One of the best things you can do to grow your business is to join a Mastermind Group.

How do you deal with your struggles as a business owner? Starting and running your own business is tough...really tough.?There will be days when you may wonder why you took the entrepreneurial leap of faith in the first place.?Owning your own business is a lot like riding a roller coaster, with many highs and lows.

Entrepreneurs have often experienced the freedom and joy that only being your own boss can provide.?Yet has also experienced those stomach-twisting, stress-inducing moments when you wish you were back in a warm and safe cubicle somewhere at a big corporate, trying to look busy until 5PM. Don't worry if any of these thoughts have run through your head, almost all small business owners do.

You're not alone.?

Having a group of like-minded business owners, called Mastermind Groups, is one of the best things you can do as a business owner.

Here, you can exchange ideas or "War Stories" with people who share similar concerns and fears and learn from their mistakes and how they solved them. You get “on-the-job training” from people that have done it successfully!

Your friends, family, and former co-workers who do not own businesses will almost never know the next five things.

1. It is A lot Harder Than I Thought

Before you started your business, everything was crystal clear. You could walk into any business and instantly see a dozen things you could do better than them.?The ability to spot flaws and inefficiencies in businesses probably made you feel pretty smart.?

Six months after starting your own business, guess what??There are millions of people walking into your business every day thinking about how they could improve it if they owned it.?

The problems and solutions are so clear before you start a business.?Non-business owners (and non-parents) are often unaware that ideas make up only 1% of the equation...implementation makes up the other 99%.?As a business owner, you quickly realize that there is never a shortage of ideas; the challenge is putting those ideas into action.?

It can be hard to relate that to non-business owners, because they still consider having an idea to be the most important factor.

2. I Constantly Doubt Myself

Despite giving off an air of confidence, you're always asking yourself “do I really know what I'm doing?””,”,?””, ”,?””,”, “do I have what it takes?””.”.”.

As a business owner, you probably quickly realized how many hats you need to wear and how much you need to know.?It is rare for someone to truly understand their business until they have been involved for some time.

Doubts about oneself are normal, even healthy.?This will keep you on your toes and prevent you from becoming complacent.

Having these daily debates inside your head isn't something you want to discuss with your friends or family.?Business owners understand this is normal, but anyone else might think you are nuts or overwhelmed by the stress of owning a business.?It is possible that both are true or not.

3. It is Not Going as Well as Planned

If you ask any small business owner “how's business?” you'll usually get the same answer, “it's good!”.

Based on my experience, I usually interpret this answer as something between, Things are going pretty well, and I don't know if I will be open next month.

Telling your friends and former colleagues that "things are going well" is so much easier than telling them you barely made enough money last month to pay your rent and payroll.

When you first started out, you were so confident and enthusiastic, how would it look if you started telling people that your business isn't going well??There was almost nothing that happened that you expected.?This isn't a cause for embarrassment.?Almost every successful business person has stories of failures, changes of course, and close calls.?As a business owner, you have to deal with it.

One of your best confidants might be another business owner.?They probably seem to be the only ones who understand what you're going through.?It's for this reason that war veterans spend endless hours discussing the battlefield with their military buddies but never talk about it to friends or family. They just can't relate to what you have gone through.

It is common for people who work for others to expect consistency and predictability.?You'll get a paycheck after you work 40 hours.?After 40-50 years of predictable retirement income, you'll be able to relax and enjoy even more predictability.?When you own your own business, you don't have those luxuries; you never know what is going to happen next week, let alone next year.

4. Some Days I Wish I Worked for Someone Else

I sometimes wish I were a "Yes Man", stuck in middle management doing a job I'm apathetic about.?It's at least a steady paycheck!

A lesson that business owners learn early on, and what separates working for yourself from working for someone else, is that you are ultimately responsible.... for everything.?It can be exhausting to carry that weight all the time.

A fellow officer once told me, "You're never in charge, but you're always responsible.".?Owning your own business is no different.?You may feel as if you have no control over certain things, but the buck always stops with you no matter what.

Wouldn't you like to go back to the days when you screwed up at work, said you were sorry, and let those higher up handle it??It can be frustrating when you can't get anyone higher up on the food chain to help you.

No one would ever know this, of course.?Entrepreneurship was supposed to be your one-way ticket out of "Mediocreville", a place where you were free from bosses, creative constraints and anything else that bothered you.

Your former co-workers would never believe you daydream about answering to someone else, being told what to do, and carrying little responsibility.

Can you guess what??Those former co-workers daydream that they could start their own business if only they had the guts.?There is only one difference: you did it.?Whether you succeed or fail in your business, you should be proud of yourself, since most people don't have the stomach to ride the perpetual roller coaster of running their own company.

5. I'm overwhelmed

As opposed to the corporate world where you could pass things off to others, now you own everything. It takes a lot of time and energy (both mental and physical) to run your own business. In an ever-increasing sea of demands, the only way to stay ahead is to learn as quickly as you make mistakes.

There will be times when you may want to get off the roller coaster you call your business, but you know you won't discover what thrills await you if you don't stay on.

Most small business owners spend most of their days either with customers or with employees. Being alone with your problems, excitement, and stress can feel lonely.

I can be contacted on:

Stephan Le Roux

Mobile +27820822798

email: [email protected]

https://stephanleroux.digital

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