Your business birthday – or the anniversary of when you started your business – is an essential date in your calendar, and needs to be celebrated every year.
Not only does it allow you to look back on your hard work, it also gives you a great marketing message for your customers. Celebrate them, run an offer, and share your progress!
If you’re a maker, solopreneur, or creative business founder, there’s a possibility that you’ve been reviewing your business and considering your goals for the year.
Chances are, you feel like there are a lot of possibilities, but you maybe haven’t really clarified your vision just yet.
I get it. There are lots of moving parts to business (and life), and 2021 isn’t exactly the most straightforward of times to be living in.
And as humans, we have this amazing ability for our monkey minds to be noisy chatter about all kinds of things that don’t really matter.
So let’s quieten down that voice and cut to the heart of things.
I have a metaphor (full disclosure: I love a metaphor!) that may just help you to see things differently…
Imagine this year, or perhaps this phase, is a train journey. (Remember them?!)
You’ve got a ticket, you’ve found your seat, you’re ready to enjoy the ride.
Well, maybe you’re ready to enjoy it. Let’s just check in with that, shall we?
Are you headed to a destination you’ve been to before? Is this year looking pretty much like the last? Or are you headed somewhere new?
You can go to the same destination: reach more or less the same financial position, help the same customers, do the same things. For some of my clients, that’s actually really brilliant. For them, I invite them to buy a first class ticket, or maybe take the fast train with fewer stops. (Or even take the slow train and pause along the way…)
If that’s you, perhaps you can imagine how to upgrade your journey this year. Pack better snacks? First class seat? A welcome party when you get there?
The thing about trains is that there are a lot of them. You could go somewhere nearby, or you could board a train to another country and get halfway around the world.
Where will your ticket take you this year?
Is it close to where you’ve been before, or somewhere new?
Are you taking a stopping train through somewhere beautiful? Or a fast train to somewhere vibrant and exciting?
Where would you like to end up? And how can you make the journey smooth, enjoyable, and totally right for you?
We get caught up in the destination a lot – and that’s important. Especially when you have business goals that feed into the quality of your life.
But we spend a lot of time on metaphorical trains, moving from one place to another.
So my invitation for you today is to consider how you could make your journey work better for you.
You don’t have to take the same old train, sit in the same old seat, feel the same old weariness. We’re not commuters, worn in by habit and trying to get everything done as quickly as possible.
Instead, see the full possibility of what’s available to you. Trains headed in all kinds of directions. A ticket to platform 9 3/4. Trains through beautiful countryside with stunning views. Journeys that are just as much fun as the destination.
I can’t wait to hear if this helps you think differently about your business and plans for the year ahead! I’d love to know more about the train you’re on.
And if you enjoyed this metaphor, you might also like this one about cake, this one about cooking, and this one about movies.
There are so many courses, coaches, and programs out there, and a lot of them offer incredible value, wisdom, and resources… For the people that truly need them.
So how do you decide whether a course is right for you, right now?
I hope that you’ve already figured out the things holding you back. There are plenty of ways people can tell you about a problem you didn’t even know about, and then sell you the solution. Sometimes that’s helpful. Sometimes it’s not a problem you need to fix RIGHT NOW.
I see a lot of people in the industry selling education about Facebook ads. But if you don’t have the budget, and don’t know what you’re trying to achieve or the wider strategy to support it, that course isn’t for you RIGHT NOW.
But you’ve probably identified a few things that you need to work on or need help with, and you can prioritise them first.
So if a course or coach is solving a problem you’ve already identified, go ahead and find out more! If you didn’t know about this problem, check in with yourself: is it really a priority for you right now?
There are two factors to affordability.
The first is can you afford to pay for it right now? If you have the literal cash in your bank account at this very moment, great! Keep finding out more. If you don’t, and would consider putting this on a personal or business credit card, you need to be really, really confident that you’re going to get a return on your investment, and in the relatively short-term.
Because that’s part two: the ROI. I’m all for investing in your personal, professional, and business development. This is essential for growth. And sometimes gaining confidence and a positive feeling is worth the investment without any numbers on it, but let’s also give our brains the opportunity to do some maths.
To cover the cost of this course, coach, or program, what level of revenue would you need to bring in? For example, The Better Business Collective is £250 when you pay upfront. If you’re a product-based business (the core business type for The Collective) and you have a 25% profit margin on your products (the rate I recommend as a minimum), you need to make £1,000 in sales to cover the cost of the program.
Since The Better Business Collective is four months long, you’d need to make £1,000 over the course of four months to break even on the investment.
So when you look at the program and the resources offered, are they tools that will help you to make MORE THAN £1,000 on top of your normal turnover in that time frame? (I’m fairly confident that the email templates, marketing support, business review, and live workshops will bring in a lot more than that, just for the record…)
You can use this same calculation for any course, coach, or program.
It’s really easy to purchase a course and figure out when you’ll actually do it later. Read the sales page carefully. Does it have a clear estimate of how much time you’ll need to actually make use of the resources? If not, red flag! And if so, is that manageable for you?
For example, if you sign up for The Better Business Collective, I recommend having about an hour to 90 minutes a week available to work on the program materials and make the most of the community. That includes these monthly activities:
You might decide to take extra time to plan a photoshoot to support your marketing content, for example, or dive deeper into your Game-Changing Success Ritual preparation and analysis. But to really get the benefits of the resources, 60-90 minutes a week is ideal. (And yes, you can spend less time on it in December!)
How many of us have signed up for a self-paced course and then never completed it? HAND UP. Me, too. It’s so easy to do, right?
And have you ever bought a course that’s 100% PDF reading, when you’re an audio or kinaesthetic learner? Chances are, you didn’t get as much out of that one.
If you get the most out of things that are live, look for resources with live workshops – great if you struggle with accountability or prioritising the work.
If you like to hear things said aloud rather than reading, look for courses and programs where there’s a video or audio version.
If you’re really visual, you’re going to work best with videos, well-designed PDFs and clear overviews.
If, like me, you’re a kinaesthetic learning (you learn by doing), look for resources that have checklists, step-by-step structures, and clear instructions.
I am OBSESSED with figuring out as much about ourselves as possible, so that we can make smart decisions. Whatever you know works for you, check in: does the course you’re considering have that?
(And yes, The Better Business Collective has self-paced options, live workshops, great PDFs, and clear step-by-steps. I’ve got you covered.)
I know it sounds silly, because of course we all want more success and a better life and to feel happier, but making real progress and committing to sustainable growth (whether material, mental, emotional or spiritual) takes energy. It takes commitment. You have to be really ready.
You have to be ready to commit to yourself through the course or program. No matter how well it’s written or delivered or coached, if you don’t yet believe that you deserve more success (and the course doesn’t support you in that), there’s a chance you’ll self-sabotage and drop off the course.
So yes, be ready to do the course, but be ready to do the inner work, too. (Even better, find a course or coach or program who helps you do BOTH at the same time…)
And even if all the previous questions were a yes, even if all your logic says it’s the right thing, step back for a moment and ask your gut, ask your heart – and even your soul – are you really ready for this exact route into your future?
Listen closely. Then decide.
PS I hope this helps you figure out if The Better Business Collective is right for you. I hope you’ll, at least, check it out before the doors close on Monday 14 September.
