Say no to anything not essential.

 Time for one of my sermons about not taking on too much as a business. 

The following from a new small business owner. He didn't ask for my advice, so I won't say who it is. But boy, do I recognize the symptoms! 

The unfortunate truth of owning and running a Business….. 

 Running a business is really hard.

 

What they don’t tell you is that it can cause severe stress and anxiety, and drains you mentally to the point of depression in even the most laid back people.

 

People will talk about you, compare you to others, use you, they will view you as a service and not a person anymore.

 

Friends and family will expect discounts and people will value you and your hard work less than a big chain store. 

 

You have to worry about if you forget to email/message someone back, are they going to think it was on purpose? Did you disappoint them? Will they hold that against you? When in reality you just can’t get to everyone’s messages and emails right away.

 

Starting up and running a successful business puts incredible strain on personal lives and relationships, many of which fail because there is just often no work life balance. You need to be the director, the worker, the admin, the marketing team, the accountant, the cleaner..... All while being a parent, a husband or a wife, family support, friend... it’s one of the hardest things you will try and balance.

There’s a reason you don’t see many people succeed in small businesses after 5 years. If they are successful they are overwhelmed. It takes a toll. It’s freaking exhausting. Especially the past couple of years when so much has been out of our control.

 

Here’s a small reminder that we are just normal people with hectic lives. Be kind, be patient, support small businesses…….and hopefully more of us will stick around!

 

I copied this from another small business owner that I support and they support us.

 

....It's Not For Everyone & only the strong survive!!

Where to start?

This was the comment I made on the above Facebook post:

Owning a bookstore for 38 years, one bit of unasked for advice. Winnow your business down to essentials. Say no to everything else. Being burned-out by being successful does not meet my idea of "successful."

I was in a friend's store the other day and stumbled upon a way to say it. He was talking about something he was considering doing and I said, 

"Just say no to that.  

I swear I've been spending decades saying no to this, and no to that, and no, and no, and no.

When the overwhelming message for everyone else is different than the advice you're giving, you are simply drowned out. This friend has sometimes mentioned he's doing something expecting me to approve and I'll say, "Actually I suggested you not do that." He's always surprised. See, he's hearing an overwhelming amount of messages that say one thing, and one lone guy saying the opposite. Who's he going to listen to?

Hopefully, he will end up listening to the evidence of his own experience. He'll be able to distinguish between common practice and the truth. 

Keep it simple, stupid!

For most of the time I've been preaching this, it's been as a way to avoid burnout. But I'm coming around to the notion that paying attention to basics is also a good business practice. 

I'll give you a simple example. We don't "hold" books. I mean, we will stick a book under the counter for someone for a few days, but we don't take "requests" per se. Someone says, "Can you let me know when this comes in?"

A simple request, right? Right?

What I actually say is, "This looks like a good book. I'll order it for the store and it will probably be here when you come in next. If it happens to sell, we'll order it again."

So basically, I've said, "No, I won't let you know." But the customer hears, "good book" (aren't you smart!) and "I'll order it" and "it will be here." All of which is true.

The alternative? 

1.) Trying to figure out when the book is in stock at the warehouse: the only way to do that is to check every day. Being conscious of this single request for as long as the request hasn't been filled; being conscious of this request when I'm doing a thousand other things per day.

2.) Ordering it when it can be part of a larger order, (free postage only come with volume) which means keeping separate orders.

3.) Having a method of knowing when and where I ordered something and for who, and keeping a phone number and/or email for a single request.

4.) Setting aside the book for who knows how long (after all, the customer hasn't committed) and/or...

5.) Taking the money in advance without knowing how long the customer will have to wait or even if the product well ever come back in stock. If taking the money for something that is in stock, then having a separate system for keeping track of who's paid for what--as oppose the the relatively simple Pay At The Register For Something I Actually Have In Stock.

6.) Disappointing a customer who has to wait longer than they want, who might see the same book somewhere else and feel put out that I haven't got it for them yet: or worse, buying it elsewhere and wanting their money back. 

And so on and so forth. A simple little request: "Can you let me know when it shows up?" 

There are a thousand other "simple" little services that aren't so simple, that take time, money, and space.

I'll say this again, "TIME and SPACE and ENERGY" are the EXACT same thing as money. 

I own a bookstore. My job is to be there at posted hours, help the customers in the store, make sure the store is clean and orderly, order and sell product at a price that makes sense. Anything that takes away from those basic functions is not only not helpful, it may actually detract. 

The above example may not be the best. My friend makes a lot of sales by special ordering and then calling the customer--and it makes sense for him to do that. It doesn't make sense for my particular store to do that. 

Nevertheless, it is a good example of how complicated a simple little request can become. Multiply that by all the little things that seem like a good idea but actually take away from the essential task. What I'm saying is the non-essential can quickly overwhelm the essential if you aren't able to distinguish the difference.