Ep 28. Biggest Mistakes Preventing Entrepreneurs From Building A Sustainable Business

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You are now tuned in to the Mom c e O Suite

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Podcast. I'm your host, Felicia wife,

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mom, and entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my

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mompreneur journey along with strategies that will help you build your

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online business operations in a sustainable way.

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The goal is to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as

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a mom who values putting family first. We will also hear the

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experiences and expertise of other moms with

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service-based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so

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you'll know that you are alone. Motherhood gets hard,

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entrepreneurship gets hard, but together we can

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do hard things. Welcome to this.

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Hey friend, welcome to another episode today. We're talking about.

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The biggest mistakes. That are preventing

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entrepreneurs from building a sustainable business. So I really

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have two major things that I want to share on this topic, but I'm going

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to break each of them down before I do that. I want

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to explain what I mean when I say a

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sustainable business. One thing that you guys

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can expect from me is that I'm going to give you a definition. I'm going

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to break something down, just so we all can have the same understanding. When I'm

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talking about a topic. When it comes to

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sustainable, what does that really mean? Literally, if you

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look it up, it means able to be upheld or able to

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maintain. So when it comes to your

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business, And we talk about building a sustainable

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business. It's building it in a way that you, as the business owner

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can upkeep that you can maintain. So do you

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have marketing strategies? They are sustainable for

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you. And this can look different from person to person and business

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to business. What may be sustainable for one person may

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not be sustainable for the next. There's a lot of

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different factors, but think about you, your

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personality. Your capacity. Your

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desires, your lifestyle. And really

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dig deep and explore what is

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sustainable for you and your business.

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Okay. Now, why is this topic important?

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It's because if you do not build your business in a

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sustainable way, you are going to experience burnout.

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You're not going to be experiencing the freedom. That you truly

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desire in business and you're going to struggle with showing

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up. Showing up consistently And showing up in a

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way that brings joy to not only yourself. But

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also to the people that you are serving. And when we think about moms

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in business, All of these things, burnout and struggling to

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show up. Not experiencing freedom.

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There's a little bit more at stake for moms in business, because

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if we are burnt out because of our business, then that is going to translate

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into our home lives and how we interact in care.

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For our children. As well.

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So let's get into these two things. These two

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mistakes that I have seen that are preventing entrepreneurs from building a

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sustainable business. Number one.

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Is implementing strategies that are

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not in alignment. With your personal values,

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desires, and lifestyle. Okay. What

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does this look like? In real life in real time.

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So it may be that you are implementing strategies that

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drain you. Right. Again, this

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goes back to what is sustainable for you?

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The internet is very noisy. And

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everybody is going to have a different strategy and they're

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going to promise that their strategy is it.

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If you do this, you'll get that. Now just because

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something worked for someone, it does not necessarily

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mean that it will work for you. And the exact

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same way. You have to take into

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consideration. Your capacity. Your

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personality. Your lifestyle. Your

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desires. What brings you joy? You have to consider

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all of those things when you are implementing strategies and your

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business. And if you're implementing something that drains you.

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That is going to, again, prevent you from. And

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building something that is really sustainable and that you are going to be able

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to upkeep. Now for me personally, I'll give an

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example. Instagram. Had been draining for me.

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I just did not like showing up on Instagram. I

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love Instagram stories. But posting. On

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Instagram and doing reels, it was draining for me. And so

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that really prevented me from being able to show up.

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consistently or even at all on that platform.

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And so what I am actually in the process now of doing. Is

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transitioning my profile. To a nine

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grid profile. So instead of posting every

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day, multiple times of day, My profile will be

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static. And you'll be able to get information about me

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and my business just from the nine posts. That are on my

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profile. For me that is

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sustainable. I cannot keep that. I can maintain

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that. And it does not drain me.

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Okay. What's another example.

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Right. So the mistake is implementing strategies that are not in alignment with your

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personal values Desires and lifestyles. Another

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example of this is receiving coaching from someone who

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was not in the same season of life issue. And

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this is something that I have. Just recently

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recognized the need for. And it's come up in a

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couple of conversations that I've had, we're all moms here.

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Right? And many of us, we have younger children.

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Someone who was in a different season of motherhood. They may have more

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time. Or it could even be that you are a work from

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home mom. And someone else may send their child

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to daycare or. Their child may be

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in school. So they may have a little bit more time where they just don't

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have. the same level of responsibilities

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throughout the day as it relates to home life.

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And so it can be very challenging when you are receiving

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coaching from someone. Who was not in the same

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season of life is you.

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Because they may be giving you strategies again, not saying that their

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strategies don't work. But it can create

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some friction for you. Because you may get into this space where

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you feel like. You're not able to keep up.

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Or. They just don't understand where you are in

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life. Having someone who understands where

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you are. Who is just slightly

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removed from where you are or. It's in the

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same season as you. It can really help you And

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knowing that they get it and it helps you just to be

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more comfortable. And. Relatable to the

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person that you are receiving coaching from, and you don't feel

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like you're falling behind or they, you don't have the

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capacity, which then can create those feelings

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of. Feeling like you're not doing enough.

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Or feeling like a failure. Or just all of these other things.

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That stem from receiving coaching from someone who is

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not in the same season of life, life issue. Now, I'm not

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saying there aren't times where you shouldn't or you

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can't, just take the information, there's a saying.

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Take the meat spit out the bones, right? I'm not saying that you can't.

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But I do believe that it can create a challenge.

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When you're trying to keep up with someone. Who is not in the same season

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of life issue. And

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so again, all of these are just examples of mistakes.

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Entrepreneurs make. Related to implementing

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strategies that are not in alignment with their personal values,

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desires, and lifestyle. Now, the next

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mistake that I have seen is that entrepreneurs are operating their

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businesses without systems.

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Systems are so important to the sustainability

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of your business. Now. This is how I

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personally define the system. Think he T

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P processes. Tools. And

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people. All right. So your processes are literally the

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step-by-step for how you do anything in your business. You

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can think of this in terms of SLPs or standard operating

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procedures. And then once you have your processes in

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place, You can consider different tools that you can

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use. Where you can implement automation

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to. Assist with these processes. And then you

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can also consider the people who are going to help you

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implement these processes. Okay. So your system is

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your processes, plus your tools. Kolas your people.

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When you think about a system, your system really supports the life of

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freedom that you desire. Where I would talk about

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having freedom a lot here on the podcast. Your system

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supports that. In the book. The E-Myth

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by Michael Gerber. It's a great book.

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Every entrepreneurship re it's literally my favorite business book.

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But he says in the book, he says that. Your systems run the

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business and then people run the systems. So your

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system is literally just the blueprint. For how your

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business operates. And systems give you

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space to be creative. As the visionary

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as the owner of the business, you want to be able to be creative.

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You want to be able to stay in your zone of genius and your

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systems. Give you the space to do that

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because you are freeing up your brain capacity, right? So

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you're not holding all of this information. In your

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head. So how you send emails

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or your process for your sales?

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Or your process for how you onboard our client? Anything that you

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do in your business? There should be some documented process for it.

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And if it's documented, that means you no longer have to store it in your

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brain. And now. You have freed up basing your

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brain to be creative, to come up with new ideas.

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Four programs and services or new

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ideas for connecting with your ideal client

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or new ideas for collaborations. You are not stuck

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working in the business. You are able to work on the business.

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Okay. And the foundation of that are

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your processes. Are your SLPs.

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This is the documentation. That allows

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your business to operate. Without you. So God

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forbid you got sick. Or let's just say you want it to go on

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vacation for two weeks. Where's your business. Be able to continue to

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operate without you. If you had SLPs.

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Yes, it would. Because a stranger. The com.

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I was going to say, come off the street, but we don't want strangers coming

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off the street into our businesses. But somebody could

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come in, look at your SLPs. See how you

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do X, Y, and Z in your business and keep things going.

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If that's all in your head. If you are storing all of that

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information in your brain. It is weighing you

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down. Your business can't operate

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without you. And you will not experience

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the freedom that you desire. Because everything is

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reliant on you. And so what is the action step for today?

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The first thing that I want you to do is think about all of the

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strategies that you are implementing in your business. Marketing

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sales client experience. Anything that you're

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doing in your business and really consider and think

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is this sustainable for me, according to my

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personal values, my desires and my lifestyle. That's

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the first thing. And then secondly, If you do not

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have your processes documented, if you do not

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have SLPs, I want you to

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start thinking about. The different

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processes in your business. And how you can begin to

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document them. If you're needing support in this area, I look forward to

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seeing you in our upcoming SOP sprint. Or

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you can always email to find out what are the next best

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steps for you? But hope this was helpful. See you in the

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next episode. Thank you for listening to the Mom C e O

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Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a

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favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other

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moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower

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others who are at this intersection of motherhood and