What does success in your business feel and look like?
Some reflections, an experiment + 3 favourites
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Whether or not my business is, or feels, successful has been on my mind regularly over the past year or two. I’ve gone through various ways of feeling about this, from wondering a couple of years back whether my business was even “real” enough if I didn’t make “enough” money with it, to realizing that success for me is a result of how fulfilled I feel.
The recent launch of my new mini-course made me think again about success. In this post, I’ll share some of my reflections with you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts too!
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Dealing with the numbers
The other day, a friend asked me how things were going with my business. I find that a really hard question to answer—pretty much as hard as giving an honest answer to “how are you doing?”. 😅 As I answered his question, I quickly started talking about the number of 1:1 clients I’m working with, income and sales of my mini-course.
The thing is, I don’t even really want to talk about my business like this. At least not first and foremost. Yes, I feel like in the slow business space we often don’t talk enough about money (I have a post brewing on just that).
But for me, numbers are something that I know my inner hungry ghost thrives on. The numbers will never be enough for the hungry ghost. The hungry ghost will always be wanting more, as I shared in this post on my 2023 goals. ↓
For me, the numbers are tied in to being told to seek and achieve security at all costs as a child. It also ties in to an old desire of wanting to be “good” and doing the right thing. And it ties in to a very human need for recognition, to be seen, to be part of the tribe, somehow.
After I talked a bit about the numbers and my friend responded with interest, I shared about the things I’m currently loving.
How magical it is to me that I’ve worked on something for months, put it out in the world and now people are buying and enjoying it. How much I love working with 1:1 clients and supporting them as they build a business that really works for them. How much I love hearing their stories. How much I enjoy writing here and reading your comments. How amazing it is to me to be paid for my writing.
In going straight to the numbers I reinforced the idea that a business is only successful once we’ve reached a certain income. Once we’ve reached a certain number of clients or customers. It’s the things that show up if you Google “when is a business successful” (I’d not recommend doing that).
Yes, one of the reasons why I started my own business was because I wanted to earn money away from my teaching job. I wanted to be more in charge of when I worked and what I earned.
But I was also craving more autonomy and more fulfilment. I craved to experiment more, to try things out and to be in charge of what my days look like.
As excited about Substack as I am? Or are you curious whether it’s right for you and your business? My new mini-course is just the thing!
Substack for small business owners, freelancers and artists is available €35 to help you make Substack a part of your business. It takes a gentle, effective and anti-overwhelm approach that I’m sure will resonate with you.
Or, in the words of Amy who bought the course:
“You are providing a very useful service to those of us who are ready to move over and I appreciate that you made your course amazingly informative and affordable.” — Amy A
Redefining success
I started to feel like my business was successful before I came even close to reaching my financial goals (to the extent I even had them at that point).
My business started feeling successful when I realised that I was doing exactly what I felt I was made to do. When I was deeply loving what I did in my business. When I started to feel really in my business and when my business felt in alignment with my life. That sense of feeling really good in and with my business has only increased now that I’m making more money.
These markers of success may not resonate with you. For you, the success of your business might feel and look differently. What I’d want to invite you to do is think about what you want your business to feel like whenever you’re pondering success.
No one else’s markers of success matter—only yours. Only you know what you want and need from your business, whether that’s a certain income, a degree of freedom, space, challenge, connection or something else.
This post has been in the making for a while, but dovetails nicely with Emma Gannon’s The Success Myth which I’m currently reading (affiliate link). It makes me wonder, should we even talk about a business as being successful or not? As Emma writes, how we understand success, or how we use the word, often does not do justice to the complexity—or technicolour-ness—of life.
Success in my business is certainly multi-faceted and technicolour. And I love it that way.
Take a moment to think or journal about these questions:
How do you feel about the concept of success? Is it something you’ve applied to your business?
What are your own markers of success?
Where do you need to let go of other people’s stories about what success is or isn’t? Where can you reframe or even rename success?
I’d love to know how you feel about the concept of success, whether it’s something you reflect on in your business and how you define it. What does success in your business feel and look like? Leave a comment below to join to conversation.
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podcast | I really enjoyed listening to this episode of
: an interview with about her experiences with Substack.poem | Last week I discovered Hannah Napier Rosenberg’s poem “Until I thought of myself of the sea” and I’ve been reading it daily since. It just feel so apt.
reading | I recently read Sara Baume’s Seven Steeples and loved the quietness and sparseness of this story. A book to savour and read slowly. (affiliate link)
What’s on your lists of favourites this month? What did you read, see, hear, drink, eat, observe that made your day?
Lessons, surprises and what’s next: reflecting on 6 months on Substack (lots of great conversation in the comments section 💌)
I’m planning some special content for paid subscribers to appear this month: a post on running a business with recurring (mental) illness; a discussion thread on taking time off from your business and this season’s quarterly guide, which will be an audio-guide on gently reflecting, resting and dreaming. ✨
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This month I’ve supported clients with plans for different ways of marketing and creating longer term goals for a business and life that works for them.
I’d love to support you to do this and much more too: to create a business away from the norm that supports all parts of your humanness, whether that means starting or building a business alongside a family, another job, (chronic) illness or any other needs and desires.
There is a slower, gentler and more profitable way of running a business, and I’m here to help you achieve it.
Send me a message or check out my website for ways of working together: from one-off sessions to flexible packages. I’d love to be by your side this year.
Have a really good, calm rest of your week 💌 I’ll be back with my regular newsletter in July, and before that, with a behind-the-scenes post, a thread and a quarterly guide for paid subscribers.
Until next time xx
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Love your framing around success meaning the feeling that you’re doing what you’re meant to be doing and your business feels aligned with your life. That’s it for me too.
I really identify with your comments about being told ‘ to seek and achieve security at all costs as a child’… and although I have tried to push that voice to the back, it still makes itself known, which in turn, stops me from really pushing ahead….. Will take some time to think about your journal prompts…. Thx Carolyn