by Steve McConnell
It’s been almost three years since my wife Irene and I quit our day jobs to pursue the dream of building a business.
We were both at a stage in our lives where merely working to make a dollar was not rewarding enough. We wanted to create something.
And we did, in a way. Today, Arielle has a team of 5 staff and in 2015, our revenue will reach $1 million. All without taking a single dollar of debt or investment.
Although the numbers look promising, the journey of building the business has been an unpredictable one, often hair-raisingly confronting and far from smooth.
Here I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learned on this path.

1. Realize That You Are The Problem.

The business you’re about to build will be a direct extension of you. Its DNA will mirror your own beliefs, motivations, worldviews, strengths and weaknesses.
If you’re experiencing a problem in your business, it’s because you haven’t yet developed a capacity for something that the world requires you to learn in order to move forward on your path.


2. Address Issues At Their Core.


One of the main challenges for a new business, for example, is to get enough clients. If there’s not enough of them, you might be tempted to view it as a marketing problem.
While that is true, there’s more to it than that. At a deeper level, it’s also probably an empathy and generosity problem on behalf of the person in charge of marketing.
If this person is not wired to solve other people’s problems and doesn’t experience joy from a pure act of giving, teaching them about USPs and SEO will be a poor investment of time.


3. Embrace Personal Growth.

Your business is a giant classroom in which you’ll get an opportunity to learn about your own barriers and – if you’re willing – to move past them.
The aim is to use your role as a business founder as an opportunity to grow as a human being (which will, in turn, bring about happiness and fulfillment; not to use your business as a vehicle to build fame and fortune in order to bring about happiness (it won’t).


4. Believe That Final Destination Is A Myth.

When I was starting out, I watched too many YouTube videos in which business founders talked about raising millions of dollars and being bought by Google in the space of 6 months.
This led me to be distracted by promise of a magic, fictitious destination – one where we have “made it”, there are no struggles, no threats and little stress.


5. Enjoy The Process Of Building A Business.

The reality of achieving business goals is that every time one is reached, a new set of challenges present themselves, some of which were not relevant or visible at earlier stages.
It means that the very process of building a mature business has the effect of moving goal posts back hardwired into it.
A business that’s struggling to define its value proposition, for example, has little concern for refining processes and writing manuals. However, one that’s trying to scale will view those as a priority.
The lesson here is to cease aiming for a future where life is effortless and learn to enjoy the day-to-day challenge of solving new problems.



- See more at: http://www.remspot.com.ng/2014/12/dont-spend-money-on-looking-good-31.html#sthash.RlPYd9GB.dpuf