8 Lessons I’ve Learned Since Starting My Business a Year and a Half Ago

I officially "launched" my coaching business in June of 2017. When I started, I had a basic website with no blog posts, no social media accounts, no mailing list subscribers, no income and no customers. … In fact, I didn't even have a clear idea of exactly what I wanted my business to become.

But within a day after launching my business -- which I did by posting a short video on Facebook, explaining what I was doing (and more importantly, why I was doing it!) -- I had my first customer.

Within a month, I had written my first blog posts and amassed my first subscribers.

Within a few months, I had worked with a number of clients -- but my client base wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be. I started to shift my focus from children’s book authors to creatives in general. 

A year later, I had a handful of clients who’d been working with me for almost a year. Projects that had once been a glimmer in my clients’ imagination were now taking physical shape... and interestingly, they were all book projects, ranging from behavioral finance to the civil rights movement to kids' comics. (Sometimes we take detours in life, wondering what our purpose is, and then the universe drops a gigantic signpost in the middle of our path that screams, "Your purpose is RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!")

Now, one and a half years later, I’m on fire. I have an incredible roster of clients and a crystal clear vision in my head of where I’m going. I haven’t quite come full circle, but I’ve returned close to where I was when I started, focusing on helping authors, illustrators, comics creators, and publishers achieve their biggest goals. 

When people ask me what I do, I have an answer: “I’m a book coach, publishing strategist, and creative mentor.”

Hallelujah!

After hiking along the entrepreneurial trail, starting at the very beginning 16 months ago, here are the 8 most important lessons I have learned:

1. Everyone starts from zero.

If you’re having trouble getting started because you feel embarrassed about your basic, DIY website; or because you have no “platform”; or because you’re not 100% sure exactly how you want your business to develop, the answer is not doing more research or perfecting your plan. The answer is to put yourself out there and get feedback from actual, paying customers. In order to get somewhere, you can’t just plan the route. You have to start walking.

2. It might take a while for your core message and target audience to come into focus.

It's totally OK to start at point "A" and end up at point "L" (or maybe "Z"!) The important thing is to get started somewhere, put yourself out there consistently, and start getting feedback that helps you keep refining your focus.

3. The marketing tactics that work for another person might not work for you.

There truly is no magical marketing formula that works for everyone. It's all about experimenting, uncovering your strengths, and putting all your energy into what works for you (once you've figured out what that is!)

4. It's human nature to compare yourself to others -- gently remind yourself that this tendency is totally counter-productive.

Everyone has their own pace and their own journey. When you feel a twinge of jealousy or frustration, remind yourself that the key ingredient for success is not intelligence or luck or talent or extroversion -- it's persistence.

5. The single most important thing to focus on, when you get started, is: how can you get people to pay you money for what you do, as quickly as possible?

This isn't crass or greedy or selfish. Your business is like an organism that needs oxygen to breathe, and money is the oxygen. Having cash flow (even when it's just a trickle in the beginning) gives you an essential sense of momentum, but more importantly, it gives you feedback on what works in the market. People will only pay money for things they really want.

6. If you're asking yourself, "But how do you get people to pay you money for what you do, as quickly as possible?", the answer is: Trust.

People have to trust that you're going to "deliver the goods"; i.e., solve the problem they're paying you to solve. I had a funny conversation with an acquaintance a couple months ago where I told her about a coaching program I was planning. When she asked me how much money I would charge and I told her, she gasped. "That seems like a lot!" she said. I laughed, and replied, "That's because you don't trust me!" She and I had only gotten to know each other recently and she isn't in my target market. So my price seemed unreasonable to her. But for people who know me, who are in my target market, and who have the exact problem I can solve, my fees are fair -- because I'm delivering something that's extremely valuable to them.

7. Getting people to trust you starts not with heavy promotion, but with careful listening.

How do you get people to trust you? The easiest way, I think, is:

1. start with people who know you;
2. talk to them about the issue your business focuses on;
3. LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY to everything they say;
4. build a solution that solves one of their most painful problems; and
5. methodically get the word out there that you've built that solution.

The first people who'll trust you are people who know you already. Getting people who don't know you to trust you takes time and consistent work (or a word-of-mouth recommendation!). There aren't any shortcuts.

8. Business success requires personal, emotional and spiritual growth.

Learning to trust your gut can be one of the most powerful results of taking the action required to build a business. One of the reasons it took me so long to get started on my business -- even though I daydreamed about it for years -- was because I didn't trust myself. This is a painful state (and definitely causes depression). Fundamentally, though, learning to trust yourself comes from two simple things: 1) taking action; and 2) sitting with and moving toward your fears. If you keep doing those things consistently, you'll start to feel grounded and confident in a way you never thought possible.

Conclusion

For me, starting my own business has been one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. It's not easy (and I can't deny that there are times when a steady salary and benefits sounds awfully alluring), but the psychological rewards have been astonishing. Hiking the mountain is awfully hard work... and then you come around a bend and glimpse a vista you never imagined. You feel yourself getting stronger and stronger. You climb over obstacles that would have previously stopped you in your tracks.

And you realize that the path will inevitably take unexpected turns. We're conditioned to be afraid of the unexpected. But the unexpected can feel another way, too: exhilarating.

Are you having trouble getting started with something? What might happen if you took the first step?

Let me know in the comments. I'll send an encouraging word (and if I have a specific tip, I'll let you know!)

For more information, check me out at jannamorishima.com and subscribe to my newsletter.