Seven Powerful Things I've Learned Working on My Start-Up
The secret is out! Well, sort of LOL.
I am working on starting a business! Hooray! So many exclamation points!
The other day I realized that even without having my business fully launched yet, I’ve already learned SO much and have GROWN so much in the process of getting it off the ground. I wanted to share what those growth spurts have been. Working on a start-up can sometimes feel really lonely and isolating, and I want other people who may be in a similar position to feel less alone.
Without further ado, here are some things I’ve learned in the last few months since I really went all in on figuring out how to get my business idea off the ground.
You Should Have More Faith In Your Ideas
I’ve had the idea in my head for my start-up for YEARS. And it’s just been there, twiddle dee-ing in the back of my brain, minding its business. It should have been at the very forefront a long time ago.
Now, an argument could be made that maybe I just wasn’t ready to build a business from scratch these last few years, and now it’s just the perfect time. But I also recognize that it’s not the lucky perfection of time, but rather the persistence in my work to overcome previous hurdles that made me ready to do this.
Younger me never had the courage to pursue hardly any ideas, let alone a business venture. She was scared, too afraid of what people would think. She didn’t think herself smart enough. She told herself she needed to do exactly what she was told, and never stray from the path.
It’s taken many years and lots of therapy and tears, but I can now see that those fears don’t magically go away, but I can work through them to accomplish my goals. The fears feel like companions I recognize and can talk to now, rather than complete roadblocks.
I wish I could tell little Sierra that her ideas are worth pursuing, but honestly even then I’m not sure it would have done anything. I have a vague history of being rather stubborn, especially when I am scared of being wrong. Even if being wrong would be better for me in the long run.
But now I understand that even if not all my ideas pan out perfectly (they won’t!) they are at least worth trying. Do the research, brainstorm, ask questions, talk through them with people I trust. Just because it might not come to fruition doesn’t mean it can’t be a stepping stone to something else.
Knowledge Is Power
Listen, I spent like four hours one night teaching myself how to do taxes for my start-up. It was confusing as fuck (as it’s supposed to be, of course!) and I had like fifty tabs open as I kept finding more little nuggets of information to research.
But I pulled up my Notion, got comfy on my couch, and took hefty notes.
I won’t tell you that I can do my business taxes right now off the top of my head, but I can definitely say that when I read back on my notes everything makes sense and I will be able to implement what I’ve learned as I need to.
Having the ability to say “yes, I at least generally know how to do my taxes, enough to ask specific questions if I need” is a big deal. It makes me feel a lot more confident. It makes me feel like I don’t NEED to rely on anyone to do them - I can rely on them when I CHOOSE to do so. More of the power is in my hands, and maybe I am just a control freak (I would never) but that feels pretty damn good.
You’re More Capable Than You Think You Are
Holy SHIT, has this been a big lesson for me.
Allow me to repeat: I’ve had the idea for my business for YEARS. And there were a million moments where I never felt like I would be able to fulfill that idea and bring it to life, all because I told myself I wasn’t capable.
Allow me to list off the things I now understand I am capable of:
Understanding business taxes
Writing a business plan
Planning business finances
Facing my fears and telling people about the business before it even gets off the ground
Asking for help
Accepting help when it is offered
These are all things that, at one point or another, I didn’t do because I told myself I couldn’t.
Capability comes from a lot of things: practice, dealing with triggers (yay therapy!), repetition, painful mistakes, and learning from them. But each little step of the way has made me feel even more capable than the time before, and that is a huge deal.
Others Will Want to Help You If You Allow It
OOF, what a learning curve this has been. But I can tell that some of the things I’ve learned in therapy and with time just sitting in my own little pea head are increasing the muscle of allowing other people to help me.
Recently, a friend of mine offered to review my business plan. My immediate, gut instinct reaction was to say no. Not the no of I-wouldn’t-trust-you-to-do-this, but the no of “oh god what if I’m actually really bad at this and then you KNOW how bad I am at it?? That’s really bad I can’t do that.”
Yanno, the super fun, super chill type of “no.”
I told my boyfriend about his offer to review the business plan, and I said what my gut instinct was. But I also said, “I’m aware of how my brain is reacting to this right now, and I want to try something else. I want to face this fear because I know he is genuinely wanting to help and see me succeed, and I could learn so much from this experience.”
Not to mention that someone reviewing my business plan - someone that actually has some experience in business! - is a big fucking deal. That gives me a much more solid chance to be successful. It gives me new skills to learn, new questions to ask, new ideas from a new perspective. The pros greatly outweigh the cons. But sometimes fear is a bitch, and it doesn’t want to see the cards being laid out that way. That’s why fears - and more realistically, the sometimes irrational way they present - most often don’t make sense to anyone on the outside.
However, this experience taught me that not only yes, I am capable of accepting help, but that people WANT to help. I am not alone in this process - not unless I force myself to be. I have found so often over the years that isolation and loneliness are self-enforced. Learning how to unravel that is a huge task, but one that is so worth it.
Oh, the opportunities that can be born from it.
Creative Ideas Will Flow When You Are Full of Passion
Example: I’ve said for YEARS how much I HATE marketing. Like, I’ve always hated it.
Turns out, I was just never trying to market the right thing.
Marketing before always felt difficult and annoying, and disconnected from my brain. But when I started working on a project that I am genuinely passionate about? The marketing ideas started to flow like crazy.
Now, will I ever say that I just LOVE marketing now? Nope, it’s still not my favorite. I think executing it is going to be pretty difficult from my natural skillset, honestly. But has it come easier than any other time I’ve had a need for it? Hell yeah.
That is just an example of how these ideas can spontaneously bloom in your brain. When you feel passion and excitement toward something, you’re going to be pursuing it so often that your brain just has so much to say on it! It wants to spurt out so many new ideas!
Just the other day, I got out of the shower and, before I was even fully dressed, I told my boyfriend about an idea I had for the start-up and asked him what it would take to pull it off. I had thought of it approximately 2 minutes prior while I was washing my face. Historically I’ve had to DIG and DREDGE to find those ideas, and they never felt good because I wasn’t excited about how they came about. With this, though, I feel excited to even experiment with the idea and seeing what happens. The emotional attachment to the process, rather than the outcome, is completely different.
Making Specific Investments Is a Good Thing
I think it’s easy to spend too much money on something when you’re excited about it. I mean, it’s easy to spend too much money in general, but when you’re PUMPED about what the purchase COULD mean for you, you’re like, “oh, I have a credit card??? I have ROOM on this credit card?? Hell yeah.” And then before you know it, you’re entering those little digits on the website and then you’re left with nothing but a strange rumble in your stomach. That strange rumble is immediate regret.
I know her well.
She ails me.
I had to fight for my LIFE on this feeling very recently when I wanted to buy a new camera. Of course, I will continue wanting to buy a new camera. But I feel pretty decent about being able to hold off on that massive purchase for the time being, after that little episode.
My logic DURING said episode was that I can use a new camera for my YouTube channel, pictures for my blog and Instagram, product pictures for my business, etc. And while, yes, I will most likely use a camera for those things, I don’t absolutely need it right now. Especially when I don’t have money sitting around just waiting to be spent on things. Every (most) single dollar I have is spent very strategically.
But other times, investments are genuinely good for your next move! I recently bought myself a new iPad. Already, having it has been a solid investment. I can now make better thumbnails for my YouTube videos, I can draw graphics ideas for my business, I use it as a second monitor with my laptop, I can take notes on it while courses are running on my computer. I’ll be able to use it for school in the fall, too, which is huge.
Some people say that making any investments into yourself or your business or whatever project you feel excited about it is a bad idea until you absolutely NEED to make them. I’m not so sure of that logic. Depending on what the investment is, doing it sooner than later is probably a good idea.
At the other end of the argument, there’s the option to say that every single investment you make is worth it. I hate to be that guy, but I think that is just the wrong answer, plain and simple. Just because you drop money on something does not mean you are going to use it. I would know, I’ve bought plenty of things I literally have not touched since. (Looking at you, cute little pack of journal cards.)
I believe it’s much more about the thought you put into the investment: planning out what you will use it for, identifying if you have alternatives that will suffice for the time being, and understanding what may fall apart if you don’t make the investment (even if it’s just losing a couple subscribers on YouTube because your thumbnails look like ass.)
People That Genuinely Care About You Will Be Genuinely Excited For You
I admit this one took me probably longer than it should have to figure out. But nonetheless, I did eventually.
I could list off so many examples of this from all sorts of periods in my life, but most recently it appeared when I sent off the Instagram link for my business to a few people I wanted to see it, and none of them even responded. They all saw it, but didn’t say anything. I won’t lie, that one stung pretty bad.
But there’s other people, like my friend who is going to review my business plan, that are so ready to cheer for you and lift you up and help reach your goals. People like my boyfriend, who is literally the most supportive person on earth and tells me all the time how fun and motivating it is to watch me develop this blog and business and overcome challenges to do so. There’s people like my friends who immediately said, “This is such a cool idea,” and asked me questions about it because they wanted to hear me talk about something I feel excited about.
I’ve learned that you don’t have to drag that sort of support and joy out of people. When they care for you, it oozes out of them without you having to try to earn it. Like, damn - who would have thought that something like starting a business would teach you that you don’t have to EARN people’s LOVE. They can just LOVE you and see you doing something you’re passionate about and then be HAPPY for you. It’s such a simple concept when you recognize it happening, but until it does, it is completely foreign to you.
A big reason that I feel so good about what I’m working toward now is because my friends and support system are so ready to see me succeed. They want to see me grow as much as I want to see them do the same. It’s a fucking miracle when something like that occurs. But when it does? Damn, if it’s not magic.
Are You Working On a Start-Up?
Working on a business is insanely hard work, and I’m not even in the weeds, yet. Honestly, though, I can’t wait.
I would be SO interested to hear if you are wanting to open a business, have a start-up idea in your brain, or are actively running a business and would like to share what you’ve learned along the way. Comment down below what you have discovered during your journey - I’d love to know!
