Why Working Long Hours Doesn’t Pay

When you start your own business it’s a given that you are going to work long hours at first to get the business off the ground. However, continuing to work those long hours for months and years on end create more problems than they help.

Your productivity is going to be at its best during a normal 8 hour work day. When you work longer than that in a day your productivity starts to drop and your creativity drops drastically due to your being tired. In addition to the issues with productivity David DiSalvo points out on Forbes that medical research is now proving that working too long every day leads to major health problems down the road.

If you started your business for the sake of a better life you probably don’t want to find out that it created heart problems and other issues down the road. Take time off, take care of yourself, and keep your workaholic self under control. The short term gain isn’t enough to outweigh the long term loss. What is your experience with working long hours? Does it really pay, or do you feel the backlash? 

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The Fate of Your Wedding Business Depends On This One Thing…

Most wedding businesses are doomed.

Jake worked for a communications company for years, and he hated it. He’d always been really good with video, so he started a wedding videography business on the side to pursue his passion.

He worked REALLY hard. Not only on his baby video business, but at his day job, too. He was raking in the money and life was good.

Except…he had no time to spend with his family. He was exhausted all the time. Going in to that 9-5 job just got harder and harder, until one day he took the leap and QUIT.

Jake went off on his own and absolutely poured himself into that videography business. He was working 14 hour days, shooting videos, editing them, meeting with clients. This guy was talented and his customers loved him.

Except…he had no time to spend with his family. He was so exhausted that he began to hate the video work he’d once loved to do. He started dreaming about the days of punching a time clock because at least he had “off hours” back then.

Eventually, he closed up his videography business and took a job working for another company, breaking his back for them instead of himself.

Predictions for the Future of Your Wedding Business

Statistics say…

  • By the end of the first year, 40% of small businesses will go out of business. Department of Commerce
  • Within five years, more than 80% will FAIL. Department of Commerce
  • More than 600,000 US small businesses close their doors every year. Small Business Administration

The odds of succeeding are stacked against us from the start. But we’re going to be Wedding Business Superheroes and prove them all wrong. Of course, we are. We wouldn’t be in this if we thought we were going to fail, would we?

So what happened to Jake? Why didn’t his business make it?

Jake wanted to create more money, freedom and time in his life. He thought that running his own business and being “the boss” would make that happen.

Jake had talent, drive, and nobody worked harder. Unfortunately, he forgot something that will keep you from achieving what you want every single time. While he changed his work, his career and his responsibilities…he didn’t change himself.

You CAN build a successful wedding business, and it all hinges on one critical thing…

“If your business is to change–as it must continuously change to thrive–you must change first. If you are unwilling to change, your business will never be capable of giving you want you want.” – Michael E. Gerber, The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

Change is one of the scariest things out there. We desperately want change on the outside, then we do everything we can to fight against changing ourselves.

If you want different results, you have to change what you’re doing. In order to change what you do, you have to change who you are.

So often we think that getting a new job or starting a business is going to change the results we get in life. But it won’t. Not unless we change ourselves first.

Jake switched jobs, but he didn’t change himself. He continued to work long hours, refused to delegate or outsource, and took on everything himself. As a result, he recreated the exact same miserable, stuck situation he started out with.

As I’m reading The E-Myth…highly recommended reading for ANY wedding business entrepreneur…I’m evaluating my own stuck areas and realizing that if I want the outside to change, I have no choice but to change the inside.

Take stock of yourself for a moment and answer these questions:

Where are you stuck with your wedding business?

Are you willing to start the change necessary to bring about the success you’re longing for?

You might not know everything you need to do to make that change happen, but you know the first step. It’s usually something you’ve been putting off.

Take a small step towards that change today. The fate of your wedding business depends on it.

What do YOU think?

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How To Build Your Wedding Business Without Getting Sucked Into Bad Ideas

 

Running_With_BalloonsI’ve listened to a ton of webinars in the last few years, and I’m guessing that is what you are doing about now as well. The problem is that unless you are listening to the right webinar from the right person or company who understands your business you are going to get a ton of horrible advice.

For instance, in the last few weeks I’ve had to talk my sister out of three different business ideas. Were they bad ideas? Absolutely not. But neither did they apply to her business. Being an entrepreneur is different than being in the fifth year of running a large company. Where they can get away with hiring people for every position, it is your responsibility to just go ahead and do the work yourself if you want to see your business make money.

You see, there is this breakdown in thought. It’s this circular pattern of thought that to make money you have to spend money, and then we apply that to every aspect of the business. The truth is that while you do have to spend some money, on some things, you don’t need to spend money on most things. Focus your money on the basics such as your website, marketing, and products. Worry about the rest when your business needs it. Make sure to read the article by James Altucher for some awesome tips on how to survive the early years of building a business. What do you think?

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How To Deal With Fear To Build A Successful Business

 

StressedFear is the great equalizer. It is what keeps you from building a successful business and reaching the top. This is something that history has shown over and over. If you control people through fear, no one will challenge you. Now we aren’t talking about taking over the world here, but when you build a business you are creating a place for yourself and your business that never existed before.

Dealing with fear can be difficult, but not impossible. Think about what the things are which are holding you back in your business. Often the reason that you haven’t taken the next critical step in building a successful business is because you are allowing doubt to creep in. Realize that building a business is always risky, but it is doing the very things that you are afraid of that will make all the difference between a middle of the road wedding business, and a successful wedding business.

Instead of allowing yourself to be frozen in place unable to move forward take time to think through what the reasons are behind the fear. Are they legitimate fears that need to be dealt with by putting safe guards in place before moving forward? Instead of being afraid of fear, you need to learn how to deal with the fear to turn it to your advantage to reach success. Make sure to read the article by Nellie Akalp for tips on dealing with fear in building a business. What do you think?

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Shaking Wedding Business Doldrums

Bucket_In_GrassIn the summer most businesses in the wedding market find themselves deal with slow weeks. The rush for the ideal spring wedding is over and you’re back to dealing with wondering how on earth to get your business up before winter.

One of the best ways to deal with this is to find a solution. Carol Tice writes encouraging business owners to stop stewing about the problem and to start looking around for training programs and bootcamps that will help give their business that needed boost. Getting more business requires that you take action and go after the brides you want through marketing and networking.

Now that we are nearing the end of the summer the need for getting a jump start on marketing is even more important as we are heading into a notoriously slow time for the wedding market in just a few months. Take a look at your business and think through what you think may be causing the break down in getting brides to sign with you. Do you just need to market more, update your website, change your store windows, or tweak your email scripts? Then get on it! Don’t wait for things to change because they won’t unless you help them to change. What do you think?

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How To Find A Work-Life Balance

Businessmen_in_ElevatorFinding yourself turning into a workaholic is the accepted norm of today’s society. This becomes an even bigger problem when you are building your own business. While work is good, spending time with family and friends, and even more so, just taking a break, is essential for your mental and physical wellbeing. As productivity expert David Allen said “You can do anything you want, you just can’t do everything.”

One of the main things I use to keep myself focused and balanced is to set priorities. They may be daily, weekly, or monthly priorities, but avoiding the tyranny of the urgent is crucial both for your private life and for keeping focused when you are at work. For more tips on ways to find balance between work and your personal life make sure to read the amazing article by Margarita Tartakovsky, Associate Editor of Psych Central.

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