Business Lessons Learned in 2019

While most consultants are sharing their social media predictions for 2020, I’ve decided to take a moment to reflect on the past year as a business owner.

The year started with some hard knocks that were quite humbling. There were times I was unsure about the direction we were taking and times that I even lost faith. Fortunately, we rebounded. But, this year taught me lessons about what I will do differently in the future. Here are my top business lessons learned in 2019.

Take care of you. About two months ago, I became suddenly ill. Fortunately, I was only down for a few days, but I could not do anything during that time. The irony is that I sacrificed my health for months to try to get ahead — so much so, that I made myself sick and then fell behind. Clearly, the universe does not make mistakes. This experience taught me to recognize that I needed to slow down and take care of myself. As a business owner, this is a fatal mistake. If you’re not well, you can’t lead and if you can’t lead, you can’t grow.

Have the uncomfortable conversation. When hurried or stressed, I tend to gloss over stuff in my rush to do what’s next. I don’t avoid challenges, but I do not always address them as they occur. I discovered this when I started writing down my sources of stress — and creating an action plan for how I will eliminate the root causes. (Read…