Do you have those days where you just want to throw in the towel?
Life is too hard and your business that you are putting your blood, sweat and tears into doesn’t seem to be going anywhere?
You are up all hours of the night working in your business, compromising the exact reason you decided to start your own business in the first place. – your family.
Don’t worry, you are not alone.
It is so easy to get wrapped up in your business and to think I will just try this one more time, but in all honesty, the chances of something magically working after you have tried several times before aren’t that great. There is a reason they aren’t working.
It’s like banging your head against a brick wall. Yep, maybe one day you will break through, but what will the damage be to get there?
Let me tell you that nothing is worth that.
That point when you feel like it is all for nothing and just not worth it, take a step back.
Step back, take a break, remove yourself from the situation and recoup.
You are not going to be any good to anyone tired, grumpy and poor.
When you do take that step back and look at your business with fresh eyes, look at the reasons why. Why is what I am doing not working? Why am I spending so much time in my business for such little reward?
Be brutally honest with yourself. A few minutes of heart attack and truth serum could be the difference between regrouping and moving forward and just giving up and being bitter and twisted and wondering what if.
Of the things that aren’t working, look at the main issue that is causing you the grief. Is it the time you are spending that could be better used elsewhere? Is it that you are not bringing in enough money for your efforts? Or is it that you just aren’t enjoying it anymore?
It could be just one of those reasons, but most the time, they go hand in hand.
You are working too many hours for not enough monetary reward which is causing you to fall out of love with your business.
So, how do you fix this?
Firstly you need to look at your businesses main source of income. Is it sustainable? It is scaleable? Is it too labour intensive?
Generally if you are running a product based business, this will be the case. You will be ordering, picking, packing and posting your orders to your customers. This takes time, effort and money which all eat into your bottom line, making your profits not so appealing. If you are running a business with very high profit margins, then this is more sustainable that if you are working within a small percent profit margin.
But even service based businesses can fall into this trap. You charge what you think is a fair and reasonable rate for a job, but then that job ends up taking longer and longer and all of a sudden your hourly rate isn’t looking so crash hot.
In both fields, you need to aim for more than one income source to start with. An active source and a passive source. An active source is the product you are selling or the service you are providing. A passive source is things that can make you money while you sleep or things that take less effort for reward. Think affiliate programs, business directories and electronic / downloadable content like eBooks.
Setting yourself up with a passive income can help boost that profit margin that might be shrinking through no fault of your own. The passive income will always be there as long as you promote it and keep it relevant and active.
Also look at why your profit margins and reward for effort are being affected. Is it that you undervalue yourself? Or maybe you need to look at what you can outsource to give yourself more time to work on the areas that will bring you more income and happiness?
Either way, it is important to not lose site of the reason you are doing what you are doing and work toward maintaining that.
Step back. Recharge. Re-evaluate. Take charge.
If you would like to know more about income streams, our Game Changing Income Streams eBook outlines them for you and how you can apply them to your own business.
