The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 264: Challenges Of Being Your Own Boss
Today, I am diving into challenges that you may face as you start and scale your own business, challenges of being your own boss, examples of challenges I’ve faced as CEO of my business, some perks to running your own business, and so much more.
CHALLENGES OF BEING YOUR OWN BOSS
By: Melissa Lin
Welcome back to another episode of the Fierce Business Babe Podcast! I do hope that you are having an amazing month. There are a lot of challenges to being your own boss that we don't always talk about or really, you know, glamorise I guess, on social media. I really wanted to chat about that today because I know how scary it can feel when some of these challenges do come your way. I know how scary it is when something comes your way that you weren't expecting in business, or maybe you're just not sure how to handle it.
I want to talk about that a bit in today's episode, the different challenges of being your own boss, some different examples of challenges I faced over the years, and so much more. I’m so excited to get into this. We're going to be driving all into challenges that you may face as you start and scale your own business, you in the CEO seat, we’ll get into some examples of challenges I’ve faced as CEO of my business, some perks to running your own business, and so much more.
TIME MANAGEMENT AND SELF DISCIPLINE
The first thing I want to get into are some of the challenges that you may face as you are either starting your online business or as you’re in the middle and you're growing your business. Whether you've been in for a year, 2 years, 3 years, whether you're starting and you've signed your first client, or maybe you're at six figures or multiple six figures, seven or eight figures in your business, there are always challenges that you will face as you run your business and as you sit in that role of CEO.
The first one that I want to really dive into is a big one. I know that I definitely struggled with this when I first started my transition out of my nine-to-five world into full-time business owner, and the self-discipline, you know, having that time management and ability to time block, creating a work schedule, and figuring out what to do with your entire day when you're full time in your business. Even if you're not full time in your business, self-discipline can still be a challenge for so many of us because you're now also trying to juggle your nine-to-five with starting your business and I can definitely relate there too. I was sharing with some clients recently that when I was in my nine-to-five I was really going, going, going, and I spent so much of my day before my nine-to-five, during my nine-to-five, and even after on my business. I can recall hopping on client calls before I would head into the office for the day, client calls on my lunch break, and even after work. Creating self-discipline is a challenge for so many, and if you can start to get into the habit of being able to really hone that in, you're really going to be able to move the needle forward in your business. There are some days where you may need to wear multiple hats and know which hats to wear and when to wear them. My big recommendation here, my big piece of advice, I'm going to definitely give you at least one or two pieces of advice for each of the challenges I want to talk through, and this first one is self-discipline and my big piece of advice with this is really knowing what it is that you want to focus. Be very intentional on what you want to do every single day.
I actually have different days throughout the week that I do different things. I have days where I focus solely on CEO aspects of my business, so quarterly projects, we're focusing on going through our onboarding and bring new clients into the business, we're focusing on some team meetings and team projects that we're working on. I also have days where we soley work on content. So, for example, me recording this episode, it's a piece of content and then everything that happens after this my team definitely supports me with it as well. I have days that are just coaching days, so I'm coaching my clients and supporting my client, and I obviously love my coaching days, they’re definitely one of my favorites. I have a very set schedule and if it is not on my Google Calendar, it is not happening.
It's so funny, and I giggle about this, sometimes my friends do, and sometimes they get a little annoyed about it too, which is okay, but if their happy hour or our phone call is not on my Google Calendar it doesn't happen. I'm very disciplined when it comes to my Google Calendar and where I spend my time, and I’m very intentional about that. It also helps me personally close so many loops, because I'm that type of person where if my loops aren't closed I lay my head down in bed with Pearl in my arms cuddled up with me and the loops just keep going. I can't stop thinking about all of the open loops I have, so when I'm able to put the things on my calendar it helps me at least close the loop for now. Let’s say I'm thinking about a meeting to kind of tweak and take a look at one of our final projects that my team and I are working on. I’m thinking about ways that we could continue to grow, to funnel, to scale, things like that because I'm always working towards improvement and efficiencies and those types of things. Let’s say I’m able to put it on my calendar for two days from now when I knew I had an hour block or a two hour block where I could sit down and really brainstorm with my team on some of these things, and once I did that I knew I could set this aside until that meeting a day or two from today so I’m able to close that loop. So those are a few things that have really helped me with self-discipline, batching, really improving my time management skills, and having some type of work schedule as well. So, that's the first challenge.
SEPARATING LIFE AND BUSINESS
The second challenge I want to chat about and dive into is one that took me a little bit in the beginning to really, really understand the importance of and that is separating life and business. For my first year or so in business, maybe even the first two years in business, I was so focused on my business. I totally, totally loved that and will always, always give you that permission to spend as much as you want to in your business, however, we're also starting our businesses so that we can find some type of freedom. Whether that's time freedom, financial freedom, whatever it may be, you get to enjoy the process as you go ahead and do it. My big thing was that I didn't want to be stuck in my nine-to-five until I was in my sixties and retire and then go enjoy my life. Same thing with my business. I didn't necessarily want to spend X amount of hours scaling my business and then enjoy it afterwards. I wanted to do both and have it all, and you truly, truly can.
It took me a little bit of time in the beginning to really figure out that for me to have that balance? I really needed to separate my life and my business. For example, if you go to happy hour with your girlfriends or if you're on a family holiday eating dinner and the only thing that you can talk about is your business, amazing, you're so proud of your business, but what else? What else excites you outside of your business? What are things that you love outside of your business? Do not let your business consume you, you are not your business. You are so much more than your business and we want you to have fun along the way. So find some of those things, whether they’re new hobbies, I have built up so many new hobbies and I can really definitely thank my boyfriend for this. He's brought so many new hobbies into my life that I've truly, truly learned to love. One of them is sailing, we both got certified a few years ago. I started to ski as an adult, I took my first few lessons a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I'm definitely taking on a lot of new hobbies, more volunteer work, and finding a lot of things that I truly love. I’m spending more time with my family and doing so many more things outside of my business. I knew that I wanted to have more fun and do more and be more and not be identified as my business.
So, for the first year or two, that was a struggle for me. I was so tied to the amount of time that I spent on my business. I felt that the more time I spent on my business, the more successful I would be and the faster I would get there, but what ended up happening was pretty much the opposite. I spent more time in my business and basically burned out even faster and then I started to not enjoy the process as much and didn't want to be in the business as muc. It was kind of that roller coaster effect that you hear about when it comes to people starting as entrepreneurs. That roller coaster of the highs, the lows, the highs, the lows, and separating life and business really helped me with that.
FACING NEW OBSTACLES
Now, the third challenge that I really want to dive into is something that happens with every entrepreneur and it happens I would say at almost every level. Whenever you step into a new level in your business, whether that means six figures, multiple six figures, seven figures, multiple seven figures, there are definitely going to be obstacles that you have not faced before. As you continue to grow your business, you will see things and challenges that you have yet to face because you're in a new level in your business. You will run into challenges that you've never faced before. It's very much like when you left high school and went to college and out into the real world. We really weren't taught, at least I wasn't and most of my friends that I've chatted to about this, we weren't really taught how to do our taxes ourselves or how to do some of the things that you would think they would teach you to do and be prepared for in the real world. I went to college for chemical engineering and they didn't teach me how to do my own taxes when I left or what to start to invest in or how to start to prepare for retirement and things like that. It’s kind of like that. You will face challenges you have not faced before, you will run up against obstacles and new things, and it's totally okay.
Something I do want to share with you is that you can truly handle anything that comes your way. I was actually chatting about this with some of my Mastermind clients earlier in the week. You can handle anything that comes your way. I've had so many moments in my business where I truly felt like this is it, this is the end, it's about to burn down, and I didn't know how to handle certain things that came my way as we were continuing to grow and grow and grow. One thing I will say is it's so, so, so helpful and beneficial to have a mentor by your side or somebody else who has gone through so many things that maybe you are currently going through to support you through that so it doesn't feel like you're going through it alone. I will share with you that you will be okay. Everything is figureoutable. Everything is doable. You can handle anything that comes your way. I promise you that you can. It's so, so, so important to surround yourself with other entrepreneurs and other people who could be going through a very similar situation in the level that you're at. You will face things you haven't seen before, and again, it's going to be okay.
BEING THE CEO AND SETTING BOUNDARIES
Now I want to get into the fourth challenge that you may face and that is you really stepping into your CEO version of you and holding boundaries. One of the big things as CEO is having boundaries and actually sticking to them. Boundaries in your business, boundaries in your personal life, boundaries with your team members, boundaries with your clients. It is so, so, so important. As my business has grown, I've actually needed to get stricter and stricter with my boundaries. For me personally I am an Enneagram 2, I'm a helper, I’m a recovering people pleaser, and for me having some of these strict boundaries was so difficult when I first started. I didn’t always stick to them, I broke some of them here and there more than a few times. I want to really share that it is such a game-changer for you and it's going to make things so much easier for you as you do create boundaries and actually stick to them.
So having boundaries not only serves me in both my business and my personal life, but they also serve my clients and in my personal life they serve my friends, my family, and everybody else that I surround myself with. The boundaries truly serve you and so I want to give you the permission slip to have strong boundaries as well and stick to them. They protect your energy and as you grow and continue to move the needle forward in your business. You'll want to make sure that you're protecting your energy more and more. Each week I say no to hopping on podcasts that pitched to me. I get pitched to by a lot of different podcasts and I say no to a good amount of them because of boundaries. I’m protecting my energy by not being part of workshops that may not necessarily serve me or feel aligned at the moment. Clients that don't feel aligned, meetings that may not be necessary. I'm not going to have meetings. Just to have meetings, right? Be very intentional with what you do, and again, boundaries protect you and they protect your energy. Have some boundaries. It really serves everyone around you as well. I know as I continue to hold my boundaries, my clients see that they're also allowed to have boundaries and hold their boundaries and it really does serve them as well. I am such a stickler for boundaries. If you're in any of my programs I've definitely challenged you on some of your boundaries and how we can make things easier for you and how we can get to creating some boundaries because it truly does serve you and it will make things easier for you.
CHALLENGES I HAVE FACED AS CEO OF MY BUSINESS
Let's get into some examples where I faced challenges as the CEO of my business. I can remember right as I went full-time in my business I lacked boundaries. I'm so happy that that's the fourth challenge that I really dove into in this episode because it was such a big moment for me. My lack of boundaries caused one of my biggest moments of burnout in my business and nearly pushed me to want to stop it all. Remember how I mentioned there have definitely been some moments in business where I felt like it could potentially be coming to an end or I've wanted to shut things down? One of those reasons was because of my lack of boundaries when I first got started.
Back then, this was my first year or so in business, and I felt that I needed to give my business my all and I felt that meant all of my time no matter the circumstance. I used to, this is past tense, I used to always have my Voxer notifications on, my Slack notifications, my social media notifications. My iWatch would be pinging constantly and any time my watch would ping, and let me know if you relate to this, send me a message over on Instagram, any time I would get a notification I would literally stop what I was doing and get back to that person on social media, or get back to a client because I felt like that was what was necessary because I had such a lack of boundaries for myself. That was also, I don’t want to say that it necessarily did, but it was also then teaching my clients that may be something they needed to do in their business, which is not what I wanted to share at all. You get to have boundaries. My boundaries now have just completely done a 180. I go into my programs two to three times, it depends on the program, but two to three times per day to support my clients. No notifications are on. I know I shared some other things that I say no to and some of the other boundaries of my business hours, when I check my email, how to get in contact with me and that sort of thing.
Boundaries are such a big thing. I can even remember when I was in my first year or so I was big on getting back to clients on weekends and I almost prided myself on the fact that I did give my clients 24/7 access and that they could get in touch with me any hour of the day, any day of the week. It was just such a huge lack of boundaries on my part. That's definitely not the case now. I don't get into Voxer on the weekends and my clients know this, they know the expectations. There's definitely some cases where if my clients are going through some pretty big launches I do lean in and support, but that’s definitely a case-by-case scenario because boundaries, again, are so, so important, so please add in some boundaries into your business. It's really going to serve you and I'm going to stop talking about boundaries now so that you don't get sick and tired of me.
I’m going to get into the next example of one of the big challenges I have faced in my years and it was actually early 2021. It was January 2021. It was such a monumental month in my business and I'm so happy that I can look back and giggle about it now because I definitely did not feel like a breathing moment for me when this was happening. Looking back, anytime I have faced a challenge, I know 6 months from now, even 3 months from now, I will be looking back and I'll be able to reflect and giggle and kind of laugh and kind of brush it off my shoulders, not a big deal, but in the moment it definitely can feel like a big deal. I definitely go through those feelings and know, again, you can handle anything that comes your way. It's all doable, it is all fixable, it is all figure-out-able, you can handle any challenge or obstacle.
I faced a challenge I wasn't expecting as we were growing our business. January 2021 was actually my first six-figure month in my business, so a $100k month, and something happened that we weren't expecting. Our Facebook ads account completely got disabled. We were not able to touch anything on our ads account. We lost all of our ads. We lost all of our growth and all of the work that we had put into our audience growth, our pixels, our account learning, everything in our ads account that we had for so long. I didn't see it coming and I was able to pivot very, very quickly once it did happen and once we realized we were not going to be able to easily get that ads account back. It's quite a process to get your ads account back. Some can get it back, some don't. We weren't able to recover it, but again, we were able to pivot very, very quickly.
Luckily I didn't have all of my eggs in one basket when it came to lead generation in my business. I definitely recommend that you kind of spread your wings when it comes to lead generation for your business because we don't know what's going to happen to social media tomorrow or next week. We don't know what’s going to happen to Instagram. I don't want to scare you. I definitely do not want to scare you as this is most likely not going to happen next week, however, Instagram could shut down. We've had moments where Instagram has been down for half a day or a full day and if your entire business or your entire source of lead generation is over on Instagram, then what are we going to do? We want to be able to utilize different platforms for different aspects of the business. So luckily not all of our leads were coming from Facebook ads. We do a lot of our business organically and I'm going to do a lot of email marketing as well as we continue to grow our email list. So something to just keep in mind, not to have it all in one basket. Even though that challenge came our way my team and I had all week to put a game plan together. We made it happen. We still had our first six-figure month even though we had hit a challenge and faced an obstacle that we weren't expecting. So that just shows that you can handle anything that comes your way. Truly everything is doable. Your business is not going to burn down. I knew my business was not going to burn down because of it, but again, it still wasn't a fun experience. I definitely look back and giggle about it now and as a business owner we get to be open,we get to be adaptable, and we get to pivot when needed because there will be moments in your business where you will need to pivot. I can promise you that social media is always changing and the way that we show up on social media, or maybe the way that we sell on social media, will also continue to change. Instagram wasn't a thing 15 years ago, or however many years ago it started, and so it will continue to change and evolve and we get to adapt, we get to pivot, and we get to try new things and experiment with new social media platforms and try things differently. That's definitely part of being an entrepreneur. Be open to pivoting.
PERKS OF BEING A CEO
Along with some of the challenges that do come to running your own business and being your own boss, there are also so many perks. I wanted to end with some of those perks because there are so many great aspects of running your own business. I get to make up my own rules of my business. My business truly runs and fits my lifestyle that I'm looking for. I'm able to take an entire week off minimum every single month. I'm able to pick up and travel whenever I choose to. I get to truly approve all of my own vacation days. I get to write my own paycheck. I get to give myself pay raises and I get to do that often because there is no income cap ever in your own business. One of my favorites is I get to stay home and cuddle up with my adorable loving cat Pearl whenever I want to. I get to make up the rules. It's my business. I do know that the more I make, the more I'm also able to give back to my community and give back to charities. The more white space I’m able to create in my calendar, the more time freedom I’m able to create for myself, the more I'm able to also go and give back and volunteer and do other things outside of my business. So there are so many perks to running your own business and I absolutely loved it. Yes, there will be challenges and yes, they're going to be so many exciting things that come your way because of it as well. And again, you can truly handle anything that comes your way. If you can take one message away from this podcast episode, I want you to take that with you. You can handle anything that comes your way. No matter how scary it feels right now in this moment, if you've got some huge fire in your business, it's all going to be okay. I can promise you six months from now, 3 months from now you're going to look back and it's going to feel like nothing even though it feels so heavy right now. It's okay. You can handle it. You truly truly can.
We have touched on so many things today, we've touched on some challenges you may face as you start and scale your own business, you in the CEO seat, we talked through some examples of challenges I faced as CEO of my business, some perks to running your own business, and so, so much more. We're already getting ready and excited for next week's episode. We cannot wait to share with you. We will see you next week in another brand new episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast bright and early next Monday morning!
Topics we cover include:
Obstacles to starting your own business
Separating life and business
My challenges as a CEO
And so much more!
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