The biggest myth in business...

This was me in 2015, I'd just opened the doors and there wasn't a receding?hairline in sight, slightly grey, but an incredible hairline.

In my own little opinion, the first 2-3 years in business are the easiest.?

If you disagree, then let me have it, ha. Come on, you know you want to.?

You’re as excited as Kevin from Home Alone when he thinks he made his family disappear.

You’re usually just working on your trade, doing what you were good at, let’s say recruiting.

You're not running a business; you’re just working in it, drumming up business and filling roles, etc.

All you see is possibility and growth, mainly because you have nothing to compare it against.

You watch the bank account grow and think, "You little beauty, I’ve made it."

You bring on your first one or two staff members.

You’ve still got the rose-colored glasses on and you’re super pumped with the team and where things are at.

You’re getting all the accolades; your family and friends are pumping you up, telling you how proud they are, etc.

Your head starts to swell a little or in some cases - a lot.

You’re all having a ball, and you’re the fun guy, carrying on and thinking gee whiz this isn’t hard at all, what was everyone carrying on about?

A couple of years go by and things start to take a little turn.

This is where you start to age, so a hot tip would be to put a little bit of coin aside in a 'Botox Account' trust me, you'll need it.?

The wheels fall off a little, and you realize you can’t just be the fun guy; can’t just be part of the team, you need to lead, and you need to change.

Then, out of the blue, you get a bit of pushback from employees; they question your decisions, a few things go pear-shaped with a client or two, you have to start having hard conversations, you need to keep on reinventing your processes and fine-tune everything - it’s never-ending.

You’re now in uncharted waters; you’ve never run a business before, and you’re back to square one, a beginner yet again.

This is where the doubt sets in. “Can I do this, is this for me, should I just jump back into what I know, how can I truly trust and let go, why is there so much resistance?"

You have to slowly step away from the tools and run the business which is a hard thing in itself and a complete change of mindset is required, you’ll have to learn a new set of skills on the go.

If you’re smart, you’ll get the help of strong mentors early to help you with this transition. I wish I had?@ross in my corner from day one.?

Now is the fun part.

The pressure piles on and you think how do I maintain this let alone grow it, there are so many moving parts and you feel like you’re losing control.

You don’t want to go backwards.

Inevitably, you have a few bad months or quarters; the market changes, and you have to quickly work out what to do.

You start comparing your current month against your last.

The real work kicks in and it’s all about your mindset, and managing your emotional states.

It’s about taking extreme ownership of every little detail of your business, knowing it all comes back to you.

No, you don’t have to do it all, and you need to get the right team around you; this takes time, and you’re not going to get it right straight away.

You probably won’t ever truly get this bang on, and that’s the nature of the beast.

But you will get better at it.

You get better at riding the waves, at leading, at managing your emotions, at planning, at realizing you cannot please everyone.

Experience is a beautiful thing; that’s if you take the lessons on board and grow, if not you’re going to have constant pain and disappointment.

You start to welcome it all and not resist any of it.

You make better decisions and you gain more certainty in yourself, and it’s a beautiful thing.

Running a business is a beautiful thing; you put it all on the line, your house, and your family's future, but in return, you get the best degree in life you’ll ever get.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

#business #recruiting #recruitment #smallbusiness