The Messy Middle of Launching A Business

The Messy Middle of Launching A Business

It’s 5:30AM. My husband is still asleep on the couch where he fell asleep watching TV last night, and the cat is pawing at my lap, begging for more cuddles.

But I’m staring bleary eyed at my computer. It’s too early to put in my contacts, and I’m too stubborn/lazy to put on my glasses.

My alarm sounded at 5. I pulled myself from my cozy bed and checked my todo list for the day. You may not know this, but Myra and I are launching a business soon. And it dawned on me that we haven’t really talked much about it online.

And that’s a problem.
It’s a problem because when we do launch, it’ll appear like this business just materialized out of nowhere. That these two little brunettes stomped into the world and blew up like firecrackers.
And oh, my gosh, is that so untrue.

That’s the problem with the internet, in my opinion. All we see is the after. We rarely see the messy middle. When this business launches, you won’t see the three hour phone call I had with Myra explaining my fears when I was going at this solo when suddenly it occurred to me to bring her on. You won’t see the countless hours spent on the website. You won’t see the hundreds of international phone calls scheduled around a six hour time difference hammering out packaging deals and debating business language. 

We all do this thing where we like to act as if everything is easy, no big deal. I’m not that person. In some ways, getting this business set up has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I’m working with my best friend. I’ve happily traded in sleep for work that I enjoy while still balancing a full-time job. I’ve allowed my creativity to flourish, taking on a life of its own.

But the truth is, there is so much work that goes into building and launching a business. I’ve had my nose stuck in business books for months. I’ve sat in hours upon hours of online classes. I’ve spent all day on a website page only to delete it the next day because it wasn’t good enough.

But in a few days, Myra and I will casually announce that we’re boss. We’ll tell you how you can hire us. Our passion and giddiness will take the internet by storm, and we’re so excited. But remember this, it takes work. A lot of freaking work.


And guess what? You can do it, too. I think we all get so caught up in everybody’s afters that we get discouraged. We dive into our dreams and quit halfway through because they don’t look as dreamy as someone else’s. I assure you, their dream was once messy, hard, and ugly, too, they just didn’t share it.


This is the messy middle. 
The part that doesn’t look so dreamy (but in some very strange screwed up way feels dreamy). 
Keep going. The dreamy is worth it.