Responding to dilemmas I journaled about when I quit all my part time work & solely relied on my online business to support my autoimmune diseases.
I had an inspiration for a fabulous post to share with everyone: a little excerpt from my personal journal from more than 2 years ago.
Read: Things I Learned While Earning My 1st $20k As A Full Time Chronically Ill Entrepreneur
It can be pleasantly surprising to record the moments in one’s journey that seem hard/big/challenging/monumental and then look back a year or two and just go,
“Wow. I would have never thought about this solution back then or have the strength to do it the way I do now.”
But then this idea turned into a deep and detailed article about how I actually overcame certain blocks in my life, shifted my thinking and saw instant results, and solved issues faced by chronically ill people in business.
If you’re interested, I’d love to share these vulnerable moments with you now & reflect on them as a new person in the present day.
Journal Reflection 1
“I struggle to find the balance between working with clients who are willing to pay me right now but are a nightmare to actually work with… and keeping the space open for the perfect clients that I cannot see yet when I have money/success worries.”
Knowing what I know now, I have double edged advice:
- Set a strong contract in place. Lawyers are helpful here, but learning how to write effective contracts for free on Google or Youtube can work here too. Make sure there is a way for you to back out if things go really bad/unmanageable without losing a lot of money (example: prorated refund or a non-refundable deposit). Client expectations and boundaries are spelled out and understood. Client signs the contract in good faith to follow it. A segment to allow the Client to back out of the contract without wasting your time, energy, and trying to get a full refund when you’ve already done work.
- Find a separate method of financial security so that you can release desperation when closing sales and wait for the perfect client.
- Find a way to outsource, receive a referral commission, or build a passive method of servicing those clients.
But no matter what: Refocus your attention and thoughts to creating ways to attract the perfect client, be visible for them to find you, and manage your chronic illness without adding stress to the mix.
Journal Reflection 2
“There’s too many things to do and I do not have enough time, energy, brain clarity to get it all done.”
1. It’s time to brain dump everything that you need to do and separate it into categories: money making activities & non-money making activities
2. Next, apply the Eisenhower Matrix separately to both categories.
3. Do, Delete, and Delegate
Note: Keep it simple! You are probably overcomplicating it if your are overwhelmed.
For example, may be you are trying to get more sales by putting out freebies and collecting emails and building an email funnel… how about you just make 1 freebie that collects emails, you post it in places that your ideal client hangouts instead of just your online channels, spend $3 a day with a targeted facebook ad, and create one email a day recycling/repurposing previously made posts, conversations, videos, freebies, testimonials, etc.
Note #2: Anything that you delegate or delete that frees up time, use that time for the Do section!
Journal Reflection 3
“I’m not hitting my goals because my chronic illness isn’t letting me work, I can’t keep up with everyone else, and my depression is making it all worse.”
Oof.. this is a really hard one. Day to day these thoughts still come across my mind. But here’s what I do:
1. Recognize these thoughts are happening. Since they are then:
2. Stop thinking for a moment
3. Do the things you know you need to do even if you don’t want to: take the pills, make the coffee, sit in the shower, set an alarm for a 2 hour nap, tidy the kitchen, apply the ice or heat pack, and make sure you eat/drink water.
4. Put away the phone during this time. Turn off social media & tv shows. Instead, find someone to talk to, listen to mood neutral/uplifting music, sit outside in shade or look at the stars for at least 15 minutes, paint or color, go through yearbooks or photo albums or old journals.
5. At this point you should start feeling from stressed and overwhelmed too relaxed, but worried. They are very different feelings.
6. Re-approach your business and/or life and do steps 1-3 in from Journal Reflection 2.
Remember that we are building online businesses that support the way we need to live our lives with chronic illness.
That doesn’t mean never working… it means working smartly and comfortably (not the same as getting outside your comfort zone!).
If our online business is not bringing in cash, is moving too quickly to actually keep up with, or forcing us to work on things that bring us a lot of stress… it’s time to finish whatever you are obligated to do right that moment (like client work) and then take a step back and rebuild the online business.
Business is not impossible. Business is not grinding 24/7.
Business is manageable. Business is asset building.
Best,
Valeriya Zaytseva
CEO | @ChronicEntrepreneurClub
