IT'S IMPORTANT TO STAY HUMBLE AS A BUSINESS OWNER
I can't believe it's only 2 days until Thanksgiving! Are you ready? We're hosting it at our house this year and 'the crazy' it starting to set in as I scramble to get last minute items and creep out of denying that I will be cooking a 16 lb bird ... wish me luck!! Haha!!
This time of year is typically a pretty solid mix of feeling insanely stressed and feeling high levels of love, gratitude, excitement, and being thankful ... if you are an event planner or work in the event industry you may be feeling a mix of excitement for engagement and hiring season whilst also feeling the anxiety of preparing and executing holiday parties for your corporate clients ... it's enough to drive anyone bananas!!
I can't stress enough the importance of staying humble as a business owner during the times of feeling incredibly busy. Being busy can very easily be interpreted as:
BEING INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT
These are NOT the same thing. Being busy comes in waves ... some weeks/months you'll be super sad because business isn't pouring in and you will feel like a failure ... that can turn quickly and you may have a week where 5 new clients hire you and the events and weddings begin to start and you are on top of the world feeling SUPER awesome because everyone wants to hire you and work with you. It could quickly dip again and you can go through another dry spell of feeling down in the dumps ... if you get the attitude of BEING SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT during the busy times and start to treat people badly or burn bridges then the times where the business isn't flowing are going to feel even more lonely than usual.
When I started my blog Style Unveiled it was before the wedding blog bubble had burst ... at that time I was one of about 4 wedding blogs. Google hadn't had their big algorithm rewrite yet and traffic was pretty f*cking awesome ... then: (insert evil laugh) Google decided to change their algorithm and we all watched our traffic go from RAD to SAD ... it was a very sad and dark time for me as a business owner. BUT:
IT WAS ALSO A HEALTHY SERVING OF HUMBLE PIE
because I was reminded that there are things I can't control as a business owner and there are things that I can control. The list of what I can control is what I started focusing on and the list of things that were out of my control became secondary on my priority list. An example of things I can control are:
My relationships with people and how I treat them
My brand and business 'voice' or 'look'
My standards
I'm sure there are more ... but those 3 are what I try to focus my attention to each and every day. I also constantly remind myself that:
YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOUR CLIENTS KNOW OR WHO THEY WILL MEET
What I mean by that is: you don't know where future referrals are going to come from! If you are burning bridges or getting an 'I'm super important' attitude with clients because you don't think they are important to your business model - then get to eating that slice of pie NOW! You never know what a person can do for your business ... you don't know who their friends are and you definitely don't know who their future friends or relationships are! If you decide to treat someone badly because you feel they are insignificant ... you may want to think again.
DO I BURN BRIDGES?
Absolutely! It's necessary sometimes to end things with clients ... but I give MANY MANY MANY MANY chances before I even consider going there ... they have to treat me badly and disrespect my time over and over and over and over again ... and then it will take a phone call or two before I will throw in the towel and walk the other direction.
I'm not saying that you should hold onto and create a strong relationship with every person you meet or every client for that matter ... but leave things on good terms! Keep it comfortable! If you feel like lately your head is a little too big for your body then try toning it down a bit ... remind yourself of the times where business isn't strong or flowing ... remember how you felt and how it feels when the waves of business slow and you start to question yourself as a business owner. Keep a slice of humble pie with you ... it will give you energy to be an even more successful entrepreneur and people will want to work with you even more!
Here is a post I wrote about what kinds of people to keep around you at all times ... it may be a good follow-up read to this post! HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
XO~ Heather
