DO THIS ONE THING AND YOU WILL BECOME SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR BUSINESS

Yesterday I was listening to The Amy Porterfield Show (highly recommend) featuring Tara McMullin from WhatWorks. Her thoughts on work and entrepreneurship contain so many ideas that I want to highlight in my own content; she just became my new idol :)

In this particular episode, Tara talks about rethinking success and goals in entrepreneurship. She points out how we've internalized certain ideas about what success, security, financial comfort, and stability mean through social and cultural scripts. And we rarely question them. As a result, we often end up doing things that don't actually serve our real needs. That's why, as entrepreneurs, we should both start with and continuously evaluate what different things mean to us personally: What does success mean to me? What does financial stability or comfort mean to me? What does social media mean to me?

It's time to stop gazing only at revenue goals and growth, and it's time to start thinking about well-being.

There's No One-Size-Fits-All Recipe for Success

The truth is, there's no universal formula for success that works for everyone. First, you need to define your own needs: Is your priority homeschooling your kids, expressing yourself creatively, or perhaps a nomadic lifestyle,?

What are your personal non-negotiable variables?

Once these are clear, you can think about how your business can support that kind of life. When you know that, you can start counting the numbers: What does it cost to live a life where these personal needs of yours are met?

Find Money-Making Methods That Work for YOU

Secondly, you need to consider which money-making methods actually suit you. In this episode, Amy and Tara discuss course-based businesses and how they involve tons of media creation (PDFs, blog posts, podcasts, etc.). If you don't enjoy that kind of work, maybe creating courses isn't your thing — even if you love teaching.

Tara asks,

Is making money this way enabling me to do the work that I want to do well?

She refers to our internal need to do things properly, according to our own standards. If you've piled up endless tasks as an entrepreneur, you definitely won't have time to do things well, and you'll eventually burn out.

Your Business Should Fit Your Life, Not the Other Way Around

Tara McMullin articulated so well the thoughts I've been wrestling with about entrepreneurship. Many business coaches sell a specific method promising certain results, but I don't want to go down that road for these exact reasons: one approach simply doesn't work for everyone.

But... I actually do have tools to help you calculate what it costs to live a life where your needs are met! Crafters Financial Buddy includes, besides the ultimate bookkeeping spreadsheet, two different budgeting spreadsheets that let you calculate your financial variables based on your needs. The Product Pricing Wizard includes a Break Even Point tab that helps you calculate how many products you need to sell to cover business expenses, profit margin, and your salary. You can find these spreadsheets here, either bundled together or separately.

Rethinking Social Media for Business

Another important topic Tara and Amy discussed was social media. In the business world, people drum up how social media is critical in every industry, but I've noticed more and more business advisors questioning this claim. So does Tara McMullin. She mentioned she stopped posting on social media channels because

"I'm not interested in 'playing the platform game,' it stopped being useful years ago."

By this, she refers to how different platform algorithms are constantly changing and no longer serve entrepreneurs the way they used to. You can use the time spent creating content for something more useful that generates better results. I can totally relate to this idea: social media posts take a ton of time, and I think it's awful, I hate making updates. I'd rather spend my time writing a good blog post or email newsletter, which I enjoy and is at least equally useful!

I'm not saying everyone should quit creating content for social media. In my book "Creating Income With Crafts," I started with the inspiring example of Millie's Luxury Wall Hangings, a business that kickstarted its growth through TikTok content without spending a penny on paid advertising. However, it's worth considering whether another channel might be more effective and enjoyable for you: choosing the right marketing channel depends on your nature and that of your product or service.

Remember, the key to success isn't following someone else's blueprint, even though it seems refreshingly easy and effortless. It's creating a business that works with your unique definition of success and the life you actually want to live.

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And here is the particular episode of the Amy Porterfield Show, if you got interested: