching down can be scary, because we think it means saying no to work or shrinking our pie.
However, speaking from my own experience, the opposite is true. When we hone in and focus on who we really want to serve, we might be saying no to people who aren't aligned with us, but will have many more people finding us who are.
While there have been good times and bad, I’ve loved every minute of growing my business. I hope you take the lessons I share here as a guide to achieving authenticity and success on your own business journey.
P.s. I reveal a little something special at the end of the episode around a new offering, so make sure you tune in to find out more!
Full Transcript:
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[00:00:00]
Tracey: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Rise Up in Business podcast. I'm really happy to be bringing you this episode today. It's a very special episode for me. We've just celebrated our five year business birthday, and I can't believe that five years has passed since starting this business, It's been a ride, it's been a wild ride, but gosh, it's been one of the absolute best things I've ever done.
And I can honestly say hand on heart that there hasn't been a moment where I've regretted starting this business or embarking on this business journey. So it's very special for me. And there's a couple of things I want to share with you. So there's something very special I want to [00:01:00] announce at the end of this episode, but first of all, I want to share some reflections I've had, and I want to share with you five lessons I've learned from my five years in business. And the reason I want to share that is because it's that time of year where I'm recording this just before Easter. Easter is a time of year that I actually love, not because I'm religious. I'm not. Those who know me know I'm a spiritual person.
I'm not necessarily a religious person, but what I do find particularly enjoyable about the Easter period is that it's a really lovely time to pause and reflect. And I do that every year. So in preparation for that time of year, this year, in conjunction with my five years in business, it's been really lovely just to sit and pause and reflect on the journey and to think about what it is I wanted to share with you.
In the context of my top five lessons, there's been a lot of lessons. Oh my gosh, there's been a lot [00:02:00] of lessons, but I want to share with you the five most powerful lessons that I've learned along the way. And then, as I said, I want to share something special with you at the end of the episode. So stay tuned for that.
So let's dive in. The first lesson I want to share is Who you surround yourself with in business really matters. We all hear this. I feel like it's a cliche, sometimes. It's really bandied around a lot, but it's really powerful because it's really, really true. And this extends to not only your clients, so who you're surrounding yourself with in business being your clients, because we have to work with the right clients.
Right. But it extends to your business besties and your community and your advisors. So whether that's your lawyer, your accountant, your mentor, your consultants, whoever it might be, they matter [00:03:00] the people you surrounding yourself with matter across the board. And it's even though your friends, your business friends, like we've all got them and people we connect with on social media and people we follow and people we look up to and aspire to it all matters.
The biggest lesson I've learned is the power. of letting go or moving on when things aren't right, because we're business owners, we're human, we grow, we evolve, our needs change, our seasons or stages in business change. And that calls for a different level of support. So whether you're talking about your external advisors, and that for me has been a really big one, a big one for me is accepting gracefully.
That our needs for external advisors throughout our business journey will change and that's okay. So moving on from your accountant or moving on from your business consultant or [00:04:00] whoever it might be is a natural part of growth and it's okay. From the people I talk to and the business owners I support and my own journey, I've learned that there's so much guilt attached to the fact that we're growing and evolving as business owners, and we see it as a negative and a real hurdle or barrier when we need to move on from people.
So what I want to say is, Yes, who we surround ourself with in business matters. And that means that you need to allow yourself to move on guilt free and do it swiftly. There's no point sitting on it for a very long time. We've all got stories like that. So if we're thinking external advisors, we're thinking friends in business, it matters. Your team, a part of the people you're surrounding yourself with, and that matters too. So you need the right team. Employees or contractors, however you engage support in your business, they need to be the right people because It [00:05:00] matters every day when you're coming into the business or you're logging onto the computer, you've got to have your VA session.
You've got to talk to your employees. If you've got that sinking stomach feeling or you're dreading it, or you're finding that it's really draining, might be time to think about whether they're the right people. Because these are some of the most powerful steps that I've made in my business when we move on from the wrong people.
And certainly these are some of the most powerful steps I've witnessed clients of mine take when they're moving on from the wrong people. So it's a really wide net. It matters. The people you're surrounding yourself with every day in your business matters. Take a look at it. Don't feel guilty and don't feel weighed down because you're growing and evolving and your needs are changing. So that's the first really powerful lesson that I've learned in business that I really wanted to share with you in this episode. The next one, again, it sounds cliche. We hear it all the time, but it's the power of knowing your numbers can be a game changer.
[00:06:00] When I started my business, I'd come from a partnership previously where my business partner was focused only on the money. It was all about the money. And it repelled me so much that I resented that focus on money. And I did not want to focus on money when I started this business. I knew I wanted to make money.
I needed to make money in order for the business to be able to be profitable and for the business to survive, but I didn't want to focus on it. So I didn't, I deliberately shied away from looking at the numbers. I knew it was doing well. I was able to draw a salary really early on in my business and I was able to do the things I wanted to, but I didn't focus on the numbers because of my money stories.
And because it really triggered me, because of my experience in that previous partnership. Fast forward though, when I've had some loving bitch slaps over the years from people who I've worked with and one particular business coach who really opened my eyes to the power [00:07:00] of knowing your numbers. And so once I got over that and let go of those stories around What that partnership stood for and what it meant and that that wasn't my story and that that wasn't what I was doing in this business.
Once I got over that and realized that there is a different way of focusing on numbers without being all about the money in a really negative way, I really started to get in and hone in and learn the difference between the revenue and the profitability and how it mattered, what growth meant, how busy didn't mean profitable, cashflow projections, understanding what it meant to get visibility over my numbers in my business and projecting it moving forward.
Oh my gosh, it has been a game changer. It's not just been a game changer for me in my business, but I've seen it with my clients that getting comfortable with knowing the numbers can be the difference between surviving or thriving in business. And [00:08:00] again, that feels really cliche, but it's not cliche.
It's so true. I've had clients come to me and say to me, I'm really busy. Business is doing great. Oh no, I don't look at the numbers. I don't know if it's profitable, but we're so busy and we're busier than we were last year. So it must all be good. But when I encourage them to sit down and look at their numbers and I connect them with an accountant who suits them, very happy to make those introductions, they then realize, and they come back to me and go, Oh my gosh, Tracey, we were actually losing money because we had too many people on the team and whilst we were really busy, our expenses were greater than what we were making. So now I've made some changes and guess what? I'm able to increase my salary or I'm able to go on a holiday or I can take time off.
We've all heard the stories, but what I want to say is for me personally, the power of knowing my numbers has been an absolute game changer. And I cannot believe that I started my business with such resistance to focusing on the money. Money is not a dirty word. [00:09:00] We're all here to make money. There's a difference between being driven by money and having money make your decisions and having money be a beautiful by product of the services you provide to your clients.
There's a difference. So once we appreciate that distinction and we can decide where we sit, the power of knowing our numbers can be the next up level in business. That was a really big one for me, massive. The third lesson that I want to share with you from my five years in business is if you be authentic in your messaging, your beautifully aligned clients will come. My gosh, I don't know about you, but I find the noise on all the social media platforms and all the messaging coming at you all the time to be exhausting. And for a couple of years there early on in my business journey, I felt it really overwhelming that every time I opened my social media platform, there was a new message or a new tool or someone telling me something that I wasn't doing properly. And I needed to do this and I needed to do that. And I needed to [00:10:00] do this with the algorithm and I need to be doing all the things. And it was just too much.
And it took a lot of hard work for me to work out how to step back from that and block out that noise and to tune into what was really authentic to me and my messaging and to learn how to be anchored to my why in business. And that was really fundamental for me because it meant that I was able to use being anchored to my why in business.
I was always really clear on that. I was able to use that when making decisions on what to engage with and what not to engage with in business. And what I learned was, if I anchored to my why and I was really authentic in my messaging and I didn't get caught up with all the dancing reels and all the trending music and all the other themes that you were supposed to be doing.
I'm very proud to say I've never danced on a reel in my life and don't intend to change that ever because that's not me. It is not me and that wouldn't be [00:11:00] authentic. But I learned that being authentic in my messaging would mean it would connect with the right people and the right clients would find their way to me.
It's been tough. It's been tough to sift through all the things. It's been tough to block out what's not right, but again, surrounding myself with the right people was exactly what I needed to learn how to block out the noise and how to focus on my authentic messaging and have faith and trust that the right clients would come.
And they absolutely did. And they absolutely do. I'm very clear now on my messaging. I'm very confident in saying no. And I'm very confident in ignoring trends that aren't aligned for me on social media and in my messaging. So there is consistency in what I do. If you've been following along for a while, you listen to this podcast regularly.
If you follow me on social media, you'll see the real me because I spent [00:12:00] time working out how to block out the noise. And how to not engage in what's not authentic for me. So that's a big one. And I know from clients that I work with that this is a common struggle for so many business owners because there's always so much going on. So what I'd like to say to you, pause, take a step back, think about your authentic self, your authentic messaging, and stick to that.
The fourth lesson that I want to share with you is that there are different seasons in business And that's okay. For so long, I thought I needed to be consistent all day, every day, week in and week out. But the reality wasn't that. The reality was that at times I needed to hustle.
At times I needed to work a lot harder, but at times I was exhausted and I needed a break and I needed to step back and I needed to rest. And I felt really guilty about those times. I felt really guilty when I couldn't keep up with a really fast pace [00:13:00] and it took me a while to learn that there are seasons in business and it's okay that sometimes we're hustling and working hard because that's what we choose to do because that's the season the business is in when we're launching something or when we're releasing a new offering or where even when we're starting business there is a time for the hustle and the grind and for working really really hard but there are seasons when we need to step back from that pace.
And have things a little more relaxed. Take our rest, glide through periods in business where we're magnetizing those beautiful clients. We're not launching or releasing something new. We're not working on something bright and shiny that needs to be out in the world immediately. But where we're just focusing on rinse and repeat consistency, allowing those beautiful processes and systems that we've built to do their thing so that we can show up in our business in a rested way, meeting us where we're at at the [00:14:00] time.
So for a long time, I thought I needed to hustle and grind really hard all the time, but I've learned along my journey that rest is a responsibility, not a reward. And we have a responsibility not only to ourselves, but to our business to take those periods of rest when we need them and to slow down, slow down.
My focus for the rest of this year is on slowing down and it's not coming easy. I've certainly learned the benefit of rest, but for me in my business, it's very up and down in terms of really intense work periods and then slowing it down. Really intense work periods. And slowing it down sometimes that's because that's what my clients need.
But other times it's because I get an idea in my head and I want to focus on something and that's what's required. But generally speaking, I'm focusing on slowing down and oh my gosh, that is so powerful because what I find every single time that I do [00:15:00] that is more and more of my aligned clients reaching out when I'm in that mindset of slowing down. So the seasons are really powerful. Seasons of life, seasons of business. So when I discovered that there actually really are seasons to business and that we're not meant to be going hard all the time, it was an eye opener for me because it gave me permission. It felt like anyway, it gave me permission to step back, take the rest, slow down, recalibrate and go again. And what that meant was that I was able to let go of the guilt. And that was a big one because I carried a lot of guilt for not working hard all the time. So there are seasons in business. That's okay. It's supposed to be like that. I wish someone had told me that at the very beginning of my business journey, but I've learned it and now I'm sharing it with you.
And the very last lesson I want to share today from my five years in business is that if you want to grow, You need to [00:16:00] niche. Oh, this one is big. And I know this is big because so many of my clients share this with me. And it is scary because when we think of niching, so many of us automatically think we're saying no to work, we're shrinking our pie and our business may not survive.
We may not get any more clients because we're niching and saying no, when in fact, The opposite is true. Tried and tested speaking from my own experience, the opposite is true. So when we niche and we're honing in and focusing on this is who I really want to serve. All of a sudden, yes, we might be saying no to people who aren't aligned with that focus and that niche, but so many more people are finding us.
And every single business owner that I speak to shares the exact same story with me if they've niched. So I have business friends who [00:17:00] don't niche. They want to be all things to all people. And it feels very busy and sometimes even scattered. And the challenges that they have are very different to the challenges of my business friends and my clients who have niched.
They've niched into a specialty, This is what sets my soul on fire. This is who I know I can really help in a really impactful way. This is my focus. And as soon as that focus sharpens, my gosh, does that business flourish. I do not have any examples that I can draw on where somebody has niched and failed.
I'm sure there are some, there's an exception to every rule and I totally accept that, but I don't have any examples to draw on. And that's huge because I work with hundreds of business owners. The power of niching, that's the takeaway from the fifth lesson. If you are in business and you are thinking that you are getting ready to scale or you're getting ready to [00:18:00] grow, or you just know that your time to up level is coming.
I encourage you to learn from my experience and think about whether or not it's time for you to niche or to niche further in your offerings. For me, it took me a long time. I had a lot of resistance. I had a lot of scarcity mindset around it, but I was I ultimately, steady, steady, slowly, slowly, it wasn't an extreme sport exercise.
It wasn't one day all in bang and I'm culling half of my clients. It wasn't that. It was with the right support. It was with the right focus and the right timing to really narrow my service offerings and niche to who I best serve and who I best serve are coaches, creatives, and consultants. And I best serve them in a way to set them up for that next up level and to set them up for long term sustainable success.
And I'm really clear on that now, but I wasn't five years ago.
They are my top [00:19:00] five lessons from my five years in business. So we've talked about who you surround yourself with in business really matters. Transcribed The power of knowing your numbers can be a game changer. Being authentic in your messaging and blocking out the noise allows the right aligned clients to find you.
There are seasons in business and that's okay. And if you want to grow, you need to niche. Thank you for joining me for this episode. I've loved sharing these lessons with you, and I've been really excited to record this because as I say, I really enjoy this time of year and reflecting, and it's extra special this year because we've celebrated our five year business birthday.
What I want to share with you now, before we end this episode, is that I've just released my new masterclass series, which is the ultimate guide for coaches, creatives, and consultants in business. I've released three masterclasses. They're available on my website and I've had [00:20:00] such joy in recording these for you. I've reflected on my five years in business and I reflected on the areas that people reach out to me the most for help and I've recorded three masterclasses on those areas. The first is the guide to your business legals for coaches, creatives, and consultants, so you can work out what you need and why. The second masterclass is your guide on risk mitigation and reduced risk, because let's be honest, your business is far too important not to be protected and risk mitigation is so vital for all of us.
And the third is the guide to copyright and trademarks, so you can know what's protected and what's not and how to go about taking steps if you need to. So I've released those now. They're available on the website. The links are in the show notes, and this has been a soul-led project of mine.
Something that I've been so passionate about releasing for you because I know from [00:21:00] experience that if other people are asking me these questions, you probably have these questions too, so you can now access these masterclasses via the website. And I know that they share real value and I know the impact this information and this knowledge can have for you on your business journey.
I would love it if you jumped over and checked them out. Let me know what you think. I love receiving your feedback as always. And if you have friends in business that you think would benefit from the masterclasses, please feel free to share because that's how together we have real impact.
Thanks for joining me. Catch you next week.
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