It’s all well and good running your own business -but ARE you running it, or is it running you? Use the On Your TERMS check in to make sure.
There’s nothing we hate more than seeing a speaker, author or coach burnt out or at least stressed because they’ve built a business they don’t love any more. It’s hard enough to run a business, let alone one that no longer seems like it serves in the way they imagined or wanted to. A lot of things can contribute to that sense that something is wrong.
Some create a business model that is very consultant led, recreating the ‘job’ they used to do, without all the support networks they used to have no longer available to them — no accountancy department, no marketing support and most of all that it’s lonely.
Others find that the feast or famine cycle happens because too many products are based around ‘time for money’. Getting the work, then delivering it, then scrambling to find new clients to start the cycle again. That one is painful and unsustainable too.
Then there’s the trap of (blindly!) following what others do — the guru’s who say they have been there, and if you just do this one thing, in this way, you too can be successful. It’s fool’s gold, as they are not you, you are not them and recreating their success is near impossible for so many reasons.
That’s why we invite all those we work with to put themselves at the heart of their business, being the light in the lighthouse so to speak. And the way to do that is to evaluate every part of the business using what we call the On Your TERMS sense check.
Yes, we want you to run your business ‘on your terms’ for sure — calling the shots, setting it up and running it in the way that works for you. But there’s an even more specific way we invite you to start looking at what you say yes and no to, how you design the business around these 5 questions that are at the heart of your TERMS. We’ve given some examples, but we think you’ll see that you can use this as a review for pretty much ANYTHING you’d like to evaluate in the business:
TIME — will saying yes or no to this GIVE you time, or TAKE your time in a way you don’t want it to?
ENERGY — does the business as it is GIVE you energy or does it feel like it’s draining you?
RESOURCES — does this new product require resources you have or don’t have (think of resources as including the people who might do some of the work too) — where could you get them?
MONEY — will this remodelling of your business provide you with more money for less effort?
SKILLS — do you have the skills to do this? If not, who does? Maybe you know that you need to re-brand in order to really take things to the next level? That might just not be in your expertise.
In even considering these questions, you can see that the interplay of all 5 is where the magic also is. Before you make any more decisions, or if you are feeling tired, stressed or annoyed by anything in your business (or life!!) run them through the On Your TERMS sense check. You might just find some facts and answers that will help you make a better decision.