Louise Hendon has founded five D2C brands and is now the CEO of doggie karmaa company that supplies natural supplements for dogs.
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I just started my fifth and sixth company a few months ago. And in my many moments of despair, I repeated, “Why, why, why?” to myself as I rocked my head. In my moments of elation I told myself this is what I love to do, what I’m good at and this is my destiny. And in the intervening hours, I try to stick to the plan and plod along step by step.
I truly believed that starting a business would be different this time. I was no longer a beginner. After all, I had started four profitable businesses in the past and sold three. I had also decided that I would be more mindful in setting up a successful business. I wrote a business plan, hired two business coaches, implemented my ideas with colleagues I respected, and even wrote quarterly goals well in advance. And to top it all off, I didn’t need to raise any money as I had just successfully exited two previous companies.
Everything seemed to point to success, so why do so many days of this entrepreneurship still feel like a struggle? Here are five reasons I came up with after months of frustration.
1. It is inevitable that you will make new mistakes.
I told anyone who would listen that I wanted to make new mistakes with my new businesses. But when I made new mistakes (like assuming too much too early), it still felt just as painful. And platitudes about having learned a “valuable lesson” from well-meaning friends only made me feel worse.
Fortunately, I have two wonderful business coaches who have helped me realize that millions of entrepreneurs have walked this same path before me, and making new mistakes is part of the growth process. Having mentors, partners, coaches and friends who have gone down this path before is essential to help you recover quickly from mistakes or avoid them altogether.
2. Repeating old mistakes is also inevitable.
My goal with these new companies was to avoid making the same mistakes I had made before. But guess what? I even broke that goal with my first business plan. I’ve advised countless business owners about the dangers of focusing too much on social media in the early stages of a business because I’ve found it’s a slow-growing model that isn’t “free” when you consider the time and effort it takes. is about creating content. Still, I started my new ecommerce business by putting tens of thousands of dollars into building our organic social channels.
Repeating old mistakes is often a sign that something was misunderstood, so I started writing diaries about business models and situations where social media would (and wouldn’t) be very useful. You can try to do the same. Journaling is a great way to process mistakes and learn more deeply from them.
3. Losing focus is a constant problem.
The shiny object syndrome is real and affects pretty much every entrepreneur I’ve met. When I’m feeling down I call this syndrome ‘ineffective greed’ and on better days I call it ‘boredom’. Whatever you call it, and however you want to excuse it, the simple fact is that it can distract you from your primary goal: creating a successful business.
The best way to focus is to plan ahead. Then keep adjusting and revising the plan so that each day you can prioritize taking action for the steps that will make the biggest leaps forward.
4. Every business is different and has its own unique challenges.
After reading Tim Grover’s book “Winning: The Relentless Race to Greatness,” I saw similarities between business and sports. For example, while the overarching rules of basketball don’t change from game to game, the players on the court, the audience watching, and the stakes involved change every time. The same goes for companies.
Although I started another ecommerce business and planned to use similar marketing strategies in my new business, I quickly realized that this new business had different challenges. Even if you are an experienced entrepreneur, when starting a new business, keep in mind that your audience may be different from your previous businesses, so you will need to dive deep into that community to better understand their needs and behavior.
5. The marketing and business spheres are evolving faster and faster.
I built my previous businesses on Facebook ads, but that landscape has changed dramatically. That’s why I’m building my new ecommerce brand on TikTok ads instead. While you could get away with product image ads and heavily branded videos on Facebook, the new platforms your audience is using are also important to explore. TikTok, for example, forces advertisers to do better. Not only do you need to squeeze your entire message into about a minute, but you also need to make it attractive to look at without being overly productive.
It has taken me seven months to understand all the different TikTok advertising strategies, and there is no guarantee it will remain lucrative for long. However, the business world and marketing are evolving rapidly and there is no time to be complacent about entrepreneurship. Make sure you want to learn, test and run faster and faster.
Keep going, despite the struggle.
I could list more reasons why starting a business never gets easier, but the truth is that entrepreneurship does not have a three step guide to success. Being an entrepreneur means waking up every day and believing all over again. It’s about seeing possibilities, even when life seems to be beating you. But most of all, it’s about sharing — sharing your knowledge, sharing your creations, and sharing your successes and your failures.
For me, that’s what makes this journey worthwhile, and that’s why I keep doing it, even if it never gets easier.
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