Annie was one of my favourite movies when I was a child and I think part of the attraction was the fact that Annie was the eternal optimist. I have been tarred with the same brush and it has certainly stood me in good stead for running a business. No matter what crazy ideas or schemes I come up with or how badly they turn out I never think of myself as a failure.
Too many times I hear Mumpreneurs bemoaning the fact that they are business failures because they don’t match up to their competition. This in itself I find fascinating because nine times out of ten they are not comparing themselves like for like. A good case in point is a close friend of mine who runs a great little online business from home. We were having a glass of wine over dinner and chatting about our businesses when she hit me with the line “I’m a complete failure as a business woman. I thought I could make it work but I can’t.”
To say I was a little taken aback by her outburst would be an understatement, as I thought she had carved out a nice little business for herself with a good income and a great lifestyle balance as she only worked on her business for about 15-20 hours a week. So, I asked her to explain what she meant by this sweeping statement.
She went on to tell me that someone else had started up a business in the same niche area as her and was doing far better than she was. It turns out they had recently won a huge contract with a national company and she knew she couldn’t compete with that as she didn’t have the time or the resources. She was almost in tears as she finished telling me and had written herself off as a failure.
I then asked her to tell me what her mission and goal for her business had been when she first launched the company. She started to tell me that her dream had been to establish a small business that allowed her to remain a part of the industry she loved whilst maintaining a work/life balance that allowed her to spend time with her children and work from home. She also added that the income was only ever meant to be supplementary and enough to cover her expenses and make a small profit.
As she was talking about her business her face started to light up as she realised she had achieved everything that she set out to do and more. So far from being a business failure she was a complete and utter business success story. What had happened is she had fallen into the trap of comparing herself to a company that had completely different goals to her. The competition she referred to wasn’t really competition at all as they were a larger company with larger goals.
The lesson to be learnt here is to keep track of your business goals. The goals you had when you first decided to launch a business will still be fundamentally the same, but they will grow and change as your business grows and changes. You need to revisit them on a regular basis. Competition is healthy and should be observed on a regular basis, but not at the detriment to yourself or your company, as it can make you lose your focus. Keeping tabs on the marketplace and what is happening within it should be your primary focus when looking at your competition, not constantly comparing yourself to them.
Business failure or success is not determined by how well you are faring against others in the same marketplace but how you measure up against the goals you set for yourself and your company. The vision for your company should not be determined by what others are doing or not doing otherwise you are limiting your potential and what you can do.
Within my business at the Academy of Wedding and Event Planning we are constantly compared by potential students to another provider within the marketplace. So rather than focus on what the other provider is doing we look for the differences between our two companies. It is clear to me that we both have very different goals and visions for our company and therefore there is no comparison between the two. There is room for both of us in the marketplace as we both service different ends of it.
Business failure only occurs when a business is falling apart at the seams, running out of money, unable to pay its bills and has no customers buying their product or service. If that’s not happening to you then you are NOT a business failure.
Maintain your business vision, revisit your goals on a regular basis and don’t limit your company by comparing it to the competition.
Kylie Carlson has spent the last 15 years in business both in Australia and the UK, working around the world as director of the Australian Academy of Wedding and Event Planning. Her experience includes planning events for multi-national companies. She has guest lectured at several TAFEs and done many public speaking engagements under her pseudonym of 'A Mumpreneur'. She currently has offices in London, New York and Melbourne. www.amumpreneur.com.au and www.aawep.com.au
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