Starting your own business sounds like a beautiful idea, but something unspoken about this journey is how difficult it is to adjust to the entrepreneur lifestyle.
Stephanie Gorton is a Certified Business and Mindset Coach + Owner of a successful business that earned six figures within its first year of operation. Out of unhappiness in 2018, Steph quit her day job. She soon realized that the journey to achieving her dream business came with an entire bottle of fear, a side of self-doubt and sprinkled with some tears.
This doesn’t mean that it is not achievable, but to hop onto this carriage, prepare yourself for the trials of the rollercoaster.
1. No one is holding you accountable for anything.
When starting your journey as a full-time entrepreneur, you may find that you don’t know what to do with your time. “You go through this weird period where you don’t have a boss anymore, no one telling you what to do… so you just do nothing”. Says Steph.
The so-called “Freedom” may seem tempting. Since you don’t have someone expecting you to stick to a 9 to 5 schedule and a set of rules, you have a lot of flexibility.
For beginners, this leads to an enormous challenge. Now you are on your own. A lot of uncertainty and instability will flood your workflow. Since most people start this journey working from home, they find it challenging to balance their professional and personal life. No one tells you what’s right or wrong, which step to take next, and you still don’t have a team to encourage you to keep going.
Being able to take more days off and work at your own pace seems attractive, but without support or systems in place, your business’s progress will start plodding.
When jumping on this train, prepare to set your own set of rules and schedule. Time management becomes your best friend. Be aware that it is okay that you settle your own pace, but you also have to determine your deadlines as well.
2. Scaling from start-up phase to successful business.
When her business started scaling, Steph Gorton shared: “When I quit my day job, I found myself with almost too much time. Then when my business started to take off, I had to adapt fast. I took on more clients, hired staff members and team, put out fires, and still made sure our customer service was 11/10. So you go from having all the time in the world to no time at all”. More people depend on you at this stage, and it may seem overwhelming. Steph knows about this because she didn’t go through this once, but twice. Two successful startups, both scaled to 6 figures and beyond, and the main lesson Steph learned was to outsource and get a team FAST.
As a first-starter, you have to understand you don’t have to do everything by yourself. It’s okay to delegate tasks. This is what will help your business grow.
Steph learned, “Once you have a team, you have to be mindful of making your team feel supported. Learn their love languages and connect with them so you can inspire and motivate them in a way that resonates, rather than just being a boss and dishing out tasks”. She says, “If you have ever been managed poorly before, you know how important it is to work in a place where you feel heard.”
3. The fear of failing is normal.
Your inner critic is a familiar path. Your brain seems to find it easier to criticize and self-sabotage your efforts rather than support & celebrate your wins. “Initially, I felt like I was failing because I was used to working full time and hustling on my business in my spare time. Then when I quit, I had all this spare time… My head went crazy with overthinking. I almost felt guilty or felt bad for not working hard enough,” says the business coach.
The key here is to cultivate a healthy mindset practice. Learn you absolutely need to reset, reframe, and take a break. To motivate your team, you must first motivate yourself. Train your brain to see the positive outcomes you have gotten along the journey when you feel overwhelmed or fear creeps under your skin.
And at all of these times, remember, you don’t have to do it all by yourself. The most successful entrepreneurs have found a massive value in partnering with a business coach.
Steph believes everyone can do it.
Her experience in the corporate world mixed with her journey as an entrepreneur has made Steph Gorton someone her customers describe as caring, driven, and ambitious.
Still, most of all, she’s honest and doesn’t sugarcoat things. Many coaches out there will only set up a strategy and worry about getting a deposit, while Steph started this journey out of love for coaching.
She wants to disrupt the female entrepreneurship environment where everyone expects you to be nice and friendly all the time, to a new era where you ask for what you want and tell it how it is. Steph shines a light on entrepreneurship’s bitter truths: starting a business is more complex than it seems. It can be a lonely journey, but with determination, passion, and the right community around you, you can make it happen, and it will be even better than your wildest dreams.
Learn more about Steph Gorton and how you can start turning your ideas into reality on Instagram or her website.
