Do you ever feel like an unsung hero?
Owning your own business can be a double-edged sword – especially when you’re the one writing all the cheques, keeping the ship running and fighting for the vision that led you to set up in the first place.
Unlike passing your driving test, buying a new house or marrying your one true love, there’s no Hallmark card for keeping Dave in Accounts in gainful employment for the past 10 years!
In the first flurry of your new venture, your bravery probably inspired a good pat on the back from your nearest and dearest; but, as time goes on, those closest to us can forget just how emotionally, mentally – and even physically – draining self-employment can be.
You might find you tend to focus on what’s still left to be achieved, rather than taking a mindful moment to smell the roses. That’s particularly true if you’re in the infancy stages of entrepreneurship, or if you’re trying to take your business to the next level.
At times like this, we recommend writing a ‘Ta Dah!’ list – a summary of all you have accomplished in the past 12 months. It’s the perfect antidote to the daily grind of a never-ending ‘To Do’ list.
Looking back at the incremental steps forward you have taken, you might notice that you have:
- Increased your turnover and/or profit
- Brought new team members on board
- Launched an innovative new product or service
- Received outstanding customer feedback
- Supported good causes in your local community
- Opened new premises or invested in new production facilities
- Spent time training or incentivising your workforce
- Overcome a significant challenge
- Positively influenced your sector by sharing your time and expertise
If that’s the case, can we ask – with the greatest respect – why aren’t you shouting about it?
There’s only one difference between you and your competitor who has won an award: someone submitted a nomination. (Spoiler: they most likely did it themselves or paid an expert to do it for them, which is totally okay to do!)
We Brits are generally not cool with ‘blowing our own trumpets’; it can feel really icky. Instead, we watch on from the sidelines while other people get the awards that we know we are equally worthy of (if not more).
Winning an award is a surefire way to not only increase your own feeling of self-worth but also to boost your business profile and generate new leads!
So, if submitting award entries is not part of your marketing plan for 2019, our question is: why on earth not?
Credit: Michelle & Christian Ewen are Directors of Write on Time Ltd – positive media coverage specialists, award writers and bloggers. Visit LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-ewen-a2b4b134/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-ewen-92412927/
