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It’s Personal, It’s MY business

Two Sales Assistant At Vegetable Counter Of Farm ShopDo you remember the first time you heard someone say “It’s not personal, it’s just business?” Recalling the first time someone said it to me makes me cringe even today. I remember all the wagging heads of agreement as a senior manager made the comment while discussing impending layoffs– just one of the repertoire of mindless catchphrases in corporate America. In fact, the only times I’ve heard the phrase were when someone wanted to justify unpleasant actions that most definitely affected someone else very personally. It’s not like you hear the phrase when someone’s getting a raise or promotion – can you imagine “Don’t thank me and don’t take your promotion seriously – it’s not personal, just business.”

There’s no such thing as “just business” without the “personal” for an entrepreneur. “It’s always personal, it’s my business” is a much more meaningful mantra. In fact, if it’s NOT personal, a small business won’t be successful.

How can a small business be anything but personal?
I guarantee you remember the exact moment when you decided to start your own business. You are not alone – I don’t know many entrepreneurs who can’t recall the exact moment they were struck with a new idea. Perhaps you felt frustration in a job and decided you want to do things your own way, or possibly you felt a strong desire for independence, personal expression and freedom as an entrepreneur. It was deeply personal. Ross Perot, founder of EDS and Perot Systems wrote about the moment he decided to start EDS. He was reading a copy of Reader’s Digest when, after his big idea for selling software services was denied by his IBM bosses, he read a quote by Thoreau: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” and decided at that moment to start his own business doing exactly what IBM declined to do. “Quiet desperation” sounds personal to me.

It turns out the phrase has an interesting genesis – from a movie! As the fictional figurehead of the mob in The Godfather, Michael Corleone offered the infamous phrase “It’s not personal…it’s business” as explanation for ordering a mob hit. As much as I find The Godfather entertaining, Michael Corleone is not exactly the mentor I’d suggest for a successful business.

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For those who drained their home equity or retirement accounts, maxed their credit cards, and asked family for seed money to start a company – it was personal. When the business owner works long hours, miss family events to support a customer, it’s personal. When they struggle in a bad economy and have to choose between taking home a salary and paying their loyal first employee, it’s personal. For those who sit beside their neighbors/customers at the Friday night high school football game, it’s personal. When they provide service to their neighbors or their kid’s teacher, it’s personal.

The most successful small businesses know it’s personal. Their mission and vision are personal and intertwined with their personal mission and vision, they lead their business using the same core values that they run their lives. If their lives are driven by faith-based values, their business generally reflects the same. Their brand promise is fulfilled the same way they fulfill a promise to family and friends. Many businesses are named for their founders – it doesn’t get more personal than that!

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If any fictional character embodies the personal spirit of entrepreneurship, my choice would be George Bailey from the holiday classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. George is a young man with huge dreams and a bigger heart. One of my favorite scenes is set in the family run Building and Loan business during the bank panic of 1930. Instead of taking off around the world on a honeymoon with his new bride, George dispenses his life savings to his neighbors/friends/customers to keep them going while the bank is closed, securing their life savings with his own. After successfully making it through the day with $2 left, George and his family celebrate that they are still in business.

This is the personal character I see in small businesses every day reflected in how they operate and in how they treat customers because for them, “It IS personal…it’s MY business!”

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Change your Mindset

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If your business is keeping you up at night instead of energizing you to jump out of bed in the morning, you may need a mindset adjustment. Here are a few suggestions:

Change Focus: At times when all you can think about are your issues and fears, spend a day in quiet retreat. Turn off the phones and the screens and reflect on the following:
Reacquaint with your Strategic Framework: The elements of a strategic framework are your business mission, vision, core values, and strategic thrusts. These are the “big picture” foundation of your business and there are times when we all need to reacquaint ourselves with the reasons we started our business, the reason our business exists, the vision we have for how our business serves our personal lives and the lives of our customers. For me, it’s like a shot of adrenaline when I gift myself time to reflect on my purpose and values, make resolutions and plans that re-align my thinking and activities with this framework.

Reflect on your achievements over the past year and over the past 3-5 years. You will gain strength and inspiration from the realization of goals accomplished, lives impacted in a positive way through you and your business. Often reflection reminds us of big issues we’ve overcome in the past, the fears that never materialized (sleepless nights wasted) and the creativity we’ve applied in the past to turn issues into opportunities.

Are you just overwhelmed and stressed from doing too much by yourself? Often we aren’t’ thinking with a positive mindset if we’re stressed out. What activities can you delegate or outsource so you have the time and energy to focus on the big picture?

Eliminate negative influences from your life. If watching news creates stress and worry, turn it off. Try to minimize time spent with people who spread anxiety if you don’t feel strong enough to diffuse their negativity with a positive thought. Negative social media getting to you? Eliminate it from your online timelines and newsfeeds.

Change Perspective: Looking at a problem from a different angle raises different options which can alter your approach to the issue.

Ask yourself if this “issue” can be viewed as an opportunity. Isn’t that where we entrepreneurs shine, seeing the “issues” of this world and providing solutions? Sit down and brainstorm a list of the positive opportunities that can be derived from this problem.

Ask advice from your support community. If you don’t have a support community, use this as an opportunity to develop one. Every entrepreneur can benefit from power partners in whatever form works best for you – a coach, a mentor, an online forum, a mastermind team, an advisory board, etc.

Look at the issue in a detached way. If a colleague shared this problem with you over coffee, what would you advise? I find we often intuitively know the answer but don’t act on our own advice.

Take a holistic view of your business by using a SWOT analysis. Quickly brainstorm your current situation by developing a full list of strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats facing your business at this time. Concerned about a potential new competitor? A quick SWOT may remind you of your strengths compared to them or the opportunities you have due to exclusive supplier relationships…the possibilities are endless.

Change Scenery: Put distance between yourself and your business on a regular basis.
Regular vacations are essential for your own health and the health of your business but it’s obviously not an option every time you’re faced with an issue. Consider other personal habits and practices of self-care to reduce stress.

Take a walk. Run. Ride a bike. Hike. Get up and get away from your office. Studies show the benefits of physical exercise for the entrepreneur.

Distract yourself. Go to a movie. Have dinner with friends. Play with your dog. Go fishing. Indulge your hobbies. Take a weekend out of town and don’t talk about work! It’s amazing what a break can do for your mental state, providing you with the clarity that constant focus cannot reveal.

Take up a silent practice – meditation, EFT (tapping), prayer, yoga – any active practice that frees your mind from thoughts of worry and replaces them with stillness or positive affirmations. Activity that is good for the health and soul of the entrepreneur is good for the soul of your business. Your personal peace brings peace to all around you.

Entrepreneurship is a journey of courage and resilience. No entrepreneur is promised a path of perfection – problems come with the territory. Applying a few tactics to changing your mindset will strengthen you for inevitable challenges and give you greater satisfaction when you reach the ultimate success.

Small Steps to a Better than Ever Business…
Choose one area above which resonates for you – how about the one you read and immediately thought “I know I can better at this…?” If you’ve been neglecting self-care, take a walk or begin a meditation practice. If you’ve lost focus on the long-term vision for your business, spend a few minutes today renewing your soul and enthusiasm by reviewing your vision and core values. Reflect on how far you’ve come from when those words were first written. Repeat again tomorrow and the next day.

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Creating Business Momentum: Small Steps or Big Strides

My daughter is a runner. She has loved running for years and is competing with her schools track and field team, running the 400 m, 800 m and anchoring the 400 in the medley. She wants to win. She practices daily, measuring her progress by timing her runs. On the other hand, I am a walker. I have been walking for fitness for over 20 years. Although I ran one pitiful season of cross country in high school and tried running for fitness, I honestly never liked it. I walk because I love getting outdoors, occasionally hiking, and I want to stay healthy. I never measure my steps or my timing although I have been told I walk at a fair clip. We recently went to the high school track a few times to “work out “together. The truth is I was her carpool, and the only time we had “together” was in the car and back.

I started my walk after a enjoying a morning cup of coffee. She ate a performance friendly breakfast and has been watching her nutritional choices since training began weeks ago. I prepared with a quick stretch (just to say I did), while she spent more time preparing her body for the run. I think I may have gone a full lap before she began running – I was ahead albeit briefly.

In the space of 45 minutes or so, she lapped me several times on top of performing some kind of training sprints and “progressions”. I just kept up my same old pace, going round and round the track. In the end, we were both pleased by our workout. I completed a few miles and felt invigorated. She was thrilled because she bested her last time on the 800m and felt excited for her upcoming race.

Whether with easy steps or big strides, we were both making positive progress towards our respective goals – each of us has momentum.

As a business owner, it is often hard not to get so wrapped up in what everybody else is doing that you forget why you are on the track. If you spend all your time watching your competitor, you take your eyes of the finish line. If you are like most entrepreneurs, the finish line is a very personal thing. You started your business because of your passion. You molded it to fit with the vision you have of the life you want to lead. You decided early on whether you wanted the marathons or the sprints and the sacrifices you were willing to make for your vision to become a reality. As long as you are happy with the progress you are making towards your goals, don’t be concerned.

For many years, I watched other consultants build full-time practices, write books, give speeches. I was content with low key marketing, taking only referral clients and working an easy 25-30 hours per week while taking care of personal priorities (like a sickly child who is now lapping me). I was getting “lapped” but I wasn’t feeling beat. Momentum was at a slow pace, but it was my pace, my race, my finish line.

Should you be concerned if you are getting “lapped” by a competitor if you both have the same goals? You bet. Ask yourself a few questions: Is your goal clear? Is your target measurable? Have you prepared? Do you need to run more progressions? Are you nurturing your mind and body between the races so you can be ready? Are you feeding yourself a high performance diet?

The important point is that you set your own goals and build momentum by creating disciplines and practices which move you forward to your personal objective. Measure your progress. Change your strategy. Change your tactics. But, keep moving. Momentum comes from taking steps, small and large over time. Before you know it, you will reach the finish line.

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Retreat, Refresh and Re-Ignite your Vision

For the past 15 years, I have taken a week during my birthday month to revisit life and career, refining a vision for my coming years. I usually take a few days alone at the beach with no TV and no technology but the process can be done over time and in any quiet place.
These questions and exercises are great kindling to ignite a fire in your soul and reconnect with an authentic vision for your life and business. You can complete all the exercises or you can respond only to those which speak to you the most.

1. Imagine your face on the cover of a magazine or newspaper – the featured article is about you! If you could choose any magazine, what would it be? Is it Entrepreneur? Parents? Philanthropy Magazine? The Business Journal? What is the cover headline? What are the supporting headlines? Write the first paragraph or the whole article? Why are you being featured? Who contributes to the article and what did they say?

2. Imagine giving a speech at your own funeral. You are in a room full of all the people who have been meaningful to your life, whether living or passed. Who is there and what do you want to say to them? Who is missing and why?

3. You are being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award (think Academy Awards or similar). Who are you thanking for support, love and mentorship? Who is there? Who introduces you and what do they say? Whose face do you want to see in the front row while giving your speech?

4. Letters to Children: You write a letter to your child or grandchild at their birth. What does it say? What do you want for them? Reverse the exercise and assume your son or daughter hands you a letter upon graduation from high school or college. What does it say?

5. You and your spouse decide to renew your vows. In the presence of all your friends and family, you will deliver personal vows. What do your vows say? How about your spouse – what do his/her vows say?

6. It’s a Wonderful Life. Did you see the eternally favorite Christmas movie with Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey? George is a frustrated businessman who is given the gift of an angel who shows him what life would be like if George had never been born. Envision yourself as the main character in It’s a Wonderful Life. Whose life is better because you were born? Tell the story of how you positively impacted the lives of 5 key people in your life and how you made it better.

7. The Perfect Day: What are the ingredients to a perfect day? Name at least 5 activities you would do every day without fail and be able to go to sleep contented? Is it prayer, exercise, dinner with your spouse?

8. The Bucket List: Here is another movie inspired exercise for creating a vision. The gist of the movie is about two men with fatal illnesses trying to check off a list of all the things they want to do before they “kick the bucket.” You can place anything on the list: items you want to buy, places you want to travel, people you want to meet, forgiveness you want to extend, love you want to express. It’s your list.

9. Imagine your last days. Sitting in a rocking chair reminiscing beside your best friend, what will you spend your time talking about? What are the stories you tell over and over again? Who are the people you love? What are the experiences you shared which cause you to smile or laugh?

10. Wikipedia is the encyclopedia written by the crowd – anyone can contribute to it. When doing research on famous people, it’s usually their Wikipedia entry which comes up first on Google. If you’ve ever checked someone’s bio on Wikipedia, where do you look first? Are you looking for their professional achievements? Checking on how many marriages and children they have? Assume someone starts a Wikipedia entry about you. Who would contribute and what would they say? Is there anyone you don’t want to contribute to the entry?

If you are like most entrepreneurs, your personal and business lives are intertwined. You are forever trying to strike a balance between personal and business goals. You spend time creating a plan for your business which includes spreadsheets, strategies, and big goals. You write assumptions, a budget and create project plans to get the job done. But, do you spend the time to examine whether those plans fit with the vision for your life? If not, give yourself the gift of a retreat and refresh your vision.

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Where did April Go?

“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”
Napoleon

It has been one of those months, so busy I didn’t get a chance to write a single blog post. I had big plans for the month, hoping to write a few times a week. What to do? I could beat myself up for not getting it done but I would rather focus on the positive.

Where did April go? Where did I spend my time?

* Held Quarterly Mastermind Retreat for my longest standing mastermind team witnessing the remarkable success and breakthroughs my fellow entrepreneurs made this past quarter. Mostly, I enjoyed the loyalty and enthusiasm they have for helping each other succeed.
* Deepened my involvement with members of my favorite networks.
* Worked with Kim Doyal, The WordPress Chick to clean up the back-end of my blog and define requirements for a new and improved website.
* Designed 2 products to be rolled out with the new website.
* Continued editing “The Book” which has dominated my life for two years.
* Coached the most amazing business owners in the world.
* Completed Feasibility Reports for consulting clients.
* Worked with Designer on a new logo and “The Book” cover.
* Welcomed new office-mate on April 3 – a 12 week old puppy Maija who is learning the rules of the office.
* Handled my teenage sons’ car accident and gave thanks no one was hurt.

So, what is the point of this blog post? Is this a “guilt” post, one to explain why I didn’t blog through the month of April? No. It’s also not a “brag” post to impress my readers.

The point is we all have a choice as we look over the passing months and years. We can look back with guilt over what we haven’t done, compare the “planned versus actual” and wallow in frustration. My preference is to take the opportunity at month’s end to reflect on what was accomplished, give thanks for personal and professional blessings, and refresh my vision for the future.

What choice will you make?

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