New Year, New Drive

They say the first year of business is the hardest. Typically, you don't even break even with the amount of overhead costs that go in to starting up a business. No one prepared us for the year of the pandemic, however...

2020 surely took us for a roller coaster ride. Not the type of roller coaster that you only need to be four feet tall to ride and which can probably fit in a 2-car garage. No. The type that looks as though it was built by western contractors, that rattles and jerks, and twists your spine in ways even the most creative chiropractor couldn't. Now, here we are entering 2021 celebrating the end of this roller coaster that has left us massaging our own necks instead of raising a glass to another great year.

Alas, life goes on. 2020 will be another page in the history books of our youth and we will eventually recover. However... If there is one good thing that has come out of this pandemic, it's the amount of us who have learned what our priorities truly are. We had almost a full year to reflect on ourselves, find ourselves, even change ourselves. I rediscovered the importance of friendship and learned to be more assertive when it comes to making those connections. Rather than sit around and wait for someone who's company I enjoy to reach out to me and make plans, I began making that first step and seeking out the human connection I so greatly desired.

I learned that I'm not as antisocial or asocial as I thought I was. In fact, I quite enjoy human interaction. Along with opening my own doors and surrounding myself with people I enjoy being around, I've allowed more of my sincere personality to show through what can sometimes be perceived as a standoffish outer shell. Hey, I'm not as rash as my Resting Bitch Face may suggest!

I would like this new year to be a year that I allow more than just my close friends to see my true self. The self that is goofy, thoughtful, spiritual, and I'll admit, sometimes annoying. I think I had spent so much of my time in my life suppressing myself to accommodate other people's comfort. Being a people pleaser often meant sacrificing part of my personality in order to make other people happy. So, here I am, writing for the first time in years on my own dog training website. Why? Well, because I can, that's why. In all seriousness, I think part of what has given me bouts of success in the past is being personable to my clients. Some of the strongest connections I've made have been with clients who have valued me not only for my work, but for my personality.

Being relatable to my clients seems to open a pathway for better communication, more motivation to achieve results from the client, and a higher sense of accomplishment as a business owner. It may have taken a while, but I am finally understanding that if you truly enjoy what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. Many of my clients have seen it; when I clap my hands in excitement and boast about how much I love my job when I see quick results that were a result of my instruction. For so long I had worked underneath someone. I always had a boss; someone looming over me and making sure I was doing everything according to the job description. At least that's what it felt like. Perhaps having a boss in the past simply diminished my own confidence, but that's not important. I'm rebuilding my own confidence and rather than allow myself to get into a rut, I'm determined to make sure that my business can be even better than it was the year before.

As a small business, it is very easy to get "comfortable." You know, the little soft spot where you are financially able to stay at home for a few days in a row playing video games and tinkering with your car. I mean, bills are paid so why not take a few days to be 'lazy,' right? Maybe that's a normal process for every small business; to realize you aren't working underneath anyone and, technically, nothing is stopping you from doing absolutely nothing for a week. Sure, I had "enough" clients that I was comfortable, but that comfort was including those days that I wanted to stay home and stay in my pajamas all day.

The fear with so many dog trainers is burn-out; working so hard and so frequently with so little breaks that you eventually lose that spark that inspired you to train dogs professionally in the first place. This is where a lot of professionals fall off and I don't want to become one of those. And perhaps my all day binges playing Red Dead Redemption II were a way to avoid approaching that burnout altogether. Like stopping 6 feet before a stop sign to be absolutely certain that the police officer behind you won't nab you for running it. Perhaps fear was holding me back from my true potential.

This year, fear will need to be put aside. I have goals for my future and I can't achieve those by allowing myself to stay in a rut that's equally as challenging as it is comfortable. Of course, I still can allow myself days to relax and do absolutely nothing, but that's no reason to sacrifice the days that I can be out there grinding and building my company to the level I know it can be at. Should I share my goals with you, my reader? Why not? This is my blog after all, right?

To conclude my first blog, I'll share the goals I have for the new year, and my goals for the long haul. Before February, I'd like to be able to rent a space where I can host group and private classes in a neutral and controlled environment. As much as I love staying home, hosting classes in my driveway on a busy street with unpredictable weather isn't very ideal. A bigger goal is to be able to move onto a property with a decent amount of land. Land with climate controlled training spaces, separate play yards, and a climate controlled barn with kennels instead of horse stalls... okay, maybe ONE stall for the mule my husband keeps saying I won't have. I mean, who doesn't want a 4x4 horse!?

So, my New Years resolution won't be to go to the gym more, to eat healthier, to read more, or to start a new hobby. My resolution is entirely work and goal based. While there certainly is no guarantee that 2021 will be any better than 2020, I can still put the work in to make sure my business comes out on top of this absolute nightmare of a year. If you've read this far, thank you. I truly appreciate it as I haven't written since high school... maybe earlier. This was relieving and inspiring in itself and I'm hoping to be able to publish at least one blog post a month on this website.

Until then, thank you for listening. HAPPY NEW YEAR!