I made a mistake.

 

The agonizing feeling that makes you want to curl up into a ball and hide from the world. I hate making mistakes. As a business owner, you want to believe that you do not make mistakes and that you do not trip.  You go over items and products over and over again to make sure they are perfect before sending them out into the world.

 

Then you re look at something you have been sending out and there it is… the mistake… the cringle-worthy, text the boyfriend about how stupid you were to make the mistake and think oh my gosh what are people going to think! They are going to think I do not pay attention to detail! How would they ever want me to shoot their wedding when I made a mistake!?

 

Then I have to remind myself to breathe.

 

My brain automatically goes into how do I fix this mistake as quickly as I can and as less noticeable as I can because really… it was a cringle worthy, hide under the covers and hope no one talks to me today mistake.

 

I fix the mistake and then send out the new corrected information to all the couples that needed it.

 

I have corrected the mistake, but that does not take away the cringle- worthy feeling.  It will probably take a couple hours to go away.  I take everything I do with my business to heart and everything I do I feel as though it is a reflection of me and who I am as a person.  There are tons of people who say “ Well your business is a business and you can’t run it on emotions” –  I don’t run it on emotions, but when mistakes happen I think any business owner takes it as some sort of personal defeat even if they try not to let it bother them.

 

Another question I ask myself is why did this happen and how.  I looked over everything what seemed like a million times and had someone else check my numbers.  There was not an issue with the math… it was an issue with a typo.  I had a hard copy but wasn’t comparing the hard copy to the online version to make sure they were the same.   I was also trying to get it done in order to send out so I was on a time crunch.  I am not going to blame the time crunch because essentially I should have caught the typo… but I think that has something to do with it.

 

Time.  I talk to so many other photographers and they all say the same thing. There is never enough time in the day to finish what needs to be done. We try to cram so many things into our day – personal and business that eventually things are overlooked.   On our day-to-day activities, we do not notice these things until they make a small explosion and then we say, “ Wait a minute… we need to slow down… we messed up because we were going 90 miles an hour”

 

If this hiccup can be a lesson to me or to anyone, it is to take time, slow down, smell the flowers to remind yourself to pause and to take a breath.

 

What was this horrible mistake you ask?  I made a typo on my investment guide that I send out to new couples.  I had the hours wrong on one of my collections. It was missing 2 hours! It was supposed to say 10 hours and when I looked at it the number 8 was staring right back at me where a 10 was supposed to be.