After the initial glow of entrepreneurship has dimmed, reality sets in. Yes, you are able to spend your days the way you want, building your business, doing what you love, BUT you also have to MANAGE your business. As I look back on my progression from fledgling entrepreneur to successful  entrepreneur, I’ve noted a number of lessons I’ve learned about investing in my business that I now share with the clients I work with who are just launching a business.
Invest in your business! I know it’s hard to justify spending money , especially at the early stages. But think. You’ve started your business to DO WHAT YOU LOVE. That likely doesn’t include accounting, marketing, and scheduling meetings. Those are time suckers, especially if they are not your forte. Even as a former accountant, I found it wise to hire my accounting out.

1. Hire an accountant, especially for taxes. If you simply hire someone to file your taxes, you’ll save money in the end. An accountant is likely to be less expensive than penalties and interest you’ll pay from filing incorrect taxes.
2. Subscribe to an online calendar tool. I love Calendly.com. I save time and my clients can schedule and reschedule as needed. You can even set it up to collect fees at the time of booking! These cost less than $20 month and save you HOURS of emails and phone calls arranging your schedule.
3. Hire a coach. You need someone to bounce ideas off of. No, your husband, best friend or others close to you are not the best for this role. You need someone objective who will be straight with you without an agenda at hand. Have a different coach for different phases of your business. I help people put together their business plan, conceptualize things and get started. Then there are coaches to help you learn to be a CEO, and some to help with marketing, etc.
4. Take time off! This is a hard one. I used to work 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day on my business, spending all my time giving to my clients and my business….until I realized the rest of my life was suffering. Limiting my work to weekdays and taking evenings off, restored my sanity and my relationships. I lost my Mom shortly after making this commitment and am so grateful that I made time to spend with her. Life is short! It’s not all about the business.
5. Find a way to work outside of your home. Isolation is one of the biggest negatives of being an entrepreneur. I invested in a co-working office that provides not only a wonderful ambiance for my client meetings, but people who have become, in a sense, coworkers who I share those colleague-type moments with. Get involved in professional organizations that support your line of work. There are plenty out there. Even check out MeetUp. There are many groups for what you do.

 
Those are my top 5. What are yours?

It’s one of those periods in my life. You know, the ones where everything just seems too much. Drive my business forward. Be social. Write my blog. Cook nice dinners. Reach out to people I care about. Yes, all of it pretty much seems like too much these days. I have to admit that I have a lot going on. A business to run. A house that is on the market. An upcoming move to plan. Excruciating pain most days as I await surgery.  I know a nice relaxing vacation would go a long way toward fixing most of this, but it’s just not the right time to do that.
So, here I am. Struggling to find the energy each day to keep moving forward. It’s not easy, but I do have a few things that work for me. I know you have these days too, so thought I’d share them here.

1. I keep my eye on the prize. Yes, I know I want to sell my current home to buy my next one. Rather than focus on the effort to sell, I focus on the fun it will be to buy and set up a new home.
2. Living in bad knee is, well a pain. It’s with me all the time. It limits what I can do physically. For someone who is active and enjoys working out, waiting for a surgery to repair things feels like forever. Again, I’m choosing to focus on how wonderful it will be to have my knee restored. And how grateful I’ll be once that pain is gone and I know I don’t have to live with it. And, even more importantly, the knowledge that my affliction is easily cured and I can move on with my life. Compared to friends going through cancer treatment or worse, I count my blessings.
3. I remember that life is for living. As a friend reminded me today, focus on the fact that you are alive, breathing and able to make choices!
4. Even though most days, I’d like to just stay at home and read, I remember how much I love my work, the people I get to help and seeing them find new careers or new jobs. Yes! My work is important and helps people. Just two days ago, I learned that one client had landed a great new job, while another had secured a fascinating new position within their company! THAT is worth getting up and out of bed for!
5. We all have a choice each morning when we wake up. We can CHOOSE to be happy and have a positive outlook. We can CHOOSE to keep moving forward, even when we don’t really have the energy to.
6. And finally. If life permits. Take a nap! Nothing restores me more than a quick cat nap in the middle of the afternoon. Find what works for you and keep moving forward.

And BAM! Just like that, I have overcome my struggle. I’ve gotten through a day of client meetings, I’ve written my blog and I’m off to take that cap nap as a reward!