The biggest business risk I took was when I signed my first long-term subcontractor agreement…
My 3rd baby was born, and I was barely managing to keep my business running during nap times, but as he was getting older and staying awake longer, not to mention demanding a lot more of my attention and time .. business started to slip.
Email response times went from 24 hours to 72 hours, and clunky business backend problems left me in tears as I also tried to purchase a new home, wean breastfeeding, and go through an ASD assessment for my other kids too. It was a lot. I knew I either had to put my business on the sidelines, pause the momentum and just “mum” for a bit … or I needed some help and support in this while the momentum kept building.
I didn’t have 100% of the money to hire an assistant, but I know it was either I choose to take this risk and bring someone on or choose to stay safe, small and stuck.
I chose to get out of my comfort zone.
It was fucking terrifying, don’t get me wrong. But I knew it was the next logical step to take.
I decided to take the risk because… I knew with 100% certainty that running my business in the cracks of my day just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I needed daycare for my 1-year-old and I needed a team around me to support this growth as we moved ahead.
I was extremely time poor and the precious few hours I DID have needed to be spent on actually money-making creative pursuits, coaching, running my courses, recording podcasts doing interviews and writing my second book …. every hour I spent chasing up invoices, dealing with admin, scheduling emails to reply to enquires, were actually keeping me stuck on the hamster wheel of self-employed life.
Things were not all smooth sailing though.
At that point, I felt really afraid it was a decent amount of money per month I was about to invest in someone outside of ME. But I was determined to take this risk.
I reached out to a few different VAs in my state (I wanted to stay local because hello, coffee catch-ups) and after some phone interviews and collecting references, I ended up bringing in Katrina from Dragonfly Virtual Services.
Our brains just matched, she was able to understand my creativity and ideas and put systems into place to help me, she was a quick learner, loved chasing up invoices, wasn’t afraid to put the firm word on people and she got shit done. She’s been the main driving force behind Team Sexy Selfish for over 14 months now.
So what happened after I took this jump?
● My business grew RAPIDLY. As in, I made way more money than I expected last year and ended up having to pay a bit more tax than I expected, but in the best way, I mean what an amazing problem to have.
● My work/family life balance got a million times better. When I was a mum, I was a mum, when I was working, I was working, daycare helped a lot with this too. The constant cloud of anxiety that plagued me for years trying to juggle it all has slowly dissipated.
● I had someone in my corner, someone who I could voice message on a Tuesday at 5 am with a crazy idea for a promotion, and I have someone on the other end of that message who can make it happen, and believes in my company as much as I do. I felt supported in this mission and secure in knowing my capacity and boundaries would be honoured.
Because I took and brought on my VA, I finally have the business and the team I’ve always dreamed of; supportive, enthusiastic, efficient, fun, empowering and exciting. We’ve even gone to add more people to the team since then, with a social media manager and Business strategist and ads specialist.
I share this with you because I want you to know that building this business took a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears… So don’t feel discouraged if things aren’t going the way you want them to right now!
We started out completely from scratch with a tiny budget and almost no time. If I can do this and chase my goals, so can you!
What about you?
Is there any risk you have to take that requires you to get out of your comfort zone today?
Let’s do this together.
x Shona
