All entrepreneurs hear about
the stress of starting up a business.
We expect it.
We plan for it.
What we don’t hear about
is the very real stress of
growing a business.
The stress of having too many orders
to successfully handle
within the existing structure
yet having too few orders
to justify expanding the business.
I’m at that place right now
with my writing.
I’m selling everything I write.
Publishers are asking
for more, more, more,
yet I don’t have the writing cash flow
to pay for assistants, etc.
Fiona Cairns,
baker to Royalty,
talked about the stress
of growing her business
to The Costco Connection.
“I’m still not sure how we managed it.
By then we had two young children,
Kishore was still working in London
and I was working long, long hours
in the bakery,
seven days a week.
There’d be vans delivering supplies
at 6 a.m.,
or Harrods would be on the phone
to discuss an order
and I’d have a crying child
in the background.
It all felt very unprofessional,
very stressful and
there was a lot of guilt as a mother.”
If your business does well,
there WILL be growing pains.
The hard work and long hours
aren’t isolated to start ups.
The timing varies with every business
but these pains WILL happen.
Expect them.