What is your why in business?

I have just returned from a lovely week-long holiday on Hamilton Island, which is our first family holiday in a long time. The distance and time away is just what I needed in my both my personal and business life. What I discovered on holidays is that I hadn’t had a chance to stop and take note of what was happening within my brand and business in a while. I was so stuck in their day to day operations, that I hadn’t had a chance in a long, long time to take that balcony view, to step back and step up and look out at my business iland co. and see how far I’ve come. To think about what’s happening right now, what the challenges are, what my thoughts are around getting out of those and where I want to go next and reconnecting with the reason I started my business in the first place. My business iland co. was really inspired by an island holiday many, many years ago, when I was living overseas. It was in Sri Lanka on a tropical island holiday that the inspiration and idea about creating this brand inspired by travel and island life was born.

So it was a really humbling moment for me on this recent holiday to stop and think hang on a minute, this is the exact reason, this is the exact feeling that I love this being on holidays, and being relaxed and carefree. This is the reason, this is the essence of why I started my business in the first place, or my brand in the first place. So as I was checking my Facebook ads every single day, while I was still on holidays, I realised that there was definitely some misalignment around where I envisioned myself of what I’d be doing in the business and what I’m currently doing. It was a great wake up call for me because as entrepreneurs we struggle to switch off and remember what your why. We really need almost to be forced to stop working in order to take stock of what’s going on in our business right now. Like I said, even though this was a long awaited holiday and I prepared my small team and said like ‘don’t contact me, I don’t want to I don’t want to work, I really need to switch off I need that mental space’, I realised there were certain parts of the job, or certain parts of my business that no one else can actually do and so I was on my laptop every single day.

Like I said, I manage my Facebook ads still for my business and I do enjoy it but in the current climate of Facebook ads and given I have a very large daily spend, I have to be checking them daily. I thought what if I don’t want to do this anymore? You know, what if I really want to have a holiday? What would that look like? Am I going to have to outsource them or get some training someone from my team or how can I step out of that day to day grind that I’m pulled into and actually stepped more into a CEO or entrepreneur role where I’m thinking about what’s happening next versus being the tactician in my business. So having that time away, gave me some great clarity to reconnect with your why I started the business in the first place. Am I living what I wanted when I started my business? Do I have that freedom and flexibility to switch off and and relax and in some parts? Yes. In other parts? No. It was also a real eye opener for me, and especially when my husband and my kids are like, you know, ‘are you still working mum?’ So there’s some things in my business that aren’t really working for me right now so it gives you that clarity.

There’s only one way for me, I don’t know about you but there’s only one way for me to get that clarity and it’s to step out of the business, and to step out of my suburb and my home and go somewhere else.It can just be a two hour flight like I did, and have that week where you can get that balcony view of what’s going on in your business. Are you happy? Are you feeling fulfilled? Is there other things that you’d rather be working on that you need to then hire, or outsource some of the other tasks that you’re doing day to day like I’m currently doing? I’ve got big plans not only for iland co. but for helping other women with our online stores. Through my different coaching programmes, there’s so much I want to do in that space. But when I’m still operating as a tactician in iland co. on a day to day basis, obviously, it’s been very much highlighted for me that I need, there’s a missing piece in my team where there’s a missing resource where I can offload certain things in order for me to create space where I can go and create new products and new services and stay true to the essence of why this all began.

So if you are feeling a little stuck, a little confused, a little bit ho hum around, where you are currently at in your business, whether you feel like you’re working harder than you ever have, perhaps maybe for a lot less money, perhaps for no money, perhaps you feel like you can never switch off, I encourage you to go away, if you can go somewhere to even take a weekend away, where you can get some space. I need physical space in order to create that but whatever that might be for you. It’s taking like one or two days off and going and you know, just somewhere locally enjoying the beach or whatever it might be for you to get out of your business, break that habit of that daily grind being that the hamster on the wheel and and taking stock of where you are. 

What’s also really important too is just take a stop and celebrate how far you’ve come you’ve come in business. I know for me on this holiday, it was the first time I stopped and I thought I’ve never celebrated the fact that my business became a million dollar a year business , that we hit seven figures. There was never really a celebration because we were all in lockdown. In real life, if COVID wasn’t going on, we probably would have gone on a holiday or made some sort of effort to celebrate the success. But we hadn’t. I hadn’t. And it was there, I had a moment where I was sitting in the apartment on Hamilton Island and went, Oh, this is the celebration. This is the holiday. This is the reward for all of that hard work. But it’s so far removed from when it happened, it was so delayed that there was a bit of a disconnection. So I encourage you to take some time out, do whatever it is that fills your cup up, do whatever you can to step out of your day to day running of your business so you can get some clarity and take stock of what’s working and what’s not.

And whether there’s any gaps that you need to fill in your business, whether it’s through outsourcing certain tasks that take up too much of your time to a VA or whether it’s hiring your first team member. We can’t grow our business if we’re stuck doing all of the day to day work every single day because you will be stuck doing that, just running the business. You won’t get a chance to grow the business so it’s really really important.

What is your why?