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I am a “Successful” Business Warrior! Are you?

Following on from my previous blog titled “The perception of a successful business”, I thought I’d elaborate more into my own perception of “success”. I set up Forest Traders in 2012 after having my 2nd child because I felt lonely. I felt like I had lost my identity, I no longer had a name to people…..i was now “X & Y’s mum”. I spent my days lost in a sea of nappies, cleaning a house and frequenting baby clinics. My husband worked full time and I felt like I never had an adult conversation any more. I loved (still do!) my children but I felt lost, I needed something for me.

Fast forward 12 years and Forest Traders has given me an identity again. You know me as Jo, my customers know me as Jo, people who come to my networking sessions know me as Jo. When I walk through the door into my home, I am “mum” again but when I’m in the office, at a meeting or on the phone, I am Jo. I personally measure my success on that. I have built a business from an idea, I’ve evolved it over 12 years, survived a recession and a lockdown and it’s still here. I’ve got customers that I’ve had since day 1 and I’ve made some good friends along the way.

There are always success stories of businesses who have the constant upwards trend and we tend to hyperfocus on these as a role model for our own. These are usually large Companies that perhaps have a lot of investors to get it off the ground quickly and evolve efficiently with a good level of technology to help them. For self employed people and micro-businesses, investors can be hard to find so we have to start from the ground and build it up ourselves, reinvesting into our business constantly. Many people I speak to starting out don’t even take any “wages” for the first 12 months as they try to grow their business brand.

Obviously the business has to be making some money at the end of each financial year……..you can’t run a business with a loss month after month consistently but I try to plan ahead knowing that some months won’t break even. I know that I will have to spend money on larger expenses every so often and that will wipe out any profit that month. I know that due to having children, I can’t work 40 hour weeks (I don’t want to either) so I have to manage my workload and take on what I can complete. I know that I don’t want a big company with lots of staff, and that’s OK. With that in mind, I know my success is not based on money and being a CEO. My success is actually based on my own happiness (and paying the bills).

You quickly realise that sales/contracts/jobs can be unpredictable, it’s the first rule of running your own business that I explain to people………expect to ride a lot of waves and face some heavy storms! Some months it can just be about keeping your head above water, whether you were expecting to or not. Seasons can make a difference, the weather itself (what a rubbish summer we had) and unexpected Country lockdowns don’t help either. Add into that the cost of living rising; many people just don’t have the funds to spend in businesses now. That in turn creates a knock on effect where businesses don’t have as much money to spend in other businesses. Other businesses therefore can’t afford to hire more staff/pay their outgoings/invest and the cycle just goes round and round.

We have faced a lot of financial uncertainty in the last 4 years, more than I think we could ever have planned and saved for but I applaud everyone who has been able to ride the seriously rough ride we have had. I also applaud anyone who made the difficult decision to close their businesses because it was the right move for them, that’s not an easy thing to do.

Business owners are warriors in essence, we get up each day and fight the battle of business to stay alive. Are you a business warrior?