Mindset shifts I’ve made as a solo business owner
I’ve been self-employed for 3+ years now and I’ve been pushed to self-reflect, grow and change in order to survive the journey.
Here are some crucial shifts I’ve made over the years that have benefitted me massively.
1) Money
When you come from a lower-income background, you have the mindset of money is scarce and you have to save as much of it as possible. However when you’re trying to grow a business, this mindset can actually set you back big-time. You NEED to invest to reach new levels of business growth and income. This year alone I’ve invested in 2 x courses to expand my skills, numerous networking events, a business coach and (although it was brief because no-one was ever there) a co-working office space.
To summarise: You gotta spend it to make it.
2) Moving from scarcity to abundance
To piggy back off of the first point – a scarcity mindset affects every area of your life. For example, I could look at the total saturation of designers on Instagram and believe I don’t stand a chance. I’ve certainly had that thought pop through my head on more than one occasion – but how is that helping me? And how would I have survived 3 years in business if that was really the truth? There are 7+ billion people on this planet - your clients are out there.
3) It shouldn’t be hard
It should feel like you’re working hard, but if it feels like an uphill battle something is wrong. Whenever I’ve had the feeling of paddling backwards, once I’ve recognised this is how I’m feeling I do a hard stop, and I reassess. To get to this level of awareness, you do need to be pretty in-tune with yourself.
4) Self-care
The last point leads nicely into this one. You’ve got to take care of you first. When you’re self-employed, you are your business. If you aren’t a well-oiled, highly functioning machine, how can you expect your business to perform as one? I realised once I made eating well, exercise and time to relax a priority, my business didn’t get worse because I had less time to dedicate to it – it improved because the time I did dedicate was more productive.
5) Detachment is king
I care about things SO MUCH. I give things my all. I AM AN INTENSE LADY. There are times when that serves me well, but other times, not so much. When you focus too much on one particular outcome, you close yourself off to all the other lovely things that could come your way. If you’re giving something your all and you’re getting no-where fast? That thing might not be for you. And that’s ok – because once you release it, something much better is round the corner.