5 Lessons Learnt in Business Part One

This is Part One of a special two part article. Part Two published on Thursday 22^nd November.

It was after the birth of our second child that I realised that corporate life was no longer doing it for me.  I was bored, needed a new challenge and with our eldest due to start school within the next 2 years, I felt it was important to create a career that could fit around family life.

I wanted to pick up our children at the end of school. I didn't want to have the headache and stress of organising expensive child care in the holidays.

After 18 months of a grumpy "I don't know what to do" period, I stumbled in to a life coaching website.  Signing up for a life coach accreditation programme was like the light going on.  I felt as if I was creating a toolkit to help me build a business around.

In September 2004, my daughter started school and I became self-employed after giving notice to my 11 year career with my company.  My plan was to create a traditional life coach practice, selling myself on a 1-2-1 basis and offering myself as a coach for women wishing to return to work after maternity leave.

A tough business to start up from scratch as I soon begun to realise! And bit by bit I begun to learn some pretty powerful lessons.

Lesson One - The power of attraction

After the first 5 months I felt it wasn't going as well as it should.  Clients where finishing with me (because they had achieved their goals but it sure didn't feel like that at the time!) and I couldn't find any new clients to work with.  The more stressed I got that I wasn't making any money, the less money I seemed to make. I was in a downward spiral.

I started to work with a coach myself and very quickly I discovered that a change of mental attitude and a touch of self-belief made a big difference to my results.  Things started to happen in a way that was infectious. I stopped attracting the no-show clients and I started to attract the women I realised I enjoyed working with - women starting up a new business.

I have continued to test this theory of attraction over the last few years.  Whenever I have felt tired or just want to slump in front of the TV and thought to myself "oh, no I have so-and-so tonight for her coaching session" surprise, surprise, they would cancel or just not be there when I called.  The power of attraction has become a powerful tool and I now know to only think in terms of what I want to attract.

Lesson Two - The power of networking

Networking was always part of the "big plan" but I didn't realise how just powerfully it worked until about month 8 or 9.  Someone once told me that the definition of successful networking was being talked about when you weren't in the room.

Well after 8 months of giving, learning and not expecting anything back in return, I realised what this person meant.  Networking is quite an amazing force when you put the time and energy in to build relationships and connect with people.

I have learnt to build relationships rather than sell.  I have learnt that the 6 degrees of separation is probably true!

Lesson Three - The power of creating a vision, defining clear goals and taking action

I did kinda know this already from my corporate life and through my life coaching.  I have always been an action-orientated person and was known by my friends from school for having a 5 year life plan in my 20's.  But it wasn't until I started reviewing my first year in business and started to plan for the next one, that I realised how much faster you can go when you totally clear on where it is you are going.

After 12 months of stumbling through and embracing what opportunities came my way, I realised that CanDoCanBe was going to be a business support network for women.  I realised I wanted to created an informative, encouraging and empowering environment for women to learn, share and connect with others. 

Having clearly defined goals and breaking down the milestones in to small, achievable "baby steps", I started taking big, giant sized leaps.

To be continued on Thursday 22nd November.

What lessons have you learnt?  Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Comments

[Kirsten Gronning]

After 15 months of breaking a new market with divorce coaching I can safely say that to follow my gut instinct (with a dose of stubborness thrown in!) when I felt like giving up has been my number one lesson. To have given up at an earlier stage would have been the easier option, but my instinct that I could provide this much needed service prevailed -and happily - conquered!

What else ? - Get someone else to do those things I really don't want to do and I'm no good at - things like auto-responders and book-keeping and leaflet design - so that I can focus on my key services (and from early this month - now products!)

And last but by no means least - get inspired by those people who have done some of what I want to do and are very successful at it - cheers Karen!

[Wendy Shand]

More fab words Karen! All of what you say is absolutely true. I really believe that it is so important to figure out what it is that we are after, the primary goal, the vision whatever you want to call it. Without that we sway from one side to another without any clear direction. Hence today is a planning day!! On not in!
Warm regards
Wendy Tots to France, soon to be Italy too!

[Desty]

I agree with your point on lession 3, about having a goal, plan, or direction. Too many people get into business looking to make money; sure that's what business is about in the end, but if you don't focus on a way to help others with your service or products, you won't get very far. I wrote an article about planning out your business..
http://www.destyonline.com/plan-your-trip-now-for-your-business/
Looking back now, I wish I had a better title for it, but I stand by the article :)