Business Lessons I Learned From 2020
Let’s face it - 2020 was a bit of a bitch. But the good thing about a crummy year is that it is packed full of wisdom!
My life was no exception to the 2020 rule - I got hit hard in a few places, even though my business continued to thrive in many ways. That’s why I thought I’d share my top business lessons from the year.
8 Lessons I Learned As A Biz Owner During 2020
Success is all in your mind
This is one that I’ve spoken to a lot of practitioner friends and clients about. 2020’s curveballs threw a lot of people off balance.
Most people went one of two ways:
Assumed that it would mean their business would die off, so they simply shut their doors or at least dropped off the radar for a while
Figured out a way to serve & show up anyway
And funnily enough, most businesses experienced either a massive drop in clients or a boom that left them booked for weeks!
Now I do know that there are more factors to this than simply mindset. But your approach is where everything else stems from.
If you assume you’re going to struggle or fail, your mind will look for all of the ways that those experiences show up. But if you assume that you’re going to succeed and find clients who pay you well and value your expertise, your mind will search for evidence of that instead.
Thankfully, I spent more time as mindset #2 than #1. And sure enough, my business built to the point of my VIP services being booked up for most of 2021 already!
The right outsource makes all the difference
You know that thing that you hate doing in your biz? Or that thing that you don’t like but you DIYed it to save moolah? It’s time to hand it over.
After years of groaning over how clunky my Wordpress website was and how the copy was constantly out of date, I took action. I handballed the project over to Shonelle from Tech For Pracs.
2 weeks after I got everything to her, I had a shiny new Squarespace website that feels so much easier. Plus Squarespace is way simpler when it comes to edits, so I can DIY whenever I need to tweak!
Where is your time and/or energy draining? What are you ashamed of on the backend of your biz? Hand that shiz over in 2021.
Even if you have to count your pennies for a little bit to afford it, it frees up your brainspace which = more clients.
You don’t know if something works for you unless you try it
It’s all well and good to guess what type of offer or service might suit you and your audience, or the business structure, or even how many hours you work! But you will never truly know unless you try it out first.
Can you start with a lower-risk option if it makes you more comfortable? Absolutely!
Start with a local 2-day retreat before you organise a 7-day Bali retreat. Put together a 7 day course before creating a massive 12 week course.
But until you know for sure that something is not for you - don’t write it off.
When you commit to uplevelling, it pays for itself
Another handy trick that I learned was that uplevelling any aspect of my biz brought me more enquiries, clients and money.
For example, I committed myself to Karlie McKeand’s money mindset mastermind for 2021. Shortly after I told her I was joining in, I had a client email me asking for a 12 blog package. Guess what? That amount covers my mastermind fee!
You might not feel comfortable with a 4-figure mastermind investment. But think about the little ways you can invest to test this out. Grab a set of branded social media templates, join a masterclass or start with a single session with someone.
The 5 people rule still applies online!
In case you didn’t know, I’m a Melbourne-based girl. And that means I spent an awful lot of time alone over the past 12 months - thanks, lockdown!
My ‘circle’ dropped down to my partner, my sister, my mother and my local barista. But I was still surrounded by people - online.
Remember the whole ‘You're the average of the five people spend the most time with’ thing? That’s not just the people you have brunch with every weekend. It’s the people you follow on social media, the practitioner friends you message on shitty days, and the groups you hang out in.
Thankfully, I have an amazing community of friends who are practitioners and/or supporters of fellow pracs. We’re all about growing, thriving and serving - so there were many days that they picked me up when I felt lost.
It’s ok not to be ok - even as a biz owner and practitioner
This has been a big one for a lot of us in 2020. We expect so much of ourselves, even when we cut other people slack and praise them for achieving what they do.
So if you were not ok in any sense this year - know that it’s ok. It doesn’t make you bad at business, or a bad practitioner, or a failure of a human being. If anything, it makes you more relatable.
Our dream clients want to know that we get them. When we are vulnerable, down to earth and go through tough times, it is easier for people to trust us.
Sure, you might not go to the point of jumping on a Facebook live and telling the world you’re not ok. But you can be brave and let clients know that you need to take care of yourself. Your true fans will stand by you and support you, just like mine did.
If you achieved what you did during this year, then your potential is unlimited!
This leads on from my experience above. In 2020, despite being at about 20-30% of my physical and mental capacity, I still earned more than 2019 - and with fewer hours of work.
So that made me question - what could I possibly achieve in a year where I’m closer to 70-80% capacity?
The answer is:
A multi six-figure income
20 hours of work per week
More time and energy to commit to my personal goals and having fun!
Now that sounds pretty damn juicy to me.
Your business should work around your life, not vice versa
Now this is one that I seem to learn every single year - and don’t always succeed in implementing! But it’s something I keep working on.
My business is my baby, but it doesn’t have to be the centre of my world. The same goes for yours. A biz can always work around whatever pops up, and bounce back when things get back to normal.
The beautiful thing about working for yourself is that you get to decide what your biz looks like. So figure out what that is, and make it happen. No one can make that decision and hold those boundaries except for you!
Want to get 2021 off to a great start?
It all comes down to planning.
And I don't mean the type of planning that leaves you overwhelmed or overcommitted. I mean planning so that you can GET SHIZ DONE - no matter what the year throws at you.
Need some guidance to put together a plan that works for your business?
I’m here to help. Click here to book a 1:1 appointment.
