Are You Successful Yet?

Are You Successful Yet?

By C.J. Hayden, CPPC

Susan Kelly used to own a busy learning center in the East Bay. With 16 instructors on staff, a full schedule of classes, and phones that rang all day long, her business was the picture of entrepreneurial success. But the day she first came to see me, her eyes filled with tears as she said, "I never get to teach any more. I spend all my time screening clients and fighting fires. I'm beginning to wonder if I should put the business up for sale."

Graphic designer Kim Schwartz related her own success story in our first meeting. "I have plenty of work," she told me, "and my expenses are low working at home, but I'm alone all the time. When I had a job, there was always someone in the next cubicle to bounce ideas off. Now I never get to see anyone without an appointment."

The names of these clients have been changed, but their stories are real - successful businesses, unhappy owners. Although their problems were very different, Susan and Kim had made the same mistake. They didn't plan for the kind of business they really wanted to have. For Susan, it was her love of teaching that got her into the learning center business. Kim, it turned out, enjoyed design work because of the collaboration and camaraderie she had always experienced. But when they went into business, these two very smart and talented professionals overlooked their own personal desires. Instead, they copied someone else's model for success.

It's an easy trap to fall into. You see a colleague's successful business and think, "Hey, that's what I want," conveniently forgetting (like Susan did), that you hate to be interrupted and ringing phones drive you crazy. If you really want a business that will hold your interest, give you satisfaction, and provide enjoyment for a long time, you have to define your own success.

In Joline Godfrey's book, Our Wildest Dreams: Women Entrepreneurs Making Money, Having Fun, Doing Good, she gives many examples of women (and men) redefining success in business. The people she interviewed speak about wanting connection, valuing relationships, leading balanced lives, and keeping a sense of artistry and playfulness. If these values resonate with you more than the desire to merely increase your net worth, you are not alone.

Looking at the numbers is always important. Business depends on numbers, and if you ignore them for very long, you won't have a business to manage at all. But adding staff, square footage and product lines is not the only way to earn more money. If you truly enjoy managing people, projects, and budgets (and many entrepreneurs do), then by all means plan for this kind of growth. But if you want to stay hands-on and serve the customers yourself, you need to grow in a different direction.

There are many paths to growing a business. You can increase staff by hiring employees or using freelancers; add space by leasing more square feet or letting people work at home. To boost profits, you can increase orders, raise prices, reduce overhead, or increase the amount of your average sale. Each of these directions has its own impact on how you, the owner, spend your days. Whenever you make a decision about your business, choose the path that leads to your own personal definition of success.

In Susan Kelly's case, the answer to her dilemma was to grow smaller. She turned her learning center into a company that provided corporate training on contract. Her staff dropped to five, she reduced her square footage by 50%, and she got to teach again. Because her overhead was lower, and her average sale was higher, her profits went up, not down.

Kim Schwartz found a different solution. She connected with three other freelancers - an illustrator, a photographer, and a copywriter - and they opened a studio together. Rather than form a partnership, they each kept their own business. "Fewer hassles that way," says Kim. She was worried about the extra expense at first, but she raised her rates, and found that her satisfied clients were happy to pay a little more for her excellent work.

Are you successful yet? What's your definition? If your business isn't growing in the right direction for you, maybe it's time to make a new kind of business plan.

C.J. Hayden, CPPC, is a business coach who teaches people to make more money and have more fun in business. To find out more about business coaching, or to have C.J. speak to your group, contact Wings Business Coaching at (415) 981-8845 or CoachCJ@aol.com.

This page is preserved from the original PBWC website. It is part of News and Newsletters in the PBWC Website Archive 1996–2015.