In April, I celebrated my 9th Year Business Anniversary. And with many celebrating special occasions during this global pandemic, I had additional time for reflection and thought with no desire or pressure to have a traditional “celebration.” I often review my business’ progress around the anniversary time to assess how far I’ve come and how much further I need to go. However, this year the annual review was a little more unique because last year I planned to close my business. I had shut down all operations and started to look for a job.
Here’s what happened…
In January of 2019 two major projects halted unexpectedly. This greatly impacted cash flow and I was left with debts to essential vendors. Then in March, one of those vendors decided they had enough and dropped another project mid-stream without notice (nor apology!). But that last project was an internal project and was my solution to the previous cash flow problems. So now I had a half-completed project incapable of launch, no more revenue, vendor debts, no new clients, and no more fight in me. For the previous 7 years I had changed, pivoted, networked, hosted, hustled, cried, labored, and tolerated a lot and I was tired. So I started to quietly scale things back. I unscheduled posts. I stopped ordering marketing materials. I assessed my debts. I canceled subscriptions. I stopped going to events. And was closing shop. I started to look back at my first career, law, and began looking for opportunities that would utilize all that I had learned on this grand adventure called entrepreneurship. Then I started to get stalked and harnessed by a former client. She tried to extort money from me. She started to digitally bully me and post on my pages. And she reached out to people in my network to tarnish my character. It didn’t work but it definitely was not a good time for that. It felt like being kicked while you’re already down. And then just lying on the floor praying it would be over.
However, “trouble don’t last always!”
Because although my business was in complete freefall, I still believed in service and I was still showing up to the various organizations I had commitments with. One of them led me to an opportunity to served with the City of Houston’s Women and Minority Owned Business Task Force. That led to rediscovering the spark of why I was even in business, to serve. And to serve on a larger scale. I decided to “cast my net on the other side.” I started to declare what I did (although I was currently not doing it). I started to research how to grow and develop myself again. I pursued new certifications and associations. I reviewed all of my previous business plans and ideas and saw where I went off track and where I wanted to go. I started looking in my network for support and opportunities at this new higher level of service. And I got a new client. I taught her what I knew and it yielded results. I updated my website and service options and received more new clients. I started to position myself within a new industry and with different professional circles. I started to pay down my vendor debt. I started to run the business again. I started to want to have a business again.
I overcame and now I celebrate! In the Scriptures, the people were instructed to rest once a week. Even the land is supposed to rest every 7 years. Its called Sabbath and when someone is resting we still call it a Sabbatical.
Well, I rested.
I rested and re-imagined.
I rested and restructured.
I rested and revised.
I rested and was revived.
The number 9 means completion of vision. This year Making Straight Paths will do just that. During this pandemic just know your business can come back. You can recover. You too can be positioned to complete the vision. Just keep showing up and don’t be afraid to take a rest.
