Oh how many times have I heard or read this quote, and then promptly ignored it, or procrastinated, or got lost down the rabbit holes of Facebook and Twitter, or under the bonnet with the backend of WordPress, or just staring out the window despairing at my writer’s block and wondering what to blog about next.
Start where you are with what you have. Make something of it and never be satisfied.”
When you’re launching or scaling your business, it’s so easy to think you’re somehow not ‘enough’. You’re not smart enough, you don’t know enough, you’re not ready, you don’t have a list, your blog isn’t getting any traffic, you’ll write some content tomorrow, etc etc etc.
And then tomorrow turns into next week, next week turns into next month, and you lose confidence as you watch other people launch a similar business, promote a similar product or write the exact same blog post you had perfectly composed in your head but it hadn’t made it onto the page because you couldn’t find the perfect image to go with it (you can insert your own excuse here, but you’re welcome to share mine).
Launching an online business gives you lots of places to hide. There’s plenty of busy work to umm, keep you busy. Lots of tech stuff to learn that can umm, keep you stuck. Lots of Instagram accounts to scroll that trigger all the ‘I’m not ‘enough’ feels that keep you playing small.
It’s time to stop hiding
Bricks and mortar is a lot less forgiving. When I launched a pop-up shop, I had premises. People were curious. They looked in the windows while I was setting up. They stopped and chatted and asked when I was opening. There was literally NOWHERE TO HIDE.
And despite the fact I felt physically sick on opening day (yes, so physically sick I couldn’t eat, which is unheard of for me) I just had to get on with it. I hung my ‘Open’ sign in the door and stood behind my cash desk and waited. And then a customer came in. And he bought stuff. And it was amazing – I’d made my first sale!! Someone had paid me money for a thing in my shop (actually he bought three things, which was even more exciting).
So to anyone reading this who’s hiding and hovering and hasn’t quite opened the doors to their business yet, or is creating content but hasn’t actually asked for a sale or made an offer or created something that your lovely customers can buy and rave about and recommend to their friends, then this post is for you.
If you’ve been procrastinating, prevaricating or pretending you have to be perfect before you can promote anything, then today is the day to begin.
Today is the day to take action.
Take just one step
Today is the day to take just one step, do just one thing, that will take you closer to opening your digital doors and welcoming your first client, customer or sale.
I promise you, once you’ve taken the first step, it get easier to take the second and the third. And it gets more fun. It even gets exciting. So just begin, and suddenly you’re in business!
And let me know when you get your first customer, it’s definitely a memorable moment and one to celebrate!