When to Quit Your Business - and When to Keep Going

Hello and welcome back to the UCAM Podcast. It's a show that's all about helping you turn your expertise into income and create a business and life that works for you. I'm Sarah Jolly Jarvis and today we're going to be talking about something that a lot of people come to me and talk through with me, but few are saying it out loud, few say it in the public domain, it's done with us as announcement after the time and that is around is it time to give up on your business is it time to give up on your business dream is it time to say you know what I quit I walk away I'm going to do something different or I'm going to absolutely change what I am doing I'm not going to stick with my current approach and my current business model now before we dive into this episode I want you to know that this one might it might hit close to home but I promise this isn't going to be a doom and gloom episode it's about getting clarity because sometimes what feels like a need to give up is actually just a sign you need to tweak things things aren't working as they are there is no need to you know explode press the i'm done button um and give up on everything and and destroy everything that you've built okay so let's talk about that difference so you know to start with guys let's be honest there are so many reasons that might make you feel like you want to throw in the towel okay you're tired you're not making the money you hoped for your latest launch flopped your family and friends don't understand and they're not supporting you you feel like you're constantly on but on it doing stuff in the business but you're getting nowhere you're kind of like feel like that kind of busy fool okay if you've ever cried into a laptop or googled jobs near me at 2am in the morning you are not alone we have all been there we've all thought you know what am i doing every single business owner i know has had a moment or a number of moments like that where they've wondered would it be easy to just walk away you know is this too much have I taken on too much can I do this but here's the truth most of those feelings they are temporary yeah they don't last it's one of those things that you tend to have a real challenge and a real down time and then you have a massive breakthrough it is genuinely such a roller coaster and that's all part of that entrepreneurial roller coaster and those challenges those times when you think, gosh, I really don't think I can do this.

They can be fixed. So let's talk about those times where it's not about quitting. That wouldn't be the solution. It's actually an opportunity to reassess.

Okay. It's those, I want to give up moments and why they might not actually mean that it's time to walk away. Okay. You're not making any money.

Now that is a really common one. I hear that all the time. People come to me because I can help you with lead generation and converting those leads into paying customers. So especially for the first year or to, it's a very, you know, regular problem that people have.

And in all honesty, there are businesses that I've worked with who have been going 10 plus years, who have are still struggling with inconsistent income, because they have inconsistent leans leads, okay, it just means you haven't found your groove yet. It might be that your message needs tweaking, your offer needs tweaking, you need to look and reassess your audience, you've gone too broad, okay, money problems are solvable as long as you're willing to adjust and as long as time hasn't run out on that and I will come to that in a little bit okay you want to to face money challenges head on you don't want to keep burying your head in the sand and hoping things will change but keep doing the same things and and that would be my kind of key word of warning there is if you're finding that you're not making enough money then something needs to change plugging along doing the same thing is unlikely to give you a different outcome okay I know that vague I know that a very general thing to say and get help reach out reach out to me reach out to other business mentors okay and get that support and get that sense check okay, you're exhausted, you're burnt out, okay, burnout is not a reason to give up, okay, now I'm not talking extreme burnout, can't get out of bed, I'm talking about when you are exhausted, okay, there's, there's, you haven't had those boundaries in place, everything's merged together, you are busy from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep okay you're maybe doing too much you're doing too much you're taking on too much yourself okay maybe you're not being as strategic as you could be maybe you're not using the resources around you as much as you could okay these are all fixable okay again you don't need to give up you need to rest you need to restructure okay it's a it's an indication that it's not sustainable the vast majority of people come to me because their business is not sustainable it's either because it's not sustainable because it's not making enough money or it's not sustainable because it's running them ragged and they know that they can't keep this up in the long term okay you need rest you need to restructure you need to regroup and you potentially need some help okay to see the wood for the trees and to figure out how to move forward and get those systems and processes and structures in place okay you may feel like no one cares okay you've posted you've shared maybe even launched something and got zero response crickets tumbleweed okay that is deflating it's demoralizing but it doesn't mean your business idea is a bad idea okay often it's fact of visibility so you know there hasn't been enough the volume is it's frightening okay the amount of volume needed to get people's attention particularly online particularly in this day and age um it again it's very fixable but you need to to dial in with more messaging with better messaging being in a better place so maybe you're not hitting your target audience um posting where you are posting at the time that you are posting the information that you end up posting so but it's all very fixable it's just understanding okay what is it that is misfiring here yeah it's it's a misfiring it's not a this is a really really bad idea having worked with so many people who are like you know what i've launched this i've done this i've done that and nobody cares nobody's interested there has been probably out of i don't know tens of people you're probably looking at like 50 60 people that I've worked with with that exact problem they've come to me I've done this and nobody cares there's probably been less than one percent absolutely less than one percent have actually needed to relook at what they're doing um and and the core of what they are offering um yes there might be some tweaks there might be some messaging um but fundamentally um they are they're providing the same thing they're just packaging it looking at it differently messaging it differently and putting it out to a different audience in a different way so you know don't feel like that is a reason to walk away just because no one is interested at this moment in time it takes time okay it takes time to build an audience it takes time to have those people's ear and them interested and ready to to respond okay oh and then they talk around like comparison being you know the the thief of joy they talk around it you know being being such a source of problems and it's because it is okay comparing yourself to others spoiler alert they probably have the same doubts the same rough months the same meltdowns they don't let everyone else enjoying those moments they don't share those moments what you see online what you see of somebody else's life what they choose to tell you is curated, okay?

Are you going out there and telling people right now that you think you might have enough and that you're done? I very much doubt it okay So you not behind you are on your own path You are on your own path Now that that doesn mean that you going to stick behind that person that always going to be that step ahead of you it just means that you are going through your own journey okay if you going through a rough patch then you know maybe it is just that a rough patch that doesn't mean it's time to quit it might just be time to regroup get support okay look at your options and and reassess what it is that you should be doing and where you should be going with it okay i would strongly advise you to get support from somebody who has been there done that okay that might be somebody that you know in business who you can talk to you might not be in a position where you're like you're great sarah thanks for the whole suggestion of a mentor right i will do a 15 minute conversation with anybody okay i will try and help and guide you in the right direction okay because i want to help as many people as possible to develop in their business and to have successful businesses so and and I'm not alone with that you know decent people they will get on the phone with you they will get on a call with you they will chat to you and share with you their thoughts on your situation at the end of the day it is your business and it is your choice but there is lots of people out there who can guide you but find somebody that you know whose opinion you value and talk to them the more opinions you tend to get so you get a little snippet from auntie jane and then another one from you know your next door neighbor then another one from a business owner of a friend of a friend then you start to get you know it starts to get diluted it starts to get confusing find somebody that you really trust speak to them and find out what they think okay now that kind of leads me on to why you might want to walk away okay there are only two real reasons to walk away and actually neither of them mean you have to give up on having a business it may just be a case of reshuffling your current business and getting it to look different or it may just be a pressing the button okay so the two reasons are you are facing immediate financial hardship okay that what i mean by that is if you get keep that business going it means you can't pay the rent you can't put food on the table support your family you need to pause this doesn't mean you failed doesn't mean your dream is over it's dead in the water it means that you need to make a smart decision to stabilize your lifestyle okay before you start to rebuild some of the biggest problems that i've seen in a business have come from people trying to draw money out of a business which isn't in a position to support that yet okay that's looking at your business like a host like a source of resources it's like pulling things from that resource it's like picking strawberries off a strawberry plant before they are ready you're going to run out of strawberries if you're not then giving it a rest allowing them to mature you can get a job and still be an entrepreneur you're not failing many successful business owners had to press pause and come back stronger later that doesn't make you a quitter that makes you responsible it makes you resilient and actually it puts your business in a much better position i really enjoy working with people who are currently working a job and setting up their business on the side the people who are setting up their business pure 100 all in i get why you do it and for some people they need that sense of fear and that pressure but from my point of view it scares me and I know straight away that they're going to have limited resources to work with because they haven't got the finances available because what they're making what they're bringing into the business what they're making they're having to withdraw to cover their own financial costs and that can really strangle as I've said in a previous podcast your business and your business's growth so for the sake of your business sometimes some people look for funding some people look to self-fund you may need to go and get a job and get money coming in so that you can actually support the growth of your business and make your business better in the longer term the other reason for walking away rather temporarily or altogether is if you genuinely no longer enjoy your business I don mean I tired or this is hard I mean every task feels like, you know, like you dread it, you hate it.

You're not proud of what you're doing. You feel out of alignment. You feel trapped. If you hate your business and that has become your reality, it is time to take a hard look.