Just getting started

Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. This blog holds a special part of my heart (I love love love small business and helping my peers!!) and because it's the very first blog post of course I want it to be amazing. I think all small business owners have this anxiety. Of course, I know all small business owners don't have blogs but they do have firsts, they do have impressions to make, hurdles (even if they are exciting hurdles) to overcome and the fear of starting takes over. We as people procrastinate all kinds of things but when as an entrepreneur we already have a full or over flowing plate...starting some thing new is easy to put off.

Many times people ask me for "help". What do they do with this type of customer, employee or problem. How do they find the customers on Facebook, how do they handle designing, how do they get started in manufacturing or any of a million questions that I get thrown at me on a daily basis. Almost every single one of these people get the same question from me.... What was the last thing you read? What was the last training you took? Do you have a mentor, a data coach, a business bestie? There is normally a silence as they type (almost everyone private messages me on Facebook). It takes a bit to type up the excuse that comes next. It's normally the same story. They are trying to make some time for that stuff, they are trying so hard to get a class that works for their schedule, and the kids are keeping them busy and blah blah blah. Wait for the judgement... I know I sound harsh.

You see I was raised by a herd of people and one of those who always seemed to drive lessons home was my Grandpa Merle.

He was a John Wayne movie character in real life. A rancher, a farmer and a father to a million daughters and my dad. He is a man who ran a chain gang on the hwy from the saddle of a horse so he was not afraid of work or making others get work done. The kind of man that didn't have a fancy education but could mechanic, construct, drill, weld, grow, harvest and so much more with the best of them. And it wasn't that he could do it but it was that he did! Everyday up before dawn and worked until everyone was fed and in bed. Do you think that if you asked him why his tractor was broken and couldn't work the fields that he would say "welllll, the kids are so busy these days and need to get rides to dance and football... and I am trying to find a way to fit that tractor fixin' in to my schedule but... your grandma isn't super supportive of me having my field of dreams so I am bummed. And I fall asleep the second I start working on that tractor, tractor work just does that to me for some reason....I mean I am just not a tractor person. I also just haven't been feeling it, like I am not motivated or inspired to work on the tractor...a tractor has to move me for me to want to work on it... And I know some day I need to learn how to fix it but I just haven't been able to get to it, heehee". With a cute laugh and emoji. No. Of course not right?!

So why do we not take care of our tools, our land, our equipment. Why don't we just do it instead of "trying". Don't try...do. Be a doer. Just start. Don't let the anxiety, the fear, the procrastination steal from you. Read the book. Take the class. Find the mentor or coach that you need. If you don't know the answer look, learn, take control of your mind, your skills and your knowledge by doing instead of a trying. That doesn't mean you can't ask me questions, of course I love to help, just be prepared to answer... what have you done lately or doing right now to make yourself better.