Do you ever go to exhibitions or conferences, and end up coming home with every free cup, mousemat, stress ball and pack of candies? Of course you did - in fact it is not unusual to end up with one of the free bags given out in order to carry the things that you pick up from every stall. But how many do you use? How many stay in the bag because you actually have no use for it? You got it because it was free and well, why not? Online goodies are also on the rise - free courses, workshops, and downloads. All it takes is your email address. And you may be tempted to sign up for all of it - because well, why not? But take a step back before you give your email address away too freely. First, almost every free pack you will be given is a way to get your email address for further promotions. Some of it may be useful, but most will end up in spam with you forgetting how they got your email address in the first place. Second, it can feel really empowering to give yourself a goal of completing lots of programs and workshops that are going to help you take your business to the next level. But it can also become the items on your to do list that just sit in judgement on you, knowing you will never do them. For the sake of your to do list and inbox, think strategically about what help you really need this year. Where is your focus? What will take your business to the next level? Research a number of free offerings before selecting one. Just one. Then schedule the time to complete the course into your calendar. Don't just promise yourself to get it done - commit to it. Your business won't improve through a list of courses you signed up to just because they were free. Just as much as your desk really doesn't need a mountain of stress balls.

You may or may not remember my podcast launched last year, called the Startup Game. I was very lucky to have on some brilliant guests and the premise was simple - talk to founders about the reality of running their business. I chatted with two founders at a time about their weekly activities running their businesses and we covered a large variety of topics and challenges. I also got some terrific feedback :-) We are in the process of setting up for the next season of The Startup Game and this time we are going on YouTube as well! The format will be changing slightly - I will be talking about a particular subject for about 15 minutes, and then I am going to have a chat with a founder for another 15 minutes. Why the change in format? Mainly, the issue was logistics - trying to get three very busy founders in the same place at the same time was a lot harder than I thought! And isn't that one of the biggest ironies of being your own boss - that it doesn't leave time for anything else than running it?! We also had some issues with the tech we were using - Riverside started off as a terrific option, but as we used it more, we ran into more and more instances of the files corrupting and sadly, some episodes got so corrupted we can't recover them. So this time, it is simpler, so we can get more episodes out without the drama. My team are working on a suitable podcast studio vibe, and I am putting the word out that I am looking for more brilliant founders to talk to. The format of the chat will remain about the realities of running a business - and yes, it will inevitably involve talking about white boards and networking! But one to one, I think we can have a much more interesting conversation and a great fun way to enter the weekend! If you want to listen to the previous conversations, go to https://open.spotify.com/show/5TBs8kyekTQ7LzA35CpmLs?si=hMo3aQpbRsSvbU2HI8w_WQ Or you can start following The Startup Game podcast on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@thestartupgamepodcast?si=B4G_0wh4z_N3ReWL

It's okay that some days, you're just not feeling positive about your business. It happens - the resilience you need to keep running a business is pretty intense. The issue comes when you are struggling to get your optimism up for long periods of time - again, it might be that you are struggling with difficult market conditions, or you are using up all of your positivity on other areas of your life (perish the thought you do other things as well!) But you know the difference between feeling particularly energetically low and that more persistent feeling that what you are doing is no longer the right thing. You can see the path has changed, but not where it is now going. I have got you. Never be worried about changing your path if the one you are currently on doesn't light your fire any more.

Welcome to the Adviser community! Hopefully we can start some amazing conversations on here and really get our thinking caps on for getting you and your business where you want to go :-) But for now, how about introducing you and your business? What is your business about, and what would you like to achieve with it?