5 Things You Shouldn't (But Probably Still Will) Take Personally As A Small Business Owner

I think we all know that owning a small business is difficult. What I don't think is as well known is WHO makes owning a small business even harder...

Here are 5 situations that all small business owners can identify with that I beg you, if you are new at owning a creative business, train yourself to not take personally.

To be clear, I some of this stuff really stings no matter who you are. Sadly, the more they happen, the less it will bother you but my hope is to preemptively preserve your mental health.

When a customer asks for something specific, so you make that thing, and then they don't buy it.

This. Happens. So Much.

I have fallen for this one a few occasions and spent a fair amount of time creating something specifically for one person, mainly because the person asking has bought work from me before or because they are a good friend - yet they did not end up buying what they asked for. It used to enrage me. How dare they ask me for my talent and time and then not support me.
Maybe they forgot. Maybe their money situation changed. Either way - this does not mean you are obligated to make ANYTHING for anyone just because they sent you an email.

What is on you is to decide to either deny these very particular requests or if it's a quick ask, weight the pros and cons of spending your time on something that you may not see a return.

When potential clients go with someone else.

When you are an artist, more often than not, you have to apply for projects through proposals. Not getting those projects is SO COMMON that you just have to treat it like any other job application. You won't get a call back. You won't get an explanation of what would have made your proposal better. You will start to feel like your are creating all these well crafted proposals for really exciting projects that just disappear into a dismal abyss of a freelance black hole...but trust me.

You will forget them all eventually.
You will find work if you keep telling people who you are and what you do.

When strangers tell you they know how to run your business better than you can.

Complete strangers will find you on the internet and give you shit about almost everything they see. They'll invade your inbox. They'll bombard your private messages. Some of them are bots, others are real people who want you to pay them for consulting services, some will be acquaintances or friends that MAY have your best interests in mind BUT...if you didn't actively seek their advice - delete, block, report as spam. If advice is not coming from someone you respect, you don't have to listen to it. This is not to say that your business could improve - it always can be doing things better but set up a system and put people in place who are ready to give you constructive criticism when you need it.

I have an advisory board with people who have known me and my art for at least 2 decades that meet with me quarterly. I review what I spent the last 3 months doing, what is working, what isn't and what I want to focus on for the rest of the year. That is where your business can be held accountable and plan to shift. Strangers or people who you have not enlisted for guidance do not get a say.

When your own family members, or other people who you thought were cheering you on, unsubscribe from your newsletters or just don't show support at all.

This one is the hardest for me. I luckily have a husband, sister, mom, dad and mother-in-law who support my business in a variety of ways. But the amount of people who seemed really hyped for me and what I was doing and with whom I had had endless conversations with about how to build businesses doing what we love, then straight up unsubscribe from eblasts is something I think I will always take personally no matter how hard I try - so excuse me as I perch my soapbox for a moment.

I understand inboxes get filled quickly. Set up automatic filters. Send all your small business friends to their own label and take 2 minutes out of your day to open them up and scan through. Small business owners not only have to create what they are selling, they also have to market that shit, which takes just as much of their time! The least you can do, if you are calling yourself a supporter of small businesses, is to stay subscribed and open their GD eblasts!

Subscribing to emails and opening them when they arrive is the least a supporter can do. I subscribe to dozens of small businesses owned by friends and I make it a point to stay subscribed, to stay engaged and to open their emails every time I get them so that they know (if they care) that I'm watching, I'm here, I see them. I may not be buying what they're selling every time, but I am seeing and engaging with their content, gosh darnnit, and I think that is the least amount of effort any friend of a small business owner can do. Friends, you need to do better. (Not the ones who are currently reading this - you clearly are doing a wonderful, supportive job!)

Not getting "enough" likes or followers on social media.

This one might be a given for most small business owners at this point, but it something that always needs to be reiterated. The amount of people who are viewing, sharing, commenting, liking, etc. are going to rise and fall at really inconsistent ways based on any given social media platform's algorithm that ALSO changes in really volatile ways. Obsessing over these numbers multiple times a day is damaging to your productivity and confidence in what you're doing. Knowing that it's all fluid, what I have done is designated a day and time once a week to look at numbers so that I can completely forget about it for an entire week while I am doing my real job.

A Rock & Roar goal by the end of 2022 is to hire someone to do the social media for me. Social media is not where my joy lies, so I am saving up to put it on someone ELSE'S plate.