Everything I Needed To Know About My Business I Learned From My Garden

Today, let's talk about a new way to think about your business. A way that will help you through the tough times, when you’re working like crazy, but it feels like you’re not growing fast enough. It’s going to help you manage your self-doubts and feel better.

Building a business is tough! It’s the fast track to personal growth and it’s so easy to get impatient!

All over social media, you see coaches saying they are earning "big money". So how come it’s so difficult for you? Do you feel alone and wonder if you missed the boat?

Yes, I hear this a lot, you are not alone in this feeling.

If you’re starting out, and really any time at all that you’re growing your business, it helps to think of your business in the right way.

Mindset makes all the difference between giving up and success.

You’ve got a choice. And this choice is empowering. You can look at your business like a sport fishing trip or you can think of it as a garden.

If you treat your business like a sport fishing expedition, you’re after a big catch.

You plan, get your gear together and head out to the ocean.  The waves might be small, or they might be big and choppy. And it’s easy to get wet and sometimes even seasick.

When you think you’re in the right spot, you get your fishing rod ready to go. Then while you try to keep your balance, then you cast and wait a little bit.  You wonder, do I have the right bait? Am I in the right spot? What if there are no fish here?  It’s easy to get frustrated.

Depending on your experience you might have to wait a long time. Lots of times you’ll return to port empty-handed.  But sometimes, you catch that big fish!  You reel it in. Celebrate, clean it, and take it back home. It makes an awesome feast. 

Then when the feast is over, and the fish is gone, you’re back at the beginning. You’re left with nothing! It’s time to go fishing again….

I’ll tell you this feast, frustration and famine cycle is a discouraging way to build a business over the long term. And it’s not sustainable. 

In the fishing approach, you spend a lot of time, money and energy to get a client, sometimes it doesn’t work out, but when you do sign up a new client. You’re on a high, you make some money and provide the service. Then when the client has achieved what they need, or your project is done …off they go, and your calendar and bank account is empty. You never get ahead.

But, as I said at the beginning there’s another way, another metaphor that I like to use for building a sustainable, profitable coaching practice that gives you long term income where you can be fully booked with all the clients you want.

The approach I recommend is to build your business as if you are growing a vegetable garden.

For those of you who are gardeners, you’ll have some experience with this.

First, you turn the soil over, you add compost, make sure everything is in good order. You make sure it’s a healthy nutrient-rich base. 

Then you choose excellent seeds (I like the top quality organic ones), you add fertilizer and take time to plan your garden. You consider, where will you plant seeds now and where will you leave space to plant later. As you plan you will decide what to plant. More than likely you’ll plant a variety. Some veggies grow better close to each other right? Peas like to be planted close to carrots, but they hate being close to onions…so it pays to plan well.

Once you’re organized, you seed a portion of the garden. Then you wait….you water and make sure the environment is right. If it’s cold, you might put something over top to keep the soil and seeds warm.  And you wait some more.

This is the tough part, and this waiting is the tough part for your business too.

Many talented coaches give up in this waiting time.

But remember you know some seeds take a couple of days to sprout…others take weeks. When you’re gardening you have no problem keeping the faith.  You don’t give up after a few days, you stick with it.

This is just like your business…sometimes you’ve got to do the work, even sweat a bit and strain your muscles….and have the patience that you’re on the right path.

You don’t give up after 24 hours with a newly planted garden right?  So don’t give up prematurely on your coaching business either.

Finally, a little sprout comes up!!! Woohoo, you’re excited. This is like when you get your first client.

If you treat your business like a garden think, what do you with the seedlings….you nurture them, treat them well. You don’t pull them out before they have a chance to mature right?  You thin the seeds, give them some space and allow them time to grow. 

Nurture your clients and your relationships the same way. These first clients and all clients are important! Here’s where you are learning and fine-tuning your coaching skills. You don’t want to over-water or let the bugs of your self-doubts destroy them.

After a while, your little sprouts begin to mature.  As you harvest the veggies you’ve grown, make sure to re-seed before your harvest is completely mature and your garden is empty.

A good vegetable garden will provide you with awesome produce for a long time. The hardest time is the first couple of weeks. When nothing is growing in our business we worry and fuss. You might even let your inner critic run wild and say "OMG I’m going to be a failure this is never going to work. I’m never going to be a success".

Have some patience, plant your seeds (tell people about coaching and what you’re doing). Water the seeds (help people to understand how coaching can help them and the problems can you help them solve). Then when the first sprout comes up (and you get your first few clients, coach them well, hone your skills, treat your customers like the gold they are) and as you begin to harvest make sure to plant some more seeds, (make sure to keep marketing your business and ask for referrals).

So you get to decide….do you want the feast, famine and frustration of sport fishing or would you prefer to grow a profitable sustainable business?

Your mindset is everything here and how you choose to grow your business can empower or disempower you.

All successful entrepreneurs have been beginners too. They didn’t start out as experts. I’m here to help support, inspire and educate you as you grow your coaching, consulting or wellness business.

How’s it going? Is it everything you hoped it would be? Pop a comment below. I can’t wait to hear from you.