the beauty of a stuff up

The beauty of stuffing up in business

So this is my first blog in a few weeks…actually I think it’s almost 6 weeks now.

A mix of things have been holding me back.

For one, I am a teeny bit over committed at the moment and I continue to play catch up for my 2 weeks off (more on that later).

Secondly, I’ve had massive writers block which you’ll notice from my latest article in ROOOAR Magazine (Issue #3 due out on 12 June 2014) – normally I struggle to fit within my allocated word count, Anna gets up me and I have to cut a great deal but this quarter I struggled to fill it.

And thirdly, the big one, I made a big stuff up in my business…instead of looking forward I started looking sideways and totally lost my mojo.

Yep, I stuffed up

When you look sideways it’s just another way of saying you start looking at what everyone else is doing and forget which path you’d already set out on.

Looking sideways can be debilitating. “Look what that person is doing, how are they getting x as a client?”,  “How do they afford to charge so little?”, “How do they get to charge that much?”, “Wow that person is doing so well! Why am I not there yet?”. Downward spiral begins.

I am not even sure why I did the sideways glance, it’s not like I am scratching around for work. I am kicking goals with my Search Engine Optimisation (woo first page for web designer), I am constantly turning down work, I am booked 3 months in advance and getting loads of referrals for web design projects.

So I admit it, I lost focus, I started trying to be everything to everyone. Massive amounts of FOMO (fear of missing out) kicked in.

I started saying yes to things that I normally say no to, I started offering services that I really didn’t like doing and worst of all… I dropped prices to fit a specific demographic (Yes I feel like I need to go back in time and slap myself).

I totally forgot to stop myself from looking at what other people are doing. They are on different paths, they have different target demographics, different income expectations, different stories to tell and at the end of the day you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. This is all stuff I know, but just obviously got distracted.

The beauty of stuffing up

If you don’t have clarity on your direction, I guarantee you, a failure of some kind is going to steer you in the right direction.

Ultimately my ‘stuff up’, or as I am going to call it my DISCOVERY, has forced me rethink my entire business model and get a whole lot clearer on my direction. So as I wind up old services and introduce the new I am feeling some what renewed, hopeful and excited – it’s definitely the right time to declutter and simplify! I am just lucky I didn’t lose too much money in the process.

So as I go back to tackle the inbox of doom and the worlds biggest to do list (due to my stuff up), I will leave you with some parting thoughts:

If you’re not clear on your direction be prepared (and willing) to fail.

Where possible keep your eyes ahead, be agile and adaptable -check yourself before you wreck yourself.

And remember it’s OK if you stuff up, chances are you’ll learn something really important.