Five Lessons I Learned During My First Five Years in Business
by Margie DuBois, CPC
April 2, 2025
April marks the fifth-year anniversary of my business.
In November of 2019, I made a brave phone call to my boss at work to tell her that I was ready for a career pivot. I explained that I was going to open my own coaching and consulting business, and wanted to create a transition plan for my role.
My supervisor couldn’t have been more supportive. She was - of course - sad about me leaving, but excited for my next chapter. Together, we built a roadmap for the next few months, with a plan for me to wrap up my role at the end of March.
What we didn’t know at the time was that a pandemic was on the horizon. In mid March, I my team began working at home. I saw an unpredictable economy and job market emerging, and started to debate my plans.
My boss was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to keep my job. She told me that they’d call off the search if I decided to stay, but that she’d need to know right away.
I thought about her offer for 24 hours. For whatever reason, I kept on coming back to one word: trust. I needed to trust that I was making the right decision, and trust that I was on my path. I had desired a career pivot for so long, and knew that staying at my job would be abandoning my own happiness.
So, I stuck to my plan and waved goodbye to my team on a Zoom call. It was the saddest last day of work I've ever had, but it needed to happen in order for me to move forward.
Five years later, I am so glad that I decided to be brave. I am grateful for the ways entrepreneurship has pushed me outside of my comfort zone and helped me become a wiser and more authentic version of myself.
Here are five of the most important lessons I’ve learned during my first five years in business:
1 - You don’t have to do “one thing”
One of the biggest pressures entrepreneurs face is to limit their services to one thing that serves one very specific audience. Business marketing “experts” tell you you need to have an extremely specific “client avatar” and offer just one service to that audience that solves all their problems. And if you don’t, you’re doing it wrong.
During my first couple years in business, this message stressed the heck out of me. I was wrestling with the fact that I was a multi-passionate entrepreneur who wanted to support for-profits, non-profits, and individuals. I wanted to do coaching, training, and facilitation, and work with diverse humans from all walks of life.
So I resisted the pressure to conform and ignored the slimy “six figure” LinkedIn sales messages. This approach allowed me to expand my network, discover my mission, and narrow down my core services.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with doing one thing. If that one thing is something you are deeply passionate about, it pays your bills, and it doesn’t make you feel bored, the more power to you.
But remember that experimentation can also build a thriving business. It can spark creativity, innovation, revenue, and valuable experience. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs have multiple identities - they are authors, speakers, and coaches. So think twice before putting yourself in a box.
2 - You do need to know your superpowers
As a coach and consultant, I infuse strength-based leadership into every client engagement. I believe that knowing one’s strengths - and choosing roles that align with them - is what enables you to be happy and impactful at work.
Something that many entrepreneurs forget is that the research applies to them too. They fall prey to shiny-object syndrome and spend time pursuing opportunities that they think they “should” do that they aren’t good at or don’t enjoy.
Part of being a smart business owner is being able to say: “Here is what I’m great at, and here is what I’m not. Here is where I need to hire help, and here is where I need to make referrals.” It’s about knowing your zone of genius, and building your core services around it.
It can be difficult to turn away business opportunities that pay the bills and build your network, but the more time you spend taking on work you don’t enjoy, the longer it will take to step into your purpose and do the work you’re meant to do. You also aren’t being as impactful to the clients you are serving.
So as you think about scaling your business, be mindful of how you spend your time, what you say “no” to, and where you can hire support.
3 - Collaborate with the right people
Collaboration can be a really rewarding part of entrepreneurship. Whether you’re co-hosting a workshop, doing a podcast interview, or joining a mastermind group, it’s important. And some of the people you meet will raise your game and become lifelong friends.
But if it’s not done carefully, it can backfire. You can end up working with people who deplete your energy or have no intention of actually supporting you - they are in it for themselves.
In his research, Wharton professor, Adam Grant, captures the dynamic of takers and givers in the workplace. He describes takers as: “people who, when they walk into an interaction with another person, are trying to get as much as possible from that person and contribute as little as they can in return, thinking that’s the shortest and most direct path to achieving their own goals” (Source).
Conversely, Grant describers givers as people who are "looking to help others by making an introduction, giving advice, providing mentoring or sharing knowledge, without any strings attached.”
In the entrepreneurial space, takers are the type of people who reach out to you for ask for free services, never send you referrals, steal your clients, and copy your content. And if you’re a giver, you’re an easy target.
Competition is an unfortunate reality of the entrepreneurship world. I wish it wasn’t there, but it is there to stay. So, when you’re considering collaborating with someone else, choose wisely and avoid the takers. Think about becoming what Grant calls a matcher: “somebody who tries to maintain an even balance of give and take.”
Work with people who challenge you, inspire you, and celebrate your wins. Team up with people who want to see you succeed, and value community over competition. It will save you a lot of time and stress.
4 - Your clients will come to you with problems, not solutions
When I started my business, one of my biggest surprises was what happened during discovery calls. Based on my prior work experience, I assumed that people would come to me with specific requests for my services or an action plan they needed help implementing.
Boy was I wrong. 90 percent of the time, people came to me with their problems. A leadership team was having a hard time making decisions. A person was feeling stuck in their career path. A manager was having a hard time working with an employee.
Rarely did these people know how to move forward or have a clear vision for our work together. They just knew that something isn’t working for them, and that they needed my help getting from point A to point B.
As an entrepreneur, it is your responsibility to come up with valuable services that provide solutions to people’s problems. It's also essential that you demonstrate (both) empathy and authority when you first meet a someone so you can built trust and illuminate a path forward.
Looking for a brilliant book that helps you navigate this with ease? Give this one a try.
5 - You are the main driver of your referral pipeline
I’m going to be blunt: no one is sitting around right now thinking about your business.
No one really cares that you’ve been working to update your website for the past three weeks or poured your heart into that blog post. No one can recite your elevator speech or list out your core services.
And no one - not even your favorite clients or best friends - can be counted on to provide you with the perfect referrals. Even five years into business, I still giggle to myself every time a close contact sends me referrals for work I don’t do (it happens all the time).
If you want to get the right referrals, you need to get clear on the work you want to do and communicate it regularly to your network. Be specific, keep it simple, and make it easy for them to point people in your direction. Develop a quality referral program and build a solid referral list for services you don’t provide.
. . .
Entrepreneurship isn’t easy. Yet it’s one of the most rewarding journeys I’ve ever been on.
I’ve become more aware of my strengths and core values. I’ve learned where I still have room for healing, and where I need to grow. I’ve met clients who have changed my life, and gained lifelong friends.
While I’ve learned countless lessons, the most important one is this: if I can launch a successful business at the beginning of a pandemic, I can do anything I put my mind to.
About This Feature
Coaching Nuggets is a standing editorial feature in The Thirlby Co. Monthly Digest written by our company founder, Margie (Thirlby) DuBois, and occasional guest authors. Each nugget provides you with a quick read and resources to spark ideas and help you live your best life. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive this feature and more inspiring content in the future.
