Keeping It Simple

If I’ve said it before, I am going to say it again:  it is exciting to watch a small business grow!  I wish I had started a business a long time ago, back when Dad and I toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant.  Of course, it hasn’t all been a joy ride.  I personally have had enough peanut butter sandwiches and chili dogs (with a side on indigestion!) to last this lifetime.  And my sleep schedule is pretty screwed up, although I remember Mom’s doing the same thing at about the same age, so I can’t really blame it all on entrepreneurship.  But when I wake up for the abrupt bathroom break in the middle of the night, something kicks my brain into high drive and the break usually ends up at least an hour or two, and swirling ideas, hopes, and dreams happily keep me a wide-awake hostage until they finally slow down for a very peaceful and comfy slumber.  I still can honestly tell you I don’t regret a minute of it!  We’re into February 2012 right now, supposedly the slowest month of the year in the glass business, and we’re working on a commercial job that will pull us through winter.  We also got a surprise financial break from what had seemed an unlikely source that is going to greatly help us reach our most successful season yet (okay, so it’s just our second peak season in business…I know, it’s supposed to be better than the first!)

I am sitting on the edge of my chair waiting for spring, when business comes out of the winter hibernation and is strong and healthy and ready to run hard in the warm sun.  It’s gonna be good!  I can smell it in the chilly morning air; I can taste it in my first cup of coffee!  Yet in the fervor and excitement of coming into a very good year, I have to remind myself to hold the course.  All those hopes and dreams and such must fall under the mantra of keeping it simple.  The thrill of progress must be tempered with the reality of wisely choosing the very best of the dreams and goals set for this business year.  All of the bells and whistles that I could add to Down Home Design & Glass to make it bigger and better (or bigger and louder) must be in proportion to what is currently going on.  It must be measured against the revenues that are actual.  If I get too overly zealous, the business could get too big in oh so many ways.  Overspending could result in debt too huge to easily rein back in.  Marketing and aquiring the right team for the business has to be in proportion to each other, or it could result in being too short-handed to adequately meet customer needs in a timely manner.  After all, the ultimate goal is not creating a huge, successful company.  The ultimate goal is nurturing and growing our small business so it will become and remain a vehicle to nurture my family, my staff and their families, and our community.  As an entrepreneur, I must remember that it is the business which will serve us and not us serving the business for the sake of the business.  I must keep my expenses in check, wisely choosing how to invest revenue back into the business so that it will properly care for the people it needs to be caring for.  No one can tell you specifically how to do that for your own business.  You have to take a good look at what your own goals are, and manage your business finances accordingly.  The Day of Peanut Butter Sandwiches does pass.