Growing a business is exactly like raising a baby

​Well maybe not EXAAAAACTLY. But there are an insane amount of similarities. Doubt me? Keep reading.

I started my business in the summer of 2012, which means I'm about to celebrate my "baby's" 5th business birthday! Ever since, I've taken lots of mental notes (and talked to lots of other business owners) about the strange reasons we can justifiably call our businesses our "babies."

​Businesses = babies because...

1. Businesses/babies take a LOT of work - especially in the middle of the night. Sometimes we're up in the middle of the night because that's when a great idea strikes. Lots of creatives experience jolts of genius right around midnight, meaning we'll be on our computers for hours into the night. Because we're so excited about our new idea (like parents are excited about their real babies!), we don't mind staying up to take care of it. And in the morning? We feel exhausted, like we'll never recover from lack of sleep. But somehow we do it night after night, dreaming of the day when our baby will be so big that someone else will take care of it.
2. Others LOOOOOVE to tell us what to do with our business/baby. "You should totally take photos of _____!" "I heard that you'll absolutely fail if you don't do _____." "Businesses will only become successful if you _____." "Your life would be so much easier if you just _____." "My friend told me that if you just _____, you'll be a better business owner." Those all sound familiar? Yeah, it's because people have a friend who has done something "right" and they just have to tell us that we're doing it wrong. I've heard this from countless new parents from older generations of parents. We all respond the same way: grit teeth, smile, say "thank you," and walk away as fast as possible.
3. We sometimes see less of our friends - priorities, man. This is a really difficult thing to go through. We all want to see our friends more, but priorities can shift at certain points in life. Just like a new parent needs to spend more time with their baby, business owners definitely have to spend more time with their businesses as they grow. I'm so grateful that in 2016, the year I saw my friends the least, they were so understanding of all the work I was doing to prepare to go full-time with my business. I'm so happy to report that 2017, my first year of being self-employed, is a year I'm enjoying LOTS more time with my friends.
4. We have to learn lots of new things we didn't have to know before. New parents have to learn about feeding, changing, safety, bathing, and caring for the health of their baby. Business owners (especially at small startups) have to learn how to be the web developer, designer, writer, accountant, marketer, and director of sales. There's so much we're thrown into that we have to learn on the fly. It's difficult, but at the end of the day, we realize we're glad we know all this stuff so that we can grow our business (or babies!) like pros.
5. We want to wring people's necks when they say it must be so "easy." I've heard it countless times - "Oh, you take photos for a living? It must be so easy." (*pause to calm down and not scream expletives*) Similarly, I've heard parents - especially stay-at-home parents - say that they're often on the receiving end of similar comments. Let's just all agree that the only response that would make us feel better would be, "f*ck you, bye."

Whether you're raising a business or a baby, you're doing a great job and I promise all your hard work will bring you lots of joy.

Happy Friday!
Autumn