Hard Work – The Key to Achieving Success in Business

Are you currently working long hours in your current job, trying to achieve a goal or outcome?Are you being challenged professionally and personally in this stage of your career?As a small business owner, I can honestly say I know how you feel, I have had some periods throughout my career where everything was going really well, new business and deals coming in, then other times when this was not happening, I wonder how we will get through these blocks in our business or work.“Hindsight is a beautiful thing”  Last year I went through one of the most perplexing times within my business growth,  I’m proud to look back today, and review how it has helped me develop what I went through with others.I came back from maternity leave in January 2016 with a 3-month-old child and wondered how I would juggle constantly broken sleep nursing newborn, erratic sleep patterns and working the demanding long hours of recruitment. At this time two of my main billing staff decided to leave for various reasons.I was faced with the challenge to rebuild my team, while continuously staying focused on my brand and paying the bills, as any small business will know, overheads do not disappear because you’re having a bad month! On top of all this, our two largest clients went on a recruitment freeze and my husband was made redundant from his job all at the same time.I felt as if I could not take another situation, I was at a turning point in my life, I could either crumble and throw in the towel, shut my business down or I could STOP and reflect on this pivotal point of change. Thankfully what I wanted to achieve was to move forward (nothing was going to stop me and I had faced adversity in the past).I had passion and vision, I knew that this crazy circle of events could only have one way of turning around, and that is what I did with my business.I knew I had to look at a new way of running things. I found new staff to onboard, changed how I interviewed, refocused on my clients and what truly mattered and what was making a difference. That part of me never changed and from this new outlook, I was able to bring on new contracts. I started being at the frontline of my business again, recruiting for our clients across Australia. I started building and mapping our pipeline and was also successful at securing a large contract with an NGO. This has set up the business on the path to success again. I often wondered through that challenging season how we would ever achieve what I needed too and turn things around, but all I knew was I wasn’t ready to give up on my dream business!I have learnt that with hard work, passion and persistence I can get through any challenge thrown my way. That when others would have given up, I dug deeper inside myself and found a drive that I never imagined possible. I’m now on a mission to grow my business again, really see my hard work pay off, with the continued growth of my business, flourishing more and more over the next few years.I’m proud of how far I’ve come and excited about the future that’s ahead of me.“Nothing defines human beings better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs – Scott Adams”