Do you take time to celebrate? We know too well, that when you’re in business for yourself, you are always in business.
You might read insightful quotes from mummy bloggers and travel influencers who encourage you to get mindful, be spiritual and act grateful, but reality means you are often just too busy delivering the work, producing your product and servicing your customers to live gleefully in the moment.
When you are building a business and a brand, every moment is potentially another dollar.
Despite the wonder stories of brands who make it big with start-up savings of less than $500, the commitment, money and energy most people invest in their business is substantial, meaning your time, energy and resources are constantly in conflict.
That’s not to say it’s not rewarding. Owning your own business is one of the most rewarding things a person can do in their lifetime, however the need to keep all parts moving all at once is no easy feat. It takes a great deal of brain power, and a whole lot of passion to make small business work.
At the time of writing, we have been Totem Marketing for nearly 28 months – 12 months with Kerrie doing her thing and 16 months since Zoe and Kerrie joined forces to create something more serious. Yet we have only now launched our website!
And it hasn’t been without trying. We’ve literally been working on our own website development for 14 months. In our case, client work always took priority, as did budget management, filing our BAS statements, allocating work, and building our capability. The website work just had to fit in and around all the other things we had to do.
As a two person, start-up business the churn can be intense at times. But most of the time, we know we are working on creating something we truly love, and working across industries and clients we find forever fascinating and fun.
Although we frequently pat each other on the back when we achieve great things and regularly share what we’re proud of or what inspires us, we’ve also developed our own little customary way to identify success.
At Totem Marketing, we make a point of celebrating our wins. In the same way Darryl Kerrigan would put his most treasured possessions in the Pool Room, we drink champagne and gobble down oysters.
When we do this, we feel like we are born to be. And we do it for a whole range of milestones – anniversaries, new clients, the end of big projects. But we do pick the right moment. We know when something is worthy of bubbles and bivalves.
What do you do in your business? How do you make sure you reward yourself for the win?
Of course the ultimate reward is lots of money in the bank. Our little ritual won’t break the bank and we too are building a business we hope to be long-lasting, financially satisfying and sustainable, but our moment of celebration helps us to enjoy the journey and to recognise the effort we bring to our little team.
This is our moment to be grateful, to be mindful and yes a good glass of champagne is always spiritual. Most of all, it’s a beautiful moment to remind us to be purposeful. We are doing what we do with intention.
And now with the launch of our website, I dare you to guess what we’re doing right now!
– Kerrie, 15 August 2019.