#55 Has your business stopped you doing the stuff you love?

My father was in the RAF. He joined because he loved the thought of
flying. As family legend has it, when he was a lad would stand in his
back yard in Portsmouth, England gawping at the fighter planes as they
started their way over the English Channel.

My Dad got his wish and for many years flew planes with exciting names
such as the Phantom, Buccaneer and Tornado. Then, when he got really
good at his job, he got promoted. His new role, as they say, was flying a
desk.

Yes. In the RAF, as in many organisations, the better you get at the stuff
you do, the more time you spend organise for it to be done and the less
you spend actually doing it yourself.

It’s very like that in small business land too.

Maybe you started your business because you loved teaching people to knit. As
your business got busier you trained other people to be knitting
teachers to help you out. More business success followed and before you
knew it you had a full time job organising your knitting teachers,
administering the students, juggling finances, finding customers…….
Ugh. You created a super successful small business which completely took
you away from doing the stuff you loved.

And it happens quickly!

So my tip for today is this. Have a think about why you started your business and the parts of it that you most enjoy doing.

    1.Do you get to spend enough time doing the stuff you love?

 

    2. Have you noticed that over the last year you have been doing less of the ‘love’

stuff?

    3. Would you like to get back into doing more of the stuff you love?

This is your business, you get to call the shots! If you want to do more of
the ‘producing’ (the knitting, the flying…) then find someone else to
help you with the running-the-business stuff so you can get back to the
bits you love.

You don’t have to even be the boss of your own business! You can (and I’ve
known a few people who have done this brilliantly) hire yourself a boss.
Funny concept, but it seriously works.

It’s your business, you gotta love what you do, but you’ve also got to design your business to let you do it!

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