What I’d do differently if I was starting my business over

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While I was reflecting on Slow & Studio’s first anniversary, I spent some time thinking about what I would do differently if I could start over again – knowing what I know now.

Here are four things I wouldn’t do again (and what I would do instead!).

#1. I wouldn't spend so much time on freebies

In a year of business not a single paying client has come through a freebie. All of my clients came through relationships; either they knew me from my work at Heavy Flow, were referred by a client or we had an IRL connection. All that time and energy spent dreaming up and creating the perfect lead magnet (and I think I made about three or four different ones in the first half of the year) could have been spent on cultivating relationships, which is truly what moves the needle in my business!

#2. I wouldn’t spend $450 on a CRM

Ugh, this one hurts! The only good thing that came from this was the referral bonus one of my favourite clients got when I used her discount code. Otherwise this was just a waste of time and money on something I honestly didn’t need – and still don’t. Even at max capacity I can only reasonably take on less than 10 clients at a time. Yet I bought the full, year-long subscription. The truth is I was feeling wobbly and thought that a system could make all my stress and fears disappear.

Spoiler: it didn’t and it’s made my life and business more complicated since it doesn’t even do the things I need it to so I’m often duplicating tasks across systems. If I could go back in time I would have kept that $450 and opened a Google sheet. [MELTING FACE EMOJI]

#3. I wouldn't ignore my own vision and intuition

My vision for Slow & Steady has been crystal clear since the day that I dreamed it up four years ago. And yet I spent a good six months questioning that vision and seeking external “advice” to tell me what to do next.

Even though I knew what I wanted and needed to do, there were parts of me showing up telling me I didn’t know what to do or snottily saying no, I don’t wanna.

After a disastrous session with a business coach who told me I should create an accelerator program (ma’am my business is literally about decelerating) and a self-paced course only to get “the money in the bank since nobody does courses anyway” (a direct quote!), I finally recognized that I know what I want and I don’t need (or want!) anyone else to tell me what to do.

Shout-outs to my therapist and to Kate Smalley for surfacing that trust and clarity.

#4. I would spend less time planning

I love to plan. I love to plan so much that I will use planning as an excuse to avoid doing almost anything else! And let me tell you, over the past year I have been planning.

That's a shot of a beautiful, meticulous plan that I spent an entire weekend creating – it might not look like much here, but it was accompanied by a seven page (single spaced) written document and a robust Notion database. The following Monday I covered the sticky notes up with a wall hanging and didn’t look at them again until months later when the glue had dried up and I had to pick them all up from off the floor.

Instead of pouring all that energy into creating perfect plans, I wish I would have just taken imperfect action – it would have gotten me a lot further.

What would you do different?

I’d love to hear what you would do differently in your business if you were starting over today!