What 7 Years of Working for Myself Has Taught Me

Business

Aug 30

I started my business February 17th, 2020, making it almost 7 years that I’ve been working for myself.

Even as I write that, I almost can’t believe it! I had been working in retail management before this, and truly hated every day. My one goal was to quit and work for myself…and here I am.

But that journey is a story for another time, because today I want to talk about what I’ve learned over the last 7 years that I’ll take into my next 7 years of entrepreneurship. And if you’re wanting to start (or are already running) your own business, hopefully these lessons can be helpful for you, too.

If you want to work for yourself, you need to be someone you would hire

This is a big one. The great thing about working for yourself? You don’t have a boss. The hard part of working for yourself? You don’t have a boss. 😅

There won’t be anyone to give you assignments, keep you on track, or get on your case if you miss a deadline. It all falls to you.

So in a way, you have to step into that boss role and treat yourself like an employee. Would you hire someone who always shows up late, blows off deadlines, and never gets anything done? Probably not. You have to hold yourself to the same standards you’d expect from someone you hired.

Your Clients Aren’t Your Bosses, Either

This is a trap I fell into early on: letting my clients treat me like an employee rather than another business they hired to create work for them. They would text me with last-minute requests, set project deadlines that should have been my responsibility, and create benchmarks and processes that didn’t match the way I had set up my business.

Sure, you have to listen to your clients, create work they’re happy with, and get things done on time. But you’re still the one who sets the tone for the project. They’re hiring your business for a service, not hiring you as an employee.

This is something you’ll get better at over time, too. It’s hard to set up processes and boundaries in the beginning when you haven’t had too many clients. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip into an employee mode in the beginning, it’s very common and you’ll get better at avoiding it as you grow.

You Need to Ask For Money

If you’re just doing stuff for free, you have a hobby. A very time-consuming hobby.

In the early days of my business, I did a small amount of work for free so I could get some experience and testimonials under my belt. But I didn’t hesitate to ask those people to pay me if they wanted to continue working together, or to ask potential clients to pay me for the same kind of work.

It’s not about trying to get money from everyone for every little thing. It’s about getting comfortable asking for payment for your work. You won’t have a business if you don’t make money. (My Capricorn rising really took the lead in this phase of my business!)

You Don’t Need to Niche Down

Ope, this is the one that people literally email me about and tell me I’m wrong about. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “The riches are in the niches!”

And you’ve probably seen business coaches tell you that you need to have a niche because, “If you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one!”

Hogwash.

Kind of.

In the early days of my business (and honestly, for several years), I kept trying to niche down into narrow areas of expertise. And each time I did, I made less money and felt like I was stuck in a very small box.

I eventually embraced the idea of you are your niche!

Now I talk about so many things, from marketing to aquariums to holidays to business. The common thread holding it all together? Me.

There are a couple things to consider when deciding whether or not to niche down, though:

It’s way easier to talk about a bunch of different topics, like I do, when you have a personal brand. My business name is my personal name, so it works. An earlier iteration of my business was called Socials on Tap, when I was mostly doing social media management. It wouldn’t have made sense to talk about things like my hobbies and lifestyle under that brand.
Something still needs to connect everything you talk about. In my case, that’s me. I’m the one experiencing everything I share here, I share it through my own lens, and that’s the common thread. I also talk about building a life and business you love, so I can easily blend lifestyle and business content because it all falls under that larger umbrella. But let’s say you have a subscription box business that features bookish accessories. If you suddenly started sharing workout tips, there’s nothing connecting the bookish box to the workout tips, and your audience would probably be very confused.

So no, I don’t think you need to pick one tiny topic and focus only on that. But you do need to give people a reason to understand why all of the things you talk about belong together. Find the thread that connects them, and that can be your niche.

Listen to Your Gut

If you have reservations about taking on a client, listen to your gut.

Ask me how I know. 🙃

No amount of money makes it worth it. I once took on a client I knew in my gut I shouldn’t have because the money was good (and I really needed it at the time).

Long story short, I ended up getting physically sick from the stress of working with this client and eventually refunded thousands of dollars because I just couldn’t do it anymore.

Luckily, this only happened to me once, but it was a hard-earned lesson! If something feels off, listen to that feeling.

Take Advantage of the Slow, Early Days

In those early days, I felt frustrated that I had so much extra time — I wanted to get busy with client work!

Little did I know, I would eventually be so busy with client work that it would be hard to go back and do the things for my own business that I needed to do.

Embrace those early days to do things like:

Get your website set up
Start your email list
Write blog posts
Learn about the legalities of running your business
Learn about bookkeeping and the financial side of your business

You’ll be glad later on that you took the time to build a solid foundation!

Things Will Flop, and That’s Okay

You will have some major failures, setbacks, and hard days. It’s vital that you don’t let them stop you. If you stop at the first failure, you’ll make it about a week.

Want to know how to make sure you succeed? Don’t give up until you do. 🙂

I hope these 7 lessons help you. Maybe in another 7 years, I’ll share 7 more!