Hi, I'm Britney Saunders, and welcome to another bonus episode of Big Business. I have my main shows on Mondays, but every Wednesday, I'm going to be coming to you, either with some tips, some hacks. I'm going to be answering your questions, or perhaps further expanding on things that I didn't get to say in my main episode. Today, I'm going to be coming to you with three lessons
that business has taught me. These are really basic lessons, but I feel like they're important, and mind you, I've learnt hundreds, but I'm going to hit you with three today, so let's just get straight into it. Lesson number one, Your staff and employees are absolutely everything. People always ask me because of everything I post on social media, how.
Do you do everything that you do? How do you do all the things?
You seem so busy? And I honestly think the reason why I do everything that I do is because of my staff, because of the people that work for me. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to do all the things that I do. Yes, naturally, I feel like I'm a bit of an overachiever and I try and get the most out of my day and out of my week. I know it can very much look like online, like it's this one man show and it's me doing all these things and opening up a store here and launching this collection.
But what you don't see is.
All the amazing people that are doing it with me, and I couldn't do it without them. And I can't speak for other business owners. I can honestly only ever speak on behalf of myself. But from my experience and from listening to others, I think a lot of business owners can get this all wrong. I hear so many stories of people absolutely hating their bosses, being treated like shit by their bosses, or being spoken.
Down to by their bosses. The list is endless.
And I'm sure a lot of you listening today have had a boss maybe in the past that hasn't been the nicest to you, and you've despised them in one way another. And being a boss myself and hearing this, it honestly feels so backwards to me. It feels so backwards that a boss would ever treat someone that's working for them and like running their business with them like shit. It makes absolutely no sense to me. I have no idea why someone would be in business if they are
just going to treat their staff like shit. Like to me, and I know there's a lot of people out there that treat their employees like shit, but as a business owner myself, that person should not be in business at all, Like you should not be allowed to fucking own a business.
And I'm sure there's some asshole bosses out there in business owners that own billion dollar companies and they probably treat everyone like shit, And I'm like, that person should not be in business because that's not what businesses are about, and that's not what being a boss and a leader is about. You're not there to talk down to everyone and treat them like shit.
You're there to lead them and work with them.
My employees are everything, and employees in any business are everything. If my team all disappeared tomorrow, fate was simply crumble.
And I'm very aware of that.
I know a lot of people say like, oh, everyone's replaceable and all this and that, and yeah, sure, like in business, you are going to have to replace someone if they leave. But if everyone left tomorrow, fate would go to absolute shit. Sure me and AJ would try and keep it alive ourselves, flying in between the stores, trying to serve the customers as they come through the door.
But I'm very well aware of the fact that I couldn't do this without my team, and the reason why we do everything we do, and why I do everything that I do, it's because of the people that I have working for me. And I will never take that for granted. I don't tell them that often enough because I'm not a words of affirmation person, but I hope they just know. Maybe I'll tell them to listen to this episode. I'm not a words of affirmation person. What would you guess my love language is?
So, what are the four choices? There's words of affirmation, quality service.
So there's yeah, quality time, acts of service, physical touch, which obviously isn't going to be buy employees my I would say my love language is actually gifts. Aj'ss acts of service for sure, he will just do anything for anyone, but mine is gifts. And I think the way that I show that love language to my staff is like by all the things that we do for them and like the get together as we host and like.
Yeah, that comes across. Actually, I see you doing a lot of that, Like do you mean doing your cheese platters on a Friday.
Yeah, things like that.
It's kind of like a mix of acts of service and gift giving. Yes, but they're my love languages. But I'm not a words of affirmation person. Maybe this is your cue to leave this record and be more of a words of affirmation this stuff.
Okay, I will we do hear in there.
But I'm not a soppy boss everything else.
It's not me to be like that.
But challenge I'm sitting there, okay.
All right, all right, they could just listen to this episode. I'll just send them a link. Oh so, what is my takeaway from this? For all of you business owners out there, if you have one employee or ten or fifteen or fifty, never take your team for granted. Create a workplace for them that they can enjoy showing up to every day. That is so important. Show them that
you appreciate and trust them. I think that's another way that I show my team that I appreciate them, Ellie is I trust them to do their roles and give them a lot of freedom and creative freedom in their roles. I don't look over anyone's shoulder, which I know a lot of bosses do. And on the flip side of that, take your time as an owner finding those right people for your business, which I know I've spoke about a lot.
Let's a number two that business has taught me. You're never going to be one hundred percent happy and satisfied with what you're doing or where you're at in your business journey, because it is a journey. It is never ending, and feeling that way is totally normal. My business journey in particular, has opened my eyes to what I'm capable of doing and at this point and I feel like
there's nothing that I can't fucking achieve. If you had told me four years ago that I'd be doing what I'm doing today, I never ever would have believed you. And I think that's something to say in itself. I had someone comment on something I posted the other day, and they must own a business, and I'd posted about something that I'm doing and she's like, oh my god, I could.
Never do this.
And I said to her, never say never, because I never thought that I could do this. Don't have that limiting belief of oh, I could never, because business has taught me to have quite the opposite mindset of I can and I will achieving Everything that I have achieved in my journey has taught me that there is absolutely no end to it. And weirdly enough, that never ending part of business can leave you with a sense of feeling dissatisfied because you're always chasing the next thing. So
what's the lesson here? Always remember to stop and smell the roses. This is something that I am trying to do today and I need to do more of, and I definitely don't do at all. I often will maybe see someone in my distant family that I haven't seen for ages, or see an old school friend or whatever, and they'll be like, oh my god, like I've seen everything that you're doing, Like you should be so proud
of everything that you're doing. And when someone says that to me, it makes me realize how not proud I am of myself.
But not in a bad way.
But it's because you get caught in this rat race of always wanting to do more because business is never ending, that I never stop and go fuck like this is all so cool. Like I'm like, we've only got four stores, quick, when's number five? When's number six? Like it's just the chase, it never ends. But one thing I'm really trying to do is stop and look at where I am and be like, shit, I have done really well. And it's something that's hard to do as a business owner, is
to be proud of yourself. But it's a good reminder, not only for myself but for all of you. Be proud of how far you have come. Un Lesson number three, it's completely normal to have no idea what the fuck you are doing, what to do next, well, what to do when something doesn't go as planned. I spoke about this with Anita in my guest episode that I did with her about how it's fine to not know what
you're doing. I think it's very easy to look at other business owners and you could be looking at me and be like, wow, she's got all this together, but at the same time like wait.
We as we go?
And I didn't know everything that I know now when I started Fate, I had no fucking clue. And I think that's one thing that would hold a lot of people back from starting in the first place, is oh, I feel I don't feel ready, like I don't know everything that I need to know. But the funny thing about it is you never really know everything. You just give it a go and hope for the best. And I'm still out here just giving it a go and
hoping for the best. And look, I'm living proof that by doing that it might very well just work out. And even if it doesn't, you'll always come up with a different plan.
So that's less than number three.
It's okay to not know all of the things, because you're never bloody.
Anyway, my friends.
That is all for today's bonus episode of Big Business.
I hope you enjoyed listening.
Slap me with a five star review if you want, and I'll be back in your ears on Monday with my next main episode.
Bye for now.