Your business is not ‘just a side hustle’  - with Emma Lovell of Lovelly Communications

Emma Lovell is the founder of Lovelly Communications and a powerful people connector, and personal branding coach whose mission is to support female entrepreneurs to live and love their brand. Emma is a regular in the monthly Mums & Co meetups where she brings her generosity and enthusiasm. Emma lives her clever and effective personal branding quip, ‘Lovelly by Name, Lovelly by Nature’ and has recently welcomed her first child.

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What would be your number one tip to any woman who is thinking about creating a business?

“I think the issue with women (and I’m sure you see it often as well) is that women tend to feel that they don't have enough, don't know enough, need more learning, need more skills, need more expertise, need more support or they need something. And then when we get all of those things, then I will start. Or on the flip side, we actually talked about it in our episode on Live and Love Your Brand, where I said I hate the term side hustle. This is why I called what I do a small business.

People are running a small business and they saying “it's just a this” or “it's just a that” or “it's a side hustle”. No, you're actually running a business. A lot of the work that I do is encouraging people to say “I am” and to feel comfortable and confident in whatever comes next. So you get to decide your story.

You get to decide your future. So if you decide ‘I want to start a business’, you just start saying, ‘I run a business’, eg. “Hi, I'm Emma and I'm a business owner.” Nobody's going to argue with you. It doesn't matter if it's one person or 50 people or you have an office or you don't have an office.

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Can you please share your pitch with us?

“I am Emma Lovell. I'm the owner of Lovelly Communications and I am Lovelly by name, lovely by nature. I'm a personal branding coach, and I help female leaders to show up and make an impact with integrity through their personal brand. I'm based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. I have a gorgeous husband, a beautiful little baby boy and I absolutely love connecting with women and I encourage them to live and love their brand also through my podcast, Live and Love Your Brand.”

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How do you protect yourself from business risk?

“I think I'm actually taking more risks now. But there are two prongs. I think in the past I have kept myself small to avoid risk. I can shut the doors at any time and go to India in three months and do whatever. That kind of feast or famine type of work that's been the protection.

I don't have to worry about stuff. I don't have to worry about other people and providing for them. I just run my business, I serve my clients, and when I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it. That's where I was at. 

But I realised that to make more impact and to do the things that I really want to do and see the changes and live the big life that I want to live. It involves risk. I do take risks in personal ways. But I think when you start to involve other people and have that bigger machine around a business, then it does feel riskier. But I've also run a lean business for many years, so I can still continue that.”

What is the most important tip in that path to growing a business?

“Actively choosing to rest. It has been something that I've had to do and just not pushing through. I've had to stop pushing through. And when I feel my body or my mind just getting to that, even the glimpse of burning out, I just have to stop.

I feel that I've been much more productive and I'm a much better mum and I'm a much better wife when I've had some rest. It's not always possible. And I know there is probably mums sitting there going, “Oh, when do you have time to rest?”. But you have to choose that too. So sometimes I choose to rest over starting work earlier. I choose to rest instead of going out with friends, that's the choice I'm making. Stop overdoing it. Stop not resting.”

Want to know more about how Emma Lovell has learned that the the best way to grow your business is to embrace rest?

Why does the ‘hustle’ culture not serve us anymore? What could it mean to you to start declaring your business isn’t a small business? Why is it important to understand how rest can affect your business?  

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