Lessons Learned as a Female Founder
Learnings from the first few years in business
Being an entrepreneur is a precious and eventful experience! It’s fulfilling, overwhelming, and everything in between. When I set out to build a business, I wasn’t fully prepared! In the seasons of chaos, I’ve learned how to prioritize rest and reflect. Today, I want to share with you a few of the lessons I’ve learned as a female founder. My hope is that you can learn without having to make the same mistakes I did and that you’ll be inspired to continue creating meaningful pieces of work.
1. Celebrate your wins
As entrepreneurs, it’s so easy to move from stepping stone to stepping stone, from goal to goal, without looking back to realize how much you’ve already accomplished!
But giving yourself some love for the love you’ve poured into this business is actually NECESSARY to keep the juices flowing. When you look back and count your successes, you’ll end up feeling more confident taking on new clients and growing your business to the next level.
My challenge to you? Reward yourself for a recent win. No matter how big or how small. Treat yourself to a coffee, a new book, or a long weekend. Do it privately or do it publicly, and do it without shame. You deserve it!
2. Don’t forget to work on your own business
If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are you’re constantly working on things that benefit other people. In the process, it’s way too easy to let your own business fall to the wayside! A lot of times, we struggle to work on our businesses because they feel very synonymous with ourselves. We think, “it’s functioning fine! I don’t need to improve anything right now,” and brush it off the same way we might brush off self-care.
But your business deserves the same time and attention you gift other business owners on the daily. It really does.
Now, you might be wondering, “How in the world am I going to do that?”
Start small! Even if it’s just an hour on Fridays, set aside that time. Whatever helps you get in the zone, do it — and don’t double-book that time. Treat it like an appointment (because it is one)!
3. Surround yourself with community when you have bad days
You always hear about all the great things that come with starting your own business. But remember that on social media, we only see the highlights!
Don’t get me wrong — the business owners, freelancers, and coaches you’re stalking on Instagram aren’t necessarily lying to you. I can confirm that most of those great things they’re posting about can and do happen (and they feel pretty dang amazing)!
But it’s okay to have bad days, too. Being an entrepreneur can get a little lonely sometimes, and it’s so easy to slip into the second-guessing thought spirals.
That’s why it’s so important to surround ourselves with a community, inside and outside of our field. People who get the realities of this lifestyle and people who appreciate you for exactly who you are! On a bad day, turn to your community for a reality check — and remind yourself that the highlight reel on social media is just that: only the highlights!
4. Pursue success with both perseverance and passion
Grit is where perseverance meets passion over an extended period of time. The idea comes from the book Grit by Angela Duckworth, where she cites passion as the thing that actually motivates perseverance.
Basically, your business will succeed – you just have to keep going.
I started my career working in ad agencies with some of the biggest companies in the world. But while I was there, I always had a burning desire to work at a smaller lever with a larger impact. I wanted to work with businesses that wanted to make a difference in the world rather than line their pockets.
I had no idea exactly how I’d get there, but I had grit. Turns out, that was the most important part — just staying the course! Trust that all the twists and turns in your path right now are there for a reason. Looking back, it’ll all make sense!
3. Find your positioning in your field
I feel so much more confidence as a freelancer than I did while working with brands through a company. You would think that I would be more confident with a team of collaborators than I do completely and totally on my own, right? But it’s the complete opposite. And I think that came down to finding my positioning in my field.
For me, I discovered that collaborating with small business owners of underrepresented groups is what truly fills me. Pairing that with my knack for telling unique stories was a no-brainer!
Once I’d matched my zone of genius with my passion, everything else fell into place.
4. Invest in yourself and your business by outsourcing
We can’t stay one-person shows forever. I was so nervous to do this because it requires investing money in myself (terrifying!). But it’s come back to me tenfold. I’ve been able to form more connections and grow my leads and inquiries in just a couple of months because I outsource and let those who are skilled in ways I’m not, help me in my business.
It’s easy to think you need to do it all on your own, but that’s really unrealistic. I am only one person and I can only be in one place at any given time! Outsourcing allows you to focus on the things you’re actually good at — you know, the whole reason you started this business in the first place?
Plus, now I can do more things I love with the people I love. So much value, worth, and love has been breathed back into the way I get to spend my free time in a way that I would have never thought possible in my first year going full-time. Which brings me to my final lesson:
5. Take care of your mental health
I struggle with anxiety and depression, and one of the things I wanted to focus on when starting my business was to make sure I set aside time for myself when I have a bad day.
When I need to take a mental health day, I just do it. After all, I’m my own boss! And since I’m my own boss, it’s worth noting that you are fully allowed to be the coolest boss ever to yourself! During a work week, it’s so easy to fall into the swing of things and want to go from the next thing to the next thing to the next thing. I could probably make a to-do list several pages long (and I often do!). But it’s okay, and actually necessary, to take a break!
You can be the boss that’s breathing down your neck all the time or the boss that would remind you that you’re doing great and give you the day off when you need it.
As you can see, I’ve learned so much since starting my own business. And that’s the key: I’m constantly learning. I hope I never stop! Remember that it’s okay if you don’t know everything! Just get started and allow yourself to learn as you go. If you focus on getting better after each mistake, you’re going to be so much further ahead than if you never started at all.
And remember, you don’t have to do it alone!
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