Does It Have To Be This Hard?

Have you ever had this thought about your bookkeeping business: "Does it have to be this hard?"

I'm going to assume that you're like the majority of us and that your answer is a resounding yes, that you have had this thought and probably more than once.

Am I right?

The truth is that building a business is usually not an absolute cakewalk, at least not all of the time. True, there are times when you feel like you've totally got your shit together and life is going well. Congratulations, pat yourself on the back.

There'll also be days when you feel like nothing is going your way when you're overwhelmed and stressed to the max. These are the days when you ask yourself "does it have to be this hard?"

These are also the days when you dream of a proper day job where you get to leave your work behind and come home. Where you get paid every week and the success or failure of the business is ultimately someone else's problem.

That phase never seems to last long though, does it?

All it takes is the thought of having to ask someone else's permission to take the day off because your kid is sick.

Maybe it's the thought of putting your kids into school holiday programmes or after-school care, or the inability to have a flexible work schedule to work around your children's needs.

Or the thought that your income would be capped or that someone else would be in control of how you spend your days.

Or maybe it's that you can't bear the thought of failure at this business that you have so much of your hopes and dreams wrapped up in.

So you dismiss the thought, and get on with getting on.

But, to answer the question of, does it have to be this hard? The answer is, sometimes, but maybe not as often as your experience suggests.

The reality is that there are probably things that you can do to minimise the does-it-have-to-be-this-hard days, such as:

• Raise your prices so that you at least feel like you're getting paid well for working hard
• Join a group of other bookkeepers on a similar path as you for support, advice and community
• Streamline your systems and processes to reduce wastes of time and resources
• Leverage tech to automate as much as you're able to free up time and headspace
• Outsource and delegate wherever you can - marketing, housework, clients' work
• Figure out what the best use of your time is and create your ideal week based on prioritising that
• Get yourself a coach to support your mindset, keep you accountable, and offer perspectives that you may not have seen

This list is just a handful of ways to improve your business and life. Of course, I can help with all of these.

Get in touch to see how bookkeeping business coaching might look for you and your unique circumstances.

Wishing you the best,

Stephanie