#followyourheart (or not?)

I know there's a lot of new entrepreneurs reading my blog, and also those still in the planning stages of launching a business.

I want to share a thought with you.

I've been an entrepreneur since 2009 and have built my business slow and steady whilst raising my young kids.

I see the phrase 'follow your heart' being touted around as being the key element in running your own business.

Running a business is not for the faint hearted. It's hard work. It requires you to have tenacity, determination, imagination, creativity, energy and boundless courage. There have been many times over the years when I've wanted to give up. A small business owner has to wear multiple random hats....sales, finance, website designer, recruiter, box packer, cleaner....seriously the list goes on.

I don't believe it's possible for me to follow my heart every minute of every day. I truly believe and intend that as my business continues to grow then certainly I can keep increasing my time spent on the stuff I love the most. I follow my intuition a lot more these days and direct my attention towards money making activities which light me
up. That balance has started to tip for me, finally.

But in the early years....seriously....shit just needs to be done and as the business owner you have to do it!

Here would be my advice.

Make sure you know :
A) what you are good at and
B) which bits you love doing and
C) how bringing those things together is going to make you money

As your business grows and cash flow improves THEN you can concentrate on outsourcing the tasks which you enjoy least - and building a team to complement your weaknesses.

So if you're reading this and you've had a bad day, feeling disillusioned,
wondering if all the hard work is ever going to pay off. Stay focussed. Keep close to the activities you love and just knuckle down and get done the things you hate.

Following your heart doesn't mean you're going to be 100% passionate about every task every minute of every day. Please, don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Even the most mundane of tasks can be fun if you just stay focussed on the bigger reason why you chose to be an entrepreneur. And tomorrow is always a new day.