What is Your Reason Why?
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Just about everyone who is self-employed has made a very conscious decision to move away from standard employment. Though there are exceptions, it’s much harder to ‘accidentally’ find yourself in a position of self-employment than it is to fall into a more mainstream career path!
This simple fact is something I often find myself reminding clients of. Running a business can be draining and at some point most of us will lose sight of exactly why we chose to do it. At these times I believe it’s really helpful to remind yourself of your ‘reason why.’
Before I became self-employed, I was working in a people development career I loved… but the standard model of employment no longer felt right for me. After a lot of soul searching, I realised that gaining total control over my time would give me the flexibility I really wanted. Ultimately, this was the reason why I moved from a more standard career to self-employment.
The business owners I know and have worked with all have very different reasons why. These have included:
- Wanting to be more creative in their daily life
- Wanting more financial freedom
- Wanting to build a better work/life balance
- Wanting to take their skills in a different direction
- Wanting to work around health problems
- Wanting to be less fixed to a geographical location
- Wanting more control over the work they take on
- Wanting to work flexibly around family
- Wanting to be less constrained by industry policy and conventions
- Wanting to have a more varied career
- Wanting to work from home
- Wanting to explore a big idea
- Wanting less restrictions on their career
- Wanting to fit their work around a major ambition
Recently I’ve worked with two different clients who have admitted they’re no longer enjoying their business. In both cases we discovered, after a lot of discussion, that they had all but forgotten about the reason they were attracted to self-employment in the first place. Reconnecting with their original reason why, and working to incorporate it back into the businesses they’re running today, really helped both business owners to reconnect with their business and the joy of self-employment.
Are you experiencing something similar?
My recommendation is to get away from your desk for half an hour and really think about your mindset when you came into self-employment. What attracted you to this type of career? What were your aspirations? What was it that made you take the final leap?
Once you’ve remembered your own reason why, take an honest look at your working habits and consider whether the way you are currently running your business is honouring it.
If it isn’t, it may be time for you to make some changes! Does this sound daunting? It doesn’t have to be. Take a look at my tips for finding the courage to make a big business change.
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