See your destination. Plot your journey.

Your business journey is yours.

No one knows all the answers. No one. Each of us has our own journey to take. Each of us has a different destination, and more importantly, a unique purpose for heading there.

What was your purpose for starting your own business?

More time? Less stress? Financial necessity?

Wherever your ultimate destination is, whatever your purpose for heading there, understand there will be detours along the way.

Sometimes these detours present themselves as minor lane shifts, other times temporary roadblocks or on occasion a broken bridge will impede your moving forward completely.

It’s frustrating, sometimes frightening, and nearly always puts a ding in our confidence.

Follow the detour, don’t change the destination

When your confidence is dented ask, is this a teachable moment? Has the detour actually saved me from a total wipeout or is it simply a bump in the road?

Maybe I’m on the scenic route now?

Above all never forget to keep your eyes on your destination.

Never forget why you started your journey.

That block of more time to spend with family; a bank balance which pays the bills; a morning where you wake up and look forward to the day, instead of dreading it.

What’s right for them isn’t necessarily right for you.

The other day someone told me they’d been advised they were ‘too cheap’. Okay, that may be true but based on what?

Based on what the other person was charging?

Based on what is perceived on Instagram?

It’s a generalist statement with no foundation.

Over the years I’ve heard many business owners say ‘well I saw what they were charging so put my prices up’.

This makes me flinch. Literally. I want to reach for a tyre iron and hit that person…. several times.

If your prices are based on someone else’s journey, and not based on your own, that’s like travelling with a map to Manchester when your own destination is Devon.

Focus on your own route, and be the driver, not a hitchhiker on someone else’s journey.

Your road map is your strategy

The journey you take to reach your destination should be strategically plotted - bathroom breaks, petrol stations, a sat nav that knows the best way - not necessarily the quickest way.

If someone says ‘I hear Penrith is nice this time of year, you should go there instead’, what do you do? Turn the car around and throw your map and provisions out of the car?

Of course not.

Because you’re not going to Penrith. You’re heading to Devon because Devon is where you’ve chosen to go.

This is not their journey, it’s yours.

Don’t pack a picnic for someone who’s not travelling with you. And don’t give anyone a free ride who’ll only steal your deckchair when you get there.

Know YOUR purpose.

Know YOUR destination.

Don’t listen to back seat drivers who don’t have their eyes on your road.

Follow your own map.

EJ x