How to Prevail in a World of Struggling Mompreneurs

Can I be honest with you? In a tough love kind of way?You deserve the truth because you work damn hard and you juggle even harder. And you want it to be worth it.You want to make more money. To contribute more to household finances. You want a real business, not a hobby.Well here’s the thing.Working hard and striving for quality is commendable. But the unfortunate truth is that hard work and good quality don’t cut it.Sadly, they’re not enough —and in fact you know this already because they’re not getting you where you want to be. It’s frustrating to work so hard and not reap the rewards. Not make more progress, not make a better living.The bitter pill to swallow is that you need to do things differently.  To take a new approach. But how?

How To Prevail

Step 1: Stop What You’re Doing

Successful business owners will tell you that you can only succeed when you stop working in your business and start working on it.You rush to your desk whenever you get a chance, and you keep driving on and on. You put your head down and get busy, with a bit of admin here, some research there and then maybe a few emails.But driving on and on, just to cover mileage, can mean that you make little progress. Yes, there is some immediate gratification that comes from getting busy and ticking things off your to-do list. But it’s short-lived and short-sighted. Instead, be sure to:

• Guard against spending your precious time doing work that “feels productive”. Quit your addiction to rushing and busyness. (Being in recovery myself, I can highly recommend it for productivity, business success and sanity!)
• Stop. Take a look at how far you have come. Check your fuel efficiency, look at the map and do some navigation. You need to be able to answer in detail, “what’s working for your business (and your life) and what’s not?”

My own experience in my private therapy practice highlights this process well. Here are a few examples of stopping, checking and renavigating:

• When trying for a second child I realized I would have to keep paying the rent on my consulting room, along with other overheads, while I saw fewer clients and took maternity leave. I stopped what I was doing and found an associate to join my practice, and I was able to stay in business.
• Then when I was ready to increase my hours again I had to confront the reality that most of my clients wanted to see me before or after work. But I didn’t want to do out-of-hours work, as a mother of two small children. I stopped what I was doing and moved my consulting room into the city where clients can see me during their working day.
• And more recently, when I stopped what I was doing and checked my website analytics, I discovered that 50% of visitors were accessing the site via mobile…time for an overdue upgrade to a mobile-friendly theme.

Stopping to assess or reassess and plan for your business will look different for you. Do it whichever way makes sense for you and your business. Use...

• a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
• customer surveys
• profit and loss statements
• website analytics and/or other means.

Consider a coach or advisor, or maybe a mastermind group or peer support —dip into the archives and tap into The Mogul Mom community for a wealth of expertise and support.If you’re not making the progress that you want with your business, stop what you’re doing. Assess what’s working and what’s not. Navigate and plan an alternative route to get to where you want to.

Step 2: Start Doing What You’re Not Doing Enough Of

Here comes another bitter pill.Step 1 will most likely result in unwanted findings. You will probably learn that what your business needs is something that you don’t like or want to do. It was early on in my 11 years of business that I found I just wasn’t making enough money for all the hard work I was doing.It took a coach to get me to increase my fees and be vigilant about charging for missed sessions. She asked me, “Does the rent on your consulting room increase annually?”, “Do your clients get pay rises?” “Do you still have to pay the rent if your client doesn’t show up?”“Yes, yes, yes”, I answered. As a therapist and a woman, asking for more money did not come naturally, but I finally learnt to increase my fees and ensure I was duly compensated for my time.Maybe it’s marketing that you need to do more of and perhaps it’s not your strength —not mine either. Sometimes you need to make big changes. It can be difficult, but this is key in learning how to prevail.Again I needed coaching. For example, testimonials are critical in helping visitors to pick up the phone, when they find a suitable therapist’s website. But I felt awkward getting testimonials —feeling as if they smacked of self-promotion.I learnt that I offer a quality service and that there are people who want my service —they often find it difficult to take that next step to get help, and testimonials assist them to do that…while also helping me to stay in business.Start doing what you’re not doing enough of. Schedule what you tend to avoid.

Now Do It….And You Will Prevail

It will be easy for you to finish reading this post and go back to your emails. It will be easy to continue to work away. But will that get you to where you want to go?Stop. What. You’re. Doing. Now!Take just a few minutes right now to jot down what’s working and what’s not.Can you identify one thing that you need to be doing more of (even if you don’t love doing it) in order to really get your business going?Go on, do it!Do it and you will get to where you want to. You and your business will prevail.

What did you discover from this activity? Were you able to identify the one thing that you need to get your business going? Share with us in the comments.