The Evolution of Lessons Learned in Business: Shifting Beliefs Over 5+ Years in Business
When you get started in business, you are trying to absorb everything around you - what the most popular entrepreneurs or role models in your field are doing and saying, what the latest webinar or class you’ve enrolled in is teaching, what you feel most comfortable doing as you pave your own path. It’s a lot. And it’s hard to really create opinions and beliefs of your own when you’re still in the stage of trying everyone else’s on.
After over five years in business, I’ve better learned where I stand and how I’ve evolved through different beliefs around how business should be. I encourage you to explore these ideas for yourself and reflect on what feels best for you in whatever season of business and life you are in.
In this blog post, I’ll address these topics in business (and how my beliefs have evolved):
Hustle culture
“The customer is always right”
The value of boundaries and flexibility
The pressure of doing it all
Hustle Culture - When It’s Good to Hustle and When It’s Not
I will be the first to admit that when I started my business, I truly embraced the hustle — long hours, trying lots of things to see what would stick, and ultimately not knowing when to stop. Hustle culture can be a trap because it puts all the emphasis on productivity and creating in a way that often quickly leads to burnout or, if nothing else, leads us to dramatically de-prioritize our lives outside of work. This is problematic because there is more to life than work.
Despite the potential of getting trapped in the hustle, it’s often a necessary phase of startup life. The reality is that it can be extremely helpful to hustle when you are starting something new and working to build a solid foundation for your biggest dreams. Your hard work and dedication upfront can pay dividends in the long run. While hustling can be extremely helpful, it’s not necessary. You can still build a successful business while abandoning the hustle. But if you are young and have the energy to hustle, I say go for it! If you are anything like me, you’ll hit a point where that doesn’t feel right for you anymore. It’s important to listen to yourself and honor what you need - and that may just be slowing down and abandoning the hustle.
When you are years into business and still grinding as hard as when you started, it’s likely time to step back and recalibrate. Ensure that you haven’t fallen victim to hustle culture and having beliefs that you have to work really hard or extra long hours to make good money. If instead you take the time to pause and reflect, you can better identify opportunities for growth and profit and decreasing your hours. Start to cut out the things that aren’t driving revenue or the things that you don’t enjoy. If things you don’t enjoy are still necessary to continue to keep your business going and growing, consider outsourcing them. There are options beyond putting it all on yourself.
Questions to reflect on…
Where do you stand with hustle culture? Are you in a season of life that you feel you can sustain more hustle to get things started or shift your work to a new place? Are you more seasoned in your career and still hustling? Or maybe you’ve figured it out and found a slower lifestyle and balance that resonates with you?
When The Customer is Always Right (and When It Actually Doesn’t Matter What They Think)
I grew up with a belief that the customer is always right and when I started in business, I immediately took negative comments any customer made to heart. I was hoping to please anyone that came in contact with my business and provide 100% satisfaction. While I by no means hope that people are unsatisfied with my work or their interactions with my business, I’ve learned that no business is for everyone.
There will be people who are just negative and projecting their own frustrations and insecurities onto you. There will be people who will never be satisfied no matter what you do to try to remedy any wrongs. There will be people who just don’t get what you do or what you offer. And that’s okay.
It’s important to remind yourself that you are not for everybody. And that every customer has valid opinions to share, but you don’t have to treat them with all the same weight. Your best customers opinions should matter more than someone who stumbled upon your business only to realize it wasn’t what they were actually looking for. It’s important that you are always kind and respectful and see other’s experiences and perspectives as valid and valuable. It doesn’t mean you have to take everything to heart and it surely doesn’t mean you have to change your business because of it.
When a customer says something and you realize they aren’t your ideal customer or someone you’d really like to work with, it’s okay to hear them out while simultaneously realizing that it doesn’t really matter what they think because they aren’t right for your business. It takes a mindset shift from thinking you need to bend over backwards just to ensure everyone who patronizes your business gets everything they dreamed of and more. Have great service, do right by your customers - even the ones who aren’t a perfect fit - but also stay true to yourself and the business you are trying to build.
Questions to reflect on…
Can you think of a customer you’ve had who wasn’t right in their negative feedback towards your business? Is there something of value you can take from that experience? How can you let go of their comments and create space for someone who is a better fit for your business? If you haven’t had any negative experiences, are you doing too much to provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee? Does what you’re doing feel sustainable?
The Value of Boundaries and Flexibility
When I started in business, I thought that being the most flexible meant having the most potential customers. If I didn’t niche down, then anyone could be a great potential customer. And while I wanted to be flexible and open to new ideas and opportunities I hadn’t thought of, I quickly ended up being for nobody in particular because I was so set on being for everybody.
The key lessons I learned were to define my target market but also better define policies for my business so that I could create the business and lifestyle that I wanted, not wait for clients to tell me how things were going to go. It’s essential to be proactive when running your own business. It’s also essential to realize that boundaries play a key role in helping you maintain your health and relationships, while avoiding burnout. Boundaries can keep you feeling satisfied and fulfilled in your work.
If there is a brand or industry that you don’t feel comfortable working with, don’t work with them. It sounds simple but can be hard when we may fear closing ourselves off from opportunities and potential income. We may be scared that if we aren’t flexible enough that there will not be other people and opportunities waiting for us. When we say yes to something, we say no to something else. Make sure you only say yes to things that align with your values and goals. Saying no to opportunities that are out of alignment for you creates more space for the right things to come to you.
I’ve found myself creating more boundaries each year in business because I’ve learned more and more about what works best for me. I’ve also evaluated if my clients share values and may appreciate a new policy or boundary I’ve installed. And in the times the answer is no, I consider adjusting the boundary for them (if they are otherwise a great fit) or communicating kindly that my business has evolved and their options are adhering to a new policy or finding someone else to work with.
There have been so many times I’ve allowed others to determine things for me and tried to be so flexible that it hurt me in the long run. I gave up my choices and then had to deal with the consequences of my business and life being decided by someone else. It can be hard to navigate, but the beauty of boundaries and flexibility is that they are ever evolving. You can pause and recalibrate at any time.
Questions to reflect on…
What are some boundaries that you could benefit from putting into place? In what ways are you too flexible and letting others control how you run your business or dictate your schedule?
The Pressure of Doing It All (and How To Let Go)
With wanting to stay flexible and believing that the customer is always right, there comes an immense pressure of doing it all. Offering all of the options as to not deter a potential client from working with you. Revamping your entire process as to ease one frustrated customer. We’ve all done more than we wanted to at some point and still made ourselves feel like it wasn’t enough. It can be hard with so many opportunities out there to actively close some off. It seems natural to want to keep our opinions open.
While we can believe that anything is possible, we need to acknowledge that it is not possible to do it all. Comparing our behind-the-scenes with others’ highlight reels on social media may make us feel like we are not doing enough. There comes a point where we may just feel overwhelmed and want to throw in the towel. That’s natural and could be coming from our constant battle with feeling like we aren’t doing it all or we aren’t doing it well enough.
The solution is letting go of the things that are not serving us. It’s not always easy - especially when our heart is pulling us in one direction and the numbers may be telling a different story. To have a successful business, we ultimately have to strike a balance between what is fulfilling and what is profitable. And being profitable means doing fewer things better. It means simplifying. It means looking at the numbers and making some key decisions based on facts. It can often be easier to let go of doing something when you compare the amount of effort and energy with the return on that investment. Continue to fine tune where you are putting your energy and remove the tasks, the offerings, and the overall pressure of doing it all that is holding you back from stepping into what you are best at.
You can always revisit and reintroduce strategies and offerings at a later date. You don’t have to do it all. Focus on what is serving you and your customers best and keep refining it so that you don’t feel overwhelmed but instead feel fulfilled and confident that you are using your time and energy in the best way possible.
Questions to reflect on…
What is one thing you can let go of doing? Maybe it’s showing up on social media when its negative impact on mental health outweighs the clients you are getting from it. Maybe it’s offering a cheaper service that sells well but drains you and isn’t as profitable as your other offerings.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chelsie Tamms is an award-winning lettering artist and designer based out of Chicago. She is the owner of Lettering Works, a branding studio that connects businesses to their audience through creativity and strategy. With over 10 years of practice of lettering and design, Chelsie is passionate about craft and intention. When she’s not designing, she can be found eating ice cream, traveling internationally, or starting a new passion project.
