There are a lot of things as small business owners we don’t feel comfortable talking about. Definitely in the planner community. It’s one of the closest tight-knit groups of girl bosses I’ve ever experienced, and yet we almost altogether avoid on thing in particular. Talking about failure.
Failure is a part of small business. It’s an active, scary, necessary evil part of it. Not everything I do works. Probably 40% of it does. New releases flop, sales don’t bring in the revenue we were looking for, and most of the time the cutting machines rather be doing anything but cutting. Failure is a part of the struggle, but it’s also a part of the triumph.
I don’t necessarily think our business is failing in the “close up shop and find a new calling” sort of way, but change is in the air for Oh, Hello. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. The same can be said about business. You can’t constantly do the same thing time and time again and expect it to always work. The times are a changin’ and we have to get with them.
The first big change? It’s actually quite simple. I’m saying ‘no’ more. I’m trimming back on my to do list, prioritizing what’s important, and no longer spreading myself so thin. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be, cutting back. Not being able to do everything all the time does tend to feel like failure in my book, but I know it’s for the best. For my business yes, but mostly for my mental health.
I don’t think we’re done with stickers just yet, but we don’t have plans to put all our eggs into one adhesive filled basket. I’m excited to share the journey with you once we figure it out ourselves.
And sorry for the blogging hiatus. Priorities are finally getting back in order.
Much love and embrace the failure.
