This episode is for a specific listener, friend. 

It is specific to the female business owner out there who is wondering if working for herself is all that it’s cracked up to be. 

It’s the woman who is thinking about taking the leap from being a classroom teacher to going full-time in her side-hustle. 

It’s for the woman who is scared shitless right now because her dream isn’t working out just how she thought now that she’s 1 1/2 years into self-employment. 

It’s for the woman who has been building this company for 7 years and now she’s wondering if there’s something else her heart is calling her to (cue Reba McIntire “Is There Life Out There?”).

It’s for the woman who is considering a leap of faith, and I want her to feel validated in her fears and also prepared for what will be expected of her in this next season of reaching.

Today, I’m here to share 7 hard truths I’ve learned about running a business in the 7+ years I’ve owned and operated Molly Knuth Media. 

In today’s Instagrammable world of glamorizing the time freedom, financial opportunities, upward mobility that self-employment can bring, I want this episode to be a resource to talk about the less-than-glamorous side of working for yourself. 

Because while it is incredibly worthwhile and the way of the future (I firmly believe it), entrepreneurship and small business ownership is anything but easy. And I don’t want you to feel like you are “behind” in life or that someone has the secret to being a woman/mom/friend/business owner all figured out in some secret handbook that you never received.

I want you to hear in this episode the hard side of business that I wish someone had shared with me, so I didn’t feel alone and ashamed at various points of my own small business journey.

7 Hard Truths You Need to Hear About Business

1. You need to work. You need to constantly be innovating, problem solving, marketing, selling (those are different!), creating, and learning. This is not for the weak and it is not for someone who wants to coast. Are there ways around work? Sure. But you will end up paying something: time, money, or energy. 
2. And then you need to work less. There are seasons of hustle, especially in the early days OR when you are navigating a big change or preparing for time away. BUT hustle is not something that you should be doing always into infinity, amen. Hustle isn’t sustainable long term. Do not build your business around showing up 100% day in and day out. 
3. You will fuck up. In fact, it’s imperative that you fuck up. I used to think the only way I was successful was if I didn’t fail. WRONG. If I look back into my catalog of clients or client engagements since 2017, it’s in the “failures” when I learned the most…not only in developing a skill or process, but when I learned the most about myself.Fuck ups aren’t usually fatal.
4. You will lose people. Friends, clients, team members, mentors. The people you start your journey with will not be the ones by your side in years 3, 5, 8, etc. That’s ok. It’s normal. It’s not personal. The more you can get comfortable with that idea, the healthier you will be. 
5. No one owes you their money. Oof. This one is a-spicy. Your family doesn’t owe you business, your town doesn’t owe you business. As business owners, we will constantly be asked to pivot: in adapting to new technology, in adjusting to seasons of life/schedules, in learning new marketing techniques (constantly changing). If you expect that everyone will love your offers for ever and ever, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Be willing to question, listen, adapt, pivot, and change, because your market and their interests will always be. If you want to stay competitive, you need to stay open to doing something differently.
6. Not everyone is cut out for this. You have to be willing to talk about yourself. You have to be willing to hear unsatisfactory things about yourself. You have to acknowledge that you aren’t perfect. You have to be honest about your capabilities. You have to be truthful about your fuck-ups. You have to miss things. You have to be a little braggy. You have to be ok with inconsistent income. You have to network. You have to live with uncertainty. You have to aim for long-term sustainability, not short term comfort. And not everyone can deal with that. That’s ok. Entrepreneurship/small business ownership is not for everyone. 
7. It’s ok to quit. You have nothing to prove. “The only way you fail is if you quit.” I disagree. Instead, “the only way you fail is if you leverage everything you love.” I don’t want this concept of never giving up to be what we aspire to, because there are more entrepreneurial tragedies that result than heroes. It’s ok to look around and ask “is this worth it?” or “am I willing to keep going despite all the signs AND my inner compass telling me it’s time to quit?” Sunk cost fallacy: You will know and have a sensation that it’s time to throw in the towel. Rather it’s a peaceful quitting than a forced exit. 

Connect with Molly

Find me and all my business life/personal life shenanigans at, @mollyknuth_mkm, on Instagram and Facebook. 

Follow Molly Knuth Media for all the marketing tips and trends at @mollyknuthmedia on Facebook and Instagram.