How to ride the business owner rollercoaster

Starting up a business is not just practically a hard endeavor but one that will test you personally. I’ve been reflecting on what habits I’ve built to enable me to ride the emotional rollercoaster of being a business owner and wanted to share three that have been life-changing to myself and my business.

Expect an emotional journey

When I started up The Good Business Club, I had already had experience working in three startups as employee number one (the closest you can get to work with the founder) and had supported over 60 entrepreneurs on their own journeys through an accelerator programme that I ran, so I felt like I was well prepared for the journey ahead.

And although I knew where to focus my attention and what not to worry about, I wasn’t prepared for just how emotional the experience was going to be.

When I set up the Club I discovered that I could lean on my strengths and my passions to move me forward in leaps and bounds, but also that my insecurities and areas of low experience were going to be hard to avoid.

What that left me with was the rollercoaster experience of emotions from feeling excited in one moment to questioning why I even thought setting up a business was a good idea, and all in the space of a month, week, or even a day.

Three years in and the rollercoaster still exists but the ups and downs aren’t as exaggerated as they were in the first two years. On reflection, I have built up three habits that have allowed me to feel grounded and confident even if I’m not always feeling it, which I want to share with you.

Make sure you’re clear on your mission

If you haven’t already captured your 10-year vision or started to articulate your “why”, this is a great place to start. I’ve found that when I have been at points where I’ve really questioned the business offering or if I was the right person for the job (and there have been many), remembering what my mission was and whom I was trying to serve helped me dig a bit deeper and take the next step.

Get into action: If you’re starting a good business, capture your vision, mission, and ‘why’ statement so you can reach for this when times are tough. It might give you the extra boost you need to keep on the good work.

2. Fill those knowledge gaps ASAP

When I first started the business I put a lot of pressure on myself to do a good job in all areas of the business. I don’t know if it was because I’d been supporting other business owners for a while, or if it’s just a common feeling first-time entrepreneurs have, but I felt I couldn’t let anyone know that I didn’t always know what I was doing.

Looking back, that time seems wasted now. I soon realised that no one can be a master in all areas of their business and even better - no one was expecting you to be. That realisation changed my attitude in asking for help and therefore what I was able to do to get the business going.

Get into action: If you aren’t confident in your numbers, don’t know how to go about marketing your business, or wish you knew how to sell without feeling dread, find people who are skilled in those areas and ask them to either skill you up or help you with that part of the business. You’ll quickly realise there’s a whole world of people who want to contribute to you and your business if you just let them.

3. Know what telltale signs to look out for

When it comes to running a business, what will get in your way will be unique to you. We have different ways of dealing with uncertainty and stress and we have different ways we learn and develop. So what works for one person may not work for you, and that’s for you to discover.

I’ve got clear on where my knowledge gaps are, even written them out, and built a board of advisors around me that I look up to in those areas. The habit I then had to build was reaching out and asking for support when I needed it.

Get into action: Now that I’ve built the habit when I feel stumbled or overwhelmed by something in the business, I stop and think “which of my advisors can help” and I reach out to them to set up a call to soundboard the challenge and my ideas. This has saved me weeks of stress and anxiety, and helped me deal with challenges quicker than I was at the start of my journey. I highly recommend you do the same.

I hope this blog has given you comfort that you are not alone in what you’re experiencing with getting your business off the ground and also something you can manage so it’s not working against you.

Make sure you’re clear why you’ve set out on this adventure and be honest with what you’re good at and what you could use some support with. Then go out and find the people who can contribute to you, so you can get out of your own way of creating that awesome thing that this world needs.