If you’re struggling is it REALLY freedom?

There’s much hyperbole about the tremendous sense of freedom that comes from being an entrepreneur — someone who is no longer working for “the man”, who has put on their cape and is flying where they want, when they want, and how they want.

There’s just one major problem with this often hyped up picture, and as one person shared today (in an online group that I’m a member of):

“What doesn’t feel great is the endless cycle of not knowing how all of your business bills will be paid for.”

I can completely relate to this.

For two whole years my former business partner and I struggled with building our business and getting it to the financial level that we needed it to be at to be sustainable.

There are costs to doing business and in our case we had to pay for web hosting, domain registrations, insurance, software licenses, Xero bookkeeping software fees, advertising and marketing, and other incidentals.

There are costs to doing business and if your cashflow doesn’t cover them your business will fail. (Click to tweet)

What we found was that no matter how much hard work and determination we put in, and no matter how much momentum and recognition we were gaining at the time (people in our industry knew of our brand, which was a nice ego boost and validation of the effort we had put in) — something was not working.

When we eventually made a mistake in judgement that cost us a substantial client, and took our balance sheet so much into the red that it took us 6 months to get back to break even, in my own mind the final blow had been dealt.

I also felt that both of us were headed in different directions. I didn’t know how to break it to my business partner but it was over.

Several months later I finally sucked it up and told him the truth — I wanted out. Now he’s a smart guy, so he knew it was coming all along and there were no surprises when we had “the talk”. We agreed to clean things up so that we could split as evenly as possible, and part ways amicably.

The most challenging parts of this whole ordeal for me were:

1. Losing someone who I genuinely cared about.

More than just partners in business we were great friends first, and we had shared a lot of ourselves with each other and seen each other through great highs and lows. It genuinely felt like I was breaking up with a family member. It hurt.

2. I was giving up the “freedom of entrepreneurship” i.e. “the dream”.

Ask any entrepreneur and they’ll tell you — the scariest thing about their business failing is that they have to go back to getting a job and lose the freedom of being their own boss.

The mere thought of this happening will keep entrepreneurs up at night, breaking out in cold sweats.

For it to actually happen is a gigantic ego hit, and (as silly as this might sound) many would rather struggle eating endless packets of instant noodles and sleeping on their mate’s couch than go back to working for somebody else.

Key realisation:

It’s extremely difficult to be creative, positive, and be the support for those you love when you’re constantly worried about paying the bills. (Click to tweet)

So months after I gave up the business and did a little soul searching overseas I took up a full time job, and worked on getting my finances in order so I could feel what it was like to be abundant again and to not have to worry about money daily.

Things started to shift for me significantly when I did this — like a tremendous weight had been removed from my shoulders. I’ll save all the details for another post but I’ll say this…

If you are struggling right now between getting your business to work and making enough money to survive, pay the bills, and take care of your loved ones then you need to stop and evaluate.

You need to review where you’re at, what you need to focus on right now that’s most important to you, and decide where you want to be in 12 months time.

If your business is not generating the monthly cashflow that you need to cover all of your living expenses, then you might need the support of a business coach or someone who has successfully run a business (and their personal finances) to review what’s working and what’s not working.

Seek support from someone trustworthy to work with you on a plan to fix your business model or make a decision to let go of the business (and the struggling entrepreneur) for now so you can get back on your feet.

Sometimes you need to take a step or two back before you can take steps forward. (Click to tweet)

As one of my favourite spiritual guides Wayne Dyer once said:

“Nothing is ever in the way, it’s all on the way.” (Click to tweet)

If you found this post insightful please recommend it to others. You might find the other posts on my blog helpful too.

If you happen to be in Sydney, Australia, and you’d like to learn more about what it will take to grow your business sustainably then I invite you to join me at Supercharge Your Business on April 9.

Thank you for spending 5 minutes with me.

Are you an entrepreneur or thinking of becoming one? What does freedom mean to you?