Hi everyone
So how do you measure success? One thing I found when I started my business was that I was measuring my success by the standards I had used when I was employed and by those standards I was failing.
The knock on effect of that was that I felt like a failure, I was demotivated and had lost my drive. It was very damaging from a mental health perspective.
Then I realised the standards I used to measure success had to change because the standards we use to measure success when working for someone else don’t apply when you’re working for yourself.
Within the corporate world each role has a list of things they are approved for and this is how i used to measure my success.
The first big milestone for me was having business cards. I can’t even remember what job I was doing but I can still remember the pride I felt that me the gobby mixed race scouser who was once told I would never amount to much because of the way I spoke had made it to the first rung on the corporate ladder.
To me having business cards meant I was no longer just one of the office staff I was someone now. Now I could walk into a room, introduce myself and hand you my business card. To me there was an air of importance and authority to people who had business cards. It meant I was now someone who others would specifically seek out and I was no longer a nameless, faceless employee.
In all honesty I think for the first role I had where I had business cards I probably gave out 10 cards in a year. But I had them.
After that my next milestones was travelling for work this meant I was now trusted to leave the office on my own, to drive hire cars and stay in hotels I was able to claim expenses.
I had predominantly worked in call centres before where my every keystroke and every minute of my day was monitored. I still remember once being questioned by my manager about why I had been gone for 6 minutes on a toilet break and asked if I had a medical issue. Just to be clear I didn’t. The toilets by my desk were closed for cleaning and I had to walk to the ones at the other end of the office. My response to sit me on a commode and I’d never move didn’t go down well surprisingly.
For almost a decade of my career I was monitored. My phone calls would be listened to and critiqued, my notes would be read and critiqued. My every second would be monitored and questioned. Why did it take you 3 minutes to type up your notes from that call Christine. You logged in 30 seconds late this morning what was your reason for that Christine.
I had been programmed that I was always being monitored which made me feel like I wasn’t trusted. So when I was given some freedom, given some trust to be out of the office, out of my manager’s sight this was a big deal to me.
These were my first big milestones in how I measured success. After these came the company laptop, company mobile, salary increases, bonuses, job titles and finally for me my next big one was when I got my company car.
These were how I measured success. But these don’t apply when your setting up your own business.
I would look at how much money is made that month and compare it to the salary I used to earn and I felt like a failure. This is why I needed to change my mindset or I wouldn’t have a business.
I’ve been self employed for almost 2 years now. Statistically 20% of small businesses fail within the first year. Well I’ve beat that number woohoo! Next statistic I’m fighting to beat…. 60% of small businesses fail within 3 years, I’m already past the halfway point with this statistic and I’ll fight with everything I have to beat this statistic.
I’m no longer walking on eggshells waiting to get pulled into an office and questioned about why I’ve not hit a target that was set intentionally to be unachievable.
I now have the flexibility to plan my time to suit me and I don’t have to beg for an hour out of the day to go to an appointment.
I can now do what I think is ethically the right decision even if it’s not the best financial decision. I think this is one of the biggies for me. Many times in my corporate career I wanted fix a problem that was not caused by the customer but I would be stopped because there was a monetary cost, or because we were covered by our terms and conditions. This never sat right with me.
one of my proud moments was when customer feedback was read out to me. I’d started a job and had been warned the customer was very difficult, very demanding and this one manager had been pointed out to me as being particularly difficult to deal with. Unbeknown to me this manager had been asked by my boss for feedback on how he was finding dealing with me and I’ll never forget 1 thing he said
“Christine never hides behind terms and conditions, she works with me to solve the problem” this wasn’t received well by my boss but revenue was increasing substantially so they let it go.
I decided to write this today because we’re now in April. My sales aren’t great and I’ve been feeling like I’m failing. I need to remind myself of what I’ve accomplished and how amazing that is so here’s some figures I’m sharing to remind myself that I’m successful and if your still reading this and have your own business and feel like you’re failing go and look for your own successes
I’ve had some of the biggest creators on TikTok reach out to me to promote my courage bears
I’ve designed and launched my new Courage Bear
I’ve upgraded the packaging for my brand to something I love which is also from a uk company and is eco friendly
I’ve built my own shopify store
I figured out how to fix the integration between my shopify store and instagram without having to pay £130 quoted to me to fix it
Ive had over 1000 views on my instagram
Ive got 3 new followers on instagram
My shopify store has had people checking it out every day since I launched it
Im getting closer to 5000 TikTok followers
More people than ever are engaging with me on TikTok
I guess my takeaway from this is that forward momentum is success.