In this episode...

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 like 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.

Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. If you have not yet hit the subscribe or bell, make sure you do so because you will always can be able to catch an episode whenever we drop on. We try to drop an episode every week so we are looking forward to sharing with you all of our tips and tricks regarding business. 

And today, I want to talk to you about how to start over again in business. As many of you may know, starting over again in business can be quite difficult. And the reason why is because you may be carrying a little bit of baggage if you had to either stop your previous business, or if you had a moment of pause in your business, or perhaps you had to shut your previous business down. And I know how difficult that could be. So for me, anyway, we are in the middle of a busy season for one of our businesses. 

For the service side of the business, we've taken a bit of a pause because I've had another opportunity that has surfaced and I've decided to take that opportunity. But when you bring something into your life, sometimes you have to say goodbye to something else or you just have to put it on pause. Or alternatively, you could ask for help so that way you don't have to say goodbye to everything. That is the art of delegation. 

We won't get too much into that in this episode. But what I really wanted to share with you is three tips on how to start again in business. Especially if you had a rocky experience in your past, and now you're almost scared to start again. Some people get really nervous and their anxiety levels increase because they don't know if they can actually proceed again in business. They feel like it's not going to work out. Why bother? But today, we're going to talk about a few perspectives on how to ensure that you're taking everything that you have learned from your past. You are going to be able to look at your new endeavor in business a little bit differently with a different perspective on how can you take things from your past and how you can apply them to your future business. 

So really, it's about perspective. I do feel that even if it's a negative consequence that you may have come out of in a past business or past experience with business, you should be still able to take the positive lessons and the experience from your past, perhaps, negative experience with business. 

I'm going to share a few stories about not even your experience but it could even be an experience that your family member has had and how they had a negative experience with business. And now, you're very fearful to proceed in that direction because you've seen the failures that may be coming up with business because you've seen a past family member. So let's get into it. Let's talk about three different ways of changing your perspective in business so that way you can start in business again.

So the first one is, look at a business as an experiment. It is for all intensive purposes and experiments. You don't know what's going to work. You have a hunch. You are looking at an opportunity in your life. Well, that seems like a good idea. But you're not a hundred percent sure. The only way that you're going to know is by trying it out and measuring your results. 

Generally, in business, we look at financial gain as a very great way of measuring the business success. There are so many metrics in business and we won't get into all the metrics. But a few examples of business metrics that you can use, of course, are your sales volumes, the number of clients and you measure it within a period of time. You can look at different things like your cart size if you're an online business store. And you can look at things like your conversion rate if you're on a website. And there are so many. There's multiple different metrics that you could be looking at when measuring your business. But the idea is, it's an experiment. So even if you've had failed experiment in the past or an experience that did not turn out to be such a great opportunity, they're going to look at that as part of the experiment. You're going to draw your hypothesis, your educated guess, based on your experience in the past.

So for example, if I opened up a gym as one of my past businesses, and this almost happened by the way, and say this gym was going to be fantastic, beautiful, boutique-level gym. Inside, there would be personal trainers and it would have different healthcare professionals like physiotherapists or physical therapists. And it would be beautiful, beautiful gym. But the pandemic hit. As we know, during the pandemic, all gyms in our area, in Canada had to shut down. So now, my business is closed. Closed for a significant period of time. I'm still paying the rent. I'm still having to pay employees. I may have a little costs for lease, different lease costs for the equipment. So all of these expenses are coming in, but there is no income because, of course, the gym is closed and the memberships are on hold. 

That is a good example of a business that had all the right foundations, had all the right bones. But for the particular situation, it landed in, being in the middle of a pandemic where all of the memberships were on hold and there's no incoming income, that is perhaps a business situation that may have failed and may leave the business owner paralyzed and fearful of ever moving forward in business again.

But if you think about it, and if that business owner can say, wait, I'm going to look at this as an experiment. What have I learned from this experiment? I have learned that I need to ensure that my business is not only dependent on on-site visits. I need to ensure that my business has multiple abilities to service the clients without being on-site. I need to be able to provide virtual care, virtual lessons, virtual training for my clients. And perhaps, I need to figure out a way of doing virtual personal training that is accessible at all times. So perhaps I needed more of an on-demand class schedule so they can just join on-demand as opposed to coming on-site and working out. 

So these are examples of where the business had such a negative experience by going through a pandemic and having to shut down. I must say, this must be a real story, a true story for many of our gym owner businesses. I, myself, wasn't in this situation but I can imagine many businesses may have been in the situation and they may have tried to pivot. But if they didn't have the infrastructure in place for technology, then it would have been very difficult. 

I can imagine that it would be extremely difficult for that business owner to even be able to think about starting again. But now, this particular business owner, just like any business owner that has gone through some level of unfortunate situation in the past can use that opportunity and say, listen, I'm going to start another business. But I'm going to look at this business as an experiment. I'm going to apply what I've learned from my past experience into this business. And by doing that, you have already given yourself a big advantage in the next experiment, which is the next business. 

Now, I don't want you to say, oh, I have to start a new business and a new experiment every single time. It's synonymous to saying, you can do small experiments within the same business. So every time you add something new to any element of your business, you're testing it. It's an experiment to see if it's going to deliver you the results that you're looking for. 

For example, for an online business, the result is I want more conversions on my online businesss. I want my customers to put stuff in their online basket and they check out. I want to increase that percentage. Generally, for online stores, it's about 2%, so I want to increase it. I want to make sure that I'm always at 3%. And what can you do in your business that you can ensure that your conversion rate can go up?

 If you can take anything from your past experience and apply it to your present in the current experiment, business experiment that you're running, that will make it a lot easier to start over again in business. So never ignore what you've learned from previous experiences in business. It doesn't have to be your own experience as well.

I had mentioned before that you may have had a family member that ran a business. My best friend's parents had a dollar store that unfortunately didn't do so well at the very end when there was tons of competition. And that left a really bad experience for my friend. She did not think anything in product-based business was a good idea after that. But her knowledge set and experience from her parents, her mom owning that store, she applies that when she joins her own business today. Whether she knows it or not, those experiences will help you, hopefully, navigate other obstacles in your business today. So never ever ignore your past experiences in business. Always look at your present-day experience as an experiment of sort.

Okay, number two, transferable skills. You have transferable skills that you picked up when you were running your business before, or you have transferable skills from perhaps a past career. And this can go in so many directions. It could be from you learning how to use Excel in high school because you had to run a Chemistry lab. And today, you're going to use your Excel spreadsheet to manage your finances or calculate the costs of your services and goods.

It can be a number of things. So again, try to set that perspective. Trying to ensure that you are not looking at your past experience in business or those who you know and love. Their past experience in business and saying, it's always negative. Think about some skills that you picked up there that are transferrable.

Okay, Excel was one that came to mind very quickly because I learned how to use Excel in Chemistry. Okay, today, I use Excel to calculate the cost of goods. You can see that it wasn't exactly tied to business when I was learning how to use it in my Excel spreadsheets but here we are today.

Again, it could be anything even in regards to learning how to delegate. Transferable skills, when it comes to delegation is super important. So I learned how to do a lot of delegations because of sheer survival in the home. You obviously need to ask for help, especially if you're working a nine to five or your own business or side hustle or whatever it is, you have to ask for help.

Being able to delegate out household tasks, simple but required, is a great way of learning how to do it in such a tactful way that it doesn't become an obstacle with your people in your home. You have to do it in a tactful way. So learning how to take the transferable skills in different domains of your life and apply it to your business today is extremely helpful. 

And then think about things like transferable skills from the particular business that you may have run in the past, it could be something as easy as coaching employees on how to sell in a more appropriate fashion. It could be a particular skill set when it comes to pulling reports out of a specific system. It could be an Amazon store or a Shopify store that you started that you're going to now be able to use those skills because you know how to start a Shopify store or an Amazon store. So now, you're going to go ahead and be able to open up one more seamlessly. Think about the skills that you have, and this will help you start again in business.

Okay, my next point is extremely important so listen up. You need to take a business break. I really do feel that new business owners or those who are starting again in business, they forget to have solid boundaries between work and life or work and anything else in between. And the work is all-consuming. You get consumed with this new baby business that you have, and you forget that there are other things that need to be managed. And I'm guilty of it as well.

So again, I'm speaking to because I've come from an experience. You need to put a business break in place. You need to have boundaries when it comes to your time, your energy and of course, your space. When you're starting your business again, make sure that you have solid boundaries for your time. Ensure that you have an on and off time through your business. If you're more of a morning person, then try to put your heavy tasks in the morning and block off your evening for yourself, your family. That time that you take away from your business will provide you clarity in your business. You will not be constantly working anxiously as I like to call it. You'll be able to take a break and breathe and say, this is my off times and my business break. I'm not going to be looking at my email. I will not be checking my store stats. I won't be looking at any other metric that is helping you decide if your business is actually flourishing.

You're taking a break. Physically as well, you want to make sure that your bedroom or your place of rest does not have anything to do with business in that space. So I have become very diligent about working only in my office. I don't have anything outside of this room except for one other room in the house that has some products that are still sitting in the home. I think most business owners that have products is guilty of having their product somewhere in the house. But having a solid space with no business paraphernalia or work paraphernalia will really help you decompress and break away from anything related to business when you're having your business break or your downtime.

And of course, your energy, if you're better in the morning, then optimize your time of most energy for doing the work. Don't try to put together a grand plan to do your business in the evening when you're half asleep. If you're running a nine to five and you're trying to get your side hustle started and up and going, you may have to consider working the late hours when you're already exhausted because you put a full day in. But ensure that you try not to do that every night. Try to take a few days in between so perhaps a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule. I know people don't want to work Friday, but when you start a new business, you may have to take a few days like that. You may have to sacrifice a few Fridays. But ensure that you're not doing every night because you'll burn out and you do not want to start over in business like that. You want to make sure that you are giving yourself the opportunity to rest and you want to give yourself the opportunity to work when you're the most optimal, not when you are half asleep.

Okay, so let's go from the top. We've given you a few tips on how to get your perspective in a place where it will allow you to excel in your business rather than making you feel like you have failed. And I'm speaking to those business owners who perhaps started something and it didn't go as planned. This could even be for people who are in the midst of doing their current business and you're like, it's not doing well. And I'm sure we all have those moments in business where we were like, it's not going as planned.

I thought it was going to be a lot easier. Again, nobody tells you these things because if they did then business wouldn't look as glamorous as it does. We see the beautiful hotels and beautiful cars and beautiful houses. They don't tell you that they stayed up until three or four in the morning, some nights. Or they didn't tell you that they failed, and failed some more, and then perhaps they cross that finish line.

So again, using your mind and saying, I'm going to change my perspective. Ensure I have optimized my perspective and then lead into business is going to make you feel a hundred percent more accomplished than you going in there, and feeling already like you're weighed down with doubt. That is going to be your silver bullet where you're going to be able to say, yes, I got this. Yes, I'm going to get it done. And yes, I'm going to do it with my full intention of doing the best that I can do. No excuses. 

So we spoke about looking at your business as an experiment. We want to make sure that you have the mindset that you're going to change a few step fundamentals, a few things in your business, and you're going to measure the results. 

The next was looking at the skills that you have gained in the past, your transferable skills and applying it to your business today. And the final tip was to take a business break. Ensure that your energy level is maximized. Ensure that your time is well spent, and you're not bleeding into personal time. And then ensure that your space has boundaries and you don't have your business clutter all over the home making you feel like you're constantly at work.

All right guys, again, if you are loving these tips, you can leave a comment below this video. If you're catching us on YouTube, you can always hit the bell and subscribe. And if you're listening on our podcast, remember you can hit subscribe or follow there as well. We drop a new episode every week, and we are looking forward to helping you grow your business and ensuring that you are going in there strong every day, and you're full of positivity and not doubt. 

Remember, you can make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all. And I'll talk to you guys later. Bye.

Sophia Noreen: So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It 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 Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at @bossitclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. 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.