You are reading the FRACAT Blog Archive (also known as "FRACAT 1.0") for all posts prior to October 29th, 2007.
How To Think About Your Small Business To Maintain Your Sanity
[NOTE: This post is the last in a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue tomorrow!]
Because of the all the hard work that small business owners put into their business, they tend to get a little…. um…. sensitive about that business.
It becomes a little like a child that they are there to help grow, protect, and mold into a productive member of society. They pour all of their time, love, and affection into the business and jump to respond whenever it had a need.
This, just to clarify, is unhealthy and, if something goes wrong, can suddenly make Vincent VanGogh seem lucid and understandable.
So, before you start thinking, “I get it! That whole ear thing makes sense now!”, let’s talk a little about how to think about your small business and maintain your sanity.
THE PROPER WAY TO THINK ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS
In order that your business doesn’t steal your life away (as well as a body part), here are some helpful hints to keep in mind:
- You Don’t Serve It; It Serves You - Your small business is there to make your life better. It provides and environment where, because you’re not suited for the suited world, you can thrive and enjoy your work.
However, it will try to make like a vampire and drain you dry so there is nothing left of you. Every time something comes up and your small business is calling out to you (which is most of the time), you need to think about the part of your life it is taking away.
And, while I know it hurts, every now and then you just have to let your inner slacker come out and say, “Nah! I’ll deal with it tomorrow”.
- Take It Off Of Life Support - In the beginning, your small business will be on financial life support. You’ll keep hanging bags of money, hoping it’ll survive. And, in time, it will.
However, you can’t keep hanging those bags of money to make it even better. Make your business pay you back. Pull the plug and make it survive on its own. Take some money out of the business every time you pay other people.
Think of it this way: eventually, your small business will cease to exist. Statistically, you probably won’t be selling it for the big bucks. So, start the payback now so that your business can help you have a better life.
- Both of You Need Some “Me Time” - No matter what the newest crisis is, you’ve got to schedule time away from your business so that you can think of it a little more objectively. If you never step out of the business, you’ll constantly be putting out fires and never get to thing strategically.
Set aside 2-4 hours a week to go away somewhere and do some strategic thinking. Plan on the things you want your business to become and how you’re going to accomplish those things.
Remember - there’s always another fire to put out. You won’t be missing out on anything.
- You’ll Probably Outgrow Your Business - Everyone eventually leaves their small business. Some sell it, some close it down, and others didn’t take my advice and collapse of a heart attack in the middle of the store.
Know what your plan is for the business. Do you want to build it up and sell it? Can you stand turning it over to someone else and just holding on to an equity stake? Are you planning on passing it along to your children? Do they even want anything to do with it?
Once you know what you want from your business, keep that in mind as you’re building it up. If you’re keeping it long-term for your kids, you might want to build it more slowly and carefully so that it’s there through the good times and bad. If you want to sell it, you may want to grow it large quickly.
But if you don’t know what you want from it, you’re at it’s mercy. And that ain’t a pretty place to be.
- You May Need To Put It To Sleep - Many successful small businesses start to go downhill suddenly. Maybe you’re making buggy whips and there aren’t any more buggies. Or you’re providing network security and a new bill is passed making you liable for any network breaches for your customers and you have to carry $1 billion in insurance. Or, perhaps, you’re selling paper airplanes and the cost of paper just quadrupled.
Whether it is from a change in consumer habits, new regulations, or drastic changes in the cost of doing business, sometimes your business suddenly isn’t going to work out any more.
The logical thing to do would be either change your business drastically or get out of the business altogether. Unfortunately, logic doesn’t always prevail.
When what you were doing profitably yesterday is no longer profitable today, many small business owners will keep trying to do what they did yesterday, only better. And, in the process, they’ll let the business suffer a long, painful, expensive death.
Look around you and learn to recognize the symptoms of a business on it’s death bed. And do a Jack Kevorkian on it before it does it to you.
Whew! We’ve made it! Almost exactly a month after we started, this is the very last post in the Entrepreneurship 101 series. I really hope you’ve enjoyed it and it has proven useful to those of you seeking to start your own business.
These lessons have come out of a lot of pain and heartache (both my own and others’), so I hope you take them to heart and they help you be truly successful.
Tomorrow, we’ll be back to improving your career and looking for new jobs again.
Enjoy the Search!
-Dan
Photo by: ralphunden
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