How to Conquer Discouragement In Your Business

Recently in my community on Circle one of the young entrepreneurs posted about wanting some encouragement. She had been at her business for about three years and had learned so much. She felt that she had been resilient through the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur; however, recently she had done a big launch and had no sales.  She had been working so hard and felt completely deflated by the lack of results. 

So when we are faced with situations like this how can we pick ourselves up again and keep going without tipping into burnout?

The truth is that during your time in business you will come up against times like this. I can count on more than my 10 fingers how many times over the 30 plus years I've been doing entrepreneurship that I have felt like giving up. This happens because some days we just don't feel it but here's my two top tips for keeping yourself going in these moments.

1/ Don't take it personally!

 Whenever I come against times like this I try and separate myself out of the situation by asking myself the following questions:

• How can I take care of myself in this moment?
• How can I separate my feelings about about how I'm feeling about this today from what's actually happening in my business?

The first thing you want to do is think about doing something that is going to reenergize you and help bring you back to your center, to who you are and what you know is true. 

Entrepreneurship is an emotional roller coaster and the biggest personal development course you could ever take so it's important to be able to have a toolkit of things that will help make you feel good when you are going through a tough time. Looking after your physical and mental wellbeing is a priority so that you can come back stronger and clearer on what to do next. 

Another great thing to do when something is not working in your business is to go look at the numbers. Because the numbers don't lie. The numbers will always bring you back to the facts and you can see clearly if what you're offering is really resonating with your audience. Some great questions to ask yourself when you're looking at things from a critical standpoint is:

• Am I reaching the right audience?
• Am I offering my services in the right way? Is there a different way that you can offer them?

This is a great time to test some different ideas and reach out to different audiences to see if maybe what you're offering resonates more with them. Also this is a time to get real about whether what you're creating is based off something you love but actually there isn't a need for it in the marketplace. 

When we start to reframe 'failure' as opportunity it opens up whole new doors for us to explore and if we adopt the attitude of the humble and curious learner this is when we can hit real gold. 

Another key thing to look at objectively is your messaging - Are we really telling people what we do? Are we really offering our services? Are we introducing ourselves the right way so that people automatically can understand where we're coming from? Are we letting our audience know what the benefit to them is?

Not sure how to know if your messaging is resonating, then ask! Yes it's really that simple but ask either your audience or a business bestie and see what they say about your messaging. 

Interested in receiving free monthly trainings on this and other topics to help you grow your business to the next level? Join my FREE community on Circle for creative entrepreneurs because let's face it, business can be tough sometimes and we need all the help that we can get to set ourselves apart from the competition.

The only thing that separates you from them, is you. You're the one unique thing that no one else has. So how are you going to show it and let other people know, the amazingness that you are and what you create?