Losing your compass - Why many entrepreneurs lose direction.
Hey, It’s Stephen here. Founder of Valued and a fellow business owner.
Starting a business is exciting, but much like any journey, it’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to lose direction along the way. In fact, there are regular patterns of behaviour that we see amongst many new clients and we’ve given it a name.
We call it ‘Losing your compass’. Any of this sound familiar?
1. You Get Overwhelmed by all the Things You Could Be Doing
When starting a business, there are countless things that need to be done, from sales to operations to well… actually delivering whatever work it is that you do. With so many options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and our natural reaction is to reach for support.
2. You Don’t Have Anyone to Bounce Ideas Off
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, and it’s not uncommon to feel like you’re on your own. Even if you do have a business partner, they often have problems of their own and you don’t always feel like you can easily bounce ideas around. So you turn to the data to see if logic can help!
3. You Don’t Have Access to the Right Data
In today’s world, data is king. Without access to the right data, it can be challenging to make informed decisions and move your business forward. The problem is, most businesses don’t have access to accurate financial data, and even if they do, they often don’t know how to interpret it!
We see this in accounting all the time. The bookkeeping isn’t up to date, so even if you do want to review your financials and see what is and isn’t working then you’re probably looking at information that’s months old. So you give up.
4. You Stick with What You Know and Don’t Make Progress - The Cycle Continues
One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is stepping outside of their comfort zone. It’s easy to stick with what you know and avoid taking risks, but as we all know, you can’t keep doing the same things and expecting different results. So nothing changes.
Then we’re essentially back to the beginning again. The work stacks up, you become overwhelmed and frustrated and the cycle continues.
We see it time and time again with clients and that’s exactly why at Valued we don’t think it’s enough to just sort the accounts. We need to address some of these other challenges too in order to make sure the accounting side of things can also run smoothly.
We’ve all experienced at least one of these as business owners and there’s no shame in it.
The only difference between businesses that succeed and those that fail is that the former ask for help.
If you need help with accountancy or mentoring. The team here are always at the end of a phone or email. Feel free to get in touch.
Take care,
Stephen