Are you wondering why you ever thought running a business was a good idea? Is fear, self-doubt or overwhelm eating you alive? If you’re finding it harder than you’d imagined to get started or stay committed, here are seven rocking reasons why it’s absolutely worth walking this path.

1. You get paid to grow

Okay, strictly speaking you get to claim your business expenses against tax. But much of that expenditure – travelling to meet an awesome new business contact, taking a training course about public speaking or creating your brand – has countless bonus features in terms of your personal growth. When you’re self-employed, you have a valid excuse to develop. Many of the books you used to buy for fun are now tax-deductible.

You also realize you are your greatest asset and therefore it’s not over-indulgent to spend time and money on healthy diet, exercise or self-care choices. Massage anyone?

2. You can’t get sacked

Sure, clients come and go but you’ll generally be working with different people from different avenues so you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. In a recession, you can simply adapt your offerings so they’re bite-sized or more time-leveraged (for example, groups or products rather than just 1-1) and your self-employment ship can keep on sailing.

There’s great security in knowing you are resilient and flexible. You can move with your Tribe’s needs, finding resonant match after resonant match. The possibilities for earning income are endless.

3. You get to transform your mess into your message

I heard this from Suzanne Evans of Help More People and it’s so true. Any past struggles, misery, despair or failures all become fodder for creating a more positive present experience and helping others. (Check out this video from fellow coach Nicky Moran who was beeped off Britain’s Got Talent by Simon Cowell and has used her story to help us transform our relationship with failure.)

Your past becomes useful. It informs your story, provides your compelling “why”. It also deepens your empathy and compassion for others.

4. You can get up when you want

You can snuggle under the duvet on darker mornings or jump up with the early Spring sunshine. Whatever time you wake up, you’re excited about the day ahead, full of ideas and eager anticipation. No-one else dictates where you have to be at what time; you don’t have to contort to someone else’s schedule. If you work better at 6am or 11pm, then you can. You’re autonomous, independent, an adult.

You can choose to spend time outside, soaking up all-important Vitamin D and breathing in fresh air. You can fill your kitchen with your favourite foods and eat in tune with your hunger. You can build energizing exercise into your daily routine. You can sit in cafes with your laptop, drinking smoothies, or have lunch with a friend. You can take holidays when it suits you and you can fit your business around your family life.

5. You get to work with who you choose

Your ideal clients rock your world. They’re a delight to spend time with. You also get to surround yourself with amazing colleagues – both within your business when you grow and hire team members, and also like-minded fellow solopreneurs. You can meet such inspirational people through being self-employed and bask in the sense of collaborative, mutually supportive community.

Turn Your Passion To Profit group celebration lunch (2011)

Forget moaning, bitching and complaining at the office water cooler and instead imagine celebratory tweets and delicious get-togethers. You’ll find the most phenomenal people coming into your life when you’re aligned with your true path and the most authentic version of you.

6. Your self-esteem gets a massive boost

When you’re fully using your talents and receiving glowing feedback, your confidence goes through the roof. You find your true voice is what people are yearning to hear and that it’s okay to express all of you, with utter authenticity. You feel truly “on purpose”, doing the work you were born to do.

Research has found that lottery winners often don’t feel fulfilled. I believe that’s because one of our deepest needs is to contribute, to give our gifts and talents to help others and feel worthwhile. When you run a needs-based business, it’s so satisfying because you realize: “I matter”. You’re receiving a healthy income as you make a difference in others’ lives.

7. You get paid to do what you love

Isn’t that the dream? And it’s also real. It’s absolutely possible to earn a healthy, sustainable income through doing what comes naturally, what flows through you with passion and joy.

This means the future is exciting; you’re day by day living out your visions and goals. Retirement loses its appeal because you get to live the life you want now. And you feel proud that you are growing, emerging, evolving and creating the future you desire.

Take a moment to pause and soak up all of these reasons, knowing that we’ve barely scratched the surface. Self-employment is a rich journey; feel how all of this is possible for you, if you choose it.

Your turn

You know why self-employment rocks. You’re either walking this path or yearning to, so join the discussion – leave a comment below and let us know: What do you love about self-employment? What makes it worth it? Let’s celebrate what’s awesome – oh, and feel free to celebrate what’s awesome about you for walking it too!

I want you to be successfully self-employed

If you’re thinking, “Yeah, okay, I know why self-employment is so cool but I don’t know how to actually make it work”, then you’re in the right place. I’ve made it easy for you to get this ship sailing more smoothly.

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It’s time to lose the overwhelm and confusion and get clarity. Give yourself the gift of one “I-love-me” Clarity Session and I’ll give you one “I-love-you-back” session, totally for free. Self-employment rocks and I want you to be able to enjoy it so sign up here.

Want more?

If two sessions aren’t enough and you want the full ride, then the Turn Your Passion To Profit group programme may be perfect for you. Imagine 12 inspirational people, all committed to running a happy, profitable, successful business, getting on the phone together once a fortnight, discovering cool, easy-to-implement strategies for business-building, having “Aha!” moments and breakthroughs, and busting through procrastination. Imagine feeling confident that you know, step by step, how to get paying clients knocking at your door.

The group ride starts again in May so book your consultation now. Seriously, why would you wait? Simply fill out the questions at the bottom of this page and we”ll chat. Even if you decide it’s not the right time to do the course, I’ll have loved connecting with you and helping you get clarity about your next steps. Click through here > >

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© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2012

A few hours after publishing the latest blog post, How To Get Paid 1,000 Times, I had a similar phone call from a coach who’s been wanting to get her business off the ground for years. She said: “Reading your post, I decided I couldn’t keep going like this. I realised I have to do something - so that’s why I’m reaching out.”

We humans are pretty resilient. We soldier on. We don’t want to admit we need help, we don’t want to burden anyone. We want to be self-sufficient so we delay doing that “something”.

But at what point do you decide to make that call?

When is enough enough?

As a person wanting to be successfully self-employed, this is the kind of “enough” you’re likely to have had:

• Enough of not knowing which business step comes first.
• Enough of feeling overwhelmed and out of your depth.
• Enough of feeling isolated and alone on your self-employment journey.
• Enough of your partner calling your passion an expensive hobby.
• Enough of not reaching the people who need you.
• Enough of not fulfilling your potential and having your biggest impact.
• Enough of shuffling by financially, rather than enjoying money being easy.

If enough is enough and if you’re done with struggling on your own, please take advantage of the support that’s waiting for you.

The next Turn Your Passion To Profit group programme starts on 9th January, giving you six rich months of business-building guidance and like-minded community. You can decide to make 2012 the year you become clear, supported and able to move into profitability.

I’m ready to have more phone calls with people who’ve decided that enough is enough. Will one of them be with you?

There are only 4 places left on the January programme and if one of them is yours, claim it. Reach out now. Enough is enough.

Click here, read the details, fill out the form.

Want to receive alerts about these blog posts to your inbox, plus hear about special offers? Subscribe to my free newsletter here.

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2011

But joyful, ecstatic, all-engrossing passion is an ingredient which also makes the journey harder.

Here are FIVE challenges we’re likely to encounter because we’re following our passion:

1. You Are Besieged With Ideas

It’s not unusual for a passion-led entrepreneur to wake up at 4am with a new service concept, words for a blog post, or a new page for your website. It can literally be exhausting to have so much inspiration and frustrating that you don’t have the hours in the day to see every aspect into reality.

Solution: Establish structures into which you can channel your inspiration. I have twice-monthly calls with my Heart of Business mentor, Jason, where we stick to a strategic plan, filing away certain ideas and taking immediate steps with others. Once you have big picture focus, you can assess whether each fragment of inspiration takes you in that direction, or whether it’s a distraction.

2. You Love It So Much You Won’t Share It

This is your dream, your baby. It can be really hard to allow others to help you take care of something so precious – and so instead you do everything yourself, to the point of burnout.

Solution: Seek support and delegate. In addition to my mentor, I have a web developer, an accountant and am in the process of hiring an assistant. This is also an inside job so look to your spiritual practice to help you find the safety to trust others.

3. You’re So Close You Don’t Know How Good You Are

Put your finger on your nose. Try to see the tip of it. Yep, you can’t, you’re too close – and that’s how it is when you’re so “in” your business and “in” you that you can’t see what others see. Your skills come so naturally and abundantly to you, you don’t realize they’re a rare commodity to others.

Solution: Ask for and receive feedback from supportive others. What do they see in you that’s special and unique? What do you bring that others just don’t/can’t? Get some perspective to overcome your blind spots and recognize your value.

4. You Love It So Much You’d Do It For Free

It comes so effortlessly and enjoyably to you that it feels unfair to charge for your service. Money is compensation for slog and sacrifice, no? So you find yourself giving away freebies, undercutting yourself and chronically under-earning. Ouch.

Solution: Spend time on the pricing aspect of your business. (Top tip: People aren’t paying for the hour or two you spend with them but for the years and effort you’ve invested in developing what you offer). Again, this is an inside job: address your relationship with money and have a conversation or two with the part of you which doesn’t believe you’re allowed to earn good money doing good work.

5. You Weren’t Born With Built-In Business Know-How

Your passion comes naturally, your talents are innate. So you might assume that the business side should come easily too. But business has to be learnt: the general solid principles and aspects, as well as what will work specifically with your venture.

Solution: Just as you trained as an acupuncturist or personal trainer or [fill in the blank], invest in developing yourself as an entrepreneur. Take courses, hire a mentor, subscribe to newsletters, pay attention to what those you admire do.

Leave a comment below on this blog post and start/join the discussion. Although your passion is the perfect starting place, do you find it’s a problem? What challenges do you encounter, which of the above most ring true for you? And how do you find ways to channel your passion effectively? What helps you have impact and earn income?

Want Support?

If you want business guidance specific to a one-person business plus feedback and support from a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, then do check out the ‘Turn Your Passion To Profit’ programme. There’s also an individual coaching programme, if you would prefer the one-to-one format.

Want to receive alerts about these blog posts to your inbox, plus hear about special offers? Subscribe to my free newsletter here.

Well okay, not literally, but quantitively. My gym has launched ‘Channel Challenge’ where we sign up and keep tally of our lengths between now and the end of August, aiming to rack up 21 miles in total.

When I first saw it advertised, the idea was intriguing. I asked a lifeguard for more details and he said his team were about to have a meeting to formulate a plan. It turned out to involve tally cards, celebratory drinks at key milestones, conversion tables to calculate mileage in the indoor versus outdoor pool, plus a giant chart representing how far each of us has travelled.

There are some bonuses they hadn’t necessarily planned for. There’s been a buzz by the pools with the lifeguards excited and engaged, suddenly enjoying a role other than merely saving us from drowning. My own fitness is increasing and my partner has started accompanying me, inspired by the personal target setting. I’ve got to know a fellow swimmer: a 62-year old grandmother of eight with some amazing life stories which she shares with me in the jacuzzi, after having put me to shame with her stamina. People are breaking their own personal bests, challenging family members, enjoying the outdoors, losing excess weight.

All this because someone had an idea.

We all have ideas, often a lot of them. Many of them stay merely as ideas without accompanying plans. Sometimes this can be a relief: we get to enjoy the fantasy. Other times this gulf between what’s in our heads and what’s in reality can be overwhelmingly frustrating.

With an idea that could benefit others, whether it’s bringing laughter or insights, sanctuary or motivation, ease or excitement, this idea is not just for us. We receive it, with no input on our part, into our consciousness and it is our choice whether we delve deeper. Whether we share it with others. Whether we take it from idea to clearer idea. To compelling idea. To plan. To action. To reality.

Had any ideas lately?

The World Needs Your Passion, So….

1) Action: Make a list of all those ideas you have that just will not go away.

2) Inquiry: What do your personal idea-full, plan-less places feel like? Are you quite comfortable there with no action required, or do they feel frustrating?

3) Found this blog helpful? Irritating? Inspiring? Challenging? Let us know by leaving a comment below….

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

* A Place To Go With The Idea That Won’t Go Away *

If it’s time to take the first step towards turning it into reality, the Kickstart Your Venture workshop has been designed for you. Click here for more information. Pre-booking essential. Date: Sat 10th October 2009 (Cambridge)

I was the columnist in The London Paper last week, suggesting that the recession is a good thing. Readers vote on whether they want more of you… and 96% did. I also had many comments calling this point of view “refreshing” and “inspiring”. In this, I hear a whispered hope for a move away from ‘business as usual’ to a more enjoyable and equitable way of running our economy.

At its best, this shake-up wake-up call will prompt us to re-prioritise and re-allocate resources. It will make us more aware of where we use money as an excuse to see ourselves as separate from others. Instead of this isolation, we will find ways of leaning in to human energy as our most precious resource and recognise our interdependence.

A great example of this is liftshare – an organisation that works to bring about sustainable change by encouraging individuals to do things together. There are now 290,000+ people registered and several inspirational stories have emerged.

Sandra from Clacton-on-Sea started car-sharing as a way of saving petrol and impact on the environment and found that “two people who led separate lives have now become great friends, with all the benefits and opportunities that new friendships offer”. They socialise regularly, found they had tons in common, and get to chat, laugh and sing along to 60s and 70s music on the way to and from work.

Similarly with Emma from Swindon, her initial motivations were financial and environmental and says “I have benefited in ways I never imagined, including socially. The company is great, we share ideas, and we exchange knowledge about the local area – where the best markets are, what’s on at the theatre. As I know we have to rely on each other at a particular time of day, I’m much more efficient at work. I can no longer stay late to get things finished so I don’t faff about any more, I just get it done.

And there are wider community benefits, as Clare from Herefordshire describes: “We also pick up and drop off a regular prescription for a friend who has retired and finds it difficult to get to the doctors”.

With liftshare, we see the Triple Bottom Line of a solid, sustainable venture – intending to bring about economic, environmental and societal/inter-personal benefits through its activities. As we tighten our belts and make changes economically, perhaps we’ll also tighten our belts as a community, finding afresh how fulfilling it is to need each other.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) If you had 50% of your current income, what would you do differently? Make a list. Then assess: in what ways would any of this be preferable? What could you gain as side-effects of these changes? Plato said “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In which ways would your decreased income increase your creativity and innovation?

2) Now return to your current level of income – but keep those new ways in place. What would you do with all that extra money?? Which deeply fulfilling lifestyle benefits would all that abundance bring you?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008

* Why The Recession Is A Good Thing *

Read the article here.

This is Global Entrepreneurship Week and to mark its start, I volunteered at the first day of Chain Reaction, an event which saw 700 people gather to explore how entrepreneurship can be a source of social good.

There was a variety of inspirational speakers including Tim Smit of the Eden Project, Sophi Tranchell of Divine Chocolate, and Eugenie Harvey of We Are What We Do. My greatest surprise of the day was the closing remarks made by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His focus was on the economy but not the all-too-familiar message of “this is just a downturn, we’ll be back to big, strong, lean and mean again soon” of which many politicians and business people are trying to persuade us. Instead, he acknowledged the economic crisis as one and the same as our resource crisis, emphasised the ‘climate change imperative’ and urged the importance of investing in renewable energy and agriculture. He described these times as experiencing the birth pangs intrinsic to us becoming a global community and as such that they alert us to the need for transition phases.

In many ways, the general thrust of the day was similar to the approach taken by Rob Hopkins, instigator of the Transition Town Movement – that we are entering transition years and that the innovation, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit which got us in to this situation can now be re-harnessed and directed towards finding solutions to the world’s needs.

As I left the conference and spotted in the newspaper that more City jobs are being cut, I had a vision of those thousands of people moving not from employment to unemployment, but to enterprise. A move away from complacent expectation that someone else will employ us as a cog in some wheel…. to a belief that we can have great ideas, gather with others to turn them into reality, and effect social change through doing so.

It feels like time to get excited. There’s the sense of a new model of business emerging. It’s not the old way where business is set up purely for the sake of profit with the directors perhaps developing a conscience later in life, creating philanthropic foundations to offset the damage their enterprise has done. The new model is that enterprise itself is a vehicle for answering society’s needs.

The win-win-win nature of this transaction continually inspires me. I spoke to two women at the conference who were feeling increasingly frustrated as the day went on. They were hearing about all these inspirational projects yet feeling that their own gifts were being wasted, their potential not fulfilled. I hear this so frequently when interviewing women for my Inspirational 100 project – the pain of that gap between what you could be doing, and what you are doing. One of the women started crying as she told me that in her previous decade of working life she felt that she had added no value. She knew that she could give, and that she WAS, more than that. It reiterated to me this great human need for personal fulfilment through fulfilling our own potential – and that one way of doing this is by fulfilling a need in the world through enterprise.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Inquiry: What is the most entrepreneurial thing I have ever done? What was it like to match my strengths/interests with a need in the world?

2) Inquiry: If starting a business were the only way to effect social change, what need would I want to meet and how could a business model serve that need?

3) If there were no time to waste and you were really needed right now, what would be your next action step? Get whatever support you need to make it.

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008

** You – The Entrepreneur **

This is the very exciting launch of a new workshop designed for anyone who is considering starting their own entrepreneurial venture. This is a FANTASTIC opportunity to attend a super-affordable, high-impact workshop and get you moving on that entrepreneurial path. For more information, click here.