3 Ways to Deal with Business Growing Pain

Are you procrastinating taking the next step with your business because you aren’t sure what the right next step is? If you are anything like me your first response to business growing pains is to freeze in place, procrastinate then pivot to a less important task.

Business growing pains are common for solopreneurs. Every free minute of the day is poured into creating a successful business.

Often goals get squeezed in during life’s margins. And learning new skills happens at the same time as your business is growing.

Does this sound familiar? Discover three ways to deal with business growing pains.

Growing Pains

Step away from the frustration you are feeling for a minute and consider this. My preschooler woke up a couple mornings in a row feeling “icky.” She kept saying “All my parts hurt Mama. My toes hurt, my knees hurt, my arms hurt.”

By morning three of this, we were off to see the doctor. The nurse stood her on the scale and then measured her. Then she measured her again. In less than 10 weeks my daughter had grown over ½ an inch. She was literally having growing pains.

If I had talked to a couple other moms about my daughter’s aches and pains, it would have probably have saved me a trip to the doctor.

In the hustle and bustle of everyday I forgot to reach out to my mom network.

When you work from home or are growing a business sometimes it’s easy to forget that you don’t have to do it all alone. Someone has almost always gone through a similar situation as you before. It just takes a willingness to connect and to ask for help.

Have you been putting off coffee and lunch with mentors and colleagues in favor of spending time in front of your laptop?

How about the story you’ve been telling yourself that getting dressed and looking presentable takes too much time away from your to-do list?

The ironic thing is that becoming your own boss is about gaining flexibility and freedom in your life. And putting off those in real life connections is limiting opportunities for you to grow your business.

3 Ways to Deal with Business Growing Pains

The decision to start your business, all the details of setting up your business and growing your business all come with growing pains. You don’t have to go through all of that alone!

1. Connect with Your Network

The first step is to connect with your network. Reach out to a mentor, colleague or a friend that you haven’t talked to recently. Make plans to meet in person or even set up a video call.

During your conversation, share the business growing pain you are going through and ask what they have done or would do in a similar situation.

I know what you are thinking, it’s going to take too much explaining and they just aren’t going to understand. Its worth it to make the effort. Sometimes just talking through the situation out loud will bring you clarity and resolution.

2. Listen to a Business Development Book 

Second, open up the Audible app and download a book relevant to your business growing pain. Choose to make time in your day, even the 10min drive home from dropping kids off at school, to listen to it.

My favorite way to listen to Audible business books is to turn the book on at 1.5 speed and go for a 30 minute walk. I’ll also listen to books while folding the laundry. If the topic of the book is something I know I need to focus on I  turn off all the distractions and really listen and focus on the book for 30-45 minutes a day.

If you are anything like me you won’t need to finish the book to become unstuck. And if you are looking for books to get inspired by I created this list of 7 Great Books for Solopreneurs.

3. Grow Your Network

Growing your network works to get you unstuck from your current procrastination and to prepare for the next business growing pain you are going to encounter.

There a lot of options to grow your network including join industry association or networking group, joining your local chamber of commerce and finding a mentorship membership group on Facebook

Then there is my favorite way to grow my network – a speaker series that my local University’s business incubator hosts. Many community colleges and state colleges have entrepreneur or small business speaker series as well.

Speaker series are a great way to multitask. You can meet new people and learn lessons to implement in your growing business all in the same hour to ninety minutes.

Conclusion

One of the most important things to remember about dealing with business growing pains is that you don’t have to go it alone!

Reach out to your people, your network. Ask how they would handle a similar situation. Download a business book from Audible and find at least 30 minutes a day to listen to it.

And work on growing your network. Develop a deeper bench of connections to draw on next time a business growing pain threatens to slow you down.

What business growing pain has caused you stress recently?

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