Also, super importantly – that is revenue, not profit and I also have a super big massive tax bill so I am in no way cashed up.

Here are my tips / insights:

If you want fast growth like my business has had, you either need to work really hard to grow it organically (sweat labour) or pay for it to quicken your growth. I’ve mostly done the latter with Business Jump and leveraged off FB ads. I’ve spent just on $300,000 on Facebook ads and with that revenue, it is a 9 x return on my investment.

I registered my first ABN and domain name back in 2006. That means it has been 16 years in the making. I’ve stopped, started, worked part time, worked full time, had four kids, gone on maternity leave, suffered depression and anxiety and all kinds of things in between but I never gave up. I’ve been in business full-time for nine years now, and I know without a doubt, if I had to start again with what I know now, I could make it all happen ten times faster and that’s my goal for my clients that I help where they can benefit from my hindsight.

This amount makes up of several income streams, not just one. I have a 1:1 service, e-course, e-books and affiliates that are all designed as a down sell, cross sell or up sell.

I do stuff that is aligned with my zone of genius, for example I like writing, it comes fairly naturally to me and sitting at home, by myself listening to music and writing is my kind of heaven because I’m in introvert, however if you’re an extrovert, you might want to align yourself with going out and networking, collaborations and ensuring you fill your energy cup up that way.

I’ve always had my eyes on the prize, that for me is freedom. I never want to be pegged into a job and controlled by a boss. It is freedom that drives me everyday. That is my WHY and this keeps me going when I want to quit and throw it all in on my hard days. You have to know your WHY and then hold true to it and not betray it in the tough times.

The fear about not earning enough, or the income stopping never goes away for me because this is business, and nothing is guaranteed. Business owners swap the security of consistent income for the freedom business ownership gives us. However, I just get better at getting on with it and doing it anyway. Imagine if I said to myself before I started Business Jump, ‘I am not going to do this because I am scared I will fail’ I shudder to think what I would have missed out on and where I’d be now.

Business will always ebb and flow, and it is our job to work it out and hold steady in the scary times. I’ve had months where my business has tipped over $100,000 and months where I’ve earned nothing. We need to ride out the low months and stay true to our goals and vision.

Generally, I am always in the profit producing areas. Which means strategy, creative, sales. You can’t grow and scale your business if you’re ‘IN’ the business working on non profit producing stuff, like admin, invoicing etc.

I keep everything SUPER simple and don’t over complicate things. I do my best to avoid shiny object syndrome and focus on being really good at a FEW things over trying to be good at lots of things. For example, check out my Instagram, it is SO shit.

Good enough is better than perfect. It is more important to get stuff done and out into the world and then learn, refine, and learn and refine on the go. You’ll learn and grow faster on the ground.

I am cut throat with my time, when it is work hours nothing stops me from being laser focused on what I need to do. It means I will generally get 5 hours work done in 2 hours.

I make sacrifices all the time, currently I am working on weekends so I can get two whole days in and then during the week I coast along as I can as I have the twins. Things will change again when they go to daycare.

Business is just as much a personal development journey as it is a business journey. You HAVE to master the monkey chatter in your mind and work on yourself, as well as your business. Every time my business has dipped, I can track it back to my mindset also dipping.

Self care for me is my first priority, yes, over my family (assuming they are happy and healthy), when I am cup full it means everything over flows to my business, my family and life and all those things fall into place a lot easier than if I am trying to do everything from an empty cup.

I learn from people ahead of me and reverse engineer what they do all the time and try it myself. I then test, refine, master.

I make mistakes all the time, especially grammar and spelling mistakes which I try super hard not to but the little buggers still get through. And, I have not always handled everything perfectly even though I’ve tried my hardest, but I don’t beat myself up about it, I fix it and then move on and try harder next time.

Outsourcing and automating is key, I could not have scaled this high without my incredible team whose strengths cover my weaknesses and without learning how to make my business WORK for me with automations.

I don’t feel successful, or any different to how I did 10 years ago. I still fear, I still have insecurities and I still feel lost sometimes but I mindset through it.

I look for the path of the least resistance all the time, where am I going to make the most impact for the least amount of time and energy?

I don’t subscribe to excuses like ‘I don’t have the time or now is not the right time’ I have four kids, with seven month old twins and I work at home around them. If you want it hard enough, you’ll figure out a way to make it happen.

Start with just ten minutes a day if that’s all you have, it’s better than nothing, don’t try and be all the things straight up. Go into it as a learning experience before a money making experience and you’ll grow and evolve as you go and maybe, just like me, shock the hell out of yourself with just what you’re really capable of.

This post was written by Natasha Stewart, founder of  Business Jump