What You Need to Know to Grow Your Business

Renée’s Business Building Tip of the Week

When I started my first business in 2005 as an American woman living in Germany, I had no idea what I was doing.

I thought I did. But I really didn’t.

I knew about business plans, cultivating a customer base and having a great product or service. I also knew how important positioning and marketing were to success. But no one ever mentioned the sheer terror that comes with risking everything: your finances, your reputation, your relationships, AND your sanity.

In the beginning, I didn’t sleep much because of a combination of the fear of failure and surging endorphins from the excitement of starting my own business. I constantly thought about what would happen next…
What if I failed?

On the flip side, what if I succeeded? Would my success be sustainable? Could I keep doing it over and over again?

When I started my business in 2005, I didn’t know much about running a business in Germany. I just knew I had a great idea for a business… and it turned out to be exactly what the world was waiting for.

In the beginning there was a lot that I didn’t know. I made it through those first few years because I got used to “doing it scared”, which for me means taking action. Taking a step forward. I simply took the next step forward, then the next and the next.

Even when I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do… I did it anyway. And if that step wasn’t correct, I would make an adjustment and take the next step. See a pattern?

Within a period of 4 years, I had 10 companies in 9 different countries with 52 happy employees. They were valued at three million Euros when I sold them. Wow.

Along the way I “did it scared”. I just kept growing and growing, even when I was terrified of the risk and the potential failures. I didn’t fail. And along the way to my success, I developed a reproducible system for growing successful companies.

And I went from being SCARED to being AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL. As I stepped into entrepreneurship in a bolder way, I also stepped into the bigger version of ME.
You know what else?
Most business owners in start-up are like just like I was back then.

Many of us take the big leap into business ownership without knowing exactly what to do, or where to go to get help when we need it. And the fear that comes with the risk of owning your own company is a common denominator for almost all new business owners.

When we are faced with our biggest challenges in life, those who succeed are those who Never. Ever. Give up.

I still have to take imperfect action, over and over again, to get where I’m going. We all do. Because when you are taking a “no excuses approach to life,” you must keep putting yourself out there every day.

You keep reaching, growing and evolving into a bigger, better, bolder version of your- self. And soon you learn to live fearlessly. So… grab on, and let’s go. The world is waiting for you to start going for it in a big way in your business.

One amazingly imperfect step at a time.