People start down the path of owning their own business for a variety of reasons, one of those reasons being the desire for creative freedom. That is exactly what drove Sofie Couwenbergh to start her travel blog, which quickly showed promise for her entry into entrepreneurship.
While her blog was very successful, she soon realized that her passion for travel was taking a back seat to her needs to grow her business and provide content. Sofie knew she needed to adjust how she viewed her business and her passions, and how each category affected her life. This led to Sofie selling her popular travel blog and refocusing her energy on a holistic approach to success in life, and not just checking the balance of the business bank account.
I think she has done a great job of recognizing the need for entrepreneurs to address their own mental freedom, in addition to their time, location, and financial freedoms.
Let’s take a look at one reason why you should build your business with your life in mind, and not simply fit your life to your business.
When Passion Turns Into Work
Starting and running a successful business takes an extraordinary amount of work and dedication, and it can be tempting to turn a passion into the subject of a new entrepreneurial pursuit. That passion can be leveraged to sustain your drive when the neverending tasks of business ownership become insurmountable. But what happens when that passion turns into work and the joy of said passion begins to fade away?
Sofie loved to travel and to write, so when her job as a marketing coordinator and copywriter left her feeling stifled and unable to express her creativity as an employee she decided to turn her passion into a focus for creative exploration. She could use the written word as her outlet for her ideas and viewpoints on travel and life and scratch the itch that she could not satisfy in her nine-to-five job. After only a couple of months of travel writing, she realized that the blog could be a viable business that could not only sustain her need to create and express herself but also support her financially and allow her the freedom to travel even more. Within two years of steady growth, Sofie quit her career job and set off on the full-time adventure of self-employment.
Unfortunately, she realized later on that the need to drive her business through content creation was putting a stop to her need to enjoy travel for travel’s sake. While passion for a project can help sustain an entrepreneur during the stressful lows of owning a business, it can also lead to a degradation of that passion. The business can turn into a thief of the joy one receives from pursuing a passion, and when that joy is gone, there is nothing left to sustain your business growth when things aren't on a high note.
Picking Values That Matter
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, which is great if you are in the lemonade or lemons business. But what do you do when life has made you hate everything about lemons? You need to re-evaluate your reasons for being in business. And that is exactly what Sofie did.
After the international pandemic known as COVID shut down the majority of the world for an extended period, Sofie saw a steep decline in her business following and income stream. When the world is in lockdown, travel takes a backseat. While the pandemic was not a good thing, a silver lining did come from it. Sofie realized a need to pivot from what she had been doing and move toward a business that allowed her to keep her passions her passions, and not simply tools for internet traffic growth. She sold her travel blog and started her new business, Let Me Write That Down For You, a website that helped her connect to other businesses who needed someone with experience to help them find outreach success in the age of digital media. Unfortunately, her drive to be highly engaged in all areas of her life led to a nervous system crash that left her wondering what she would do moving forward.
Freedoms That Matter
When Sofie realized that what mattered most to her in life was no longer the focal point of her daily existence, she allowed herself to question what her life could look like if she didn’t run a successful travel blog or freelance business any longer. Would her friends go away? Would she lose her value as a person? Or would she get to enjoy her passions again while still maintaining a business that provided satisfaction for her needs?
Sofie had allowed her amazing drive for business success to obscure her original purpose for embarking on the path of entrepreneurship. Namely, she let her business goals chase away her personal goals. After some self-assessment and deep thought, she understood that the only way to maintain business success is to maintain success in all areas of your life. To embrace the love of achieving her business goals, she needed to make sure her life goals were met. Goals like dancing, traveling for the fun of it and living a location-independent lifestyle.
She decided to make this happen and hasn't looked back since.
Sofie learned from her experience that turning a passion into a business is more likely to make your passion go away, and still leave you with the business. What Sofie has learned to do is keep her passions her passions, and let her business work around them.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
This article was written by Neel from MaidThis Franchise, a remote-local franchise opportunity for people looking to escape the rat race and reach financial freedom. Learn more here.
