Small Business Owner Insights

 

As I have said elsewhere, owning your own business is no gig for sissies. The tax man cometh (often!), cash flow fluctuates, employees quit (or steal), your friends are out enjoying Memorial Day and you are trying to get your taxes filed (late again!). Ahhh, the joys of self employment.If you are not careful, you will self destruct if you allow the negativity inherent in these events to overtake you. In my 15 or so years of being self-employed, I have discovered 2 key techniques for keeping my attitude where it should be: positive.

Focus on your future based self.

This one is huge. Many people get caught up in their past based self: they never got over being the ugly kid in high school, they still see themselves as a failure because of that business that did not work out, they view themselves as unlovable because of the marriage that failed. All of that is tied to the past based self.

The present based self is in the here and now. Some people prefer to stay here. The present based self is something of the default position for most people. The problem is, when the bills are late, the rent is due and the vendor skates out on you, all this is in the here and now too.

The future based self is the you of the future. Much like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, you are going into the future to see how things work out. You can see the people you influenced, the jobs you created, the Porsche you bought; whatever turns you on.

When I get really down, I like to go into the bedroom, turn off all the lights, lay down on the bed and dream. I put myself 10 years into the future and see how ridiculous all this will seem then. All companies have their startup legends (such as Fred Smith of Fed-Ex going to Vegas to play poker to get the payroll); I imagine that this tough time is part of my own personal legend. I imagine sitting in the living room of my beach house and telling the twenty somethings I am mentoring about the time I bounced the check to the IRS, or about how I once lived 3 weeks on Ramen Noodles. I encourage you to construct your own personal legend.

Focus on the inputs

A major source of our stress is we have invested our emotions in the outcome (whether someone buys a buys from us, say), rather than in the input (the excellence of our work). The irony in this is that we have zero control over our outcomes (such as whether someone comes in the shop or buys something), while we have total control over our inputs (the excellence of our work or who we offer it to).

Therefore, when the small business owner does not make a sale, get the deal, whatever, she is convinced, over time, that she is worthless, is not worthy of making a sale, and anyway, whothehell does she think she is, anyway? She beats herself and her customers up, all the while spiraling downward, expending less effort, taking fewer pains, and ultimately, becomes what she thinks she is, worthless.

The craftsman knows that the work is valuable in and of itself. Imagine the craftsman who builds a cabinet, not knowing who will buy it but taking pride in the tight joints, the smoothness of the grain, the way the drawers glide and the doors swing freely. He knows that the work is worthwhile, and gets his satisfaction in the work. If you have had any custom cabinetry made of late, you know that craftsmen who have this attitude are handsomely rewarded, as well.

By focusing purely on the result (closing the sale, say), you are putting out the equivalent of press board furniture while ignoring the input (producing excellent work). Indeed, there are only two inputs that can have any effect on your long-term success:

· To do excellent work
· Offer that work to as many people as possible.

To focus on anything else is to focus on things that do not matter, and to beat yourself up for anything other than ignoring those two things is, to use the technical term, just plain nuts. Those two things are the only things we can do to improve our business, and the wonderful thing is, we have TOTAL control over them both.

If those two things are taken care of, you might or might not get a certain outcome, but you will deserve to, and what is more, you will have regained your sense of worth. Further, success will inevitably follow, for when have you ever heard of someone who a) did excellent work and b) offered it to as many people as possible, and yet did not succeed? It does not happen, and what is more, I submit that over the long term, it cannot happen.

What methods do you use to safeguard your attitude?