Boundaries the key to long term business success, says SME owner

Owners of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) often feel stressed and burnt out when operating their businesses based on their lack of personal boundaries, pricing expectations and societal pressures.

Goldi Group founder Amy Fox said she was passionate about championing small business owners and the need to create a business that aligned with values and goals to ensure common pitfalls were avoided.

Fox said from her own experience of establishing and running a small business, it was crucial to enjoy the process as much as possible to succeed.

“If I were to give advice to anyone starting a small business, I would say that creating a business that works for you and that makes you happy, as well as money, is the true goal,” she said.

“When I started the Goldi Group, I was really conscious to build it in a way that made my future look nothing but positive and promising.”

Fox told Accountants Daily the reason she was determined to build a business that served her was due to negative feedback she had received from other small business owners.

Fox said before she started Goldi Group, she posted to an accountants’ Facebook page asking for advice from other small practice owners.

The response she received was mostly negative, as most SME owners said: “You’ll be stressed, burnt out and you’ll work with clients who don’t appreciate you.”

“It was actually heartbreaking because the overwhelming majority answer was, don’t do it,” Fox said.

“The amount of people who said don’t do it shocked me. It was awful. But it made me think and set a mission for myself that I didn’t want to end up saying to someone else in a few years, don’t do it, it’s going to be horrible.”

“Being undervalued, underpaid and overworked did not sound like a future that I wanted to be a part of, so, I was really aware of building a future that didn’t look like that.”

To achieve the “bright and positive” future she wanted to aim for, Fox shared that she changed her expectations and readjusted her goals.

For Fox, this readjustment included changing her client expectations from 100 clients to just five clients who paid her well and worked closely with her frequently.

Another piece of advice Fox said she wanted to share with other business owners was that they could change the trajectory of their business at any time they wanted, to suit personal needs and lifestyles.

“I always want to say to other business owners, well, what would you do differently? And why don’t you do that now? You’re not stuck,” she said.

“Change your pricing, change your packages. Who cares if you lose half your clients? You probably don’t like working with them anyway.”

“If you have a business and one day you realise that you might not be enjoying it, or it isn’t fulfilling you in a way that you were hoping it would, change it. You can change it and I am the biggest cheerleader for that.”