In the course of my daily working life I get to meet a lot of business owners from virtually every industry imaginable. These people are from big corporations and small, one person businesses alike. What constantly amazes me is the feeling of isolation that many of these business owners can feel. They often beat themselves up over perceived weaknesses in their businesses simply because they have no way to gauge how their business is going when compared to other businesses.

We often get caught up in our own little world. We develop a perception that every other business is perfect and ours is the only one that is not. Well I am here to tell you that there is not a business on the planet that hasn’t got the odd rough edge or internal problem and ironically, most businesses have similar, if not the same problems.

So my first piece of advice is that if you beat yourself up over your business you are wasting time and a lot of energy. If you have had trouble paying bills, perhaps been a little late paying tax, had the odd upset customer or a conflict of some sort with a customer, member of staff or supplier, don’t crucify yourself. The most important thing is that you are doing something about it. Having a positive plan of attack to prevent the problem from happening again is far more important than punishing yourself or feeling like a failure every minute of every day.

My second piece of advice is to find yourself some good friends who are also in business for themselves. People who you can be 100% honest with and that you trust. Talk to them about your own business challenges and let them air their own problems. It is very therapeutic to get them off your chest and you will be amazed that their problems are very similar to your own. Don’t feel embarrassed or concerned that people will think less of you. Sit around, have a good old moan and talk about ways to prevent the problem from occurring again.

My third piece of advice is to remember every day, that all small businesses are in the same boat. We all face the same challenges on a daily basis. It is demanding, sometimes difficult and often less financially rewarding than working for someone else but at the end of the day you are in control of your future. If you are brave enough to be in your own business you deserve a pat on the back and most importantly of all, there are many other ways to measure success other than a bank account balance. If you make a good product, offer a good service, have lots of people who your business has helped or just a sense of pride in what you do, you are already a success story.

So in conclusion, don’t be too hard on yourself. Talk to other like-minded people, share your good stories and your frustrations and every once in a while stop and give yourself a pat on the back.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that one of the true principles of succeeding in whatever it is you do, is to surround yourself with positive, motivated and like minded people. This doesn’t happen by accident, it requires a very clear desire to achieve your goals, regardless of what they may be and distancing yourself from anyone who tries to steal your dreams.

In the past few months I have done a lot of travelling throughout Australia. I have met many people from all walks of life. Some are building massive empires, some are building small businesses from home. The common topic of discussion was always the importance of having good people in your life to help you achieve your goals.

So what do I mean by good people? Put simply it means those people who will support and encourage you to achieve your dreams no matter what. They will not try and talk you out of your dreams or let their fears and insecurities come to the surface. Having people like this in your life is incredibly empowering and I believe they can help you to do anything you want.
When I wrote my first book, “101 Ways to Market Your Business” and I was toying with the idea of trying to get it published there were two kinds of people in my life. The first kind who said “go for it” – they believed in me and my passion. The second kind said “don’t waste your time, there are so many marketing books published already you will never get yours published and it will only lead to disappointment”. For a while the dream stealers had an influence on me but luckily I didn’t listen to them. The rest is history – five books, 150,000 sold in 40 countries around the world and a contract for five more books.

Sadly human nature means that not everyone wants to see you achieve or grow – for those closest to you it can be a little scary. They can be afraid that they will lose you as you outgrow them. For others there can be resentment that you are achieving your goals or you are driven to be a better person and they are not.

From my experience and from the amazing diversity of people that I am lucky enough to meet on a regular basis, I believe in this concept above all else. Surround yourself with powerful, dynamic and loving people who support you and your dreams and your chances of achieving them will be increased dramatically. Otherwise get yourself a good flea collar!

Being an entrepreneur is a roller coaster ride – all business owners face the same ups and downs, the same challenges, the same trials and tribulations and it’s easy to get caught on the ride. The sad part can be that we get so caught up with the ride that we forget to take the time to enjoy it.

Running your own business has a huge amount of joy on offer. This can come from doing what you do really well, having happy customers, building a successful and impressive business, from learning new skills and from building a good team of people around you. Unfortunately these get lost in amongst paying the rent, a customer complaint, a supplier messing up an order, sick staff members, increasing competition and a host of other equally distracting day to day demands for your attention.

I recommend that you take a few minutes each week and write in your diary or on a computer log of some sort what your achievements have been for this week. Just the good stuff – and they can be as big or as small as you want them to be. It’s best not to just focus on financial achievements although these are without doubt important. It is interesting how doing this exercise balances your feelings towards how the last week has actually been.

Good things don’t often require any further action or follow up – they just happen and you move on. But the more trying details require your attention and focus, quickly overshadowing the good that has happened. But when you keep a log of the good things they become more concrete. I make a point of emailing everyone in my office whenever something good happens – maybe it is a nice call from a happy customer, an article in the paper about one of our clients, a new contract, something positive regarding a member of staff, sales figures and results this month this year compared to the same time last year and so on. My team all comment on how nice it is to hear these snippets of positive information coming from the boss.

Whichever way you want to do it is up to you. But take the time to enjoy the journey by reinforcing the positive things that happen during your working week.

My passion really is small business. I love the fact that people are brave enough (or crazy enough) to give up financial security, set working hours and minimal responsibility for no financial security, ridiculous working hours and complete responsibility. I guess that says a lot about a person. I have pretty well been involved in small business for over 20 years, either my own or other peoples and there is something about nurturing those entrepreneurial urges that many of us find irresistible.

There was a time when small business was considered the backbone of this country (and virtually every country around the world). People were proud to be small business owners and they were considered pillars in society. Today small business is often overshadowed by larger corporations.
Generally small business as a collective is overlooked by Government, often because they don’t know what to do with them or how to help them.

But the biggest problem is that small business owners are not cohesive. As a group we don’t stand united to promote ourselves, to lobby politically or to encourage consumers to support us. I think it’s time for small business owners to stand up, be counted and be proud of what we do and what we contribute.

I am in the final planning stages of developing an Australia wide campaign to promote small businesses and encourage consumers to make a conscious decision to “support a small business today”. The aim is to start rebuilding community pride and support for small businesses.

We can all start this process simply by realising the role that small businesses play in the economy, supporting other small business owners and by holding our heads high when we tell people what we do.

I believe very strongly that passion plays a major role in building any successful business, in fact I think it is the main ingredient. But whilst it is essential to be passionate about what you are doing it is also very wise to learn the art of detachment.

In real estate we are always told, buy with your head not with your heart. Don’t get attached to property because you will pay too much. The same can be said for many business situations. There will always be another deal to be done, another customer or another opportunity. Be passionate enough to be enthused about the prospective outcome of the situation but patient enough to understand that it is not the be all and end all.

Some of my greatest business mentors have taught me this skill. I struggled a lot at first because to me every opportunity that came along had to be the one. But I soon learned that most opportunities are not as attractive underneath as they are on the surface and even more interestingly, there is no limit to the number of opportunities coming along. This is very empowering when you think about it. The phone will always ring again.

The key with detachment is not to grow too fond of the outcome. Don’t spend the money in your mind before your have the sale. If you become too attached to the outcome before the deal is done, and it doesn’t eventuate, you actually feel like you have lost something (which you never had in the first place).

This is a tough skill to master – but the benefits that I have experienced are that I tend to make much better judgement calls, I do better deals and my passion is more focused. Give it a try.