Specialties: Strategic and Tactical growth for Membership Organizations, Business Management & Development
Maybe some of you have talked to my amazing assistant Tessa. If not, you may have seen her name in my post Free Yourself from Your Business. I have always believed in the value of a great assistant: someone who can take on some of those daily tasks so you can focus on the bigger picture and give you the confidence that things will keep getting done even when you’re away from the office.
I was drinking my coffee this morning, asking myself the same question I’ve been asking myself for the past several days: How am I going to make money this month? Or next month?
I’ve been talking so much about freeing yourself from your business that I’m surprised no one has said to me, “Okay, Jim. How? How do I free myself from my business? Because I’m so not-free from my business I can’t imagine how to get there.”
I was recently asked by a colleague how I provide simple solutions for my clients. His theory is that the best services don’t bog clients down with complexity; they provide clear, effective solutions that are easy to understand and implement. I couldn’t agree more; it’s why I’ve been talking about freeing yourself from your business this year. What the vast majority of people I talk to want is to simplify their work and their lives so they can enjoy their time on this earth more.
Someone recently asked me if I ever have bad days. I actually get asked that question pretty frequently. I think it’s because when people see me, I’m usually happy. After seeing me being so positive and energetic all the time, some of them start to wonder if I’m ever anything other than positive and energetic, and that leads them to ask if I ever have bad days.
I got one of those emails last week that makes your day. It was a thank-you note from one of my clients, and in it she wrote, “The business is doing so well, and I have a personal life for the first time in 18 years.”
Look around your office. Do you like what you see? Is your environment organized and inspiring or chaotic and unproductive? Would you want to work for you? Great work comes out of a GREAT environment, an environment that incorporates five components that create a supportive, ordered, motivating workplace.
Strategic planning has the misconception of being time consuming, labor-intensive and intimidating to most small business owners, which makes it an easy task to procrastinate. Even when you do get around to it, having the vision of five years from now tends to be elusive and indefinable as you struggle in the day-to-day scramble of right now. It often-times leaves you wondering how relevant is this to me and is it even worth it?
So often small business owners have insights into their business with great intentions and expectations of implementing them, but it just falls to the wayside of the impatient clients and putting out fires. Everything else becomes more critical than the most important things that will move their business forward.
I had dinner with some clients last week, a husband and wife who own a property management company together. These are people who have a lot of interests beyond their business: He enjoys leatherworking and woodworking; she wants to write a book; they like to cycle and hike and travel. Their business is even in a place now where they can do more of that—but they don’t do as much as they would like.
“I don’t take time off,” the husband said to me at dinner. “I feel guilty when I do.”
I hear it all the time: “When I retire, I’m going to _____.” What goes in that blank—buy a boat, travel the world, spend more time with family, found a charity—is different for every person, but what’s not different is the timing. Everyone seems to think they have to wait until they’re 65 (or older!) to live the life they want to live. For small business owners, the idea of living life feels even more elusive because of worries about how they will pass on, sell or wind down their business.
It’s easy to see why so many small business owners give up on the idea of enjoying life. It seems too hard, too far away, too unattainable. It feels like a dream you will never wake up to.
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