This week has been one of my toughest yet since starting my own business. And I don't say that lightly.
As I reflect back on it, I realise I've come to learn some big lessons. And as I sit here on this peaceful Sunday in May considering it all, I realise that everything that happened this week pretty much all boils down to one thing for me: keeping it real. 'Real', being the operative word.
I toyed today with writing any blog post at all. And then I realised that if nothing else, I'd probably find it quite cathartic to document how I've been feeling this week and what I've learned from my experiences. Thank god for good friends who have helped me through the more challenging days!
You see, working for yourself can be a lonely business {or so I'm finding}. Especially if you work from home. Online virtual/social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are fantastic ways of raising your business profile and driving traffic to your online business. But ensuring that you have a network of REAL friends at hand to turn to during the difficult times is absolutely critical if you are a business owner who works from home.
The way I see it, real friends are way more important than the number of Twitter followers or Facebook 'Likes' you have…
The wedding industry is an amazing industry to work in. I speak from my heart when I say that. I feel hugely blessed on so many levels to find myself surrounded by so many like minded, creative individuals, and, as I'm discovering all the time, generous and kind people. But this industry, like any other, is prone to a number of much less attractive characteristics too; gossip, tittle tattle, you know what I mean. The kind of stuff you hope you escaped for good if, like me, you've left an office environment where that kind of thing can be rife.
And if like me, you work from home, on your own, it's all too easy to get way too drawn into it sometimes and view things disproportionately. Working for yourself, by yourself all day long and at times, it's easy to let your perspective, your ability to judge things in a rational sense, slip a little.There are occasions I have to remind myself to keep it real. This week was one of them.
Real Networks versus Online Social Networks…
Twitter and Facebook. God knows where my blog would be without them. They both drive a huge amount of traffic to my blog {each time I post a new blog, I will 'tweet' about it and also place a link to it on my Facebook page}. I love Twitter and Facebook. But I also loathe them at times.
Love My Dress has almost 6000 followers on Twitter and almost 3000 Facebook 'Likes'. You'd think with a 'network' like that, I'd never have a thing to worry about a thing. And yet there are days when Twitter and Facebook leave me feeling utterly dejected, deflated and low…
The thing about Twitter is, things can be so easily mis-interpreted. The same goes for Facebook. Sometimes, it can be so easy to read a bit of a negative tweet and find yourself asking 'are they talking about me?'. Sometimes, it can be so easy to read other people tweeting about their latest success and amazing projects, only to find yourself feeling completely inadequate. It can be so utterly disheartening to see other people tweeting about being out with family on a Sunday afternoon enjoying themselves, when you are the one sat at home in a room on your own, trying to catch up on work, while your family carry on their day without you downstairs. Stationer Lucy Ledger captured the essence of what I'm trying to say in her heartfelt 'It's OK to be a Sad Sack' blog post.
Sometimes, Twitter and Facebook? It all gets a bit too much. And I'm as guilty as the next person for obsessing over it a little bit too much.
From where I'm sat too, Twitter and Facebook are for some, becoming more a 'status' symbol, than they are a useful tool for raising your business profile and driving traffic to your website/blog – for connecting with like-minded people…
One of the most disconcerting ideas I've heard in a long while is that of signing up to a Twitter service to keep a track of who unfollows you. Talk about how to set yourself up on a good old paranoia trip!! Who cares if someone unfollows you on Twitter or Facebook? If they want to, let them. As owners of a small business, let's be honest, we have way waaaaaaaay more important things to be spending our precious time thinking about. If you are signed up to the Unfollowr service, I suggest you get shot of it immediately and divert your energies to something rather more productive.
I'm learning, on the is journey of discovery that is 'becoming self-employed' that there are occasions when you can feel very isolated and lonely. And sometimes, Twitter and Facebook serve only to accentuate those feelings.
For me, from here on, I'll be spending much less time getting absorbed into Twitter and Facebook on a personal level and much more time keeping it real. I love the idea of good old fashioned networking and look forward to getting involved with local and national networks where I can support and be supported by like minded small business owners.
The benefits of networking the old-fashioned way is one of the reasons I have set up the Summer Soiree in August. Putting the 'Twitter addresses' to so many faces and getting to know a little bit about the real people behind the Facebook status updates will be such a treat.
I love Twitter and Facebook and this whole online social networking revolution, but at times, I just want to pick up the phone and chat with real people and not have to fit in everything that I'm feeling into 140 characters, or a Facebook status update, only for it to be completely misinterpreted. And I don't want to find myself stressing over whether that tweet I just read was aimed at me either.
There are SO many pressures and responsibilities we have as small business owners but for me, I've learned that one of the most important is keeping it real.
Small business lessons learned this week:-
♥ Twitter is great but it can also be bad. Learn to step away from the Twitter Feed!
♥ Twitter is NOT about how many followers you have. Maintaining a blog is not about how many comments you get. Ignore the prople who brag about it.
♥ I want to engage more in 'real life' networking. And I value my REAL friendships and REAL business acquaintances more than ever.
♥ Being your own boss is AMAZING! But working for yourself, from home, can also be isolating. It is so important to have a network of REAL friends around you when you are setting up a small business. Real friends as in those that you know you can ring anytime of the day when the proverbial hits the fan. Spend less time on Twitter and more time nurturing these real friendships and personal relationships with the people who will be there for you in no time when you have your challenging week.
I dedicate this blog post and send love to all the small business owners who have had a bit of a rubbishy week. It happens! I'm off out to see some of the sunshine that appeared just as I got all of this off my chest 🙂
You can read more of my 'being self employed' ramblings here.
Much love,
Annabel xXx
♥
