Lessons in Entrepreneurship: One Year In
“If you do what you’ll love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
This year just flew by…Last year at this time I had just started my business, got myself an official LLC, and was deep into branding and website design. I had one client (a HUGE shout out to Matt and Sarah for believing in me before I even had anything to show for myself), was binging every entrepreneur podcast I could find and planning for the whirlwind of a year ahead.
Considering this exciting milestone, I thought I’d take the time to reflect and provide some key learnings…
Follow your heart. This is a big one for me and the instigating factor in all of this. I’m a firm believer that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life. And, as one of my client’s recently shared in an interview on taking the leap, there’s never a “right” time to do anything. Everything that’s worth it involves risk. Jumping in head first is always risky but trust yourself that you are doing the right thing and it will work out.
Know your worth. The first year in business, you’re stoked that anyone wants to pay you to do your job and it’s easy to discount your services. But the thing is, you have to have a sense of what your time is worth. My whole life working at an agency, I was told my billing rate and it was easy to share because I wasn’t responsible for it and it was “standard.” But what do you do when you have to determine it on your own? It’s very hard to stand on your own two feet and say what your work/time/efforts are worth, especially when people try to bargain you down. In my experience though, the people that want to price shop and find the best deal aren’t your people anyway.
Don’t settle. Similar to the above, don’t settle for doing work you’re not passionate about.
When I started this business, I made a point to be very selective about the kind of clients I wanted to work with. It’s very tempting to want to say yes to opportunities that cross your desk at first because hey, we all want to make money, but really think about the long game here. For me, I wanted to build a brand that would hold me for years to come. As a result of that, I’ve built a network of clients that fit squarely in my core pillars of service which helps me to attract others that are similar, and repel those that aren’t.
Have boundaries. This is ironic coming from me, I know. Full disclosure: I’m horrible at this. This past year, I’ve changed plans to support client needs, worked late hours (including weekends), accepted work outside my typical scope ALL THE TIME this year. It’s hard for me because I truly want to help and I have trouble saying no but, the truth is, the thing that always gets put on the backburner when I do this is me. I’m going to make a conscious effort to be better about this next year and try to make self-care more a part of my routine, but I’m definitely far from perfect here.
Offer a referral. In terms of client inquiries, I’ve had way more cross my desk this year than I ever expected. One thing that’s really helped me is developing my network for referrals a bit more. I have a list of other PR agencies (from independent to boutique sized) with varying specialties so I have someone I can pass people along to. This helps two-fold…1. Considering my issues saying “no” that I alluded to above, it makes it a bit easier to have somewhere to direct them to and 2. It helps me in the long run too (karma is a real thing and more referrals me more good juju back to me in the long run).
Ok, I think that’s enough rambling from yours truly over here. All in all, it’s been a great year and I’m so excited for what 2020 will bring in the world of MBPR xoxo
xoxo, Morgan