3 Simple Ways to Bring Joy Back Into Your Business
How are you feeling about your business at the moment? Are you enjoying it or does it feel like you’re all work and no play?
This topic of conversation has been popping up a lot lately, and it seems like lots of people are all in a similar boat. Doing business has just lost some of the fun. Whether it’s down to industry changes, our businesses naturally evolving, Instagram changing it’s ranking system yet again, or because of the global chaos, the daily grind is grinding everyone’s gears.
Wild member, Yvie from Yoco Studio, believes that the secret ingredient is joy. She spoke to us about the importance of enjoying our work-life, and some easy ways for us to all bring the joy back to our businesses.
Why joy matters in business
Let’s not sugar coat it – running a business is hard work. As a solopreneur, who wears many (if not all the) hats and doing things basically by yourself…it’s seriously hard work.
Interestingly, we tend to make things extra difficult for ourselves without even realising it. By believing that we do have to do it by ourselves and not ask for help. By upholding some of the old corporate ‘rules’ that accidentally turn us into our mean, old bosses. By doing things in ways that we think we SHOULD, even when they don’t really serve us well.
These points come up every now and then in the Wild community and we’re always there to remind everyone that you can challenge anything that doesn’t feel good. Just because business is difficult, doesn’t mean that you have to be miserable. You do not have to sacrifice joy for success. In fact, joy is a huge benefit that is often left out from the strategy.
Joy fuels consistency: When something feels good, you come back to it. Just like your hobbies in life, you’re more likely to show up in your work more frequently if makes you happy.
Joy inspires creativity: The best ideas happen when you’re relaxed and enjoying yourself. From a business POV, quality innovation and problem solving gives you the edge for standing out.
Joy builds connection: People are drawn to genuine enthusiasm and positive energy. You can really feel when someone loves what they do, whether that’s clients, collaborators or teammates.
So, joy isn’t just good for you – it’s good business!
3 ways to add joy to your business
1: Start where you need it most
There are lots of different areas in our businesses (remember those many hats?) so first figure out where you want to make changes.
Don’t just think about the obvious and highly visual marketing things, like your brand design or social content. It’s easy to think that a new Instagram template will solve all your problems, but that might not be where you are ACTUALLY stuck.
Be honest. Where is your energy being drained? What is taking too much of your time? Which tasks are you procrastinating or actively avoiding?
Example: You know you need a website to inform and convert your audience, but you haven’t updated it in a year and hate the idea of spending your precious time doing it.
2: Make it easy and fun
Once you've identified the area that needs attention, you can reimagine it. Firstly, we do not glamourise struggle or shame ease. When something is easy to do, you get a domaine hit quicker, so you keep on doing it. That’s a great thing!
Take a step back from what you think you should be doing or what already exists out there, and ask yourself two questions: What would make this task easy for me to actually do? What would make it fun for me to do?
Example: How about scheduling a weekly coffee date at a cute café to do your website updates in a different environment, or instead of writing an ‘About’ page you write the whole thing as a poem.
3: Look beyond client-facing stuff
Yes, what your clients see is important, but it’s not the only thing to take care of. What goes on behind the scenes is really important too.
Think about your internal processes, client communication, file organisation, project management systems, onboarding and offboarding processes, email marketing and management, appointment scheduling, book-keeping…
These are the parts of your business that YOU experience on a daily basis and are all up for a little added joy. You deserve to enjoy running your business just as much as your clients enjoy engaging with it.
Example: Why not make a ‘Web Build’ playlist full of happy tunes to get you hyped up for your not-so-sexy SEO updates, or give yourself a gold star for each task you need to do (with a lovely reward at the end of course!).
The freedom we have as business owners allows us to build something that suits us in a way that employment doesn’t. We choose our goals, our direction, and how we run every single aspect. So, why wouldn’t we build our enjoyment in to it too? It’s a no brainer!
Keep an eye on our Instagram for more tips and tricks to help you do business in a way that suits you, and if you’d like some more playfully strategic brand tips, follow Yoco Studio on Instagram or book a Power Hour on the website. Wild members, you can watch the full workshop, Bring the Joy Back to Your Business, in the Wild Library.