I am turning over a new leaf at Boutique Business Consulting. It is exciting and always a bit daunting. Boutique Business Consulting initially started out in Hong Kong as a consulting firm - helping women to succeed in business. Because of my previous experience with the web the business soon morphed into a web development business. Boutique Business Consulting has developed over 115 websites in 2 years.
There is so much that I love about the web and still do. Its a great business enabler. Its a marketing tool, communication tool, sales tool, service tool and so much more. I will always be passionate about the web but I am not a web developer. I can talk about the web until the cows come home. I love reviewing websites, designing websites but I am not as passionate about building them. Don't get me wrong, I love co-creating small webs with clients but big, complicated site with loads on integrations is not my cup of tea.
So often for small business owners there comes a time when you have to stop and evaluate where your business is at. Are you meeting your business goals and your personal goals? Often times you will know straight away if your goals are being met because you will be feeling satisfied and rewarded. You will be loving what you are doing and you will be getting the feedback you deserve for your customers.
For me it had been obvious for sometime that I wasn't loving web development. As business owners we will often go through patches where we don't feel motivated. We might have a challenging client or personal issues that are impacting our work. It is important to assess very carefully what is the reason for your current lack of passion. Sometimes this feeling is fleeting. So it is best not to make lasting decisions when you feel like this.
If the feeling is a sustained feeling, it is important to spend time thinking about the root cause of these feelings. Sometime we can't assess this ourselves. Sometime you need a coach, mentor or friend to help you dissect what you are feeling. Many time owners can find the cause, correct it and then move it to bigger and better things with their business. For example Jane had stopped loving her business. She found she was becoming bogged down in the paperwork and the accounts. She found she had to spend a lot of time chasing clients for money. What she really loves in designing invitations and stationary. If she could spend all day doing this she would be happy. Jane wants to close down her business. She makes good money but the "business" of running her business is a drag on her inspiration. In this case Jane should keep her business and engage a book keeper to do her accounts and chase payments. This way Jane can spend more time designing and creating. While it may mean there is less in the bank account for Jane - she can work on building her product range and revenue streams and make more money overtime. The best thing is that she can continue to work from home and be there for her children.
Sometimes, you just need to stop what you are doing and move onto something else. This was the case for me. It took me over 6 months to come to the conclusion to sell the web development part of Boutique Business Consulting. In the lead up to this decision I had been working with a great team from The Hope Factory. We had been offering white label development services to them and I enjoyed working with them. I knew that they had the passion and know how to grow the business far beyond where I could on my own. I offered them the business and they said "yes"! It was exciting to have grown a business and to have sold it for real money.
I still work part time with The Hope Factory and I really enjoy my role there. My focus is on helping clients to improve their online businesses. I work closely with clients during the design phase of larger projects to make sure we are doing everything right to maximise engagement and conversion.
I am now free to pursue my original passion and my original goal for Boutique Business Consulting. I want be a coach and consultant. It means that can work with amazing women to help them reach their goals and their dreams. I loving giving women tips, advice and know-how to help their businesses succeed. But I don't just want their businesses to succeed, I want them to succeed as a person. I want all the women I work with to feel fulfilled, not stressed. Happy not permanently down on themselves. I want them to feel that they have found a good balance between home and work life. It is possible to achieve this. You just need to know how.
I finally feel like I have found this balance. I would like to help you to find this as well. The focus on my blog in the past has been about the web, Shopify in particular. If you are looking for specific advice related to ecommerce - head to The Hope Factory website. Over there I will be writing articles specifically for ecommerce and the internet businesses. On this blog I will be writing more about business generally. I will be providing advice on work life balance, organisation tips and so much more. I am excited to see where this new journey will take me and my clients....