Business is the ultimate test of faith

katie laurie - happiness yoga

It's been 6 months since we opened the doors on our small business venture. We hastily hid any rough, unpolished edges left after a month long fit-out job that had run over time and over budget. We welcomed in our first customers. They came and checked out our free class offerings, explored the space and shared their opinions, ideas and critiques with us. Same stayed on and became regular customers. Others didn't.

Numbers were small for the paid classes but we had expected that. Our staff consisted of me (teaching the majority of the classes because my labour was 'free' ), my husband who took responsibility for the technological behind the scenes stuff (another unpaid serf), 2 qualified instructors who sub-contracted to us at an hourly fee and our marketing whiz who took care of promotions, brand and design consistency and social media marketing.

Our budget was tiny. The safety net of funds we had allocated for our first quiet months was mostly gone in equipment and fit out blowouts. We had anticipated this and yet somehow it still caught us by surprise. We knew from the experience of building our first home that everything would cost more and take longer than planned for. We thought we were forewarned and thus forearmed with this knowledge centre stage in our minds. The problem was one of magnitude. It cost WAY more and took WAY longer. Our original numbers looked like fairytale projections My hubby and I were public servants with zero business background which made us infants of commerce. There was so much learning ahead of us and so little time and money with which to do it.

Slowly customer numbers grew. We had good momentum and projections were promising. Pre-selling memberships for a heavily reduced price had meant that we had people invested in our business from day one and meant that we had met our fit out short falls with additional revenue. It also meant that we had no income from a large part of our student base for the first two and a half months. We were paying the bills but our reserves were running critically low. We were a long way from providing a source of income for our family. We were winning and losing at the same time, living in this strange dichotomy. Then we were blindsided from a hit we never saw coming.

The thing that brought everything to a grinding halt two months was not any of the things that we stayed awake at night worrying about. This life lesson is a truth I have repeatedly learned. No matter how diligent you are, you can not doge a bullet you never see coming. External factors lead to us having to close the studio down overnight and for 4 days we hung in the limbo of not knowing when we could re-open. There was a lot of mental stress and anguish behind the scenes.

Under the pressure of the situation, my dormant illness resurfaced. Our money was gone so there was no lifeboat to ride out the storm in.

It was over a week before everything, myself included, was back up and running. Having a supportive community of customers, family and friends made the difference in having the energy to move past the obstacle and refocus on the next phase. I can not stress how important a few factors were in our recovery. The support of having others on our team meant that bearing the burden was spread over many shoulders. The support of others was paramount. I am amazed and humbled by the knowledge that many small business owners tackle misfortune alone. Forging through business as a lone wolf requires a level of confidence, iron will and commitment beyond me. A little help from your friends is something to be cherished by mere mortal such as I with no such fortitude.

After the incident, our numbers in classes went down. I breathed deeply, let myself know that it was to be expected, gave some refunds, extended memberships and had faith.

Our numbers stayed down. We have a group of wonderful core clients that stayed through troubled times and they were the light at the end of a dark tunnel. But it wasn't enough. A tinge of desperation crept into my heart each time I thought about our finances. There came a day where I stood staring at the writing on the wall and my heart sunk down into my feet.

During a meeting with our teachers about scheduling classes and timetabling, my mouth went off script entirely. All my fears came tumbling out. Hearing myself say that I couldn't afford to pay my teachers going forward because there just WAS no money made it all worse. I went home, spilled the beans to those not present at the meeting and then proceeded to cry for 2 days straight.

I felt like a failure and a terribly incompetent business women. How had I ended up here?

Yet the world went on. My worst fears were out walking in the world and I still continued to function and breath (shallowly and in spurts between burst of ugly crying but breathing all the same) My teachers agreed to wait for payment until the cash flow stabilised. They all rallied and let me know they would stay on what I feared was a sinking ship. I was able to borrow more money. We stayed open although I had no idea where the future money to pay bills would come from but I doubled down and went on.

Business is the ultimate test of faith. It is uncomfortable and uncertain. Doubt kicks you in the ribs when you are down. It is so easy to fall into the trap of second guessing every decision and then triple guess it and so forth until you spiral into thought funnels that threaten to paralyse you. It is playing a game of chicken with yourself. Temptation to give up and get a job that actually pays money haunts my mind every time I look at the stack of bills piling up in the corner.

The good news? Our client numbers are growing again! The upward trend is gaining momentum and there is much to be hopeful for. We are now a team of 7 fantastic yoga teachers, one marketing genius and a still unpaid serf that had the misfortunate of marrying me. We have the most incredible group of people supporting our business and community and I am thankful to them everyday. I can not express my gratitude enough to these truly lovely souls and I hope on some level they know how amazing and special they are.

There are big plans on the horizon! Which brings up to the next chapter of the journey - growing pains!

There is so much more to come...