On coping with success

Can you remember when you first set up your blog? Or your business? You started small, and the little steps forward delighted you. The first time you got a comment on your blog and realised it wasn’t spam. The first time a client recommended you to someone else, and you got work from it. These are the lovely baby steps we all take as small business owners.

Did you imagine you’d ever ‘make’ it? That you would come to a point with your business when you could relax in to it? This is a cautionary note for everyone out there who is on the cusp of being successful with their new business.

How do we measure success?

When I used to think about success, I primarily imagined it in monetary terms. The more money my business generated, the more successful I was. While this is true in a certain sense, there are many other factors which influence your reckoning of success.

The number of great testimonials you get, customer referrals and networking relationships make a huge difference to your business.

My favourite quote of all time is by Michael Korda. It goes along the lines of: “Success has always been easy to measure. It’s the distance between one’s origins, and one’s final destination.” This stays with me, as it makes it easier to gain perspective when you look back from where your business started.

How I learned that Stilus is working, this week

When I started out with Stilus, I didn’t expect it to be a roaring success. For the first time this month, I realised that I’d ‘made it’. Do you know how I found out? It occurred to me when I went down to visit my parents in Norwich this weekend. Paul and I took a full day of doing nothing. We shopped, ate out, walked around, and laughed a lot. I felt completely relaxed. I figured out at the end of the day that it was the first time I had switched off fully from work in about six months.

Admittedly, I felt guilty about not being glued to my laptop. I thought about work, in between wandering about. But I didn’t cut our day short and speed back home to do anything about it.

The sky didn’t fall down. My inbox wasn’t full of queries about where I’d been. Nothing changed, apart from within me. I feel happier, more relaxed and much more energized now.

I’ve sussed it out. Success is knowing that you can take time out sometimes, because you have confidence in your company and customers. It’s one of the best lessons I’ve learned so far.

My note of caution for everyone out there struggling with running their business? TAKE TIME OUT! Outsource, have a holiday, get more sleep. Be kind to yourself. Then you can appreciate the journey you have taken, between your origins and your final achievement. If you work hard, all the time, without a break, you’ll never get that moment of peace when you realise you have achieved enough with your business to calm down and enjoy it.

I’m going to the seaside today. I’ll be offline for a while