Running Your Own Business Is Tough

Even when I sleep, I am thinking about the pending work requests, getting clients for our monthly training, following up on corporate clients we have sent training proposals to and how to go from struggling to flourishing. I skip meals more frequently as worrying and appetite seldom go hand in hand. 

image: thepractice.com.au

I enjoy what I do and I'm already doing it at a sustainable level. The business is now self-sustaining. I have changed in ways I never would have had I stayed in a salaried job. I have met all kinds of entrepreneurs and seen the different ways they handle their businesses. I am certain that I am going to survive and someday flourish. The trouble is I just don't know when the flourishing will happen and when the huge demand it places on me will stop growing.

The days are getting very short. I seldom get done half of what I planned to do on any day. The weeks speed by. My inbox is filled with unattended mails and there are some mammoth work requests that make switching between tasks ineffective. I also have pending payments. You never know when you'll be paid until you're paid. 

Then there is the peculiar nature of a non-physical product business. Getting sales can be expensive at the beginning and it's more of a referral-powered business. You are up against companies whose managers have friends in all the major companies and have secured themselves as the training/consulting provider for those companies. You'll have to find the unclaimed prospective clients or have someone bring you in from within the company. And if you decide to focus on servicing individuals, you will be working extremely hard for too little. 

So till I am able to have friends in the HR department of many companies, I have to provide what no other training and consulting company is providing. I have to do webinars to show how much ahead of the competition we are value-wise. I have to make lots of free tutorials, templates and contents. And they all require time. Time I can only get after clearing my pending work requests. And the requests never stop coming. And they seldom materialize into paid projects immediately. And I have to make money to live on and have the business continue to exist. 

Everyday, I get mild headaches from the almost impossible task of running my own business.