Starting a business is incredibly difficult and nerve-wracking. Most small businesses don’t make it past their first year, let alone achieve three years in business as VVITCH has done. There have been many lessons learned, and they never stop coming — which we appreciate.

If you’re a small business owner you need one thing more than anything — your imagination. Your ability to conjure up new ideas and create new possibilities are why you’re here. There’s one tried and true technique that can nurture your imagination like nothing else and you can start today — journaling!

Failure honestly needs a rebrand. It’s gotten a bad reputation for being the scary thing you don’t want to have happen to you. But the truth is if you live long enough and if you have a healthy relationship with risk, eventually it’s a game of diminishing returns — you will fail. That doesn’t take the sting out of it but it doesn’t have to be a terrifying thought. Instead, try and see failure through a different lens.

When you’re so busy managing the details of your business it can be easy to forget to manage your people; not just what they’re working on but how they work with each other. To get the best out of your team, you’ve got to actually know them and build a workplace environment that helps them grow.