How to Create a Big Life with a Small Business
Episode Summary:
Are you scared of having a big business? I’m here to tell you that it's safe for you to treat your small business like a small business. This does not mean you are closing yourself off to growth, it just means you can make it happen your way. As I was reflecting on this topic this week, it really blew my mind and I knew I had to bring it to you here on the podcast. When I first started my business, I was honestly terrified of success because I thought that meant I would no longer be able to be a present mom. But as I’ve grown, I’ve made the business work for me so that I still get to do the things that I love, get paid for them, and be a patient and present mama. This episode is going to help you overcome that fear of success, define what success looks like for you, and show you how you can make your life big and your business small.
Topics Discussed:
What success looks like for Anna in her small business, even as it has grown to a million dollar business
The reminder that you have control over your growth, you don’t have to be scared of having a bigger business
Deciding what your next level of success looks like and breaking down the baby steps to get there
Journal prompts for you if you’re struggling with the fear of success
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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Anna Rapp (00:00):
<Affirmative>, it's safe for you to treat your small business like a small business. Okay, <laugh>, I wanted to dive into this concept today. It kind of like blew my mind as I was reflecting on it this week. But the cool thing is what success looks like for me as having a multi-six figure small business. You know, having a handful of clients in my one-on-one program in my mastermind program in my course, and I'm happy because I love to coach and I get to do my work's passion, right? I get to, to do my craft, I get to enjoy sitting with clients and supporting them and listening to them and reflecting back like that is such a joy for me. And I think I really leaned into letting myself have a small business, right? Meaning I'm just working really a few hours a week, right? I really have a part-time business.
Anna Rapp (00:56):
And I think so much of what I see women hold, holds women back from growing two, six figures, multi-six figures to the million dollar mark, is they're imagining problems or, or creating this, this picture of something they don't even want, which is a big business, right? Like what the next level of success that you want. What I can tell you is you can handle it, right? I hear so many of my clients having fears around, like for my clients that have an even like got off the ground, yet they have fears like, what if I get sued? What if I have so many clients that I can't keep up with them, right? Like, and then as my clients grow and they have six figure multi-six figure businesses and they're really looking into hiring team to scale and grow, they have a lot of fears around like, what if I get a team member that steals all my secrets and what if, right?
Anna Rapp (01:45):
Like, but it's just remembering, right? We, we, I think growth feels out of our control. I know I definitely had this fear that I would like, it sounds crazy and maybe egotistical, but I'm gonna say it, okay. I had this fear that I would just like grow so quickly that I would be like be this like overnight Oprah precise success and that it would really overwhelm me and I would be a bad mom. And so it really held me back from signing my first five clients, okay? <Laugh>. And I'm like exaggerating. I really did not think I was gonna be Oprah level, right? But you know what I mean? It felt like, it just felt very overwhelming. And what I wanna say I've seen for all my clients is you have control over your growth. And it happens doably, even when it happens fast like it did for me, right?
Anna Rapp (02:35):
Really in 90 days I sold out my practice. That's very fast, right? But in the moment it felt slow and I had time to acclimate to that. I signed one client and then two more, and then two more, right? So I think it's remembering say I want you to, if you're listening to this, say you're next level of success out loud, how many more clients is it? How much more money, right? But remembering you are going to baby step into that. My beautiful friend Andrea, my dance friend says to me all the time, Anna, baby steps, baby steps, right? And it's just remembering like let's say right now you're making like two KA month and you're looking to make 10 K, right? And that feels overwhelming 'cause you're like, think about all the work I'm gonna have to do on the way to 10 K.
Anna Rapp (03:15):
No, you're probably gonna make like six K and then eight K and then 10 K, right? Or people say like, how am I gonna manage more money, right? I'm gonna have so many more taxes and then blah blah blah, and then I'm gonna get sued and then blah, blah blah. Right? Like, just remembering as you grow your money, you're also going to acclimate to that over time. It's like when you are, you know, getting in, it's like that is a horrible analogy, right? But that, that boiling water analogy, like you get in the water at first and as it starts to grow you get used to the water temperature rising over time, right? And I don't know if this is helpful, but it's just remembering that you have more control over your success than you think and you can trust yourself to grow and to expand.
Anna Rapp (04:00):
And even when you grow, it's still gonna be a small venture, right? Even my clients that have multi, multi, you know, that have million dollar businesses, they still know their team members by name. They still know most of their clients fairly well, right? It's just remembering as you grow, it's gonna feel pretty similar to how it feels now. In fact, I would say like as I grow it, I feel like I know my clients even better because I have more margin to just focus on them. And my team has taken over a lot of my non-client stuff, right? I had this realization one time in corporate, right when I was growing, I was working in higher education and I was fairly quickly like kind of growing up the corporate ladder and I almost didn't take a promotion that they were giving me because I was like, oh, I'm already overwhelmed at my current role.
Anna Rapp (04:51):
I don't know if I wanna do the next role and be overwhelmed. And then I had an aha moment <laugh> that when you get promoted, usually it doesn't mean more work, it just means different work. Let me say that again. In corporate, when you get promoted, it usually doesn't mean more work, it just means different work. In fact, often it means less work. And as I grew in higher education, I actually made more money and really did work less hours. I did have more responsibility, I did have more people under me, but it didn't necessarily mean my, my life was more stressful. In fact, I really think it became less stressful to be honest, right? And I see the same thing in business. As you grow your business, it doesn't become more work, it just becomes different work, right? Maybe you are managing more clients, but maybe you are doing more client work and less of the admin paperwork.
Anna Rapp (05:50):
Maybe you have a team now and so you're managing your team who's doing the work, right? You are only a finite human. You cannot create more of your time, capacity, and energy and you're innovative and you're gonna figure out how to make it work, right? So I think because I had that aha moment in corporate, it really helped me in my business be like, Ooh, I can grow and scale and make more money and it's not gonna mean that I'm going to have more work necessarily or be less of a less of a, you know, present mama with my kids. I did have that fear at the start of my business around like, ugh, being a business owner or growing my business, am I gonna be a bad mom, right? But then I think I really started seeing the more money I make, the more resources and capacity I have to be able to be more present and engaged and loving with my kids.
Anna Rapp (06:40):
Crazy example, but or wild example on the way to school this morning, one of my kids, I won't say who was like, mom, my shoes are wet. Oh my goodness. We're like almost to school and my kids go to like different schools right now, so it's like kind of a commute, you know? But I was like, I took a deep breath and I'm like, that's okay. Let's go to Target and buy a new pair of shoes, right? So we just grabbed a new pair of shoes, only got to school 10 minutes late. But because I had the money and I had the resources and I capacity that buying a new pair of shoes totally does not stress me out. Same thing this week. My dishwasher went out, right? And yes, it's an inconvenience, but like whatever, I bought a new dishwasher in cash, right? Life has challenges.
Anna Rapp (07:21):
Business has challenges. That's normal no matter what you're going to have life happen because we're humans. But guess what? Life is a lot less stressful when you have an excess of time, when you have an excess of energy and when you have an excess of money, right? And I think that's not talked about when people say like, money doesn't buy happiness. Mm. It really does though, especially for women. It buys us resources, it buys us choice, it buys us capacity to not make things about the money. I didn't have to say to my son like, how dare you? I can't afford to spend more money on shoes and you blah blah, blah. Right? Like, when you have money, you're able to not make it about the money, which is just so beautiful. Anyway, in conclusion, <laugh>, I wanna keep this short because I have some journal questions for you and I want you to reflect on this.
Anna Rapp (08:12):
But I really want you to remember that like it's safe for you to remember that your business is small and you can treat it as such and it's so okay for you to keep your business small so that you can have a big vibrant life, right? Whatever that means for you. And okay, my journal prompts for you are what does success look like for me in my business, in my small business, <laugh>, what does success look like for me? How much money specifically and how many hours? And then second of all, what does success look like for me in my happy, boring dream life? What are my biggest goals there? If you're a client of mine, you know, I'm a big fan of having one big business goal at a time and one big life goal at a time, right? My life goal this year is to prioritize international travel with my kids.
Anna Rapp (09:02):
And so it was really easy for me to like cut back and say no to some other things because I'm like, ooh, I really want my kids to have this experience while they're little, right? But anyway, if you don't define your happy, boring dream life, it's really hard for me as your coach to help create a business that fits around that, right? What does that look like for you? And not making that wrong, does that look like for me right now, it looks like working, you know, most of my work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, three days a week so I can have more flexibility, right? For me, it looks like making plenty of money. So I have capacity as the, you know, income provider for my family. What does it look like for you? When my babies were biddy, working three days a week was not my ideal week, really.
Anna Rapp (09:46):
It was working a little bit every day, seven days a week, a few hours a day, right? If that because my kids were tinier and they weren't not in school. And so that's really what it looked like. And so just giving you permission to imagine what is your most happy, most boring, most calm, most grounded life, how can you make that beautiful and fulfilling and vibrant? And then how can you keep your small business small and part-time? And yes, let it be impactful, something that impacts you, that you enjoy being in something that impacts your clients, that changes their lives. There is nothing more fulfilling for me than seeing my clients' lives be changed and the people they love as a part of that, right? But it's remembering, it's okay if it's just one, one part of your life. It's okay. It's okay if your work is just one part of your life.
Anna Rapp (10:36):
You are a beautiful and diverse and multi-passionate human, right? I had another aha moment when I realized like, oh, I don't have to like monetize like every hobby. Like it's okay for me to do things in my life. For me that's like fitness and dance. Spend a ton of time on fitness and dance does not make me money, right? Actually now the fitness does a tiny bit now that I teach at my gym, but just like barely, right? But I think it's just remembering like it's safe for you to do things outside of your business that are unproductive, right? When's the last time you did something that was like unproductive and didn't feel guilty for that? And realize that it's a money making activity in the fact that when you are fulfilled, when you are satisfied, when you are happy, when you rest, when you unplug, you're gonna come back to your business and be on fire.
Anna Rapp (11:22):
You're gonna come back to your content and be magnetic. You're gonna be come back to your clients and crush it, right? It's safe to unplug, it's safe to take breaks. It's safe to make your life big, your business small. And if you fill out these journal prompts, I would love for you to email them to me and share them with me. I would love to hear it. And just sending you so, so, so much love. Remember that if you are looking to sign your next five paying clients and want to do it in a way that's small, in a way where you
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Don't have have to be a social media superstar, I would love to do that. If you are someone that loves to coach but is having challenges signing, paying clients, I have a free webinar that you would love. It's called Sign Your Next Five Coaching Clients With One Simple Strategy. I think it's gonna blow your mind. I really do <laugh> and if you do it and you fill out the worksheet, you get $3 coffee money from me so that you can go to a coffee shop and actually start to implement it. Actually start to take some beautiful action. Okay? I will put the link in the show notes or you can go to heart-centered entrepreneur.com/free workshop and hang out with me a little more. I'd love to hang out with you over there, okay? Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of your day.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.