Fiona Killackey - Passion Purpose Profit

FOR MUM

You can do anything you put your mind to.

CARMEL KILLACKEY

Have you ever tried pushing peanut butter through a sieve? Its a frustrating, thankless task.

For many people, running a small business can feel the same way. You put all this effort in, day after day, only to realise your attempts have done nothing but leave you with a big ol sticky mess.

You see, anyone can start a business. But not everyone can scale one successfully.

It may sound #WayHarshTai but, according to recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data, almost half of new businesses dont survive their first three years. Even if you manage to remain in business longer than your small-biz peers, the opportunity for overwhelm, stress and a general why-did-I-even-start-this mentality is ever present.

Ive coached hundreds of small business owners across the globe, and taught thousands more through workshops, courses and speaking gigs and, in my experience, what often starts out as something exciting and energising quickly becomes anxiety-inducing and energy-depleting.

The creative, or fun, part of business which is often what leads people to begin it in the first place gets drowned out in a sea of admin, invoicing, hiring (and firing) staff, managing deadlines and dealing with incompetent suppliers and ad-hoc, scattergun marketing tactics (which rarely work). You know you want to get ahead, but you end up spending so much time in your business, its hard to find any time to work on the business.

It doesnt have to be like this.

It is possible to scale your small business without scaling your emotional stress and financial strain.

It is possible to have the freedom you dreamed of, with the financial security that you need.

This book will help you understand whats most important to you when it comes to your business, and how to cultivate more of that so you can create a business that fuels you energetically, emotionally and financially. Its about avoiding the burnout, overwhelm and lack of direction that can make small biz owners believe they have to hustle to make things work. (Truth: you dont.)

Sidestepping the #hustle does not mean sidestepping the work. In order to build a biz you love, YOU have to be prepared to build the business.

But doing the work is not the same as 24/7 #hustle.

Doing the work can be achieved while also looking after yourself, your family, your community and your interests and hobbies outside of your business. Hustling feels like constantly chasing something thats never quite within reach: an endless, fruitless pursuit of things you dont know if you even really want.

If you are yet to start your small business, this book will provide you with the direction and clarity you need to launch and grow with confidence.

If you have been in a business for some time, this book will show you whats working and what isnt, and how you can increase the former and reduce, or even remove, the latter.

I have worked with business owners yet to launch and those decades in, and I know that the lessons youre about to learn are applicable to everyone.

How to use this book

This book is broken into twelve chapters, each of which relates to one key theme of small business. While you can read any chapter at any time, the concepts build upon one another. For this reason, I suggest you work through the book from start to finish. Once you have read the book and feel you have a good understanding of each area, you can consider it your go-to guide; a tangible tool that you can come back to for a refresher in any biz area at any time.

Throughout this book, you will find templates that can be used to sidestep the #hustle and build a business you love. You will find digital copies of these, free to download, at mydailybusinesscoach.com/purpose. The icon you see here indicates that a digital download is available.

Nestled between the twelve chapters are Creative Q+As. These are short interviews with creative small business owners who have been able to scale their businesses successfully and create a life on their terms, with a business that supports them. I have chosen inspiring founders from a mix of industries from publishing through to homewares, entertainment and accessories to give you as much insight as possible into growing a small business successfully.

When I decided to start my own business, I was hungry to hear stories from real people who had made it work. Each person interviewed in this book is someone who has inspired or impacted my own business, and is someone who I respect and admire for their ability to make things happen.

How to make things happen in your business

One last note before we dive in.

You have picked up this book for a reason. Something attracted you to it and, if you have read this far, chances are youre hoping it can help you.

Perhaps youre looking to start a business that speaks to your passion and you need some guidance to help motivate you. Perhaps you have been in business for years but youre sick of the stressful, ad-hoc approach you have to running it. You have lost sight of the purpose that drove you in the beginning and you want to be achieving a rate of profit that makes you feel secure.

Whatever your circumstances, I urge you to make a commitment to yourself right now. Commit to reading this book through in its entirety. Commit to working through each activity.

As I tell my coaching clients, nothing changes if nothing changes.

This book is a guide. It is YOU who will have to do the work to transform these ideas into action.

The tactics in this book are akin to a personal trainer providing a client with a meal plan and a fitness regime. It is you, not the trainer, who has to do the work to see the results.

In the same way, this book will if you commit to it change the way you operate your business, enabling you to feel more in control and genuinely excited and enthusiastic about your business and its impact on the people you serve.

I wish you all the best as you sidestep the #hustle and build a business you love.

One of my favourite songs of all time is the 1999 Baz Luhrmann classic, Everybodys free (to wear sunscreen), the words to which were written by journalist Mary Schmich in her Chicago Tribune essay, Advice, like youth, probably wasted on the young.

One line in particular has always stood out to me:

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

I agree with Schmich. As humans, we tend to recall the more difficult parts of life (the insults, the stressful periods, the times we felt real shame) more easily than those when we basked in emotional sunshine. Its simply human nature: if you receive 100 compliments and one insult, which will you recall (and possibly spend an entire week worrying about)?

We all have moments when we stop and reflect on the life we have lived so far. And, for the majority of people (myself included), there will be memories of times when we were definitely not the poster child for #LivingMyBestLife times when we werent the most inspiring or uplifting person to be around. If youre anything like me, youll physically recoil when you think back to those moments but, try as you might, theyre impossible to forget.

For me, one of those moments goes like this: it was 5 am on a stock standard Thursday. I had gone to sleep only a few hours earlier after attempting, with my husband, to get our then two-year-old son back into his cot. That part had been relatively simple. But as our son began to drift off and my husband and I returned to bed, I couldnt help but lie there thinking about all the work fires Id have to put out that day. I tossed and turned, considering the mountain of things that hadnt yet been done, the relentless schedule of meetings, and the ongoing hum of office politics that was like a mosquito in a quiet room: impossible to ignore.