Do you need to be in control? It’s a question I sometimes ask business owners. It’s the kind of question that can make a business owner cringe or break out into a cold sweat. It’s a question that challenges the business owner to be honest with themselves. Do you need to be in control of every little thing?

Business owners wear a variety of hats and learning to let go of some of those hats can be hard. There’s always the notion of it being better to do the job yourself than let someone else do it. The business owner can’t afford to take that kind of attitude. It’s an attitude that can drive people away and stress the business owner out. The reality is that its better to know when to delegate business to other people in order to focus your own efforts on what you do best.

Control is a tricky issue for business owners because we all have to think of the bottom line and more importantly how that will translate into supporting our family and lives. Those issues always need to be acknowledged, but if we also have to consider that quality of life isn’t dictated by just how money you save, but also by your ability to enjoy your life. When I work with business owners, I always look at the relationship the business owner has with not only the business, but the rest of his/her life. A business always needs to be framed in the context of what it supports, in order to understand what is or isn’t working with the business. Not surprisingly sometimes what isn’t working is that need to be in control of everything. When the business owner can acknowledge the need to be in control and more importantly can step back and allow others to do what needs to be done s/he is starting to move into a healthier relationship with his/her business.

Recently I went to a small event where I was vending for one of my other businesses. I got to the place and ended up chatting with a couple of other vendors while we were waiting for the place to open. They told me that they didn’t get many sales there, but they vended because occasionally they had people contact them after the fact. Once we got inside, I saw the place was fairly small and quickly got crowded because of the number of vendors. In thinking it over, I decided it’d be better to invest the time I’d have spent there at my office where I could work on a couple of different projects. I realized that the time I could spend at the event didn’t quite compare to the time I could spend working on my projects.

I’m re-reading Your Money or Your Life with my wife. In one of the chapters, the authors have you do an exercise where you calculate how much time/life force you had to give up in order to get the amount of money you have. When I thought about staying at this event or going back to my office, I calculated how much time I’d spend at the event vs the probability of making enough money to justify that time as well as justify the loss of being able to do other things with that time. In the aforementioned book, one thing the authors point out is that unlike money you can’t get time back and that’s pretty much what motivated me to make my decision.

My time is worth more to me than anything else. I know that I have to feel like I’ve gotten the most out of a situation if I’m going to feel comfortable giving my time to that situation. As business owners we always have to evaluate if the time we are putting toward an endeavor is really worth the income we may or may not make from it. What is your time really worth? When do you know if spending time doing one thing provides less of an outcome than spending time doing something else?

Time is an investment. It’s an investment that is returned either with money or with the amount of happiness a given activity provides you. Each person has to decide how much their time is worth, and if a given activity doesn’t look like it’ll provide a suitable level of reciprocal value, its better to leave than continue to put time toward something that you don’t feel will provide you the value that you deserve.

Learning how to say no to a potential client can be hard to do. We’re conditioned to want clients, and when someone wants to be one, saying no probably seems like a bad idea. And most times it would be, but there are times when its important to say no. For example its important to say no if you know or feel that the prospect would be a problem client. Working with problem clients will always wear you out.

The other reason you want to say no is if you are no longer offering a service that you’d previously offered. For example, I was called last week by a former client who wanted to know if I’d be willing to meet with her for some social media work. I’m getting out of social media for the most part, and I decided to pass her onto someone that I feel could take care of her. My heart isn’t in offering social media services and I felt that taking on another social media job just wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I said no.

Saying no is an empowering experience when you are a business owner. When you know you can say no, you’ve hit your stride and you’ve realized you can do what you need to do to take care of yourself. You know you aren’t going to take work that doesn’t make you happy. You know you’re going to honor your vision and the integrity of your business by only taking work you feel called to do.

Some will say that you can’t say no during these times of economic hardship. They will say you should take whatever job you can get, but I think when you do that you let your own worries get the best of you. don’t get me wrong, you need to pay bills and take care of yourself. But to do that you’ve got to be honest with yourself about what you are willing to do and why you’re doing it. And you’ve got to know when to say no so that you can look yourself in the mirror and keep yourself motivated. It takes true confidence to say no, because when you say no to work, what you’re also saying is, “I believe in myself so strongly that I know what I’m worth.”

I think that what can make or break a business are the habits that business owners choose to adopt. What I mean is that a business is defined in part by the various activities that a business owner does to maintain it. And its a good idea to develop habits that will support your business. Part of how this is done involves creating cues that remind you of what you need to do, so that when you see those cues you accomplish what you needed to accomplish. Here’s a few habits that I’ve observed can help with running a business.

1. Keep a list of clients and projects you are working where you can see them. If you’re feeling bored or don’t know what to do, a list that shows you what projects you need to work on can help direct you. And you don’t need to restrict it to clients. You could also put together a list of tasks that need to be done for the business.

2. Develop a daily routine at the beginning of your day that sets up what you need to for the rest of the day. When I start my day, I’ll check my prospects list, open my browser and open all the sites I need to look at for business on my browser. By seeing everything in front of me, I’m reminded of what I need to do and then I do it.

3. Make time for yourself, but do an activity that has a limited scope of time. Going for a walk has a limited scope of time. Playing a video game, on the other hand, can suck you in for hours and hours. Knowing how to take a bit of time to refresh yourself is important, but pick activities that will give you enough of a break to refresh yourself, but not so much of a break that you don’t get anything done.

Habits are powerful. Creating the right habits can focus you on achieving success. Picking the wrong ones can distract you from taking care of your business. What are some successful habits you use for your business?

In my business, my spirituality is part of what fuels my passion to do what I do. I feel a calling to do what I do. It informs my business practice, and it even informs the kinds of clients I work with. All of my clients are passionate about their beliefs and even if those beliefs don’t directly show up in their business, it does show up in the living of their lives.

Look at your business. What fuels it? What give you the passion you have for it? I’m not telling that you have to get religious about it, but its worthwhile to explore what other parts of your life influence and inform your approach to business. You might be surprised at what you discover and how it helps you motivate yourself when it comes to running your business.

Book Review: The War of Art (Affiliate Link) by Stephen Pressfield

This is the kind of book you need to read whether you’re an artist, writer, musician, or a business owner. In this book, the author explores the feeling of resistance and how it shows up to impede your work as well as presenting strategies to help you overcome that resistance. He also discusses metaphysical aspects of inspiration. I found his advice useful and to the point. It helped me identify places where resistance had shown up to impede my own work. This book is essential because it provides a different perspective on resistance, while helping you find ways around and through it. Pick it up today!

An acquaintance of mine told me recently that her husband had started up a business and then decided to go back to work and consequently she inherited the business from him. One of my clients also had a similar experience. Both of them face some similar challenges, and these might be challenges that you or someone else faces. What are they?

How Do I make this business my business? It’s true you’ve inherited a business, complete with clients and specific services and products. But is that business an accurate version of what you do? In other words, is the vision of the business in alignment with your vision of it? It might be in alignment with your vision of it, but it might be something else altogether. Truly owning a business sometimes involves doing a makeover to make that business your business.

A vision board is good way to start the makeover. You can create a board with images and words that you’d associate with your business. But don’t stop with creating a vision board. Create your business plan as well. If you’re not sure how to, talk with a business coach, or check out resources such as SCORE or SBDC.

How do I network or make calls or get out there and find people? The challenge can also be that you need to learn to network and follow-up with people. If it’s your first time owning a business, this can be intimidating because it involves meeting a lot of people you don’t know and telling them about your business. When I first started my own business it took a while to get comfortable networking and following up. It wasn’t something I had to do when I worked in corporate world. Learning these skills is essential for getting in touch with people and telling them about your business and why they should consider your services or products.

Who do I go to if I need help with something outside my area of expertise? A lot of small business owners make the initial mistake of believing they have to do everything. While it’s true you may have to wear multiple hats, when running your business, its equally as important to know who to delegate certain key aspects of your business. For example, I’m good at managing my own books, but there’s no way I would do my taxes. I have a tax accountant that takes care of it. It’s her specialty, and the expense of paying her is easily justified by the lack of stress and knowing I’ll have her help if I ever get audited. Knowing who to turn to can make your life easier. Just remember that ultimately you have to make the decisions for your business.

What are some other issues that can come up when you inherit a business? Share your experiences below in the comments!

I read a blog entry today about transparency in Marketing. The author asked why people thought businesses didn’t become more transparent in their marketing. In thinking about it, I think the main reason boils down to fear. Fear of what?

Fear of loss of income. Businesses live and die by the bottom line and one of the main fears is that by being transparent they will anger their customers and lose business as a result. Businesses think its better to not be transparent to avoid making someone unhappy. The problem is that those approach no longer works in a social media era. It’s very easy for people to post a bad experience and share it, and when companies seem to hide the problem it only makes people more unhappy. Lack of transparency hurts the bottom line more than being transparent and honest with customers.

Fear of Customer unhappiness. Similar to the fear above, businesses are afraid of customer unhappiness. They want to keep customers happy, but often approach it in a heavy handed manner, instead of doing what they should do, which is listen to the customer, and work toward resolving the issue together. Businesses also need to realize that you won’t make everyone happy, but making a genuine effort to resolve a situation will stand out more favorably than anything else.

Fear of competition. Some businesses are afraid of their competition and what it will do if it has access to their marketing. While such a fear can be legitimate, its also true that as long as you can differentiate yourself in your marketing, it will make your business stand out.

These are just three fears. What are some others fears that you think businesses have, when it comes to being transparent?

There’s always something new to learn. The question is: Does it have value for my business? If it has value for running your business then its worth learning. It might be worth learning even if it doesn’t add value to your business, but for the purposes of this article, lets focus on your business.

You have an established way of doing your books, of networking, of marketing, etc. That given method may or may not work that well, but it provides you comfort because you know it. It may provide discomfort as well, if it’s not a process that works well. Yet to change it means doing something new…making a choice to do something new, to stretch yourself. This can be uncomfortable, but it is necessary for business owners to learn how to accept new ideas, if they want to stay relevant in their industry.

The way I’ve learned to make myself more comfortable with new ideas involves simply challenging myself to learn something new when I first discover it. If I feel resistance toward learning about it, I know I need to learn it, because that resistance is indicative of a desire to stay where I’m at out of comfort. I know however that if I learn something new and it helps me run my business better, it’ll be better for me to go out of my comfort zone and expose myself to something new. I’ll learn something and hopefully come away with new skills I can apply to my business and life.

Here’s the interview I did with Gary Russel from Defend my Life about life work balance, business its, and why its important for business owners to delegate their work. Big thanks to Gary for hosting me on his show!

I’m reading The War of Art (affiliate link). It’s a book about working around creative blocks, or dealing with resistance. But it doesn’t just apply to artists or authors. It’s a book that also applies to owning a business.

At one time or another we all feel resistance. What is resistance? It’s that feeling, that inner voice that tells you to sleep in and miss that early morning chamber event, or networking event. It’s that resistance you feel to following up with people you’ve been contacted by for a service or product. It’s anything that stops you from succeeding in your work.

Resistance can be a negative and debilitating force that stops you from getting your work done and growing your business. Resistance can also be a positive force that indicates something is wrong, or that you need to take a little time off.

The other day I felt a lot of resistance and gave myself permission to take most the day off from my business (I had a client meeting I needed to go to). I felt better for doing so, and was glad I chose to give myself a bit of relaxation. On the other hand, if I listened to resistance all the time, I probably wouldn’t get anything done.

I think we all feel resistance to one degree or another. Some days its more and some days its less. Learning to know when to listen to it, and when to ignore it is key to being successful as a business owner, and as a creative person for that matter. The author of the book treats resistance as an entirely negative force, but I have to say that feeling resistance toward the social media end of my business has actually indicated to me that it was time to change my focus toward the holistic business coaching approach.

The best way to assess if resistance is negative or positive is to examine your feelings around the resistance. For instance, if you’re feeling lazy, then its probably a negative experience of resistance, but if you feel genuine unhappiness at the thought of doing something and its a persistent form of unhappiness, its likely time to listen to your resistance and explore some other directions in your life.

What’s your experience of resistance in your business?

I’ve never liked working with people I don’t like. I remember this one guy from back in my academia days. He had an arrogant attitude, loved interrupting people and thought he was better than everyone else. I couldn’t stand him. He was a motivating reason for why I left academia…Why would I want to work with someone like that all the time? He wasn’t the only reason, but he’s still someone I use as a object lesson in the importance of not working with people you don’t like. They make you miserable.

I like and even love the people I have as clients. All of them are unique, exciting people who have something wonderful to share with the world. I feel privileged to work with them. My liking of them is part of what motivates me in my business. When you like the people you work with or for, you care. You want to give your best effort, because you want them to succeed.

I’ve occasionally had clients who I didn’t care for. The relationship usually faded away or ended in short order. We knew we weren’t good fits for each other and we parted ways. I do hope they are successful. I just know that I am not a key ingredient to their success.

Be honest with yourself about how you feel about your clients. You’ll be doing yourself and them a favor and you’ll either be motivated even more to do what you do, or you’ll know you need to start findings clients you like. Either way, its always better to work with people you like.