Don’t skip past the unfun parts of running your business – it’s where you build your expertise!

It’s the time you spend in your business when you get to literally fuck around and find out.

I didn’t take a super-traditional path into metalsmithing. It started with beads (doesn’t it always?), moved onto assembling, and then I took my first metalsmithing class. I know from meeting many of you in person that you also took a less traditional route into jewelry and metalsmithing. And that many of us had a similar “a ha” moment when picking up a torch. It’s. So. Much. Fun!

The non-traditional path to entrepreneurship still helps build expertise.

I was still years away from being an expert, hell, I was YEARS away from even being good at it. It was clear to me that this was a long term craft and practice. After all, jewelers with decades more experience were turning out projects that I could only dream of.

So, I kept at it, building skills, going to the Revere academy, working in the industry, and always testing, trying, reading, and practicing. And I made some big missteps. Remember back when I thought palladium was going to be the white metal we were all going to love? Remember when I thought lab grown diamonds were going to save the industry? I thought I knew what I was doing, and at the time, I did.

Build your business skills right along side your jewelry making skills.

And then came the business side of jewelry-making. I wasn’t totally green when I started my jewelry business (see aforementioned industry experience), and I had the good fortune of working for a business where the owner actually shared insights into the business, marketing strategies, numbers, and target goals, and most importantly of all (important to me anyway), the reasons WHY we made things in a particular way, or why we made the choices that we did to get orders out the door. It was a ground floor intro in how to scale and sustain a business.

And still, it was intimidating, it was anxiety-ridden. I thought that I should KNOW EVERYTHING and got frustrated when I didn’t. I had to keep reading, experimenting and learning all the hardest lessons through mistakes and failures.

Did not like!

Getting beyond the “dislike phase” of learning about business

But now I sit years later on the other side of and realize that the whole time I was building expertise. It was built through experiential learning, sure, but also through consulting with people far more knowledgeable than I was, with more experience, with more time in the game. I still lean on a handful of people who’s perspectives I trust, I still read, I still learn and build on what I did.

And I love talking to entrepreneurs who are years ahead of me in their businesses – that’s where I draw knowledge and inspiration from.

So here’s this weeks lesson – don’t skip past the expertise phase of building your business. Get curious. Learn. Listen. Spend the time to learn – that is what you and your business deserve.

• Think you don’t like marketing? Challenge yourself to try a new tactic.

• Feel intimidated by your financial projections? Time to dive in and give your numbers a look.

• Think that your management and leadership skills aren’t developed? There is never any better time than right now to build those skills.

• Don’t feel comfortable selling face-to-face? I’ve got news for you! It’s a great skill to build, and build it you can.

Give yourself time – it’s a marathon, not a sprint

The time to build your skills will not appear out of nowhere. Often we get caught up in the day-to-day of every little business task that we forget to slow down and figure out newer and better paths. How can you build more time in for skills?

Have you been doing the same task in the same way forever? Does it still feel OK, or do you dread it? If you dread it, have you asked yourself if there is a better way to check this off your to do list? Every time you have a task that you dread, try approaching it in a different way, or try it in a different medium.

For instance, I realized that working in word documents feels tedious to me, but for some reason, other platforms like Capacities, Asana, or even right in my email newsletter platform (Mailer Lite, in case you were wondering) helps break my writer’s block and keeps the words flowing. What could you try to do differently today?

I know that you have it in you.