October Topic: Now that your business has been operating a few years, are you doing today what you thought you would be doing when you came up with your business idea?
By Cheryl Clark with Clark Strategies
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No.
When I first started, I fit the cliché centered around whether are you in business to make money or are you in business fulfilling your passion. I absolutely started in business to make money! I also will quickly say I did a poor job! I hardly made any money and worked damn hard with little return financially and even less of a return in soul fulfillment.
I did landscaping. Now picture this: Arizona desert. 120 Degree summer days (48 c to translate for my Canadians), FULL sunshine beating down, little to no rain, and not a cloud in the sky! Seems like a dream day when you are in a place winter happens! However, landscaping-wise – not so dreamy. I am not even adding in here stories of the cactus and cactus pruning aspects, nor of the mesquite trees and those thorns!
Lo and behold, one day a client stopped me and asked, “Cheryl, do you paint and clean?” I responded quickly, “Well, you bet I do!” Did I? No. Would I? Yes. You see making money was my only focus! I became pretty good at cutting in corners paint-wise and boy the cleaning aspect – did you know you can so cash in on items when doing a move-out clean? Boy, the things I’d find!!
Tired and overwhelmed, sadly no matter how busy I was, it was never enough. I had NO experience in any of these fields so I’d say oh 3 hours tops and be there for 7, or I would charge for just one can of this or that and find I needed 4 times more than I had ever guessed.
Why didn’t I just tell the client? Pride. They were always so happy at the end. Was it because of my amazing services and results? No. It was because they got an amazing deal and damn well knew it.
When did it all change? Well, frankly some days it is still changing. My foundation has been steady for over 15 years now – thankfully. However, the décor on top of my foundation has evolved and changed and in part kept up with modern times.
My foundation now is supporting business owners in their growth and action plans. A large, large part of this is relationship marketing. That is my soul’s passion. The décor and walls have changed slightly with evolution over the years. We no longer do so much printed material since we all moved into the digital world. We no longer do a lot of coffee meetups and drive from place to place since we Zoom. The décor has changed but my foundation is rock solid.
Am I doing what I thought I would be doing when I first started? No. I am absolutely doing what I am called to do, should be doing, and love doing. Even typing those words feels amazing.
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