Owning and running a business is the toughest job anyone could voluntarily do. Why? I would suggest it’s because it demands such an intellectual and emotional range from you, all in one day, and can leave you utterly drained on both fronts.
Within a single day, and sometimes within a single hour, you have to have your logical brain in gear to crunch numbers in your head to make decisions which have to be financially viable (for example getting your quotations right), then draw on all the diplomacy you can muster to give delicate feedback to a valuable member of staff who might be putting their all in, but not hitting targets, then having to keep your own emotions under control while you placate an irate client for who is being completely unreasonable, then ride that sick feeling when reviewing your results for last month showing an ugly loss, to shortly afterwards the confusing uncertainty of finding out that the loss might have been larger or smaller, we’re not sure yet. Then the happiness of winning clients, followed by the kick in the guts of losing clients - and so on.
Who’d do it? Why do you do it?
Well for many, it’s because you had this burning ambition to own your own business, to be your own boss, and once it got off the ground, you knew you could never have it any other way again.
But here's some other reasons to think about. Firstly, evidence shows that the more control you have over your own destiny, the longer you live and the healthier you are.
But there's so much more.
One of the most important things you can do in business is to build and work on relationships. It's essential, and fruitful. You have to maintain a good relationship with your clients, your staff, your suppliers, with partners or investors, and so on. The same applies to the relationships in your life. They too contribute to your longevity and health.
Of course, in additional to drawing a wage to feed your family, a business gives you the unique opportunity to build equity, to be able to sell your business one day and realise that equity to set you up to work less, which means more time and energy to invest in family and friends.
I was certainly afforded this opportunity when I exited as I had three children in primary school and the extra time I had to spend with them was both necessary and very worthwhile.
For those of you with employees, no doubt it has occurred to you that your business is providing for a number of families - starting with simply feeding them, to supporting their dreams of home ownership, or educating their children, or investing for their retirement.
When I look back at my years in business, one of the fondest memories I have is seeing people grow and develop - transform themselves, sometimes into management roles, new technical areas or sales roles, or into whole new careers. I am particularly proud of the part I and my business played in their success.
And then there’s the Thing your business does. Whatever it is, it helps people do what they need to do, or solves a problem, or gets them to where they need to go. That’s making a positive difference.
Beyond your family, employees and clients, when you start a business, you grow the economy. Money is not like chips on the beach being fought over by seagulls, in other words, a zero sum game. Money, at the level of a whole economy, is an elastic thing. When you create value, you actually expand the amount of money in an economy through a complex chain of events, but the net result is that a whole population wins.
So what has all this got to do with Christmas?
Well, business is about supporting and enriching your family, about helping people in your circles, about making friends, building trust and investing in relationships, it’s about making a positive difference to the wider community.
Now, isn’t Christmas just precisely a celebration of all this? It is not about bringing enrichment, which could also be called joy, to family, friends, relationships and the world?
Wishing you all a safe, enriching and happy Christmas, and importantly, a prosperous new year.