1. Running the business is your first priority.

Your success (and financial stability) will come from expertly running your business — not writing copy, rebranding your client’s website, running your candle boutique, teaching yoga, selling real estate, or making jewelry. In other words, you will spend 15 percent of your time doing what you love (in my case coaching and writing) and 85 percent marketing, administrating, selling, strategizing, and answering a shitload of email. Survival will hinge on how quickly you adopt this role of business owner first, creator of pretty things second.

This sucked for me because I wanted nothing to do with running a business. I just wanted to be a writer and a coach who wrote and coached all day. I didn’t get it.

2. Ready to meet your soulmate? It’s you.

Entrepreneurship is the most life-changing relationship (like marriage or parenthood) that a person can have. You will be confronted overandoverandover with your fears, insecurities, crappy excuses, limitations, justifications, shitty integrity, and inefficient time management. The standard you held yourself to in the workaday world was good enough then, but it won’t be good enough to run your own business.

You will learn to accept yourself through all this because, in order to get up every day and be the CEO, you will have to. Somehow, while you’re busy putting yourself out there in spite of your flaws, you will come to deeply admire yourself. Not in the over-hyped “Self Love 2018” way, but in a quiet way that sneaks up on you after witnessing a thousand splinter-sized moments of transcending the baser aspects of yourself.

3. Your trajectory for success will take as long as everyone else’s, even though you are SpeCiaL and BRilliANt.

I heard the “two-year rule” when I started my biz, but I was confident I could do it in six months. I believed with every fiber of my glittery, go-gettin’ heart that my work ethic (15-hour days, seven days a week) — along with my talent, skills, and personal magic — I could rip a path to accelerated success. My Myers-Briggs and Enneagram profiles were finally aligned and I expected nothing less than to be #blessed.

Jesus had other plans.

See number 4.

4. Running out of money is a common part of the journey.

You won’t expect it, because you prepared for the long haul. You secured a business loan, or got some investors, or sold your house, or have one year’s worth of savings and have planned accordingly.

But then all of a sudden, midst the puffy clouds and blue skies, your little Entreprenairplane will sputter, gas gauge unexpectedly plummeting to zero, and you will only have one choice: land on the wild abandoned air strip called Bank Balance: 14 Dollars. This will be the last place you ever thought you’d crash land, because didn’t you pass this test on No More Amazon Prime Island?

Well.

The good news is this is a rite of passage that will launch you into the League of Business Badassery in which, once you are out of the money hellhole, you will be unstoppable. You’ve been to the baddest prison there is, looked down the barrel of your worst fear, and stood your ground. You didn’t quit. You got up the next day, and you wrote your next post, you storyboarded your next product offering, and answered customer emails with zero dollars in your bank account.

There is nothing more beautiful than running out of money and realizing that you are doing your work because you’ve got the balls to push through your worst fears when there is no evidence of security. You really, truly love what you do, and you’d do it for free if you had to.

Irony is a sassy bitch, isn’t she?

5. Build a hybrid stream of income.

Learn from my mistake: Take a second job if it will give you peace of mind. I was so resistant to “dividing my focus” or taking any action which I interpreted as undermining my commitment to being totally successful in my business. I really thought by making a Plan B I was telling the “Universe” I wasn’t 100 percent serious but hello! I created a worse problem by allowing financial stress to gut me of my sanity.

If having a steady stream of income would buy you peace of mind, DO IT.

I finally came to terms with the fact that I was being naïve about how money, peace, survival, and timing all work together, and I got a second job. Since I wasn’t freaking out about money anymore, I liberated more creative real estate in my brain to apply toward my business.

Graphic: Stephanie St.Claire

6. Create a healthy distance between yourself and your work.

Does Lizzo walk around the house checking how many likes she got on Instagram? No honey, she’s too busy planning D-Day.

Lizzo does not identify with “Lizzo.”

Lizzo employs “Lizzo.”

7. Spend less time researching, more time doing.

Researching, studying, and consuming Tai Lopez’s “5 Tips to Email Marketing” is a form of resistance. In order to get clarity, you must act.

Clarity does not come by learning more — it comes by jumping in with your instincts and putting yourself out there, even if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

Block out the distractions (turn off the phone, social media, and email notifications) and take inspired action that feels tangible and measurable. Set a timer for 25 minutes and go to town on a task. Do not look up. Do not go to the bathroom. Do not cruise the fridge for cheese sticks. Get something done, despite the fact that at times you will feel like you are pissing into the wind. Piss into the wind four times a day, and you’ll make a difference in your bottom line.

8. Only say yes to business partners and projects that are hell yeses.

Scrutinize any joint project carefully and qualify the person you’re collaborating with (even if they are your friend and have been in business longer than you). Get everything in writing before you embark on the project, with a clear division of labor and deadline dates. If you have a business partner, draft and sign an operating agreement. Do not skip this.

You will most likely be splitting the profits, so have two numbers in your head: The number you need to make in order to pay for your time, and the number you would like to make. Set the first financial deadline early so that you both have the freedom to walk away if the project isn’t going to be profitable. Have a transition strategy in mind so in case that happens and one of you wants to continue on with the project, there is a way to pass the baton gracefully.

Summed up: communicate about everything — even though you’re friends, even though you love each other, even though you trust each other, even though you’ve worked together at XYZ Company because projects have a way of going sideways and making everyone a little custodial and overreactive.

9. You must devote time to becoming a brilliant marketer.

I know you just want to spend all your days making CBD candles, or sarsaparilla-scented beard oil, or writing your YA fantasy novel, or life coaching entrepreneurs to stratospheric success, but if you don’t spend time marketing you will not make money.

This was my biggest weakness when I started. I thought marketing meant slimy sales letters with big arrows and opt-in boxes, and I couldn’t! I wouldn’t! So I put my head in magical fairyland sand, stubbornly insisting that my customers would be tractor-beamed into my budding practice by the pulsating, heavenly light that radiated from my vision boards and four blog posts.

And then I ate canned food and spaghetti for a long, long time.

What rescued me? Knowing what marketing personality I embody. There are three main types:

The Wisdom Advisor (Brene Brown, Danielle LaPorte, Marianne Williamson, Seth Godin), whose marketing feels like, “This is what I’ve found to work best. Let’s brainstorm together, and I’ll help you find out what’ll work for you.” The Guru (Mel Robbins, Dave Ramsey, Gary Vaynerchuk, Marie Forleo, Tony Robbins), whose marketing boldly states, “Listen to me. I have the answers.” And finally, The Connector (Joe Rogan, Oprah, Tim Ferris, James Altucher), who connect people with experts and resources.

Once you have figured out your marketing personality, selling to your customers will be a thousand times easier because you will be working within your natural ability. Learn how you like to market and stick to that. Do it consistently and often. Even if you hire a pro, you will be doing some marketing yourself. Keeping your website fresh and current is essential, so also learn the backend of Squarespace or WordPress. You will be in the guts of your website a lot.

10. Do not screw your own time economy.

Email will become your new best frenemy. Your inbox will explode. You care about everyone, but you can’t help everyone. Read: Not everyone is your customer. Your job is to quickly discern who’s who and respond in the most appropriate way.

For Your Customers: Acknowledge the situation, request, or problem and extend an invite to a 20-minute call. Include your available dates, times, and phone number.

For Non-Customers: Acknowledge the situation, request, or problem and provide other resources, experts, or articles that would be a splendid fit.

11. This last tip is a hodgepodge.

Do not work your business seven days a week. Cover your legal ass from day one. From time to time, forget everything you know about the “right way” to run a business and run it like a neighborhood lemonade stand. Do not price your offerings around your personal ability to pay for it — you are not your ideal customer. Working out perplexing issues in your business will resolve problems in other areas of your life. Take a walk around the block every day at lunch. And lastly, if you want to be smarter in business, don’t ever forget that you are serving real, live human beings (not demographics, stats, or your pipeline).

Good luck everyone!

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Note from Steph: I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has clapped for or commented on this post. I have seen every comment, highlight, and share and it means the world to me. If you’d like to drop me a line, send it to steph@stephaniestclaire.com — or even easier, DM me on Instagram @stephaniestclaire