When I first started my business, I listened to a lot of motivational speakers and read ‘success’ books that preached to be successful in business we’ve got to make huge sacrifices, we’ve got to work 80-hour weeks, we’ve got to compromise, we’ve got to sacrifice time with our family or time off.

And while there are lots of people in the world that will tell you that that’s how you have to be successful in business, I’m not one of them.

I no longer believe that. I used to believe it but I don’t believe it any longer.

My personal experience has been that the more I focus on setting up my business in a way that is based around my strengths and my preferences, the easier business gets and the more business flows in.

In the years that I’ve been helping business owners to grow their businesses, one of the things that I’ve noticed is what I call the invisible wall. What I mean by this is suddenly rather than being a ‘Client Magnet’, a person has actually become a client repellent. Opportunities are falling by the wayside and business is drying up.

Typically when we start to explore that, there is normally some aspect of their business that has become less fun or less enjoyable or actually to the point of something they really don’t want to do.

So that rather than feel good about the new business that’s coming in, it’s like the idea of winning a new client makes their shoulders sink because they’re just associating it with more work and more struggle and more sacrifice.

So what we need to do is identify the struggle or sacrifice, and find a way to remove it. So, for example, it might be for example that someone has a lot of admin that they hate doing associated with working with a client, and the tweak that we make is we find someone to come in and take over that admin part for them.

I’ve observed that the instant we make that change, suddenly the business flows in again. And it seems always magical but it’s like there was an energetic invisible block that was preventing the business from coming to you.

So I think one of the most important things you can do to ensure the long term success of your business is constantly ask yourself, “Am I really doing business on my terms? Have I set this up for my optimum quality of life and for my optimum growth and learning and fun? Am I still enjoying this as much as I could?’

And if the answer to any of those questions is anything other than an unequivocal ‘yes’, then make the adjustments and tweaks that you need to. Vaccinate yourself against the strong and prevalent belief amongst business owners and business success literature that you can’t succeed without sacrifice.

Bernadette Doyle publishes a weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at http://www.clientmagnets.com

2 Responses to “Does Business Success HAVE To Be A Struggle?”

  • Hi Bernadette

    Congrats on your recent Top 20 female bloggers great news…..and a brit to boot. I have watched your progress over the last couple of years since I stumbled across your site and have been interested in how you have changed and your business has grown on the back of it.

    It is very inspirational and watching how you have brought in your team around you so that you are all in flow has meant your business flows as well.

    We are planning some major leaps this year as well and this week gulped as we decided to take on a couple of partime people to help with tasks that we should not have been doing. Yet at that deeper level we also know that the universe will respond to the “decision” we have made. Keep growing!!

    Thanks for all your tips and inspiration

    Best Wishes

    Denise

  • Bernadette:

    Thank you, Denise — it was quite nice to see my name on the top-20 list. I’m glad to hear that you’ve been keeping an eye on me, and it’s nice to hear from you. I’ve recently launched my Stepping Up programme, and 2010 promises to be an exciting year.

    I hope all works out well with your leap to outsourcing — good decision.

    Best regards,
    Bernadette

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