Your Own Worst Enemy

You wake up one morning and decide to leave your 9 to 5 job and pursue your passion project!  You start off excited, energized and a bit nervous, but quickly realize that as a small business owner, you need to wear multiple different hats.  In addition to being great at performing your service, you need to be a great marketer, salesperson, accountant, HR manager and even the janitor!  Your dream quickly becomes a nightmare. 

Unfortunately, this is the story of so many small business owners.  I've seen several statistics on the number of small businesses that fail each year.  While the statistics vary to a point, it's widely understood that about 70% of small businesses fail in the first 5 years and around 90% within 10 years.  Coming from a family of small business owners, I find this to be terribly depressing.  So many aspiring entrepreneurs giving up on their dreams each year shouldn't be this common.  Over the past 20 years, I've seen many of these situations first hand.  While there are often financial, economic or industry changes that impact someone's ability to build a business, the most common factor that I've seen have a negative impact on a small business is the owner themself.  We're often our own worst enemy!

You can hire a business coach or do a deep dive into the countless books and podcasts on business development, but when the dust settles, it's up to you to make your business successful.  There's nobody else to tell you to get out of bed, or make you do that task that your business desperately needs you to complete.  Being able to hold yourself accountable to the habits and routines that will move your business forward is often the one skill that I see new entrepreneurs struggling to implement.  We all hope for a nice steady upward climb, but in reality, building a business is full of challenges.  There are unexpected twists and turns around every corner.  Being able to get back up, hold yourself accountable and remain consistent often is the difference between success and failure.

For me, reminding me about WHY I began my business is the best way to hold myself accountable to do the things that I don't want to do, but my business needs me to do.  If you're one of the millions of small business owners that struggle holding yourself accountable, I would encourage you to find a way to increase your personal responsibility and make sure you're not being your own worst enemy.  The future of your business is depending on you!