It Is All About You

There is a moment in every business owner’s life where they realize this is THEIR business. No one can tell them what to do, or how to manage or what to wear. When I was training franchisees one of my favorites had that moment very publicly. I mentioned causal Friday and he realized he could have casual Friday in his office. When I pointed out he could have casual EVERY DAY, he immediately got to work on the culture of his office. He decided what the feel of his office would be and what behaviors would be expected. He took his own experience and changed the things he hated. For instance, everyone has to leave the office for lunch at some point during the day. As a manager in a stressful job, he recognized that it was easy to get so caught up people didn’t stop for lunch and he felt that was a problem so he changed it. AWESOME!

There is another side as well.  When you start your business, at some level there is a sky’s the limit feeling.  But that means all the choices are up to you – and you have to pick.  Many will say it is the “fear of failure” that stops people but I’m not convinced it is that defined a feeling.  Talking to a friend of mine today, he is planning a trip to Disney World. He has no “fear” regarding the trip, but the number of choices are overwhelming in that there are so many things that sound fun.  So it isn’t a “fear” but almost an excitement!

So how do you figure it out what to do when it is all about you?  I like to recommend using an old troubleshooting technique.  You take the decision that needs to be made to a level that there are only two choices.  In troubleshooting a computer, it is usually hardware vs. software.  In business, it might be small companies vs. big companies or manufacture locally or overseas.  Once you get yourself started down a path, the decisions become easier and easier because they either fit in that path or they don’t. For instance, when I decided to focus on  very small businesses as my target market, I could ignore advertising to get in front of large companies – that didn’t fit into my path – so that was an entire category of decisions knocked out before I even had to make them.

At the end of the day, deciding to open a business means being very decisive. There are hundreds of little decisions made daily and not much time to do it in. So use your knowledge and your friends, pay consultants if and when you can, and just know that you’ll do the best you can at the time. And please – for those of us who love it – have a casual day!