Sloan Creative

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Sometimes a decision is we don’t often think about are the ones that affect our lives the most.

Many years ago, a friend of mine asked me, “How can you go to Europe from month every year?”

He’d begun to notice my pattern of quietly leaving for Europe in the first days of February for the past several years. He was successful, a young attorney, with a nice house in a cool neighborhood near the beach and a hip car. I had a business, a house, and her car too, but…

The difference was, that I had realized several years earlier that if I could keep my ego out of two decisions I could maintain a fair amount of freedom in my life. The key decisions were:

House and car

If I could keep my ego out of those decisions and do only what was practical, I would have the financial freedom to do many other things. So, rather than live in Laguna Beach like most of my friends, I lived in a tiny, bland house in a less expensive area about a 20 minute ride in my used, generic car.

So, as a small business owner what are your key decisions?

Of course, the house and the car still matter. But what small business related decisions affect your experience of freedom? So many times I’ve noticed small business people who experience, behind the pride of business ownership, the horror of feeling owned by their business. Their business sets their schedule, or controls where they live, and interrupts their peaceful enjoyment of life both day and night.

The key decisions for most small businesses seem to be:

Wages paid to staff

• Well-managed staff can free owners from most time and space constraining business demands.
• Poorly-managed staff can be the heaviest anchor an owner experiences. Sometimes the best management means letting them seek employment elsewhere.

Growth curve

• Growth requires investment in product development, sales, marketing, improve operational systems, additional staff, and receivables financing.
• Our current business culture glorifies growth as our popular culture glorifies painfully thin youth
• The right size and growth rate for your business depends upon many factors. Ignoring or sublimating any can lead to uncomfortable or even disastrous results.

Have you been is conscious of the decisions that you’ve made in these areas as you would like to be? Have your prior decisions lead you to some place uncomfortable or even potentially disastrous?

If this resonates with you or someone you know please let me know. I’d be happy to chat.

Stephen Sloan offers small business consulting from Bainbridge Island, Washington, 98110 (near Seattle, on the Kitsap Peninsula) to small business owners all over the world.

You’ve probably at least heard of Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think and Grow Rich. The basic idea is that by putting real focus into thinking your path to riches can be made shorter and smoother.

But, what if your path to riches has resulted in you feeling that your business owns you more often than you own it.

Have you gained a good income but given up your spatial and temporal freedom? Can you do what you want when and where you want to do it? Can you easily take this afternoon off to enjoy the sun? Can you spend three weeks bicycling on Bali if you choose?

Are you sacrificing:

• Time with your children
• Time with your spouse
• Time with your passions
• Your health
• Your ability to explore the world

For the sake of your business?

The thinking that got you into this situation will not be the thinking that gets you moving into freer more authentic territory.

But how to think differently? How to think better?

Thinking is usually based on:

Information

• Good, solid data clearly analyzed in the spreadsheet
• What assumptions are you building upon? Are they rock or sand?
• What about what your body is telling you?
• What fresh perspective might literature or art provide?

Processes

• Consciously perform deductive and inductive reasoning
• Clear analysis to avoid common logical fallacies
• Using thinking visualization tools to identify areas requiring more clarity

Both information and process can be refined and improved with only a small investment of time. Of course, you can do it yourself. If you’d like a friendly companion along the way to help speed the process and make it more fun, I’d be happy to help.

Call me for a free consultation. (206) 793-4020

Stephen Sloan offers small business consulting from Bainbridge Island, Washington, 98110 (near Seattle, on the Kitsap Peninsula) to small business owners all over the world.