The 3 Experiences That Made Me A Better Entrepreneur
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Bill Gates once said that “Success is a lousy teacher” — and I couldn’t agree more.
The challenges and struggles I’ve faced throughout my career have turned me into a far better entrepreneur and client partner than any of my triumphs have and I’m endlessly grateful for them.
Here are my top 3!
Leaving my 9–5
I absolutely loved my career — but in 2016, I found myself re-evaluating everything. At this point, I’d worked in London for 12 years supporting high-profile entrepreneurs like award-winning architect Dame Zaha Hadid DBE, former Co-Director of the Serpentine Gallery Dame Julia Peyton-Jones DBE, and Russian billionaire Timur Sardarov.
It was a heartbreaking decision but I knew that something had to change — so I looked at my strengths. I summed up everything about my job that I loved, everything that slotted into my zone of genius and everything I was passionate about — and I created Selina & Co.
Now, I specialise in helping successful coaches, consultants, speakers and entrepreneurs around the world to help them to achieve faster sustainable results in business, to scale and make money without compromising time.
I thought that after my decision to set up on my own had been made, that would be it. I had my new direction and everything would go from there. Right?
Wrong!
Like so many business owners, I found myself wearing 17 hats and playing every single role just to keep all of the plates spinning. I was drowning in admin, my to-do list filled me with dread and I was super frustrated after hitting a plateau.
I’d started my business to create a work-life balance that would allow me to focus on my girls — but I was just as exhausted and stressed as before. Something had to give — so I followed my own advice and looked at everything that was in my zone of genius and delegated the rest.
Hiring my team was scary at first — but it’s one of the best things I ever did in my biz. Since then, I’ve halved my hours and DOUBLED my income, and I’m more productive and efficient than ever before.
Starting to Scale
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve met so many business owners who desperately need the support of reliable virtual assistants to help them achieve their dreams of growth. After hearing all about their struggles, I knew that my next step would be to scale into a virtual business support agency so I could help even more people to grow their businesses.
Scaling my business wouldn’t have been possible without asking for help from the experts. I developed my hiring methods, streamlined my systems and committed to regular mindset training so I could be at the top of my game and bring my ideas to life.
Seeing what it’s like to develop a business model that allows me to earn more without working more puts me in the perfect position to help other business owners to do the same and enjoy the benefits my clients and I are already — like monthly revenue growth, more free time to focus and undisrupted family time.
What about you?
I’d love to know which of your experiences have shaped you as an entrepreneur. Tell me about them in the comments!
