We've come to the last of this series. You may remember at the beginning that I mentioned the series had it roots in a query from an Internet friend looking for some thoughts on how to grow his appraisal business. He had asked a series of questions, and I tried to respond to each with my experience in growing my business. His last question was so on the mark that I'm repeating it here verbatim.
"Finally, the whole life/work balance dilemma. I know you love to play golf. I'd love to ride my bike every day for and hour or two (or three!). What do you think are the most crucial aspects of making this a reality? Why/How has it worked for you? I see myself working till I'm well into my 60's and later because I like the challenge of what I do. I'd like to feel that after 20+ years that I hopefully accomplished something that's bettered not only myself, but others, in this pursuit."
That's an extremely worthy question! It shows a passion for life, not just work, but for life. Work should be fun, challenging, rewarding both financially and emotionally. Try to remember that your work is a part of life, not life itself.
I spent half my business career in the employ of others. Big corporations. I was lucky. I generally had good mentors and learned business well. In retrospect those jobs were rewarding, but they extracted a price in time that now seems too high. My mentors were supportive, the pay was fine, the responsibilities were challenging. No one made me work 50 hour work weeks, no one made me travel, but I did those things because it was necessary to get the job done and to get ahead. In reality, my time, even my life, was given over to the corporation. No leaving work in the afternoon simply because the day was beautiful ... heck what would my staff think? No choosing to work fewer hours because I could do all my tasks in less time ... what would my superiors think?
The single most important benefit of owning your own business is that you can mold it to suit your life, to suit your interests. As your life changes and your interests change, you can change the business to suit the new environment. You can achieve that control and freedom, but it requires a disciplined, long term plan.
I'm going to give you my final thoughts, based on my experience that worked for me. If may not work for you, and certainly not in the exact same way. I talk about each of our businesses being a wonderfully complex stew, filled with the ingredients that we have available. What I have available may not be the same as you have. That's the fun part, the creative part. Mix, match, test, retest, all with the long term objective in mind.
Click below to read on . . . .
Survival of the fittest: You must stay fit to be healthy, and you must be healthy to grow a business. In my darkest hours, the years of building the one man part, I made exercise a major must do daily. Stress levels were high. I had a young son who was athletically inclined, one I had late in life, and I needed to be fit to support his interests. Daily bike rides were my solution. Running would have been quicker and better, but my knees and ankles wouldn't support it. There's the stew. I arranged my day so that I left my work in late mid afternoon while there was still sufficient light, and I did 25 miles along a riding path I lived close to.
Find a form of exercise that you enjoy and which you can fit into your schedule. Make it part of your daily routine. The exercise will reward you with reduced stress and will provide you a reserve of energy that you can spend in growing the business with time and energy left to devote to your family and other interests. You owe it to your family and you owe it to yourself in building a business. You can't do anything, enjoy anything, if you are not fit.
Protect your environment: In the longer term, if you want to have a business that allows you greater free time and provides benefit to others, you must learn to create an environment to grow people. I suspect most business owners reading this are a bit on the controlling side...not real comfortable delegating, folks who want their hand and influence in every thing that goes on in the business. There are positives to having a controlling personality in business. It certainly is the best way to insure quality. But it is in conflict with a long run objective to obtain free time.
You must learn to grow people to grow your business and to gain control over your time. Read last week's column again. Think about it. What can you ask others to do that you currently do? How can you make that shift in tasks good for the employee and good for yourself? Then try it. A little at a time, but as you do, you will find what works for the benefit of all.
Adapt to change: You must learn to take advantage of the changes in technology and communication tools to give you more control and more freedom. When I started my business personal computers were just becoming affordable and powerful enough to do many business tasks. I bought the first IBM Personal Computer...no hard drive...just a five inch floppy drive and ten megs of memory. I woke up each morning at 4 AM to spend an hour learning VisiCalc, a forerunner to the spreadsheet programs of today. Fax machines were just hitting the market and I saw ways that tool could be used to make my business more productive and efficient.
Soon the Internet became available and a world of personal freedom opened before me. I set out to build my business to take advantage of those technologies to be more productive, more efficient, and to free myself from having to be at my office to conduct business.
It took years, but progress was made each year, and each year was enjoyed.
I used those tools and technology to reduce my work weeks to four days for a the period when my son was attending university and playing baseball on a four year scholarship. My wife and I spent most three day weekends during that period traveling around the state to attend baseball games and to socialize with other parents we met doing the same.
During that period I had also hired and trained a part time assistant to help at the office. Her hours were afternoons. Her mornings were spent in class at a local university. My office hours were in the morning, my field work in the afternoons, ending in time to do my bike ride each day. Rosie ran the business in the afternoons, I ran it in the mornings. I could have made more money then by working six day weeks instead of four, but I'd have missed a wonderful time of our lives.
When that period ended, both Mark and Rosie had graduated and I changed my business again...built a house with a second floor office space...my wife and I were empty nesters and lived downstairs with three bedrooms upstairs for guests. I intended to scale the business to meet our needs and to provide me with the free time I desired to pursue other interests. That was working just fine! No commutes, select clients, personal freedom.
Then Mark approached me with a desire to join the business and build it into a regional player. That launched the growth phase we have been in for the last six years, and we are well on the way to the objective Mark had envisioned.
The first two years of that expansion plan were grueling. Back to 50 hour weeks. But we had a plan, and it was an investment in the future. Training staff to perform the functions of an appraisal business. Growing the client base. Teaching the Bright Horses not only the art of appraisal, but the art of business. Teaching. Delegating. Reviewing decisions, what went right, what went wrong, and why. All with a plan in mind.
I'm now down to less than three hours a day devoted to the business, usually ending before ten o'clock in the morning. The Bright Horses truly run the business, a growing, healthy, vibrant, living thing. Not true the last couple of months as I've worked on a project to make a major expansion of the business this year. But that's coming to an end and I'll be back to three hours or less a day.
I enjoy the game of golf. Five, six days a week. Add fishing and gardening to that mix, regular, weekly adventures in those areas also.
But that's not my main enjoyment. My principal enjoyment is watching those Bright Horses grow into business leaders in their community. The passing of the legacy of my experience is what drives me, and if I do not have that developing the way I intend, the golf, the fishing, the gardening are not fulfilling.
I have a business that will be turned over to those Bright Horses soon, a business that will allow them to achieve financial and personal freedom that their peers will not have, the same personal freedom that I have enjoyed.
Does that sound like what you want to achieve?
You can. I'm not smarter or luckier than you.
I just stuck to a general plan, modified as my life changed.
And I've just given that plan to you!
The author is the owner of Acorn Appraisal Associates, a 20 year old firm offering a wide range of quality appraisal services to the Financial and Business Communities in the greater Houston SMSA
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