We’re celebrating over here at Azalea because today marks our first business anniversary! That’s right, this time last year I was confidently walking out of the door of my corporate job feeling euphoric about working for myself and building this business! The saying really is true, time flies when you’re having fun. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing the journey has been so far. Obviously there have been a lot of fails, and of course, lessons learnt.

As I am a huge optimist, I’d like to quickly recap some of our successes this year. At the end of the day, this is what helps keep you going. If you’re on your entrepreneurial journey, I recommend you do the same.

 

Here’s to our year one success:

1. Quitting my corporate job to follow my dreams

2. Opening an Etsy shop

3. Serving 7 clients & helping their business grow

4. Starting Azalea’s blog and writing 30 blog posts

5. Growing our email list

6. Creating 3 freebies

7. Launching a new rebrand & website with Showit

 

So without further ado, I’ll get onto the lessons I learnt in my first year of being an entrepreneur.

 

1. The entrepreneur journey can be lonely

When I first started even thinking about starting a business, I thrived off of the idea that I would be working alone. Not only because I’m a happy introvert, but because I could take control of everything and it would be something I created! However, as much as I do work better alone I now see how lonely the entrepreneur journey can be. I work at home, by myself and rarely speak with people during the working day. As much as this doesn’t dramatically effect me, it’s the times when I’m feeling lost, confused or overwhelmed when I could really do with somebody else to chat to about it.

It is now my mission to find people who are also starting or running their own business from home and connect with them. Just knowing somebody is going through the same journey as you can help get you through some of the bad times. Doubt will make a bed in your head. Just let it be, but learn to not give in to it.

So if you are an entrepreneur, I would advise you to find your people and make sure to spend some time out of your working week to chat with them.

 

 

2. Follow your passions & intuition

There are a lot of other business owners out there giving their tips and ways of attaining success. So many blog posts, podcasts, freebies, and videos about business strategies, and I think it’s best just to follow your passions and intuition when making those decisions. You don’t have to follow everyone’s advice or tips. Find what you love to do, and how you like to put it out into the world and stick with that. When you focus on the strategies you enjoy doing, you’ll probably do it a lot better and stay consistent which will result in success. So at the end of the day, just do you and run your business the way you want to!

 

 

3. Focus on your niche & ideal client

This is such an important lesson I learnt! When I first started my business it was aimed at small business and entrepreneurs. Which is fine but I didn’t have an ideal client in mind and everything became a bit blurry. I realised six months in that I needed to change my strategy – I needed to ‘niche down’. I learnt that by trying to speak to everyone meant that I was actually speaking to no one.

This means that the content I was making wasn’t really connecting to anyone and my following wasn’t vastly increasing. By having an ideal client outline and knowing everything about them can help you to not only try and find them but you can then create content around their struggles and really help them!

If you haven’t already done this in your business, I highly recommend downloading our freebie below.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Learn to rest

Okay so new projects can be so exciting that sleeping seems like a waste of time. When you are your own boss, you can work whenever you like, and that means weekends, evenings and crazy hours in the morning. Sometimes this can be great as you have so much flexibility, but it can be hard to switch off at times. That’s why learning to rest is so important! You can’t do your best work when you’re feeling burnt out.

I want to state that:

• It is okay to take moments out of your day to recharge
• It is okay when you don’t feel motivated
• It is okay when you are spending time for yourself – don’t feel guilty for not working!
• It is okay when you’re having a bad day, week or month
• It is okay when things aren’t flowing to you

Some days you won’t feel good. You wont feel productive, or successful. You won’t feel motivated. This just comes with the territory. What is okay is taking time to find ways of dealing with these low points. Never feel guilty for not working on your business. When you are feeling burnt out it’s best to put yourself first and your business will definitely benefit from that too.

 

 

5. Celebrate your tiny victories

Like you may already know, entrepreneurship is difficult! It is a rollercoaster ride and when you are having a bad spell, it is is important to celebrate your tiny victories. It will not only help you feel successful when you don’t feel it, but it will help you keep pushing through. It will also remind you of how well you are doing, so of course you can keep growing and improving to get to where you want to be.

 

 

6. Comparisonitis and Imposter Syndrome are real things!

I didn’t really know these two things existed until I joined the business world & Instagram. Oh my, with Instagram it is so easy to find other entrepreneurs and constantly be comparing your journey with theirs! It can be stressful curating the perfect feed and only showing the glamorous highlights of your job. It gets to the point where you start feeling deflated and disheartened about your own business and success and it just sucks! Don’t do it!

In case you don’t know what Imposter Syndrome is, its the feeling of inadequacy within yourself which results in losing sales or profit for your business. I guess all startups have felt this way. How can I charge this amount when I haven’t done this for a client before? you think. Or you turn down work because you dont think you’re good enough.

Which leads me on to my next point

 

7. Charge what you are worth and then add tax

Okay, so I agree that figuring out your prices and how much you are ‘worth’ is bordering an existential crisis. But to avoid the whole imposter syndrome feeling you may grow accustomed to, follow this step.

For the launch of my business I did a half price offer because I felt that I didn’t have the right to charge people what I wanted because of lack of experience and I was a startup. Can I just mention that this offer didn’t help anyone.

I kept doing these little acts of doubt when it came to payment. I spend hours working on projects for free, or taking on projects that I didn’t want to do. I basically was telling the Universe that I wasn’t worthy of the prices I charged which only bought the wrong types of people to me – not my ideal clients. Be confident with how much you are charging and be sure to add tax!

 

 

8. Mindset is key!

If you meet an entrepreneur chances are they are spending time working on their mindset. I can’t even begin to tell you how important this is. Whatever is going on in your mind will play out in your life. So if you want great content and to connect with your ideal client, you have to make sure that your mindset is at its best for this to happen. Also, having a positive mindset will really help with the low times of entrepreneurship, it will help you persevere. Your mindset is a true representation of your business.

The tasks I like to do to ensure my mindset is positive, is to write in a gratitude journal, write down my dreams and action plans, do things that make me happy and have faith that everything will work out for the best.

 

 

9. Don’t be so hard on yourself

It is inevitable that things won’t go the way you expected them to. You could run a Facebook ad and expect to have 100 new likes but only get 10. You could start a blog and feel disheartened that only 7 people read it. You could feel frustrated that your Instagram following keeps fluctuating.

First of all I want to say that your first attempt will not be your best work. It takes time, practice and patience to create masterpieces. Don’t put pressure on yourself for all of your attempts to be successful.

You will keep learning, growing and experimenting with aspects of your business and that’s the fun part! You are doing your best and I can honestly tell you that that is enough!

 

 

I am so thankful for my business journey and almost relieved that my first year is over! I want to thank my friends, family and loved ones for all of their support over the past year, you keep me going. So I guess here’s to year 2, I can’t wait to see whats’s to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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