We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kara Laws. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kara below.

Kara , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I love being a business owner!

I haven’t had a real job in almost 15 years.

Yes, sometimes it is crazy hard. Sometimes I have wondered if I am the most ridiculous person in the entire world. What am I thinking thinking I can support my family by working for myself?

But then something great happens.

I hit a new sales record, I get a contract I have been working hard for. I finally finish a project I have been working on for years. Those highs, they keep me going. Those successes are mine, and in my business, I get to teach other people how to hit those key moments too.

Don’t get me wrong, it took me several years to figure out how to run my business in a way that brought me those highs. When I started my first business it was beyond stressful. I was either working all of the time (and I do mean ALLL of the time) or I was so broke, I was more of a burden to my family than an asset. Those years were intense. Those years are not years I would willingly repeat.

Now that I have the education to run a business better, I love it.

I love that I don’t have to ask for work off when my kids are sick.
I love that I don’t have ask for work off for a family reunion.
I love spending the summertime how I want to.
I love being able to travel without losing income.
I love that I am in control of my future and my finances.

My paycheck is rarely consistent but I have created several systems to help make sure my family is always supported, even when I don’t make as much in December as I do in May. I have tools to help me bounce back when business gets tough and I want to quit.

I track all of my wins. I track everything good that people say to me. It is so easy to forget how good we are doing. It is too easy to forget how far we have come. So, when I want to sit under my desk and sob like a baby, I pull out my “Smile File” and read all the great things that I have done. I read notes from ppl who I have helped or appreciate what I am building. I look at all the evidence of my progress. And then I get up, and keep moving forward.

Business ownership can be tough. Starting and running a business is not for everyone. But I wouldn’t trade it.

Kara , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a business educator.

I teach new business owners all of the steps, in the right order, to building a solid business foundation. A solid business foundation saves you time, makes you more money, and helps you avoid expensive mistakes.

I have made all the business mistakes. I have floundered and floundered in business trying to make everything work, trying to make more money than I was dumping into my business.

As I started working with other business owners, I realized, I was not the only business owner who was floundering. I was not the only business owner that was putting in everything they had and getting very little out.

It took me over eight years to finally create a business that added value to my life, that gave more to my family than it took.

I want to give this knowledge to entrepreneurs everywhere. It took me eight years. Eight years of guessing, of tears, and of screwing everything up. I can help my clients build that business in two.

I took my education, my decade plus of practical knowledge, and all of my mistakes to create an academy that teaches business owners how to build a business the right way. I teach business owners what steps they need to take first, what comes next, and how to make sure their business is taking care of them.

We don’t own businesses so we can work 60+ hours a week and make $50. We all started businesses for time and financial freedom. My book, Don’t Suck at Business, and my academy, Launched Academy, walk business owners through the foundations of building that business, the business that isn’t sucking the life out of them anymore.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

I have built six businesses and sold four of those.

Here are the three biggest things that I learned:

ONE: Your business is not about you
Prioritize teaching people your craft over doing the work yourself. If you can teach people and create the systems to teach people again and again and again, you have a business that you can sell. You have a business that can continue on without you.

TWO: Your brand matters
Contrary to popular belief, your brand is not your logo. Your brand is who you are as a company: why you exist, what you give to the world, what your values are. Your brand is how people feel when they come in contact with your company. A business with a well defined and recognizable brand is not only going to have a higher valuation but it is more likely to actually sell.

THREE: Create an exit strategy
You will not want to run your business forever. Start creating your exit strategy now. What will it look like when you sell your business? How long will you train the new owners? What does the transition process look like? When will you know that it is time to sell? What is your business valuation goal? What steps do you need to place before you are ready to sell?

We run business differently when we understand these three concepts. From these concepts we also create businesses that can be passed on to new owners and help fund our own retirement.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

In my first business, a photography studio, I thought that I was irreplaceable. I was the person my clients were hiring. i was the photographer and no one else to could be a photographer like me. I was the single most important part of my business, and as such, I had to do all photographing.

I believed that I could not be replaced. I was it.

This belief that was the single most limiting thought in my business.

This belief caused me to put all of the work on my own shoulders. It forced my business to be limited to what I was capable of. We all have the same amount of hours in the day. When my hours were used up, my business was capped. I could not make more money, because I did not have anymore time.

This belief prevented me from hiring for growth. I always hired for time and that meant I took a pay cut – every time.

This belief prevented me from hiring another photographer, from teaching others what I did. The belief kept me stuck and overworked for years.

Guess what? There were better photographers out there than me. There are people out there who can do your job better than you as well. You, like me, are replaceable in your business. Go find those amazing ppl, hire them and allow your business to grow beyond just you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://launchedacademy.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/launchedacademy
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/launchedacademy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/82499329/
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@launchedacademy

Image Credits
I have the rights to all my photos and took most myself. You are good.