What’s the Deal? 3 Steps for Entrepreneurs & Spouses to Live Happily Ever After

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Entrepreneurs | What’s the Deal? 3 Steps for Entrepreneurs & Spouses to Live Happily Ever AfterAs a fan of classic films, I am always searching for films that apply to family businesses. I recently viewed the 1936 film, Dodsworth, that stars Walter Houston in the title role, as well as Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor. Dodsworth, an entrepreneur, owns an automobile manufacturing company, who sells his company and retires without a plan for his future—not unlike many real-life entrepreneurs.

As soon as Dodsworth retires, his wife, Fran, begins to plan their extensive trip to Europe and throughout the process both Dodsworth and Fran encounter differences in their expectations for the trip. Their differences are similar to what my former colleague, Jeff Rothstein, referred to as “What’s the Deal?” Jeff’s assumption was that all couples have an implicit “deal” that is never spoken about and governs how they interact with each other. Jeff posited that when couples move into their 60s, they begin to discuss and question their expectations for their golden years. From Jeff’s perspective, this is an opportunity to dialogue and recalibrate your expectations and come to a common understanding about your future together.

Nearly all couples have implicit, unmentioned, assumptions about their marital relationship. As couples get older and consider retirement or changing their work relationship, many have not considered a plan for the future. They have no resources, no practice, no roadmap, and when they look ahead, they feel adrift.

I help business families address this change using a process I call Life Career Planning. Using Career Life Planning techniques, they realize a sense of fulfillment and purpose. Both the entrepreneur and spouse turn their dreams into reality. The couple enjoys peace of mind about their future. Most importantly, the process helps them devise a common perspective of their values. They can effectively share their goals and dreams with each other in a manner that honors and engages both. They redirect their wisdom and their knowledge of life to produce a realistic, engaging plan for meaningful work and leisure time. They look ahead by looking back.

Nineteenth century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard extolled, “Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.” To me that means we recognize, embrace, and celebrate our accomplishments so that we can use them to energize the future.

Life Career Planning unfolds in three simple stages that help draw the entrepreneur and spouse from the past to the future: Harvest the Past, Turn the Soil, and Plant New Seeds.

  1. The couple harvests the past by celebrating the blessing of their life. They own and let go of regrets and hurts of the past. I offer pathways that encourage candid exchanges and mutual encouragement. As the couple harvests their past, they can stand in the present, to make conscious choices about what they want for themselves, their family, and their business.
  2. By turning the soul, the couple speculates on all they might like to do. To get there, they may talk about their personal purpose, what’s meaningful in their lives, and the role that spirituality plays in their work and life. They discuss how to be content by aligning their gifts with all areas of their lives.
  3. As the term implies, planting new seeds puts the couples’ new ideas into a plan for the future. They create a new dream together based on their explicit, shared goals and values—the discussions they have had in harvesting and turning the soil. Many aspects are drawn together: work, relationships, money/wealth, community service, leisure time, health, and spirituality. By recognizing and aligning all of these aspects, the couple builds direction into their future and an enthusiasm to engage in it.

In the case of Dodsworth and Fran, their vastly different expectations were highlighted during their European travel. Fran was youth-obsessed and wanted to embrace a spontaneous and impulsive lifestyle. Dodsworth wanted a more secure lifestyle to enjoy experiences and the wonders of the world like viewing the Northern Lights and appreciating the mysteries of the universe.

Had Dodsworth and Fran realized that entrepreneurs are driven by their dreams they could have anticipated their differences and avoided the tragedy that their relationship would soon befall.

To achieve this new dream for work, our challenge is to understand our purpose and identify what gives heart and meaning in relation to [our] work. That may mean we don’t have to leave our companies, but basically change our job descriptions from day-to-day management to much less demanding daily activities. It also requires us to become the architect and designer, with our families, of the new ownership and management system of our companies.

The new dream for the family is the most important part of Life Career Planning. It is an opportunity to directly confront the question of “What’s the Deal?” and renew your relationship with your spouse and children and redefine your role as grandparents. Related to this is the opportunity to perpetuate your legacy for the benefit of your community and your family.

Likewise, the opportunity to create a new dream for leisure time is the chance to plan, as a couple, to do all those things you have never had the time to do together, but also is an opportunity to plan and do things you have wanted to undertake individually. Recently, while talking with an entrepreneur client who I will call John, who had been exploring his own Life Career Planning, he shared that he has been weighing the possibility of taking a one-month sabbatical to experience what it feels like being away from his company. What John discovered while on sabbatical from his business was that his initial fears of not having a sense of self-worth were not realized. The sabbatical gave him the opportunity to feel good about developing plans to follow up on some of the dreams that he always wanted to explore. In addition, quite to John’s surprise, even though the sabbatical was only one month, his executive team quickly adjusted and began to establish a successful leadership plan to effectively run his company.

To create a new dream for service and philanthropy is an opportunity to reflect on your skills of compassion and sense of gratitude. C. Michael Thompson wrote in The Congruent Life, that “service is on the outside like prayer is on the inside.” Creating a family foundation or donor-advised fund are a few of the ways that are available for you to give back. It is also an opportunity to engage the next generation and your grandchildren in the process of service and philanthropy. Several of my clients engage their entire family in service projects. As grandparents, you can be quite influential with your grandchildren and assist them in establishing gratitude for the blessings of their lives.

If order for you to begin the process of Life Career Planning in your own life, you can reflect on and answer the following seven questions.

  1. What are your seven most important beliefs?
  2. What are the 10 major steppingstones of your life?
  3. How have these events shaped your life and influenced you in regard to your life plan?
  4. What are the major strengths you have developed as a result of your life experiences?
  5. What are your spiritual gifts?
  6. What is your purpose in life?
  • What are your talents?
  • What are you most passionate about?
  • What is the most natural environment for your life?
  • Identify the most important elements of the three previous questions and combine them into a sentence that goes as follows: “My purpose in life is…”

7. What is my new dream in relation to:

  • Work (Achievement)
  • Family (Intimacy)
  • Leisure (Play and Creativity)
  • Service (Compassion & Contribution)
  • Philanthropy (Legacy – Values)
  • Health
  • Purpose (Meaning)
  • Personal Mastery (Know Thyself)

With an appropriate amount of planning and discussion with your spouse, you can avoid the pitfalls that Dodsworth and Fran encountered. Take the time to engage in Life Career Planning with your spouse to ensure that your golden years are truly the best years of your lives.

About the Author

Tom Hubler is the author of THE SOUL OF FAMILY BUSINESS: A Practical Guide to Family Business Success and a Loving Family (2018). He is a family business advisor and President of Hubler for Business Families. When Hubler began working with family-owned business in 1980, there were very few in the field and he has therefore played a major role in this area, from helping colleges and universities establish family business institutes to his work with countless families and their business enterprises.

Starting Your Own Business? The Areas To Gain Knowledge In

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Starting Your Own Business | Starting Your Own Business? The Areas To Gain Knowledge InStarting your own business could be one of the things that you want to do. You may already have an idea that you want to go with. Something you have nurtured in your mind for some time. You have the courage to finally do it. Take that plunge, but then you realise that perhaps, you might need some added support in terms of actual business and the things you can do to make your idea become the success you envision it to be. So here are some of the areas you might want to brush up on, in order to have everything you need to really go for it.

Knowledge in business

You may have a real cracking idea for a business, a product or service that you want to offer, but that isn’t all that is needed to make it a success. Knowledge in business, from the general running of it to things you might want to try in terms of marketing and accounting could really help your new business thrive. So it could be worth looking into things such as an mba program online in business. You could also look at attending marketing events and networking groups to learn off other people and really pick up on things you may never have thought about before. This is a great way to give yourself a decent platform to bounce off of when it comes to launching your new business.

Social media

These days a business cannot really succeed without some form of social media presence of advertising. So it may be time to start thinking about these things before you startup your business. It could be that you read various different articles about social media strategies and how best to use specific platforms. It could be that you might want to focus on only a few to begin with, the main contenders like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram might be good places to start.

People skills

Working for yourself might not necessarily mean that you think you need good people skills, but actually this will become important to you. Even if it is just you for a while, you may still have to deal with customers and clients. Either on the phone, over email or face to face. Having decent people skills means that you are likely to handle a situation professionally. This will also help when it comes to hiring staff which could happen for your business in the future.

Websites and IT

Finally, while you may not be an IT expert, generalised things such as website management or even creation might be something you want to learn before you launch your new business. It can save you money instead of having to commission someone to do it for you, and you get to learn on the job about what will work for your business and what won’t. Things like SEO and keywords will be important, alongside a decent ecommerce facility. Thankfully there is a wealth of information online that will have you creating a decent website in no time at all.

Let’s hope this has made you more comfortable with starting your own business.

Entering The Business World As A Novice

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Starting your own Business |Entering The Business World As A NoviceAt one time or another, everybody has thought about the wonderful idea of owning their own business. The notion of being in charge, having no boss, making a lot of money, and travelling around the world seemingly effortlessly – it’s glorious.

As a kid, you have your favorite hobbies and wonder if you can do an extraordinary job like an astronaut or a sportsman/sportswoman. Into your – teens you begin to get a little more realistic and think about different ways you can perhaps take a passion of yours and make it into something to make money from. You’re now a fully-fledged adult with a working life, and you want to leave your current situation for greener pastures. However, you’re slightly unsure as to how to make the step and what avenues to take.

There are a lot of facets to the business world, grasshopper, and there are many ways in which you can access it. Let’s take a look at a few things you can do to learn about and get stuck into the world of business.

Constantly Think Up Ideas

If you want to create your own firm, it’s probably not going to be handed to you on a silver platter. If you don’t already have the kind of idea you wish to pursue, then you’ll want to spend a fair bit on time in, say, the evenings to jot down different thoughts. Perhaps there’s something you’ve always needed in your house, or maybe there’s something you’ve always needed to make your day more convenient. It could be anything. They say if you chuck enough mud at the wall, some of it will eventually stick – so get thinking!

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Starting your own Business |Entering The Business World As A NoviceRead Books

There are thousands of books scattered around the world that you can purchase that will teach you the ways of business. Whatever the field or sector you wish to enter, there will be something for you. They can be motivating, educating and inspiring. Experts around the world are dropping knowledge bombs for you to take on and work with. If you’re a bookworm, you’d love this thought.

Watch Videos

Watching videos and learning this way could be for you if you’re not exactly a fan of reading lots. They also give you a different angle that perhaps a book cannot, as the person talking may be able to articulate certain parts better verbally as opposed to a rigid text form. You can also sense the passion of someone’s words as you hear them – something you can’t quite do as well when you look at written sentences.

Listen To Podcasts

Most podcasts are free and easy to access, so if you’re working away and wish to get some advice or education, you can load up a business show and listen on the job.

Look Up To Others

The internet has also given us the ability to learn about others who have been in our footsteps and managed to carve out fantastic careers. For example, if you want to learn from the likes of experienced business people like Jos Opdeweegh, you have the ability to do so. You could take some aspects of their journey and apply it to yourself as you go through your enterprise adventure.

Go Back To School

Not everyone can just start up a business and go with it. If you feel you want to learn in a classroom or lecture hall environment and have genuine face-to-face tutoring, then there’s no problem with going to college or going back to university and giving the courses a go. It may be the missing piece of the puzzle you need to get going.

Look For An Internship

Finally, if you’re in the position to be able to work as an intern, then it might be the right way to go. Starting from the bottom as an eager go-getter, learning everything there is to know directly from your boss’s mouth might prove beneficial as you’re right in the middle of it all while taking information in like a sponge.

How Self-Care Can Improve Your Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Self-Care|How Self-Care Can Improve Your Business We know that taking care of ourselves at home is important. We know that eating well and exercising regularly is what will keep us healthy. But what about our work? As a business owner, you will probably find there are times that you feel stressed and anxious, or that you work long hours and neglect your own self-care due to this.

If this is the case (as it is for many small business owners), it is essential to take a step back and think about your own self-care. After all, taking care of your physical and mental needs can improve your business. Here’s how it works.

You Can Say No

Being able to say no in business is important. If you say yes to everything that anyone asks of you, you will soon become overwhelmed and exhausted. Not only that, but you will use up all of your time doing things that are of no benefit to you, leaving little time left to do anything that will help to grow your business.

Practicing self-care means that you will be stronger and more able to say no. You will be able to look at each situation objectively and determine whether it is going to be something that you can do well and whether it will positively impact your business.

You Can Do More

Those days when you struggle into the office even though you’re feeling unwell are not productive days. It would be better if you stayed at home practicing self-care, looking after yourself and resting. That way, you will heal more quickly and get back to work sooner, resulting in less time off than if you tried to go in and became more unwell. You will also find that just a few days off to rest and mend will mean you are more productive when you return, and the quality of the work you do won’t suffer.

The more severely ill you are, the more time you will need to take off. There may be other complications including a hospital stay or the need to use The Medical Negligence Experts to help you once you have recovered if there has been a problem. No matter how long you need to take off work, rushing back will only make things worse. In these cases, insurance or a good manager will need to be used to help you.

Good Company Policy

At some point, you may well hire other people to assist you in your business. You need them to be happy and function well, and if you can lead by example this will be beneficial. Practicing self-care by having scheduled breaks throughout the day, having set working hours, taking the time to relax and exercise where possible, and eating well is something that you can instill in your employees. This will make the business somewhere that is good to work in, and your employees will be more loyal to you if they know you have their best interests at heart.

Make it company policy that self-care needs to be a priority and your workers will be more productive and much happier in their jobs.

Taking Your Business Forward: The Best Practices To Follow

/in /by

Once you have established the management processes and settled into your daily tasks, running your business should be relatively straightforward. While there are often unexpected issues that need tackling, the longer that your business is running for, the easier it should be to manage.

Being established and settling into a routine is the goal, but the next step should always be to prioritise growth. Taking your business to the next level will ensure that your business has a future – but, failing to embrace growth will only mean that your competitors will step in to pick up your inattention. If your business is running smoothly, it’s time to start moving forward.

Set Goals

You will be better able to push your boundaries if you have some clearly identifiable and measurable goals to aim for. Having goals is a proven way to encourage productivity and motivation, and can help you with your focus. Setting goals will also make it far easier to measure your business’ progress and track the achievements that you make.

If you want your business to start moving forward, then you need to get out of your comfort zone; goal setting is the ideal way to challenge yourself. Create a growth plan with clear goals and your business will be better able to move forward successfully. Remember to have both short-term and long-term goals, too.

Your Online Presence

The majority of business owners in the digital age are aware of how important their online presence is. Once your business is established, you need to ensure that not just your brick and mortar premises are running smoothly; getting more from your website will involve putting more priority on it, and this can be a challenge.

Websites alone have many components to take into consideration and it can be difficult to keep up with everything that it needs, as well as the emerging trends that might be of benefit. You could keep up to date with industry updates by following the mega publications like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch or the smaller, more actionable update blogs, such as local SEO specialist Jon Monk’s Max Your Web.

Or, if teaching yourself SEO is not something you have the time or effort for – you can simply outsource your website management to a professional company, who you can then trust the management and development of your SEO strategies to. Either of these methods would help you get a lot more benefit from your online platform and the efforts you are making.

Online Security

Making sure that your website, your business, and your customers are safe from a cyber attack is crucial. When everyone is a potential target for cybercriminals, the onus will be on you to ensure that the security of your website, as well as your stored data, are protected as much as possible.

Moving your business forward will mean that you need to place a priority on online security, and these tips can act as a checklist of basics that you will need to adopt into your online strategy:

  • Employee Awareness: It’s unfortunate, but the vast majority of business-related cyber crimes are caused by employee negligence. If you want to protect your business, then you will need to instill a strong culture of cybersecurity. Have regular staff meetings to highlight the latest phishing scams, and make certain that every employee has basic online security training.
  • Password Safety: While everyone is aware of the need for strong password management, most people tend to stick to the same two or three rotated passwords. This can be very dangerous, but there are simple ways to make your business more secure through better password habits. Learn (and teach) positive password habits and your business will be much more secure when it comes to moving forward.
  • Hardware/Software Protection: There are many different tools that you can use to help keep your business safe online. The most basic of these is a firewall, and you should definitely have at least one version installed on your system. Your business will not be able to move forward if you are under constant attack by hackers, so make sure that you not only install a good firewall but that you also keep it updated as often as possible.
  • Additional Steps: As well as these basics, you might also want to consider adopting two-factor verification on all of your most important online accounts. This adds an extra level of security that can be difficult for hackers to get through. You should also look at encryption as well, as this can be used to keep your stored data private and confidential.

In the digital age, protecting your online presence is as important as keeping a warehouse locked. Protecting your business online will make it far easier to move forward in both the digital space and the real world.

Customer Service

Your customers are clearly the most important aspect of your business that you will have to consider when it comes to moving forward. Attracting and then keeping customers needs to be the goal, and that means creating a work culture that is customer-focused. The better quality of service you provide, the more likely that your business will be rewarded with repeat custom and positive word of mouth. Make sure that you are constantly looking for feedback, addressing any issues that may arise, and act quickly and proactively when you get a complaint. Look for ways to make your business 100% accessible.

Competitor Surveillance

You don’t need to set up a tent and spy on them with binoculars, but keeping a constant watch on your competitors is one of the more traditional ways to move your own business forward. There are two ways that your business can make use of a competition watch, and both can be used to make your business stronger:

  • Keeping ahead – The more that you know what your competitors are up to, the easier it will be to keep ahead of what they are doing. If you see that your competition is promoting a new website design, take notes and assess your own. Keeping up with competitors is essential, and if you don’t know what they’re going to do next, then you will quickly fall behind.
  • Pick up the slack – By being more aware of your competitors, you will have a better understanding of what they are doing wrong. This gives you a major opportunity to adopt the products and methods that they are neglecting, making your business seem far more professional than even the most established rivals.

Final Considerations

As well as these essential steps to take there are a number of optional elements to consider. These will largely be dependant on the culture of your business, but it’s worth looking at:

  • Continuous education: Always make sure that you know all that there is to know about your products and your sector. Learn marketing through online resources, or the language of your biggest customers via DuoLingo.
  • Learn delegation: Your business will never be able to move forward if you try to micromanage everything yourself. Use your workforce, and your business will only grow stronger.
  • Open communication: The more that your staff are able to communicate with you, the more your business will benefit. Create as open a culture as you can, and you will be rewarded with a more creative and impactful business model.

No business can be expected to move forward without some changes. Staying static is the fastest way to grow stale, and that can leave you exposed to competitors and changing needs of your customers.