In this episode...

Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Laura Hargrave: Welcome everyone here at Boss It. We would love to hear from you. Join us in our Boss It community by heading over to our website, bossitclub.com, and join our mailing list. As we grow, we will be launching our community of fellow Boss It BFFs, and we want you to be a part of it.

Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.

Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family, and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day.

There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you!

What's up everyone? Welcome back to another fantastic episode of the Bassett Podcast. My name is Sophia Nareen. If we have not met before and today I wanna talk to you about a mantra or a motto that I'm going to be implementing a more of in 2023, and that is, Taking two steps forward and one step back.

Now, you may be like in business, you should not be taking any steps back, but today I'm gonna talk to you about why you may wanna consider the motto, taking two steps forward and one step back in your business and in your everyday life. Let's get into it. I wanna introduce you to a quick friend before we get started.

My cat has joined us for the recording. Her name is Pasha and she's 18 years old, so I'm gonna keep her in the recording just. It's own natural, but in case you hear me out, that is who it is. Anyways, so the first reason why I think it's very important to consider the mantra two steps forward, one step back is to help you set expectations of what business is all about when you start a business or as a new business owner.

It's very easy to get into the mix of the glitz and glam and thinking, oh, business is amazing. It will give me all of the things I want to come true. It will solve all my problems financially and perhaps from a freedom perspective because a nine to five requires you to have some level of commitment to ours versus a business.

You technically work all the time and you work when you want. But with business, it's not always as glamorous as it may seem, and so you have to remember that you may need to take a step back in business while you are still progressing and growing your business. So by having the mantra two steps forward and one step back, you are setting your expectation and reframing your mindset.

So that way when you do have setbacks in business, when things don't go as planned, when there are situations that come up that may hinder your growth of your business or prevent you from delivering on some promise, that is part of the whole idea of what business is all about. Nothing is a straight line up and you will always come up against some level of.

So by having that mantra that you are progressing slowly, you are taking the steps forward, the two steps forward, but you may come into a situation where you have to take a step back either because you intentionally take the step back, and we will be chatting about that in the next few minutes of why you would want to intentionally step back.

But it may happen inadvertently when things come up in the business. And as you know, from the past three years, many businesses had to take a step back when it came to the pandemic and the growth of their business. Many business owners have pulled out of business altogether because perhaps they had not set themselves up for those emergency situations when a pandemic does hit or some obstacle does arise.

So having the mantra and the mindset of stepping. And taking it not so fast, but a little bit more intentionally growing your business, not supersonic, growing your business, but more or less like intentionally growing your business. You give yourself the opportunity to set up protocols in your business.

So we'll get into that in a minute, but one of the main reasons I like the concept of two step forward and one step back is that you are setting up the expectation that you are going to have obstacles in. And that is a great way to ensure that you are persistent and consistent in. Many people will start and then they fall off the business bandwagon or they give up because they have these unfound expectations that their business is gonna grow and flourish and hit all these amazing targets and goals.

But those are not goals that can be met cuz business is a marathon. And I say this over and over and over again. It's not a sprint. You need to set yourself up so you can sustain the marathon until the business starts rolling on its own and has enough momentum to do. So that's my first reason as to why I like this mantra.

But let's go on to number two. So the second reason why I really like the mantra two steps forward, one step back is because you can then intentionally set the expectation for yourself and for your team, or for your greater family, that you will not be always consistently growing the business in a forward momentum.

Meaning you will at times pause the business in some regard to check on the processes that are occurring in the. Now, that's not to say that you're gonna halt business activity altogether and stop making sales. That just means that you're going to intentionally review your processes and your procedures, even if you're a solopreneur, and to see if they're working at their best optimal level.

And the reason for this is because then you have the mindset around I need to ensure that I'm continuously monitoring and managing my processes and procedures and making improvements to them. So a lot of. Everyone in business I would think is very focused on sales, top line growth. What is your gross margins?

What is your gross revenue? But I think many people forget that you do actually need to look at how these things are occurring and managing the SOPs, and so standard operating procedures, SOPs, or any type of procedure that you are conducting in your business, because if you don't manage those, they will become outdated.

And as you grow as a business owner and a business leader, you will have to optimize those procedures for the actual result. So you have to really understand that it's not always about top line growth and revenues, but also about how are these revenues coming up. Perhaps it might be safer to say that if you look at your processes and procedures more often, taking that step.

You might actually save money on your bottom line, meaning you may be able to cut expenses because you find another way of doing something that actually costs less money. So taking the two steps forward is fantastic, but taking a step back and looking at those standard operating practices, those SOPs and managing them and assessing them is also to the benefit of the.

And I always say by doing this, you can also help to risk manage, meaning just like the pandemic example that we provided. It was obvious that many businesses were not set up for the situation when they had to sell online. If a business had perhaps contemplated other selling channels or selling strategies before the pandemic to mitigate the risk that if in the event that they can't sell in person, how do they manage?

And that's not just with a selling product business that comes with service as well. I was working as a manager at the time in a nonprofit clinic. And our clinic had to shut down. But a week prior, we had already conceptualized what would we do if we had to shut down cuz we could see the pandemic coming and we knew exactly what needed to be done.

We took a step back. We were not in the mix of what was happening in the now. We had taken a step back and we had problem solve the situation where we would not be able to deliver services in. And because we had problem solved with our team ahead of time, as soon as the call came to say no more in-person visits, everything is shutting down.

Our team was ready to go and able to implement with practical ease of how to then provide services virtually. And it took many other clinics and hospitals months to do this because they had not taken a step back to. So again, big picture. You always should be stepping back and plan ahead and take a step back and look at your current standard operating practices and really help mitigate any risk and optimize any processes to save money on the bottom line will actually help grow your business.

So that is my number two. So let's go on into number. My third reason for liking the mantra two steps forward, one step back is that it gives a team, it gives a leader, it gives the founder the opportunity to slow down and perhaps take some much needed breath. If you say to yourself, every three months, our team is taking a shutdown for a long weekend, and it's built into your.

And you are taking that step back so the team has a chance to rest. Then that allows for the risk mitigation of burnout. And we know that burnout is a real thing. It's a real thing when it comes to the small startup industry. It's a real thing when it comes to big corporations. It's a real thing in every single industry I talk to from healthcare all the way to retail.

Burnout is a big thing, and if you're burning out, especially if your leaders burnout out or your founders burnout out, you have more risk of lack of innovation in the company, and of course lack of growth in the company. So by taking a step back and allowing the team to have that much needed rest as a corporate wide or company wide shutdown, nobody has the expectation or the guilt for taking the vacation that they much.

And I see this from time and time again where somebody will go on vacation, but they feel guilty that they have not returned an email or they're thinking about something that needs to be done. But if the company has taken a step back for a personal exercise where they get a chance to rest and recuperate as a team, then no one feels guilty about necessarily taking a vacation.

So again, taking a step back is allowing the team to have a breath of fresh air, and hopefully when they come back from the much needed rest, they'll have more creativity, more momentum, and be more productive as a whole. Because they've taken that time away from their team, from the desk, and given themselves a chance to really.

So those are my three reasons for liking the mantra. Two steps forward, one step back, and as you can see from the three reasons I provided, if every one of those reasons actually contribute back to helping you take the two steps forward. For example, the number two reason I gave with the SOPs and procedures, if you are so crafty and you can find ways of saving money,

You're actually saving money on the bottom line, meaning that your business will be taking more steps forward. And again, with number three reason being that you have the ability to come back and feel more. And more creative and more productive you are actually, again, allowing yourself to take more steps forward.

And of course, the number one reason, allowing yourself to understand that business is a marathon. You are not going to be able to take that straight line up as fast. As possible to the top of that mountain or goal because it's a marathon. So you have to give yourself the time and the patience to realize you will come up against obstacles and you will come up against things that you did not expect.

So by saying to yourself, oh yes, this is my step back, this is my intentional step back, it allows you to understand that this is actually part of the game of. So again guys, that is the reason why I will be using this mantra Two Steps forward, one step back, and if you have not caught any of our episodes, please do so.

You will see that in our business, we've taken many steps back because we did get hit with the pandemic. And we were launching in the Walmart stores in Canada, and both times, year one and two in Walmart were shut down and shut down. And the second year was such a bad shutdown that we were not even allowed to shop for the products cuz it was non-essential shopping.

And I can share more of those stories with you later. So make sure you hit the bell and subscribe wherever you're catching this podcast. Either on the YouTube or on any of the platforms where you listen to podcast. And if you wanna follow us along on Instagram, that's where we are probably the most active.

You can hit us up at FT Club on Instagram and we release an episode every other week now. So make sure you hit the bell on the YouTube and we'll see you guys. Again, very soon. Okay, take care. Bye.

Sophia Noreen: So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now is time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the boss at podcast so you receive a notification.

Whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on I. As a post or a story, and tag us at Bost Club. If Instagram's not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to podcast bost club.com. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business.

This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers, so don't miss out. Now, remember, bosses make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.