sjsmith.com.au - blog

Don't Worry Be Happy

Contradicting Yourself

A lot of small business owners are solopreneurs or operate with a very small number of staff. That's great for keeping your finger on the pulse as to what's happening with your business but, it also means that you're usually juggling more than one role. You might be the receptionist at one point during the day, the IT department at another time, the social media strategist, design and production team and, maybe even, the boss.

Wearing many hats is part and parcel of the gig but it can leave you feeling a bit like you're being pulled in too many directions. And it's this pulling in different directions that I sometimes find hard to reconcile.  I find going to networking events quite traumatic but I know that it's necessary to let people know what you do. I'm not sure why I find it so stressful because I like being with people and I'm reasonably good at small talk. Likewise, I enjoy doing the accounts on a weekly and monthly basis but when it comes time to handling them at the end of the financial year I'm a bit of a wreck. I wake up in the middle of the night and worry about whether I've remembered everything I need to do. You would think that after twenty odd years I'd be more relaxed about some of this stuff but no.  And I think that's the thing, just because you're a business owner, and hopefully you're a reasonably successful one, you're still a human being.  You're still going to have fears and worries and sometimes you'll manage them and sometimes you won't.  You'll love and loathe parts of the job (sometimes the same part!) and that's okay.

Being full of contradictions and having doubts is absolutely fine.  We all have them!

Till next time,

Sarah-Jane X