Change For The Better – Think and Do Differently

In a situation of high stress or even distress, it is difficult to expect one to be fully capable of using one’s clear mind to craft out a route ahead.  The results are often mistakes after mistakes as one puts in an effort to rescue oneself from the undesirable situation.

In fact, a cool head and clear vision is always needed in whatever situation, and if such was applied early on in the process, the situation may have been totally different coming to this stage.  A step back to look at things from a wide perspective is always a good practice and it will make all the difference if that is done effectively.  However, for most people, there is always a subconscious urge to simply push harder and do more of the same things to try to resolve problems.

As they push harder and want things to go faster, they are generally working in a very confined mode of applying their most familiar way of doing things taken likely from their most recent past.  But then, if that was good enough, it is likely that they wouldn’t have been in such a situation in the first place.  There is hardly any notion to them that working harder will not get them any further but rather working smarter will.

In their race against time, they have rarely found it was they who have placed a wrong focus and thereby wasted all their time and effort.  Their effort was futile and might even be counter-productive because it simply wasn’t the right things to do.  Effectiveness (that is, doing the right thing) and efficiency (that is, doing things right) are both important qualities, and we can learn from Stephen Covey‘s famous book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  The habit we can learn from him to improve our effectiveness is:

Put First Things First

According to Covey, “first things” are those things that are right.  In the bigger scheme of one’s life, the “first things” are determined by one’s own personal life goals and principles.  In other words, these are things that are meaningful and will make one genuinely happy and satisfied in life, be they personal achievements, recognition, relationships, or even physical substance such as money.  “Put first things first” is therefore to place the right things in their due first priorities and do them using the right way.

In one’s own business project, the “first things” are the right things that will lead to favourable results in line with objectives.  “Put first things first” is again to put those right things first and then do them in the right way.

As you can now realise, this practice involves two parts: the thinking part, which is to identify the right things, and the doing part, which is to perform them in the right way.  Whether we are contemplating a new business project or putting in our utmost to try to turn around an existing one, change is inevitable.  In the process of change, it simply requires us to both “think and do” differently. 

Using a time management matrix, Covey takes us to his insightful method which delineates relationships between tasks and the basis of priority setting thereby crystallising the entire practice of “Put First Things First”.  While the matrix is said to be dealing with time management, the challenge is indeed self-management, that is, giving ourselves a set of priorities and discipline to follow.  The essence is not about getting our work done as quickly or efficiently as possible but really about following a path to producing desirable results – the very concept underlying “Put First Things First”.

We can see in this matrix that the two factors that define an activity is its level of urgency and its level of importance.  Urgency deals with timing and the activities of the most urgent nature demand immediate attention.  However, not all the urgent calls are important, with only those classified under Quadrant I of the matrix being of high importance.  Those matters certainly have to be dealt with first or they will carry very unpleasant consequences.

On the other hand, there are matters which are important for the long term but can easily be put off without any noticeable effect in the short term.  These are the Quadrant II activities in the matrix.  While they are easily ignorable, how these activities are performed will largely determine if positive results will come out at the end.  There are a few reasons why these matters are important in terms of getting results:

1.      The activities are developmental in nature, which helps to build a strong foundation for the future

2.      Thinking and planning carefully and precisely will prevent careless and surprise mistakes from happening thus reducing the chance of oneself having the torturous need to spend time and energy in combatting Quadrant I fire-fighting crises later on

3.      Activities such as relationship building, recreation and personal development can be very pleasant when performed, which helps to re-energise oneself and increase one’s capacity for more productive work and learning

4.      The discipline developed by regularly performing Quadrant II activities can build a strong personal sense of balance and control

Unfortunately, most people have under-devoted time on Quadrant II.  Instead, because of their past omissions of such activities and the resulting mistakes, they are constantly under high stress having to fight one crisis after another.  Others, without a clear view of these relationships, are distracted by a perceived need to engage in Quadrants III and IV activities, all for purpose of relieving stress.  However, those activities are unimportant, and even when done in the name of escape, are not helpful in any way to re-energise.  It can even be damaging when bad habits are developed through addiction.

The question you would likely ask at this point is whether people like John and Peter/Angela in my stories can afford any time now doing Quadrant II activities when they simply need to put out one fire after another in their deep distress situations (Quadrant I).  I can also imagine a lot of other people are in similar situations and consider their full plate of work every day is giving them no breathing space (Quadrants I and III).  But I believe they definitely can make the time to learn this concept and review why they are in those situations in the first place.  This little time spent can mean a great deal to them.  Not knowing there is another way and lacking the necessary will and determination is the more likely reason for some reluctant to make the change.  These people just need to take themselves out of their comfort zone for a little while in order to start the process.  Once momentum is gathered, things will be a lot easier.

In the next two chapters, I will be going into the practical ways of tackling the business issues, ranging from operations to people management to marketing.  Following the concept of “Put First Things First”, there are strategies and techniques that can make business performance better and business management easier.

Is It For You ... Your Options - Go or Stay

The first and very pertinent question one has to ask before taking a path down as a small business owner is: 

Is it for me?

Whatever the situation and however desperate one might be, not asking this question and thinking it through before jumping into the small business pool could lead to serious consequences.

I am not here to discourage people wanting to be a small business owner.  In fact, quite the opposite, I believe being a small business owner has many advantages, not only in the strong possibility of a better financial future but also in the opportunity of making work life more enjoyable resulting in greater self-satisfaction and sense of achievement.

Then, does it mean that everyone can be a successful small business owner?  My answer to this is:  Theoretically, yes, but only if one is determined to be.

The question “Is it for me?”, therefore, is more about one’s willpower and desire than one’s skill or capability at the time, as the necessary knowledge and right skill can be learnt and adopted if one is determined.  Put it in another form:

The attitude is really the aptitude.

But then why are there so many cases of failure, many more than successful ones?  Out of all the valid reasons, I would attribute the main problem to people’s lack of preparedness, particularly on the mental side.  That is really to say, by not asking (and indeed answering) the question above, people are not aware of the significance of mental preparations and do not have the proper mindset to face the challenges head-on.

Let’s go back to the two stories in my last chapter that describe the disastrous situations of two small business owners and see why they had come to where they were.

Story One – John

At the time John decided to purchase a mobile phone dealership franchise, he was in a state of fear.  He was anxious to get back to a “job” which he hoped would give him the mental stability that he needed while still in the shadow of his shocked job loss.  The mobile phone dealership appeared to be the closest to what he was doing where he could still manage his new team as if they were the old “Help Desk” group he was leading.  But that was based on an assumption that they were the qualified people as given in an organisation.

John had all the intention of doing it as if it was a paid job.  He did not realise that now he had to take all consequences of the result.  Nothing was now given and any mistakes would show directly on the bottom line (that is, his profit and loss).  Before, he just needed to fulfil the work requirement including work quality, and there would be no actual “profit and loss” based on which to judge him.  He could afford to be passive and just take what was given in the situation of a given job.  Now that was not affordable anymore, but unfortunately this notion did not cross his mind.

If John was really interested in being a business owner, he would have done things quite differently.

a)      He would have done a research into the small business world to see what opportunities were the best for him.  Criteria would include profit, manageability, learning and his own personal interest.  The business he would have chosen at the end could be quite different.

b)      He would have spent more time and effort to investigate the performance of the business he was intending to buy.  He would have more thoroughly inspected all aspects of the business including the people he would have to rely on, as staff are always the most important resources a business has.

c)      He would have established a long-term vision as to how becoming a small business owner would affect his life and that of the people around him.  No doubt, life would be different, and he could take appropriate steps to establish mutual understanding to help him transition into this new form of life.

The mental drive was therefore crucial in starting off this process.

Story Two – Peter & Angela

Again, Peter and Angela committed the same mistake of considering their new roles as no different from their previous ones.  All the work of understanding the customers and giving them what they wanted was done by their employers before.  They believed that their technical competence was enough to give them the ability to run the business successfully.

As things did not turn out in their favour, they retreated to a state of denial, not believing that they were the ones who caused this situation.  The negative response by the customers was a big hit to their personal pride and self-belief.  Yet what they didn’t understand was it was alright to make mistakes, as such is essential in the process of learning.

This is another typical case of buying a job rather than a business.  Even if they have been reasonably successful with enough customers favouring their products, they would still be stuck in a mode of serving the business instead of the other way round.  Their business will be just “them” and if for whatever reason they cannot operate it themselves (e.g. Peter can’t work as the chef), there will be hardly any residual value they will see left in the business. 

Notwithstanding the business results, life will be hard for Peter and Angela should they continue the way it is, as they need to be physically there always.  Too many small business owners like Peter and Angela are intent to tough it out for the sake of a better financial outcome, but many have found they have endured this hardship until their body and mind are too worn out to enjoy the rewards.  Turning to the model of working smarter rather than harder, there can be a better way, definitely.

To John and Peter and Angela, the question at this stage that would occupy their mind has to be whether to quit or stay.  Given the stress and pain they are experiencing, quitting seems to be the easy way out.  But it’s always not that simple.

As a matter of practicality, if they quit they have to deal with not just the heavy financial losses but also other liabilities that go with their contractual obligations (e.g. the franchise agreement, the shop leases, etc.).  In similar cases, I have found some lucky ones who were able to find a buyer willing to take over all assets and liabilities (albeit at an expectedly very low price) while others who were less lucky had to hang on to those issues until resolved.  Quite a few of them had to resort to using personal bankruptcy in order to get out of the situation completely.  Just imagine how bad this would be to their and their families’ lives in the years to come.

As bad as these physical damages are, the worst, I believe, is a loser’s mentality that will linger in them possibly for the rest of their lives.  Once bitten, they will not be just twice shy but will likely retreat from anything that has similar characteristics.  Most notably, it will be about taking risks.  The more risk adverse they are, the less they will be able to achieve what they want in life.  And it is not just about money but really about more valuable things that are important to them (relationships, sense of achievement, personal satisfaction, etc.).  Business has a lot of risk-taking elements and so does employment today.  And so does everything else in life.  Just put it in very square terms, there is really no other way – we simply have to learn to take risks wisely or there will be nothing gained.

While realistically not everyone will be able to turn the situations around, I still believe the best option is to work for a revival of the business before seeking any further moves.  Those who are unable to do it are most likely stopped by their own mindset and lack of determination.  If they have the will, they will take up a lot of learning.  They will benefit from this new mindset and self-confidence even if they have to do it in quite a hard way to recover from the losses.  And the lifetime rewards to them will be tremendous.

As we move on to the next section, we will discuss the practical steps in restoring and improving business.  I hope our readers will gain not only by a better understanding in small business management but more importantly also by a strengthened determination to learn and benefit from their work and business endeavours.

The Distressed Owners - Those Who Are Not Prepared, Mostly Mentally

There are many things to learn from the real entrepreneurs who make business one happy and inspiring event of their life.  I have to emphasise the point that ultimate success is measured by how business contributes to a happy life with financial gains only taken as a means to an end at best rather than the end itself.  I would never envy very rich people satisficing everything else (such as personal integrity, relationships with their loved ones, ability to follow their dreams and passion, etc.) for the sake of maintaining their wealth.  This obsession with money is usually accompanied by a pursuit for power which carries a high likelihood of coming to self-destructive outcomes.  That is not a happy life whatever way we look at it.

Real entrepreneurship is about the spirit.  The physical manifestation of entrepreneurship is often referred to as the constant search of opportunities and drive for results with creative use of available, and sometimes hidden, resources.  I would see it more a result of an attitude rather than a skill.  To maintain a positive attitude, the state of mind of the entrepreneur needs to be that he/she likes what he/she does.  It is in this state of mind that we would be able to get the mental satisfaction from work or business.

It may be too much to ask everyone in business to be a real entrepreneur and fully enjoy the process of working out something, but the minimum for one to stay happy is to like what one does.  Not surprisingly, the status of “like” can be achieved as a result of natural fit and/or attainment of positive outcomes, the latter being a reinforcing factor if not the outright motive.  This, I would suggest, is an important consideration in the objective before going into business.

Unfortunately the stories of small business owners are not all happy ones; in fact, my observation is that most belong to the opposite category.   This, I believe, owes to a couple of common factors prevalent in the current business and social environment:

·        The current trend of rapid and frequent corporate restructuring means that those who do not expect their job loss in the middle of their careers will find it most difficult to face this new reality when the unexpected happens to them.  Usually with some assets they hold on to that can be used as start-up capital plus the fear they have in not getting another job, going into small business becomes a relatively easy next move.  However, what follows might not be that easy, as some have found.  Lacking the specific skill aside, the biggest obstacle appears to be on the mental side where they have rejected the move as not being their most preferred and this attitude remains while they struggle to make the physical adjustment.  Often, this lingering psychological resistance causes an insurmountable stress during the process.

·        For those who are already working as employees in small business but aspire to become their own boss, they would still need a fitting mindset and thereby good preparations for the move-up.  While some have done what it takes, others are caught in a situation created out of their own unrealistic expectations or wrong objectives set.  What they don’t realise is that a boss is not doing the job in the same way as an employee, not least in the sense that there is no more boss to get help from, and there are a whole series of jobs that need to get done all at the same time.  Unlike being employed, they need to know they are here to produce results, not the completion of jobs as when they are told what to do.  Those who have outstanding technical skills tend to believe that it is their skills, and thus what they produce, that would put them in a winning position in business.  But they are often surprised to find that this is simply not the case.  An owner who has been working as a good chef will see chaos in the restaurant if he continues to concentrate only on kitchen operations, and likewise for a computer programmer turned IT firm owner if he ignores the sales process.  A business is a lot more than a job!

It is not just the transition period that has bogged these people down.  Without making the real change, the situation can become a lot more stressful as the initial chaos starts to translate into poor business results.  Many people resort to a strategy of toughing it out only to find that the situation is becoming many times tougher than they can handle.  As the problems compound, the stress is surely to turn into distress.

To illustrate my points, let’s go to the stories of two characters who foray into small business without the needed preparations to first understand what it takes.  These characters are imaginary, but they do represent many real-life persons that I have met.

Story One – John

John was an IT professional having been in the same job for the same company for over 10 years.  He has a wife, Nancy, who is a qualified accountant, and a young son aged 3.  One day, he was called by his superior and was told that he was no longer needed in the company due to outsourcing arrangements, with the work of the team he used to supervise now going to India.  John was stunned and was simply not prepared for this job loss in the middle of his career.

The worst to John was not on the financial side but rather on the psychological side.  While Nancy still received a salary, fear had taken hold of him who simply wished he could get on to something quickly.  With a few failed attempts, John was extremely disappointed fearing that he might never get back to the same profession.  On top of that, the possibility of a repeat of the redundancy experience would always linger in his mind even if he could get back a similar job.  Coming across a franchise ad, he decided that he would take some drastic action, that is, turn himself into a small business owner, so that he would not be fired again.

John was the typical sort of person any franchisor would want to recruit – educated, reliable given his need to support a family, and having the needed capital (through a bank loan mortgaging his house).  After all, the industry John chose was mobile phone dealership for which there was no concern about his technical capability given his IT professional background.

For additional safety, John purchased an existing franchise which had been running for a couple of years.  To prepare himself, John completed training by the franchisor and also lined up Nancy to look after accounting matters plus possibly some administration if needed.  That was a perfect plan.  Or so it seemed.

Soon John took over a store located at one of the shopping centres.  The requirement was that the store had to trade for seven days according to shopping centre hours.  John also inherited the entire staff from the previous owner putting himself as the new manager.  His previous staff management experience would be very applicable here except that it was a great surprise that John found out about the team.

The staff recruited by the previous owner were really underqualified and underpaid as well.  John’s predecessor was a control person who handled very little detail of the business and made all decisions by himself.  The staff he hired were to fulfil a headcount requirement customers and the franchisor would expect in the shop.  As a result, he paid them below the market rate (and indeed below legal requirement) and provided little training not to mention offering any motivation.  He was willing to work all days to compensate for this shortcoming.

To John this arrangement was unworkable.  For one, he was inexperienced himself and ideally he had to rely on his staff’s knowledge to help him out particularly during this initial stage.  While the franchisor could come in and provide some assistance, there was only so much they could do.  Under this situation, John was overwhelmed.  He had to put out one fire after another but that’s only when he knew how to do it.  As a result, there was a flight of customers, old and new, during this critical stage.  John was devastated.

With sales down and himself engaged in the shop all days, John had difficulties seeing a practical way out of this situation.  He had to engage Nancy more not only in accounting but also in helping out on rostering and other staff matters.  While he could have rebuilt his team, he was running out of funds to recruit qualified staff with the right wages.  Furthermore, he felt he didn’t have the time and energy to do it.  All he could do was to reduce headcount in the shop and thereby the wage cost but that put him under even more pressure.  Given this, the crucial learning about business that he had to take up during this stage was not taking place, with him distracted by all the fire-fighting and energy drainage.

What was worse was that all these events started to bite into what used to be a harmonious family.  When John was needed in the shop all days, he would have very little time for his wife and his son.  Just as Nancy had to take up all household responsibilities, she was required to help out more in the business too.  And John was a different person at home appearing tired and weary all the time.  Health issues also started to kick in and the couple would occasionally throw a tantrum against each other.  John was distressed.

Story Two – Peter and Angela

Peter was the head chef in an Italian restaurant, rising to this position through an apprenticeship over a number of years.  His dishes were of good quality and well received by the customers.  His wife, Angela, was also in the same industry being in the customer service role.  Naturally, they would aspire to own their own restaurant one day, and the day came when they spotted a restaurant for sale and they thought it was suitable for them.

The couple saw they had no problem understanding the operation and business environment as they put their signatures on the contract.  Their plan was to have Peter manage the kitchen and Angela oversee the restaurant front, and things should present no challenge to them as they should know them inside-out.  This assessment was unfortunately from a very technical point of view and, to their bewilderment, one important thing was sadly missing.

Doing the jobs as the chef and the head waitress was indeed no problems to them.  What was not thought about was how to make customers happy and like what they delivered.  When they were working as employees, they need not think about those issues.  Now that they were bosses those became their primary responsibility.

Having taken over the restaurant Peter continued to be the head chef pretty much doing what he did before.  He strongly believed in his specialty dishes that he made drastic changes to the menu on the day he took over.  Angela understood her new role though, putting herself now as the leader and manager of the service team.  But she was not the type of person who would actively engage customers.  Customers who used to frequent the restaurant turned out not to like the new menu, partly because of the lack of promotions by the new owners but more because existing customers were coming for the old dishes in the first place.  When negative comments were made by some customers, they were not well received by Peter and were taken as disapproval of his own professional skill and competence.  To rationalise it, Peter blamed this as insufficiency on the service front which hurt how quality was perceived.

A row thus erupted between the couple and both of them appeared to shut down against each other.  They continued to do what they were doing without taking an honest review of the matter.  The important work of aligning products and services to customer preferences was totally sidestepped, and no effort was made to positively engage and communicate with their customers and prospects.  Worse still was the fact that their negative attitude at work had resulted in a negative impact on staff who started to either act passively themselves or even seek to go.

It needs also no explaining that business results slid immediately after they took over.  Financial effects aside, this was a big hit on their self-belief and self-esteem.  They would avoid speaking with their friends and relatives about their business, and this self-defeat mentality just did not help them identify the real problem and thus jeopardised their chance to find a right solution.

The two stories above do demonstrate how unpreparedness, usually on the mental side, can ruin a supposedly promising business venture.  When all is thought to have been looked at, it is often the simple difference between running a business (getting results) and doing a job (getting it done) that has been overlooked.  It would be foolish to spend the money and take the risks to purchase a business but run it as if you are in a paid job.  The minimum result of doubling the hard work for an even lesser return than normal wages makes it something not worthwhile for many.   But for those who understand what it takes and is willing to take on the challenges, running a business can yield many benefits not just on the financial front but also in personal satisfaction and development that may produce life-changing effects. 

I hope I will be able to help in that respect while discussing further about this subject.

Who Are You - The Small Business Owner

My venturing into small business has given me the privilege of meeting up with numerous fellow small business owners.  This was so particularly because I was doubling my job as a small business owner with a parallel role as a business broker and business consultant.  Inspecting and understanding other people’s businesses gave me enormously valuable insights complementing what I could learn hands-on in my own fast-food outlets.  With a keen eye on why things happened the way they did, I was able to delineate reasons behind success and failure.  And while financial outcome is an important measure, I did look at other more important factors too.  Oftentimes, financial success on the surface could not obscure the heavy price that was paid as a result of the damage done to personal life.

To get into those factors, perhaps we should first try to find out who these small business owners are, their backgrounds, and how these affect the way they run their small businesses.  While I have not found a lot of scientific studies that give a clear idea of who these people are, my observations of the business owners I know are believed to be capable of drawing some meaningful classification:

·        Born or learnt entrepreneurs – At whatever time in their life they come into business, these are people with great ideas and passion.  They are devoted right from the start and have strong will to carry them through to the end.  To them, scarcity of resources is never a problem, for they are creative enough to find other ways around.  For these entrepreneurs, small failures do not hinder them from moving forward but rather offer them valuable lessons so that a different approach can be used to overcome the hurdles.  Their energy is endless and is fuelled by their passion.  Some of them may aim very big while others are content with a certain size or form of their business.  Overall, the most successful ones tend to be those who have a clear vision, an end in the mind so-to-speak, with well-crafted plans, but overzealous ambitions and excessive risks are often the main reasons for a few not able to cross the finish line.

·        Technicians turned owners – Many start their careers already in the business working in their specialised areas.  They possess technical skills and know-how of making the products or delivering the services, such as the chefs, the machinists, the carpenters or the computer programmers.  As employees or contractors, they aspire to move up and become their own boss one day.  Come the day and they become other people’s bosses.  Some understand what it takes to be a good boss as they have the empathy of what it feels as an employee.  It may not be perfect but somehow they also manage to master the essential skills of money management and customer service.  They may not be able to turn their businesses into large ones and most are happy to stay within a limit.  However, this kind of good story has not always emerged as the norm.  Most technicians turned owners are unable to make the transformation with themselves remaining just a technician, doing more of the same job before and leaving the other essential business functions in a state of neglect. 

·        Corporate leavers – These 30 or 40 something corporate members made redundant in the midst of their careers are increasing in numbers as the corporate world is fiercely pursuing downsizing and outsourcing these days.  The middle layer appears to be offering less and less value to the organisations as technology takes over their work and makes the once important communication and coordination work much easier and more direct.  Competition within industries also forces many organisations to intensify their cost-cutting efforts.  Obviously, these mid-career corporate leavers do not have many choices leaving their jobs.  With savings and assets they hold, some resort to turning themselves into small business owners helped often by the proliferation of franchising.  Yet, like the technicians, they find it very challenging to make the transition, made more difficult by their lack of experience and a mindset that is still so fixated on the departmentalised corporate processes.  Worse still is the need to fast-track their technical skills for the trade they go into.  While franchising helps many, a significant number fall prey to some poorly designed and/or managed franchise systems, tracing back to the serious mistakes made in the initial due diligence and business assessment process.  Those who made it through are indeed more adopting the characteristics of learnt entrepreneurs rather than relying on their old professional experience.

This classification helps to deduce a picture that shows the magnitude of the problem in the small business sector where the inherent success rate is very low.  While available statistics indicate that about 50% of the firms remain in business 5 years after they were registered, they tell little as to the actual conditions of the firms (for example, active or not).  These data also deal only with the financial side of the matter not able to show the real impact on the personal life of the owners.  The materials that follow are put together with the following objective:

“Help small business owners to understand the factors behind success and failure in business with a view to helping them make better decisions on whether small business will yield them the benefits of money and better personal life and how”

What Motivates Me

My entry into the small business world was not by design.  But once in, I was so intrigued by the demand of a complete skill set that is required for business management.  Here the keyword is ‘management’ about which there is a misunderstanding that the principles and methods of running small businesses are entirely different from those pertinent to larger ones.  It could be true somehow especially in light of the tremendous depth in the knowledge base that is required in certain skill aspects associated with the scale and complexity of larger businesses.  But overall the principles of running small businesses are no different from running larger ones.  This is in contrast to the belief of the majority of small business owners who tend to handle their business more like a paid job (but unfortunately it is a much bigger and more demanding job than if they do it for others).  Some of these small business operators (more appropriately called this way) are rather contented with a model as such, but most, as I have observed, feel very stressed and are likely to struggle financially thereby affecting many other areas of their life.

That brings us to a more fundamental question: Why are we in small business at all?

While some are being influenced early in their lives wanting to dedicate their career to becoming passionate entrepreneurs, many others only aspire to own a business by some unexpected turn of events.  In a world of corporate downsizing where middle management is being squeezed out of the corporate structure, it looks as if the only safe way to have a guaranteed job is to become one’s own boss.  Widespread franchising helps the creation of many business owners these days by providing some safeguard and knowledge base to the otherwise totally inexperienced.  Turning oneself into a small business owner is becoming in many cases the default career path when no other options appear to be viable given the difficulties of being in an uninterrupted employment environment.

Survival is key but even for these reluctant entrepreneurs should everything just be driven by the need of money?  It is no doubt that money is a very legitimate purpose of getting into business.  Charity and special purpose organisations aside, a business would cease to exist if it stops making money.  But should money alone be the purpose per se?

Imagine a life dedicated to being a money-making machine – that would simply be dreadful and meaningless.  The choice is then ours: working for money alone or using it as a tool to achieve higher sense of purpose and satisfaction.  Oddly enough, being pushed into the small business world can give us an opportunity to break free of this money and work pressure stranglehold that is becoming more and more the norm in working as an employee.  In many ways small business gives us a lot more flexibility to do things the way we want it and in return provides us with a higher sense of satisfaction when we get the results we want.  But that’s only if we are determined to work in a smarter way.  Working smarter as a small business owner indeed can give us better results in both:  Our Money and Our Life!

That is the motivation behind the construction of this blog.