Starting your own online business can be really exciting. Being a business owner, an entrepreneur can definitely be a rewarding and fun experience, but it can also be the complete opposite.
Have you come to the point when you feel stuck? Are you already getting stressed, overwhelmed or frustrated in your business? Don’t worry, it comes with the territory. Just like it is often a great joy to feel this sense of being in control, this sense of standing in the center of your life and holding all the strings in your hand that comes with starting your own business.
The flip side of the same coin is that everything is always, ultimately, down to you.
That weight of responsibility on your shoulders can be overwhelming, and stressful from time to time.
So, what’s the best way out when you feel stuck in the midst of one of those swamps of overwhelm?
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Examples of Roadblocks at Work & How to Solve Them
The good news is that you are not alone. Every new online business owner struggles with the same basic roadblocks. The things that continue to cause problems and delay growth for your business. Here are our suggestions for how to overcome obstacles and become a stronger business.
Productivity Roadblocks
If you’ve ever seen one of those horror films where someone falls into a swamp or a pool of quicksand, you’ll know what I mean with the first strategy. Struggling when stuck in a swamp means you’ll sink down further.
First thing to do is look around and acknowledge you’re in the swamp and that you’re stuck. Don’t kid yourself, the business hasn’t moved forward for a while, you run around solving everybody’s crises and problems all day long and you’re not getting around to the stuff you really need to get around to, to move the business forward.
You get home exhausted most days and when you wake up in the morning it often feels like there is a weight sitting on your chest.
You’re stuck and you’re struggling.
It happens to all of us… It’s time to stop and breathe.
Breathe
So next week… Maybe Tuesday, take half a day off out of the rat race. Yes, seriously. Cancel whatever is booked for Tuesday morning, turn off your phone, and your email, and grab a pen and a notebook (the paper version, not a computer). Go and sit in your backyard, a cafe, or in a park and write and think and write and think and write and think.
This is brainstorming with yourself, it’s not writing for anyone else.
Writing as a tool to help you get clarity in your own head, no one else’s. And what you want to write about is how you want the future to look. Think of a time in the distant, but visible future… Somewhere between 6 and 12 months from now. How do you want business and life to look by then? Avoid the temptation to write about what’s wrong with things right now or what went wrong last week. Create a word picture of the preferred future, Your Vision.
Take the whole morning… Write for a while and then put it down, go for a walk, pick it up again and write some more. This writing will never be seen by anyone, so it doesn’t matter what it looks like, or if the grammar is correct. Keep writing until your head is entirely exhausted.
It will be one of the most important mornings you’ve ever spent on your business and your life, guaranteed.
Seek Help
Once you’ve done your visioning of the preferred future, it’s time to ask for help. You can’t do this alone, you really can’t, and you need outside help. Your spouse can’t provide this help, your friends can’t and nor can your brother or sister, they’re not independent and objective. They are affected by your decisions and actions and it’s just not their role in life. They are meant to be spouses, friends and siblings, not coaches, mentors, counselors or advisers. It just doesn’t work trust me on that too.
Jasmine & Co. is a great resource when trying to figure out the next steps for your business, as well as setting up systems in place to manage it better. There are various types of coaches and mentors, personal counselors and life coaches, there are peer support groups and everything in between. The different forms of business and personal support all have their pros and cons. What matters is that you find the person or group that is right for you right now.
But in any case: Go out and find someone. It will be the best investment of time and money you make in your business.
Breakdown
Once you’ve created your Vision for the preferred future, and you’ve found someone to support you, break the vision down in to small steps.
Change never happens overnight. Change only ever happens by taking many small steps. The secret of creating lasting change and forward motion is to take a tiny little step tomorrow and another one the day after and another one the day after that. The power of small steps consistently taken is that it makes Change easy and if one of the steps turns out to be a mistake, and you stumble, it’s such a small little stumble that it doesn’t hurt.
Hang your vision up on the fridge where you see it every day, work with your support person to create a small steps plan to reach the Vision and ask your support person to walk beside you as you take your small steps.
About the Author
Jasmine Adams-Monk, MBA
Hey There! I’m Jasmine! A dedicated wife and mother to two adorable girls!
I have always had a love for helping people, so I had to find a way to tap into this passion of mine.
I had been providing virtual support for over 5 years, but it wasn’t until I was a stay at home mom with my oldest daughter Zia, that I desired to utilize my strengths while bringing value to business owners. I never knew that the VA world existed, or even had a term, so I did my research and discovered it. I guess you could say the rest is history!
If you like more of our great content, you can visit Jasmine & Co. We publish tips and top trend topics every Friday, so be sure not to miss them!
