Day 23 went by in a blur. I’m sitting in the Centre at the moment reflecting on how fab it is to be able to work for myself. Of course, it’s also got a tougher side. Running your own business places the responsibility fair & square on your shoulders as to how successful you are. The interesting thing is how to measure that success.

I guess most people would start by considering the amount of money they earned was a measure of their success in business. We do tend to look at what people possess on a material level anyway. Is it when you buy your own Porche or mansion or private jet that you are a success? The business role models that get all the press coverage tend to have large incomes (from building their business up and up and up). After a time, if you have the right products and customer service business, growth is inevitable. Then you have become an entrepreneur. You are a business person who has graduated to another level. But do you want to be measured by that yardstick alone? Money can certainly bring comfort but we tend to hoard it, saving it up as ours, rather than accepting that it needs to be spread around if we want to enjoy more of it.

Is success the amount you can give of your time, energy & money to charity. Certainly large businesses like to gift a small portion of their income to good causes. In a way that counts as spreading the money around. The donations help to fund the supply of services thus creating more opportunities for big businesses to generate income. There is also the ‘feel -good’ factor of charitable giving. Does that feeling make us more likely to say the business is successful? After all, even a tiny business can give a £1 or two in a charity box or to a charity shop. I make charitable donations too thought they are not a measure of my business success. I have always donated, throughout my life, to causes that I felt needed my support.

Is the measure of success how many people you think reach via social media? Or the amount of posting, tweeting & blogging you do? Or to be on the first page of Google? I use social media quite a bit (at the last count I had 15 accounts across various platforms and I administer 5 web sites) and I’m busy doing this 30 day blog challenge. I’m certainly doing my bit as I am on the front page of Google for all kinds of search parameters. Yet I still get lots of emails and calls from people who want to maximise my SEO (it took me ages to work out that meant Search Engine Optimisation. Doh!). They tell me I will be extremely successful if I pay them as they can get me a top ranking on search engines. Of course they haven’t had time to check where I already am but flow happily onto the next business to pitch for money again.

Is the measure of success how pretty my business card looks? Or how many network meetings I’ve attended this year? Or how many times I’ve appeared in print or on TV? Is it that I only tell people what they want to hear? Or doing the hard sell, up-selling and marketing? Have I become a brand (lol, not Russell)? Do I need a public image? As the thoughts flow through my mind it’s interesting how much I find myself saying ‘no’ to all of the above. I’m aware that I operate my business in a different way. My work is intuitive so my business is too.

If you ask me for a business plan I can show you a mind map. In it are all the aspects that make up my daily work. Also all the prompts I receive from my Guides. There are no dates, goals or targets. Perhaps their isn’t even a clear vision. I have used all of the standard business techniques to present plans to banks, source finance and secure grants. Yet explaining exactly what will happen in my business & when has to remain extremely fluid. I am influenced by the energy needs of others rathe more than the needs of a regular cashflow. I always know that I will have more than enough funding for anything I am inspired to do so long as I trust in the benevolence of the Universe. And that brings me back to measuring success in a spiritually inspired business.

I still have to be a business woman. I do take notice of the income and expenditure. I do market my services. My success is based on an understanding of these things. However, the measure of my success is in how many people feel better in their lives from contact with me. If someone says that I have explained something, or listened to them or have connected them with themselves or their loved ones in Spirit then I have been successful. If someone has been able to go out and speak with their authentic voice as a result of a workshop or class I’ve done then I have been successful. If someone has gone away from a reading or event wondering ‘how did she know that? …do that?’ then I have been successful. When someone comes to my Centre if they find a peaceful space to be, to ask questions or to offload then I have been successful.

By my measures I am enormously successful. I treasure the opportunity to do work that I am passionate about – work that is successful. To all of the other small business people out there – please think carefully about how you are measuring your success. Perhaps you are already far more successful that you imagine.