As a small business owner, there are moments when you really do feel all alone. You may have people around you TRYING to love on you, but....they just can't understand the place you find yourself. Other small business owners may be able to identify with parts of it, but there are really moments (there were for me) where NO ONE could help me. For me, these are moments when I would lean on Jesus....and sometimes He was silent. I know He has His reasons, but these are definitely uncomfortable moments.
Over the years....I've learned a lot about a lot. As I stated in my previous blog: "A Chapter Comes to an End," sharing some of the things that I carried alone is really helpful to me and I know it will help others. In this memoir I want to share my journey and evolution in decision making.
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| Headlights if the auction doesn't end before dark. |
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| What the first 75-80 lots will be in the first hour, as people are getting to the auction. |
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| The best way to ship fenders to Canada, along with the other parts purchased. |
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| How to (on the fly for the vast majority of this project) entertain, track, record, |
In all things, each and every decision you make opens up Pandora's Box of then numerous other possibilities. In my business and in discussions regarding my business, I told people that I would qualify the risk. What I meant by this is: I would think a major decision all 360 degrees around it. When I was growing my business this concept worked for me, it worked for the client, it worked for the crew, it worked for business. As my business started growing and adapting over the years this....making decisions based on "qualified risk," seemed to cramp peoples' style/expectations/workflow. When more people get involved and you have a business where success and satisfaction with the end results is really not black and white. You have to be able to pivot, change your mind, adjust, re-assess, and do what is best for the end-goal of the project. That really doesn't gel well with employees and the desire for.....quantifiable progress.
As a small business owner, of a service-oriented business, I adapted to suit the needs and the demands and it worked for awhile. What I did not factor into my decision-making was more employees + more clients = more decisions to make and more people making decisions.
Here's the real deal of what I found and I would imagine this has been the experience of many other small businesses. People say this all the time. I heard this same thing SO many different ways and I still walked into the abyss. (This is because...when I heard it I knew NOTHING about this place.) The place where....ANYONE who is not you....the person that has poured their heart and soul and time and money and effort and sacrificed in numerous different ways....anyone else just doesn't "get it." They don't know what to let go of and what to pursue. They don't know how to talk to people in tense situations. They don't have the confidence to pick up the phone to alert a regular buyer of upcoming inventory. More Employees+More Clients=More decisions..... Long story short....one of the moments when I picked my head up from the work - I noticed a watered-down version of what I built. I was also losing my zest. In situations where I once made really good thought out decisions that were SO purpose-driven; I reached a place where I did not want to have to make a decision.
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| Just me....with guidance from Uncle Melvin |
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| Me & 10 crew members at a fundraiser. I had gotten up to 15+/- employees. |
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| Another fundraising event with 9 crew members. |
Then....I stopped to make a decision and found myself having to analyze the best way to move forward with where we were, based on the needs of the area and the tools at hand. Looking back....I wish I would have taken a different approach. Instead of trying to "get back" what I thought was lacking; I should have stopped long enough to REALLY dissect the situation. Take inventory of ME. Who I was 10 years ago is not who I am now. The needs of the community, that my company can meet, are not the same as they were 10 years ago when we got started.
My lessons in decision making in a small business trying to scale is this:
1) Reassess YOU periodically. In a service-based business YOU are the one that will keep it going. YOU are the one that will be standing when no one else is. YOU will be handed the good, the bad, and the ugly and have to figure out what to do with it all. When you look up and things look different....don't take the stance or the responsibility of "fixing it." Take a moment to understand where YOU are and then proceed.
2) I still like using the approach of qualifying your risk. You have to be sure to HARD SCHEDULE time to do that. Prioritize it.
3) Be responsible for yourself FIRST. I know there is all sorts of information out there that may tell you otherwise, BUT....like I said above. YOU will be the one left holding the bag. YOU & your family are FIRST. If people around you....employees, clients, vendors, customers are not ADDING to you MORE THAN they are taking away from YOU; t
+he business will not sustain itself. The more people around you, the more you have to stay on top of maintaining this. Everything moves faster and multiplies quicker....even just adding one more person into the mix.
4) If you are in a service-oriented business, sometimes it is just not scalable. At least not the way you imagine it. Don't be so hard-headed and be able to LET LOOSE OF AN IDEA. Give it a little rope and it might just lead you to something that is BETTER.
Look, small business owners are scrappers. More times than not, we are going to be able to help a very small portion of the population. We are the special. We are the flavor. We are the ones that are willing to sacrifice some comforts others are not, so we can simply be ourselves and do the things we are good at by helping others solve their problems, creating something that will make their lives easier, or entertaining people and bringing them just a little bit of happy into their world. Growing up, I was taught that character is achieved by doing, by going through it and EXPERIENCING every bit of something. For example: If you are going to show horses, you have to ride some bad ones to appreciate the good ones. You have to do things "wrong" to know the importance of doing it right. You have to SOAK UP ALL OF IT. In my business, I had to have a couple bad auctions to KNOW and appreciate the good ones. I had to take a chance on an average auction to know whether or not to do that again. I had to TRY and scale my original process to know things will be compromised UNLESS I can be cloned into multiples with all the knowledge and experience I possess. I had to make decisions to know. Just know, if you are going to be in small business and make it and sustain it, BUCK UP BABY! Get some thick skin and get after it.
