Start of 2020 Musings on Winning at the Small Business Game

Your New Year Plan

For some businesses the holiday season can mean beaucoup bucks. It’s a nice way to finish the year strong. For others, it can be a winter hiatus. Everyone is on holiday and no real business gets done. But when you can’t afford to go on vacation and you have employees and overhead to pay it can be a long slog until your business can start rolling again. Here are some tips I’ve come to learn that I hope you will find helpful if being an entrepreneur is part of your plan.

My Life as an Entrepreneur

I have owned my own business now for the better part of 20 years. It was never a real plan, but rather just something I gravitated towards. When not working for myself or in partnership, I’ve tended to work for other small businesses. I like the challenge, the sense of purpose and probably most honestly, the control that it gives me. But, every once it awhile, as a small business owner you feel completely out of control. This time of year can be one of them. Granted my businesses were never designed to scale as I work in service oriented companies, so this has never been about 100x or exit strategies for me. Rather it is about providing for a lifestyle I enjoy and doing work that I find interesting; all the while being helpful to the customers I serve.

A Growing Company

One difference in my small business life this year as opposed to all that had gone before, is the size of my team. Our company grew to six and that means that although we have significant man-power to accomplish the tasks we are hired by our customers to do — it’s also a fair amount of overhead.

Our business also has adopted many digital operations and marketing tools that all come with monthly bills. The next thing we know money is whipping in and out of our account at an astonishing rate.

The nature of our business affords a virtual office with a remote team, so that does save on the hard costs of a physical location to put everyone. But every one of us has a personal mortgage or rent to pay, so we are still aware of the cost of the spaces we need to live and work.

Musings For Your Journey

Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, I wanted to share a few tips for survival.

The Side-Hustle

Even as a business owner, or especially as a business owner, as dumb as this may sound, the number one reason that I’ve survived as long as I have is that I am willing to work. This is not just about working in and on and around the business at hand, but having multiple streams of income.

I started owning a business in my mid-twenties and even now in my mid-forties I have always had sidelines. Twenty years ago those sidelines were being a nanny, a paralegal, a conference coordinator, and an apartment manager. Today they are being a Turo host (the AirBnB of cars) and contract marketing work. I am also an author, independent publisher, and a film producer. Those sometimes cost as much money as they yield but they can bear surprising pockets of money that show up right when you need them.

When you desire to set up your own business and you don’t have outside investment, then you need to be your own investor. The whole game of owning and winning at small business is being to stay alive and that means paying your bills. It’s a very imperfect game. It relies on marketing, sales and operations. There are endless growing pains. But at the end of the day you do your best to make more than you spend. But when that doesn’t work you need to look at your whole landscape of resources to get you through.

Get Comfortable with Credit

Another tip here is getting comfortable rolling credit. It’s another not ideal but sometimes you need the access to extra capital and a credit card is the easiest and fastest way to access it. Other daily, weekly or monthly pay loans can also help you stay afloat in times of need. They can be expensive and very strict in terms of payment requirements and penalties if you default — but they could also be the lifeline you need. Don’t mess with not repaying them as they will directly attach to your ability to accept credit card payments. Staying on the right side of these loans is key.

Be a Person of High Integrity

Lean on your inner circle when you need to. It helps to do your best to be impeccable with your word and integrity. The more trust you can establish in the up times with your creditors, your colleagues and your inner circle, the more that they will be there for you in the down times. Sometimes that shows up in the form of much needed grace. Other times it is a line of credit or even a gift. You never know how it will show up but if you do the right thing by people the majority of the time, when you truly can’t, there may be more options available because you’ve established yourself as an honorable person.

Put Your Team First

Respect your team. This means that sometimes you will take money out of your own pocket to pay the people around you. If you don’t like doing that, then it might mean you can’t afford the team. You have to always remember that this is your dream and your business. Unless they signed up to work speculatively and will earn as much of the top reward as you will, then they don’t need to be part of the pain. Paying people a modest and consistent wage that allows them to pay their bills may be what’s needed to keep good people around when they know you are just building. But when there are bumps in the road start with communication, and then follow that up with resourcefulness. If you really need them for your business to be successful, then you have to figure out a way to afford them.

Giving Language to the Stress

In the leanest times I found that it helped me to put words to what was happening. At one time in my life I was having a series of health issues that were impacting my ability to perform. I was also buried in medical debts. I went from feeling ashamed and hiding it to coming out and talking about it. I started referring to it as being in “money jail”. I found that it immediately added levity and understanding. I also gave me just enough self-forgiveness to take a deep breathe and allow myself to regroup.

Focusing More on the Problem Than the Solution

After money jail I noticed an interesting phenomenon which I termed money PTSD. This is where you know there is a financial problem at hand and you are seeing the opportunities to fix it. However, you are so traumatized by the money problems that you spend more time focusing on the problem than the solution. The fact that the money crisis even occurred to begin with has thrown you so off your game that you find yourself not taking positive actions to actually improve circumstances that are right in front of you. I lived in this space for awhile.

Consistent Positive Action Will Yield Positive Results

Then there is money zen. This is the place then no matter where you are in the financial roller coaster, you are able to look at the problem and then rather than stay there and fret about it, you simply look for all the possible solutions and put best efforts into actualizing those outcomes. At it’s most fundamental the easiest way to solve the money problem is knowing you offer something of value and letting others know about the value proposition. They pay for the value and you deliver it. In money zen there is no stress around these activities. You trust that enough energy put into the right direction will yield the result you desire.

Mindset, Mentors and Motivation

Therefore your mindset, the ideas you put in your head, and the people you surround yourself with are instrumental. This game starts and ends with how you think about your entrepreneurial self. There will be many people in your life who love you and want you to be safe. That’s where the side hustles and high integrity come in. This peace of mind allows you to focus on positive action as opposed to being paralyzed by stress. You will get more support when they see that you are being responsible regardless of the tides of your endeavors. Or if not side-hustles then investors. Either way you have to be prepared for the down times. And when you are you can put the doubters to rest, yourself included.

Winning the Game

So owning your own business can be incredibly satisfying. It can also be incredibly scary. Hopefully some of these tips from my own entrepreneurial journey can help you as you dream, navigate and endeavor on your own small business activities in 2020 and beyond.

—

Philippa is a partner at FinSol Group. She can be reached at philippa@finsolgroup.com.