Last week I went to the most amazing workshop led by Chris Spratling of Chalkhill Blue. It was all about the 6 steps to building a business. He went through those key steps and they all made complete sense, I was really excited about it all! I am going to make my millions I said to myself.
It was followed up by a great one to one. Chris was superbly patient with me, really digging deep into my enthusiasm, where I was with the business, how I wanted it to grow etc. What that did was make me think…… do I actually want to build a business at this point?
It’s not for the faint hearted setting up a business. During the seminar there were a few things that Chris talked about; 80% of those who run a business will close down within the first 5 years, of those that last 50% then go within the next 5. It’s fairly startling and let’s be honest depressing statistics. He pointed out that whilst people may be brilliant within their field, in what they do, they may well not be good at running a business, because they haven’t learnt those skills needed to make it a success. And, he also said was that if you’re working for yourself, with no other employees, really you’re doing a job and was that really what we wanted to do? Of course not was my thought! I want to build a business!
But the reality is, that this is a job. And, it’s a great job because I’m only accountable to myself, I don’t have to ask permission to do things, I have the freedom to do what I want, etc. And it’s exactly what I want at this point in my life.
I will have the chance to build this business beyond being a job when I’m ready and want to really focus on it. But at the moment, the reality is that I want to focus on my little one & on my husband, whilst bringing in some money to help pay my way. It doesn’t mean I can’t build the client base I have and increase the income I take, but it does mean I can relax a bit and enjoy my current journey.
So I’d like to say thank you to Chris, not just for an inspiring workshop, but also for inadvertently making me realise that this is my job, and actually I’m OK with that. In fact I’m excited, I can build my confidence with what I’m doing at the moment and then when I’m ready to go, I can make sure I have the skills in place to be able to run the business and not just be good at marketing.
If you want to be inspired like me – Chalkhill Blue are running the workshops over the next few months, you can find out more at https://chalkhillblue.org/events. Or just go to their website https://chalkhillblue.org to find out more about them. They are great!
