Your Best Shouldn’t Be Enough {Business Development}

Doesn’t owning a business sometimes just feel like a perpetual state of drowning? Like you’re under a mountain of to-do lists, attempting to market yourself, and balance four books on your head at the same time? From a marketing standpoint, I have a lot of clients who start working with me because they feel like they aren’t good enough.  Whether it be clients balking at prices or competitors making them feel inferior, they need a boost of confidence.  It sucks that people take advantage of our insecurities.  Everyone feels “less than” sometimes – even small business owners.  This feeling of not being good enough is crucial to business development.  If you felt like you were fantastic, you’d never keep growing.

I feel like the best small business owners are the most critical of themselves.  Being fantastic at your craft shouldn’t be a stopping point. I’m not going to lie – my response is usually “great!”  The minute you think you’re the best at something is the minute that someone will come out and sweep the rug right from under you.  Your best should never be good enough.

I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer – think hard about whatever it is you do.  Using myself as an example – I leave every styled shoot wondering what I could’ve done differently.  Could I have added one more vendor, one more detail, brought on more models to pack more of a punch?  Ultimately, I’ve never been unhappy with a photoshoot once the images show up in my inbox. I put a little piece of myself and my creativity into every photoshoot that I do, but the reason that they keep getting better and better is because my best is never enough.  Do I have favorites? Sure.  I use those as benchmarks for future shoots to make them better.

What’s the point?

If you don’t see that you could work harder and be better at your job, you aren’t doing it right.  You have to be willing to learn, grow, and set your sights higher and higher each time you do something.  Sometimes you do that by continuing your education (Here’s a shameless plug for the workshops that I do with ISO:EDU).  Other times you do that by taking a risk or a leap and doing something you’ve never done before.  Sometimes people hire me to be a marketing coach, to have an accountability partner, to continue to grow with someone else.

Your best should never be good enough, because you should always be working to be better.  Don’t be down on yourself about it – use it as motivation.  The best small business owners are the ones who don’t accept mediocrity and keep growing their knowledge base, their skill, and more in attempt to be the best possible version of themselves.  Hold onto your victories, and let them fuel your fire to be even better the next go round.

Photo cred: Dragon Studio from our launch of ISO:ALT.