I am consistently taken back to the verses in Ecclesiastes 3:1

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

There is a season for everything under the sun.

I went from being a complete workaholic in 1999 to finding God and spending the next 11 or 12 years re-designing my life and healing from the most incredible burnout you can imagine.  I wrote about my decade of burnout and recovery here.

Moving Past Burnout

It has been about a year since I felt the cloud of burnout move over the horizon.  During this year God has done incredible things in my business.  We have grown and doubled twice in the same year.

My solo act has now become a trio, with the fourth on the way.

Yet, in this moment…..

in this season…..

we are incredibly busy.

Margin and Balance are Thin

After a decade writing about margin and balance, I feel un-balanced and margin-less.  I don’t think it is God’s plan for me to go back to my old ways.

As a matter of fact, it is shameful for me to think that someone may drive by my office and see my car at 7 am and then possibly see it again at 7 pm.  I find myself making excuses that I am not back to my old life.  This is temporary.  I don’t like it this time around.  But I don’t think people (family and friends) believe me.

But the truth is that the reason to ensure that this busy-ness doesn’t continue is not so I can go home and veg out in front of the tv or take up 5 new hobbies.

The Reason To Reclaim Margin and Balance

For me, the reason to maintain balance and margin is to give me the space to follow God.

I can’t follow if my time is so backed up that there isn’t room to

…create for Him

…volunteer for Him

…take another path He may be leading.

When I am completely busy I feel like my freedom to choose is diminished significantly.

So what am I doing about it?

Acknowledging the Blessing

Well I will be honest.  As much as I know this is a tight space to be in for this season, I do feel blessed.  I feel that the business we have received is a gift from God.  I feel that it is here for a purpose.

God gave me the vision for my business.  I wanted to have a coaching and counseling center since the beginning of my new path.  I was just a coaching and counseling center of one for the majority of it so far!

Since I have regained my energy I believe there are a few reasons God has placed me here:

• to allow us the honor of helping more people and businesses.
• to show me how my clients feel when they are overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time or resources to do it. ( the only way to gain true empathy.)
• to see if I am going to fall into the same patterns I did for decades before He saved me.  (I don’t consider it a test because I believe He knows I will choose a different path this time.)

Even though it bothers me that people are thinking I am failing at my own advice for margin and balance, I answer to Him and to Him I am ensured it is a season.

A short season.

How I am Dealing with too much Busy-ness

Here is what I am doing differently than maybe I would have in the past.

1. Spending at least 30% of my time working “on my business”.  If we don’t work “on our business” we will stay in our current situation until we implode.  Even though we are crazy busy, even if I have to work more, I will make sure I am spending the time to plan out what we need.  Simultaneously, we need to focus on what is most important in the business and look for ways to serve the people God brings to us in a glorifying way.
2. Building the team that matches the culture that God has placed on my heart for Crossroads.  And believe me, it takes time to find people that are God-loving Jesus freaks, who are genuine down to earth people, who know business like an expert guru in broad areas of expertise.  I am sure it is how God felt in 2 Chron 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.  It’s difficult to find people who match the culture as well as have the experience.  Oh and I don’t want to forget the philosophy that whenever you add someone to your team you have to make sure it is someone that you, and your team, want to spend 8 hours a day working next to.  Right now we have another coach on the way….in June we will be four.  Read my prior post on building a team.
3. Putting systems in place that will make us more efficient.  It is much easier to put the infrastructure in place when you are small.  When I was alone, having systems were sometimes inefficient and costly.  I didn’t need a system that four people could log onto for $40/month.  But now we are on the cusp of that next level, and we need the systems in place so that we don’t become our own glass ceiling.  We are currently working on time tracking systems, online quote systems, project management and many more.  The most important to me personally is to stay paperless.  If not, everyone else will have to suffer with my stacks of paper everywhere.  I am a mess!
4. Being purposeful about catching up quickly to the needs of the business.  This is the more personal of the actions.  I was a workaholic before.  Seriously.  I could have stood up and been the leader at any workaholic anonymous meeting.  Not being purposeful means embracing all of the extra work and letting it expand to fill up the space.  Getting your purpose from the actual busy-ness, rather than the results of seeing clients achieve their goals.  I am not doing that this time.  I am focusing on getting our teams and systems in place to ensure our clients are taken care of now, and in the future.  I am purposeful about the time spent to make this happen and maintaining constraints around myself to not just expand my work to all of life.

I had a mentor once that said “You can do anything for a set period of time.  If you see the light at the end of the tunnel, then you can endure the discomfort for longer than you think.”

Unfortunately, this same quote is what led to my burnout to begin with.

That was my fault though.

I didn’t understand it.  I just took the idea as justification to keep killing myself.  I never set the time.

I am not doing that this time.  I have a time in mind.  I believe that before summer’s end things will be different.

The team will be in place.

I will be writing a lot more. (My passion.)

Clients will be reaching their goals.

We will have the space to follow God into the next season.

How about you?  Are you too busy right now?  How long have you felt this way?  Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?  How can we help?

I know you are sick of hearing about vision.  You may think it is this esoteric idea that doesn’t actually put food on the table.

But I respectfully disagree.

To me if our small business doesn’t have a vision, well…..

I guess I will just start my list.

If our small business doesn’t have a vision…..

1. Then all we really have is a job.
2. Then our passion and drive are limited to just making money, which actually can be a vision too, I guess.
3. We will find it difficult to find the perfect people for our business because we don’t know if they are aligned with what is important to us – which is usually our vision.
4. Our business and culture begin to match the mis-mash of people we’ve hired who aren’t passionate about their work.  How do I know?  They have joined a company that has no vision.  That’s how I know.
5. There are usually few long-term plans in vision-less companies as we, and our team, are just trying to get through the week or the month.
6. Without a vision, and therefore a purpose to strive for, we don’t know what systems and processes we will need to support our business long-term. We haven’t envisioned the long-term.
7. Without systems and processes our business doesn’t become efficient, and thereby, our growth is limited.
8. And marketing without a vision is particularly difficult.  Small businesses have a hard time justifying marketing anyway.  Can you imagine creating a marketing plan or developing materials without a targeted message?
9. Without a vision your message cannot be unique.  Buy my widget or widget repair services.  Why?  Because I am working hard to sell them. You see.  There is no real point of difference.
10. Now take this a step further and think about your sales team selling your products or services.  Each is making something up as they go along.  Buy from us because we are better.  Yeah….that’s it.  We are better.

I could keep going, but the point is that every business, small or large needs a vision.  Many of you actually have a vision.  You just hate the word vision so you have never tried to figure out or communicate it to yourself or others.

As a Christian in business, I believe God gives us our vision.  He puts a purpose on our heart and we develop that into a business that exists to achieve that purpose.

I want to help small business owners create successful businesses on a foundation of Christian values.

To do this God has purposed me with sharing with small business owners things like they need a vision for their business.  And, that as a Christian, they need to turn to God to seek His vision for their business.

There.  See how easy it is.  Now you try.

What has God put on your heart to accomplish through your business?

I talk to so many small business owners who ride the roller coaster in every aspect of their business.

You know what I mean.

When sales start booming it is too late to staff up or even outsource in most cases.  It is almost like a tsunami.  And the thing with a small business is that the flood could be caused by one really big project or one new major client.  When you are small, high percentage growth rates are not all that surprising.

When this blessing happens…you know, the one you were praying for and working your self to death for, during the past year or so.

Well when it happens, you and all of your resources are immediately absorbed.

Do You Have The Resources To Climb The Hill?

You do not have enough people, enough space, enough cash flow, and absolutely not enough time!

The whole (albeit small) team comes in each day and starts doing, doing, doing…..

Is it the most efficient process?

Is everyone communicating to each other?

Are your systems in place so you can invoice timely?

I bet you aren’t sure, because you aren’t using the systems you do have……

You are in production mode.  You are making customers happy!

Hopefully.

Are You Burning Out Yourself and Your Resources on Each Incline?

And hopefully you aren’t burning out yourself or your people.

The problem with this blessing is that soon enough the extra projects are complete.  Things slow down.

At first, you are actually thankful.  Now I will have time to re-group.  Tidy things up a bit.  Rest.  We all need a short breather.

The rest is well-deserved but stretches out a bit.  That is until the receivables are all collected and you start to worry about new revenue coming in.

And thus begins the work toward the uphill climb of the roller coaster again.

How To Get Off The Roller Coaster

But things can be different.  They really can.  It will be hard.  It will take some extra hours.  There may not seem like a direct correlation with sales to all of the effort you will be putting in.  But there is a direct correlation.  It just lags a bit.

So, what am I talking about.  Here are the 3 things you must put in place, or plan for, to get off of the roller coaster.

1.  People

If you wait until you are slammed busy then you try to get it all done with the people you have or some business owners get desperate and hire whomever they can to fill the hole.

However, a bad hire is almost always worse than no hire.  And most of us have experienced that before.  So we just work longer hours and try to maintain our quality.

This is what will keep you from growing.

Either your work quality will suffer and you will actually decrease in sales due to dissatisfied customers or you will be at your ceiling, as your resources are at capacity, with no room for further growth.

The only way to grow and be prepared to do the work if the growth occurs, is to have people available to do it.

Added to the stress is that if someone quits during one of the busy cycles you are in even more trouble.

I know it is difficult and sometimes impossible to know which positions you will need and when you will really need them.  However, it is worth the investment if you want to maximize your business potential.

If you can’t hire someone, you can identify who you would want to hire once the boom hits again.  That is why it is important to always be recruiting (I mean always) in order to know who you will call when the roller coaster is on the sales upswing.

Action:

I would recommend that all small business owners draw out their organizational chart today and then again in one year, 3 years and 5 years if sales continue to grow.  What positions would you need first?  Who would you add?

2.  Systems

I know it seems crazy to set up a system for a team of one or two….but think about how easy it is to set up that system when you are small.  It gets much harder when you are in the busy mode and growing.

If you don’t really have a method of invoicing on a schedule, with standard rates, and a process that you can teach someone else quickly, put it in place now.

When you are super busy, and spending your money on payroll and supplies, it is quite stressful to not have invoices going out.

When you hire the new employee and you are too busy to communicate, much less train them, you are going to be wishing you had some policies and procedures documented that they can follow to get productive quickly.

Seriously, it isn’t right to hire someone, not train them, and then be frustrated when they aren’t providing much help.

Action:  Look at online cloud resources to help you communicate, manage projects, collaborate, keep time, create proposals, and invoice.  Some recommended resources are:

www.37signals.com  Online project management, customer response, and internal communication systems.

www.harvestapp.com Online time keeping app.

www.quoteroller.com  Online quote and proposal development app.

3.  Marketing

Marketing and sales needs to happen consistently throughout the year.  It is the best way to get out of the roller coaster business model.  That is if you have the people and systems to do consistently growing work.

The idea is to have sales in the pipeline so that when that big project or two is complete, you have new ones closing.

There is such a variety of marketing levels that can be employed to grow and sustain your business that it really depends on your business and needs.  The starting place is to put a plan in place with a regular schedule and outsource the execution and maintenance of the plan if this isn’t in your skill set or interest.

An example would be to have a consistent schedule of direct mail pieces sent on a monthly or quarterly basis.  Or it may be writing a blog on a weekly basis if informational marketing is what your business needs.

Action:  Develop a marketing plan.  Regardless of your budget, there are things you can do.  Social media is inexpensive except for the time it takes. But it can be automated greatly with the tools available these days.  Put the plan in place while you are in a slow time assuming it will work and you will soon be too busy to mess with it.

It’s Hard To Transform an Airplane When It Is In Flight

I had a mentor who used to always say “It’s hard to turn a prop plane into a jet when you are in flight.”  (We had some pretty aggressive goals back then!)

Honestly, the difficulty arises because we are trying to make all of this happen while we are on the roller coaster.

When we have business, we are working hard climbing the hill.  When it starts to come down we have such a sense of relief and a short-term feeling of exhilarating success that we don’t want to ruin it by putting all of these pieces in place.  We want to enjoy the ride for a bit.

Then we are at the bottom with no prospects in site.  So let’s face it, we get bummed out.  The “after the ride depression” sets in and we begin to worry we won’t have another hill and that the ride is over.

Plus we are tired.  We want to rest.

And so the story of the roller coaster goes.

You Control The Ride

But you don’t have to ride the roller coaster.  You can be different and put the foundational pieces of your business in place so that you control the ride!

Hard work?  Yes!

Worth it?  Absolutely!

If you are a small business owner you may not even read this post.  Who has time to be depressed anyway?  Stressed yes.  I could use some tips on how to manage stress, but depression isn’t allowed.

At least that is the lie we tell ourselves.

In reality, sometimes depression does look a little different when it stems from our business life.

After all, we don’t really have the luxury of staying in bed all day.

Depression Happens

But depression does happen in our business life, and can just as easily flow to our personal lives, if we don’t watch out for it and get ahead of it.

Depression can weave it’s way in to our psyche in many different ways.  It could be:

• losing the second employee in 3 weeks during your peak season.
• working 60 hours a week and never breaking even.
• your business culture doesn’t match you at all and you feel like a stranger in your own office.

And sometimes it is the let down after a big project, or losing that big sale, or finishing something really incredible and now you are back to the hum drum of ever day operations.

I am going through a mini-depression now.

I have been working on getting a new space for my office.  Not just a space.  Something unique and unusual for my purposes.  A place that would feel like a haven for both myself, our team and our clients.

We’ve been negotiating for months.  I first looked at it in December.  Now I finally cough up the additional funds and get a signed purchase agreement only to find that the seller’s agent was wrong about the zoning.  Now you’re telling me we can’t use it for office space!

Don’t Forget To Trust God In It All

Part of me is thinking, maybe God is just protecting me from a bad real estate deal.  Actually, most of me absolutely believes that if it doesn’t happen, it is part of God’s plan.  I get that, and I embrace it, and I am so thankful He is watching over me when my “wants” may take over my brain.

But, I am still bummed.  I had all of these plans.  I did projections.  We were expanding and going to offer great things for the community………

Now, it is doubtful.

And I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  It is not exactly the architectural capital of the world.  There isn’t anything else like this anywhere nearby.

However, we were really busy at work and that is why we needed more space.  This work is still flowing…praise God!

I don’t have time to be depressed.

How Do You Know It is Depression?

The only way you can counteract depression before it takes hold is if you recognize it.  Here are some signs:

• You find it more difficult to stay focused and concentrate on the work at hand.
• Your energy feels depleted half-way through the day.
• You do sleep more on the weekends and don’t feel like going anywhere after work.
• You think about leaving early alot (but don’t necessarily do it!)
• You may even get a little scared that you are losing your passion for your business.

Underneath the busy-ness and stress of our day to day work, depression is the same as it looks in any other setting.  It is just covered up a bit.

Remember When Things Were Different

Think about these signs and try to remember when things were different.  When you jumped out of bed to get to work.  The days when all of the hectic-ness was just your version of multi-tasking and you felt quite accomplished by it.  You know, the days when the craziness seemed fun!

If you can remember a different time, chances are you are experiencing some depression now.

What Can We Do About Depression When We Have Work To Do?

Being a counselor is lucky for me because I am trained to recognize these things quickly.  And I am too thankful to God for the blessings He has been providing in my business to let a little depression keep me down.

So we fight!

The business owner’s war chest against depression:

1. Identify the root cause of the problem.  Depression can just be a symptom.  For example, my problem is that I am losing a property I love for my business.   If I know that is the problem, I won’t go trying to fix my accounting system or begin marketing to a new niche.  You want to direct your “battle” against the real enemy.
2. Analyze and determine alternatives to the root problem.  If your business is suffering in sales or profits, you may consider getting a business coach….hiring a sales man….getting a new marketing campaign.  If turnover is killing you, it may help to get practice in interviewing or hire an outside recruiter.  This doesn’t necessarily solve the current situation, but it will keep it from recurring.  See Michael Hyatt’s Post today called The Problem Behind the Problem.
3. Do something to pamper yourself and bring joy to your life.  My action step was a little lame, but I bought a big bunch of fresh cut tulips and brightened my office yesterday.  It actually made a difference.  You may need to take a couple of days off to rest and do something you enjoy.  You may not feel like it, but take action and you will find it does improve things.
4. Do the regular things that help us avoid depression.  Things like exercise, get sunlight, eat healthy and be around friends.  I brought fresh fruit and carrots to the office with my flowers.  Typically when we are depressed we eat junk as comfort, double up on the caffeine to get energy, and can’t sleep because we are anxious.
5. Write about it.  You know I will put journaling (links to post on journaling techniques) in to any post I can justify and journaling is perfect for depression.  You just sometimes need to get the yucky feelings out of you.  Write to God and you will have double benefit as you relieve the internal pressure and give it to God at the same time.
6. Focus on others.  Whenever I am in a funk and sick of myself, I feel a lot better when I am both productive and helping someone else.  In business there are tons of opportunities to help.  We can go over board with creating awesome customer experiences.  We can love on our team and help them in their work, professional development or just appreciate them.  Getting over myself usually helps a lot!

Moving On From Our Depressed State

Back to reality.  We do have a business to run.  We don’t have time to be depressed.  We need to fix the problem.  We are responsible.  It won’t fix itself.

This is all true.

However, stuffing the melancholy, lethargy, and resentment will fester and grow.  Working through it and battling it will heal you and conquer it.

Depression is real.  Take it seriously and take action to stop it in it’s tracks so you can move on with peace and strength and be truly thankful for all of God’s blessings.

There are many reasons why vacation is helpful to us all, but if you are a small business owner, you probably worry about your business when you leave.

You can rationalize away the need for rest and relaxation.  You claim that your relationships will be fine when things are running smoother anyway.

Don’t worry, I am not going to go on about the obvious misconceptions you have about waiting for some day to really relax and enjoy your time of leisure now and not later.

Instead I will appeal to your current concern…how to improve your business performance!

So here it goes….

The #1 reason that vacation will help your small business is because it regenerates your CREATIVITY.

Even if you are a totally left-brained, detailed-oriented, list-generating, bullet-point engineer or accountant, you are still creative.

And to much busy-ness stifles our creativity.

Creativity is something that has to be nurtured and explored.  The whole concept of an idea morphing into something new is what is behind creativity.

Without time to incubate and transform, the new creation is never birthed.

I left on Friday for the beach with my kids.  It’s been awhile since I have been so busy that my creativity has withered. Instead of planning my vacation on the ride down, I was on the phone finishing with business.

Of course it takes a day to fully unwind before you can get your creative juices flowing again.  However, I have found that many things about vacation rejuvenates our creativity:

• Seeing God’s artistic flair through nature.  These pictures say it all!

• Conversations about stuff other than business.  Sitting with my kids and hearing how their ideas flow, reminds me that growing up can sometimes repress our creative thought.  We are inhibited to say some of the things that cross our mind as they seem random and disconnected at the time.  Listen to a couple of sixteen year olds connect the dots to their thought patterns and you may just unbridle your latent problem-solving gifts.  The teen years is the starting point to what we in business call “brainstorming”!

• Distraction from our business helps us reconnect with a blank slate.  After you have walked the beach and felt the power of the ocean…..while hiking up the mountain aware only of the birds chirp and the sound of your own breathing….or even gazing at the amazing hustle and bustle of a New York street corner….you are given a burst of the breadth and depth of what goes on in the rest of the world.  Our box immediately expands.  And seeing the results of God’s creation or man’s, it gives us the slight nudge we may need to get our of our comfort zone.

• Rest and relaxation (okay I couldn’t help adding it in!) do help us to rejuvenate and approach things in a fresh and new way.  Sorry but it does.  I only came to the beach for a long weekend and the ideas are flowing.  I believe the right side of our brain (the creative side) shuts down when it gets to tired or busy.  We all need to re-charge our batteries, even if it is only for a long weekend.

Unfortunately, vacations do come to an end.  So I have to get up from my gorgeous balcony view and begin the “not fun” part of vacation that includes waking four teenagers, cleaning up the cyclone that descended on this condo, and pack everything up to go back home to my wonderful husband and two dogs waiting patiently for our return.

[Can you believe I left her home when the beach makes her so happy?]

Oh, and one last stop at the outlet mall on our way home.

Did I also mention that shopping helps our creativity too!

How about you?  Do you see a benefit in your business after you have a few days off?  How does vacation help your creativity?

Giving it to God is a concept that comes up for me on a daily basis in all facets of my work and life.  In just the past week, I have prayed for God to get me out of the way or to take something from me.  Here are a couple of examples:

• my daughter is driving back to school, I know worrying doesn’t help, Lord please keep her safe.
• I put an offer on new space for my office, Lord only let it come through if it is your will.
• Lord, we still need more help at the office, should we add more resources.
• my throat is killing me and I have gone to the doctor, can you please heal me and help me to not worry it is something worse

I have hit on safety, health, work, and stewardship all in the 5 seconds it took me to come up with the list off of the top of my head.  These are all things I can worry or obsess over and have to work really hard to not control myself and to give to God and let Him work through me if He so chooses.

So, I didn’t text my daughter 10 times on her way home to see how she was doing, find out how far she was, or cause her an accident to constantly look at my texts.

Instead, I wrote this post on my counseling blog about how to give it to God, at least from my perspective:

When Ink Hits Paper: Giving it to God

So I am writing in my journal this morning. Well actually I was writing to God. That is what I do. And actually, I was writing to God about how I haven’t written to him as often lately as I used to.

Well let me start from the beginning. I had a new client yesterday who obviously was in a difficult place. I was talking about moving closer to God, because as you may have read in a previous post What To Do When You Don’t Know What to Do, is I always feel I just need to move closer to God.

I am telling the client about this. That God loves him and that He wants to help us carry our burdens. You know, all of the standard God talk. And he was nodding his head, but I could tell he is thinking, “Okay all this sounds good, but how do I actually do it?”

And haven’t you ever had that same thought. Just give it to God….okay, how? Where is the line I need to stand in? Is there a “How to” video on You Tube?

…..to read more about how I give it to God click here!

Please share with us how you are able to let go and let God!

“I know I should do everything like I am doing it unto the Lord” I tell myself daily.  But, in actuality, that would probably be a hell-inspired lie if I tried to claim it on more than a semi-annual basis.

Like the Apostle Paul I claim weekly, if not daily, the famous words from Romans 7:15:

 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

“Why do I do what I don’t want to do”!  Or in half of the cases, “Why don’t I do what I know I should do!”

Seriously, I can claim these words and actions/inactions, in about every facet of life, but let’s look at how this can manifest itself in work.

I Want To Glorify God In What I Do

It’s not like I don’t want to do everything to glorify God.  I truly do.  It is one of my core values.  It’s just that if you really think about it, our ability to glorify God in what we do, is just not in our human capacity.

Only He can do that, and then, well, you get caught up in the circular.

Should I try?

or Is that works?

Should I just pray?

Don’t we need to do our part though?

If I try, but then try to look like I am not trying but letting God work through me, does that count?

I don’t think so.

The Circular: Do I Try or Not?

Which immediately leads to my doing, or not doing, something that I wish I did or wish I could stop doing, all because I want to glorify God.  In reality, if I try, it may mess it all up because I am not really capable anyway.

If this circular thought process exhausts you, join the club.

It exhausts me to, and then, you guessed it…..I end up not doing the work that I believe is to God’s glory.

Let’s get off the circular for a minute and get to a more tangible concept of our daily work.

Why Don’t We Do What We Know Works?

I love my work.  I really feel like I am where God has called me.

So I don’t have the typical excuse of being distracted, apathetic, or actually lazy.  I don’t think people would characterize me as lazy.

I study too.

I know my business and I know there is more than one path to creating a business and work that would honor God, if not glorify Him.

Yet do I take this knowledge, focus my plans, and implement the stuff I believe will work?

Well, actually I do.

But, not always.

Which is the point of this post.

I talk to people all day long.  It is what I do for work.  In these discussions, at least daily, we talk about what would work in their, or my, business and what needs to be done, now and later.  Then the next week, many, many times, we talk about it again.

The same thing.

It isn’t just clients.  I do it to.  I have every intention, in my own business, of following up with clients to remind them of action items or to check on them with something big going on in their world.

Do We Have to Be Consistent?

Then I forget sometimes.  Not all of the time.  But enough that I am certainly not glorifying God.

But the point is that I really want to follow-up, or consistently write a blog post every other day, or make time to do my billing on schedule.  It is a sincere desire and I know that it works.

Yet, I am not consistent.  Well I am not consistently consistent!

Full Circle Back to Faith

Which comes full circle back to faith.  We know pretty much that our relationship with Jesus is the most important part of our faith walk.  I personally know that when I seek and stay connected to Him, all of my world is better.

Not just a little better.  Way better!

Then I get pulled in to the world, and focus intensely on the issue of the day, and don’t go to Jesus with it first.

Why?  I know everything is better when I do.  Way better!

Everything I Better Which Jesus In It!

I know in my work I have a tendency to let it consume me.  (Jesus helped me conquer workaholism once in my life, but like any addiction, it waits for a weak moment.)  I am not trying to keep my faith out of my work.  I know God wants to be part of all of my life.

So why do I start worrying?  He tells me not to.

So why do I try to take control?  He is the only One truly in control.

So why do I become a full-fledge member of this world?  We are only visitors!

It makes absolutely no sense for me to ever slip back into worrying, controlling, worldly habits, yet I do!

And I want to fix it.  I want to take control and re-focus on all of the things God wants me to do….which again misses the point entirely.

So I am back to the wonderfully, life-saving, grace of Jesus.  I do what I always do when I don’t know what to do…….I just seek Him.

 ¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

(Php 3:12–14)

When I became a Christian many things about my life and my character changed dramatically.  So much so that it is to God’s Glory that He can do such a transformation.

One area that has taken a couple of double takes has been integrating my faith into my leadership and business.  It seemed like whenever I was involved in a leadership group at church, everyone involved had on their extra nice hat.

What is Christian Leadership in the Church?

It was a little confusing to me because in some cases in a group of leaders, no one would take the lead.  Another oddity was that most of our leadership group was comprised of local businessmen and professionals.

Yet rather than address the situation at hand, like we would do in any business I have been involved in, we would just postpone, pray about it, and declare that it is God’s church and things will work out.

Being the new kid on the block, both as a Christian and a leader in the church, I was watching rather than jumping in at first.  As I observed I became increasingly confused why there was this invisible barrier to bringing our business sense and our take action leadership into the church setting.

Over time it appeared to impact the church, as it would a business that followed these practices.  It didn’t seem to be working.

What is Christian Leadership in Business?

As I began to work with Christian Businesses , in my business coaching practice, there was a similar dichotomy.  These Christian businessmen and women, who were strong in their faith and turned everything over to God in the church, were having none of it in business.

In some sense it was like they were checking their faith at the door of their business.  I have heard comments like, “We wouldn’t survive if we ran our business in a Christian way.” Or “It would open the door for everyone to walk all over us if they knew I was a strong Christian.”

Then on the opposite extreme, those who wanted to follow God in all parts of their life put a misplaced twist on Christian professional values.  They allowed employees to run amuck, took the brunt of every contract, and basically made poor business decisions claiming  “Isn’t that what Jesus would do?”

Can’t You Be a Strong Christian and a Bold Leader

Again, being new to this work and faith integration I was still perplexed.  I started asking people why they felt they couldn’t be both a strong Christian and a bold business person or leader.  I received such a variety of answers:

• Being a Christian means being nice.  You can’t survive in business being too nice.
• It is against the law to show your faith in business.
• If I don’t fit in with my customers they won’t buy from me.
• God doesn’t care about my business.  I have to do that part on my own.
• Christians aren’t supposed to care about profits but I have mouths to feed.

All of these responses were heartfelt.  The Christian businessmen and women making these claims were truly frustrated that they couldn’t effectively integrate their faith and their business.

Since I wanted to follow God and was passionate about business, I began to seriously study the bible in areas of leadership, decision-making, accountability, teaching and many other topics.

Integrating Faith and Business

I found strength and clarity about Christian leadership and many other topics that apply directly to our business.  If we are to follow Jesus, what I found in the bible is that it is more important to:

• Follow God’s will regardless of whether it is popular or not.
• Hold people accountable to God’s ways which includes submitting to authority, doing everything in a way that glorifies God, being honest, watching our tongue, serving others, and much more.
• To seek wisdom and make wise decisions.
• To handle conflict openly and directly with the person the conflict is with.
• To lead strongly and boldly.

The Bible’s Description of a Christian Business Person

All of my scripture research reinforced that a Christian business person was a person of integrity, justice, wisdom, character, strength, consistency, and love.  In looking back at the two settings described above, I am relieved to see such clarity in the bible as to our roles.

Here is what I have learned:

1. If we are following God, we are following Him in every aspect of our life.  He cares about it all, even our business.
2. If we are truly acting in love, when we have to make the tough decisions or face conflict head-on, that love will many times bridge the gap where hurt, defensiveness, or denial may set in.
3. If we know something is God’s will (and He gives us a lot of direction for that in the bible) we should have even more confidence to step up and lead, rather than back down and wait.
4. Jesus led by example handling issues and communicating calmly (in most cases) yet directly.

As Christian businessmen and women our hands are not tied if we integrate our faith into our business.  On the contrary, we have an extra set of hands to lead us and guide us.

The Christian Business Edge

Not only can we integrate our faith and our business, but we can show the world that as Christians we can have unwavering strength and limitless compassion, simultaneously and seamlessly.

And as is true with God in all things, He is faithful.  As I have personally followed what scripture shares with us about leadership and business, I have seen the wisdom of His ways and seen success achieved.

My business has always been profitable.  God’s vision for my business has stayed consistent and developed over time, adding strategies and tactics along the way. I have avoided the traditional roller coaster that results from changing focus and vision.  Contacts and relationships have grown and are based on mutual support.  My decision-making is more long-term focused and less reactive.

As I have worked with clients to integrate their faith with their business I have also seen growth and improvement.  I have received comments like,

“As I have become more comfortable with accountability, it has helped me to hire better people and get off to a productive and consistent start.”

“I wish I had been tougher to begin with, I see now how my lack of discipline and holding others accountable has negatively affected my business.”

“I wasn’t sure how to handle business decisions and now I am so happy to have scripture to guide me.  I just didn’t realize how much guidance God provides about leadership and business.”

What Would God Have Us Do?

It may seem grey at times to definitively know exactly what God would have us do, but if we make it a way of life to always seek Him, to study His word, and to live a life that strives to emulate Christ, I believe strongly that we will have the answers we need and that we will see God’s divine guidance in all aspects of our life, even our business.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

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For more on this topic, sign-up in the sidebar to download our FREE Ebook The  5 Advantages to Being A Christian in Business.

Content marketing gave me a foot into sales. Why?

I don’t like selling myself, yet, when I went into business for myself, I received the same advice from everyone….people connect to people….you have to sell you…you are your product!

Then I learned about content marketing and thought….I can share good content….I can share my thoughts and experience….I want to help people and if providing them with information helps them and me too…..

Content marketing is where I have been for the past 3 years. This weekend I found some wonderful info graphics shared by Copyblogger. My favorite, below, was the info graphic on content marketing!

This is from content plus.co.uk and they provided code to share it!

The biggest truth to me is that content marketing introduces me, my thoughts, my style to potential clients and give them a feel as to whether or not we would work well together. I want to work with people who fit. I think they deserve it. I believe more is accomplished and giving them a glimpse of this connection in advance is a plus for all!

Which fact below resonates with you? I would love to hear your comments!

Sometimes business moves fast.   And if I think about it, sometimes it is important to move fast in business.

Moving fast is scary when you don’t want to leave God out of it.  Business is of the world, but it’s a world we must live in for this time.  So how do we keep God first, move fast, and maneuver with God’s blessing and wisdom?

This is plaguing me this week as several situations arise in the life of my business, as well as my client’s businesses.

Now that the week is coming to a close, I have found myself relying on a few beliefs:

#1  It is about how we live with God in our life all of the time.  God knows that our crisis and opportunities will come suddenly and un-expectantly at times.  If we are in relationship with Him all of the time, then when the urgent situations arise, we don’t need to start building our relationship with God to depend on Him.  Our relationship is already there and we can move knowing that His Holy Spirit is guiding us.

#2  We pray without ceasing.  God knows we are in a hurry.  God also knows when we need to slow down.  In these moments, I found myself randomly talking to God.  It was sort of an out of body experience, as I wasn’t always consciously praying.  Suddenly I realized I was speaking out loud to my invisible Savior.  Other times it was in my head and it was short phrases like “Now what God” or “Please give me grace and patience in this moment”.  Either way, I believe He knew my unspoken and un-thought needs and prayers.

#3  Even though things feel important and urgent, we have to remember their place in eternity.  I really want a new building to expand my coaching practice.  I really want to jump in and do more for my church.  My client has an immediate real crisis and I need to be there for them.  For me, to find God’s peace, the one that defies our worldly understanding, it is necessary for me to put today in perspective of eternity.  When I remember that in a hundred years none of these things will matter, it doesn’t change their importance today, but it does put them in perspective and provide peace in the moment.

So I guess in short, I get through the speed of business better if my relationship with God is already first which then facilitates the conscious and un-conscious connection during the flurry of activity.  And, for me, I always stay more grounded, even slow down, if I remember my place in eternity.  I need to remember that I can always trust that He is with me and, if I am not being a total control freak, that He will be guiding me.

Ultimately, the speed of business cannot outpace our God!

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Sue Miley is a business coach and a licensed professional counselor who writes about faith and work sharing her belief that God is with us in all of life, including our work.

In the world of owning your own business I think the biggest double edge sword is hiring employees.

I think many small business owners would say it is like flipping a coin as to whether the employee will be a benefit or a liability.  And although there seems to be only two extremes of wonderful, great, fabulous decision or horrible, gut-wrenching, expensive decision, there are many components that tip the see-saw.

1.  Experience: Is It The Right Experience

First we usually check to make sure the candidate has the experience we need.  Unfortunately, many small business owners still look for what the employee did in their past jobs rather than how well they did it.  We really need to know if they made improvements, increased sales, reduced costs, beat timelines, etc.

2.  Ability:  How Well Did They Do The Job

This is getting further into the question of how well they did it.  Just because someone has been in sales for 15 years doesn’t mean they sold a lot.  Also, once they are in your company, you begin to understand whether or not they are set in their ways or only know one way to do something.

It doesn’t help you much if they were able to use the cash register at their last job, but can’t figure your’s out.

3.  Attitude:  One Bad Apple

This one is really difficult because most people try to have a good attitude on the interview.  You don’t know that in their 10 years of customer service that they hated 99% of the customers.

Or that the real reason they were laid off of their last job was because the owner was praying for a downturn in the economy so they could have an excuse to do a lay-off.  (If this is you, you might want to read Why Small Business Owners need to be Good at Firing People.)

A bad attitude is worse for your company than poor ability.  Sometimes you can train someone to be better at their job, whereas, you rarely change someone’s attitude.

4.  Culture:  The Intangible Secret Weapon

Culture is more difficult to assess than the other three.  A person can have a great attitude but still not match the company’s culture.  I had a very experienced district manager I hired once.  He had more experience and a successful track record than all of my DM’s combined.  But, he just didn’t fit in.  There was nothing I could do to make the rest of the organization support him.

He would ask me what he needed to do differently, but I was at a loss.  Culture is subliminal at times and changing to fit a culture is almost impossible.

What’s a Small Business Owner to Do?

Since many small business owners don’t hire a large quantity of employees they don’t usually spend the time studying and preparing to do this well.  However, the negative impact of the mistakes are extremely painful and sometimes long-lasting.  One hire can sometimes be 20-30% of your team!

As Christians we often feel that if we made a mistake hiring someone, it is our mistake alone, and we have to live with it.  However, living with it has the potential to cripple our business and torture the other employees.  It may also torture the employee in question.

I think this is such an important area of competency for small business owners that you need to either improve your recruiting skills or get outside help to recruit the best person for your business.

Hire Power:  Hiring People You Trust and Trusting the People You HIre

Right now our coaching business is recruiting eight positions for a handful of clients.  We aren’t a recruiting firm.  We just want to make sure our clients hire the best people for their business.

In my prior business career, recruiting was one of my favorite responsibilities.  Even when I moved up to higher positions, I always made it a priority to be integrally involved in the hiring process.

Since helping so many people as a coach, I began to write about how Christian business owners can hire people that will be right for their company and their culture.  If you are interested in this three part guide on hiring the right people for you, you can find it here.

Poor Hiring Skills Doesn’t Fix Itself

If hiring is difficult for you, face it now.  It doesn’t get better on its own.  You may think after enough bad hires you will improve automatically, but the opposite is true.  You generally psych yourself out and then you second guess yourself even more.  Employee holes go unfilled for too long and then you hire out of desperation.

Get good at it  or find someone to help who is a good recruiter and who understands your company and your culture!

We tend to look at sales and profit to measure the health of our business.  If I have money in my bank account I must be okay.  If my sales are growing we are in good shape.

I do believe with growing sales you can fix a lot of problems, but to fix them, you have to first recognize them.

As a busy small business owner, sometimes you may get caught up in the action and not recognize the warning signs!

Here are a few warning signs that your business health may be suffering:

1.  Rapidly rising fixed expenses.

If we have fixed cost growing at the same rate of sales we are putting our company at significant risk if we have a downturn in sales.  It may be necessary to add costs to keep up with rapid sales growth, however, it is important to analyze what expenses are fixed versus variable.

For example, you may need some help answering the phones because things have been so crazy.  Before you go and hire a full-time receptionist you may want to get a temp or hire a service.

You may be thinking that you can hire someone directly for a lower cost, but you won’t feel that way if they are sitting at your office playing solitaire when the phones stop ringing.

It is much better to keep expenses variable until you have a consistent trend of higher sales to support an added fixed cost.

2.  Lack of consistent policies and procedures.

I know, I hate policies too!  But they are necessary.  If we grow too fast without any policies and procedures established we will soon hit a ceiling on our growth or actually implode.

The problem is that your business isn’t scaleable without consistent ways to handle things in the business.  If we aren’t consistent about how we handle complaints, manage sick leave, update our databases, or any of the other millions of little things that we do each day, then we end up with upset people, poor decisions, expensive and inefficient processes.  And even worse, we have to come and ask you, the owner, about everything we do.  Soon we can’t do anything without checking with you first.  You are now twice as busy and don’t even remember how you answered us the last time we asked.

You are now the bottleneck to our growth.

3.  Disengaged employees.

This one you may feel more than any of the others.  But usually we tend to just blame the employee, rather than try to understand why they became disengaged to begin with.  Usually, there is a core issue that causes it and is the real risk to our business health.

It may be a bad attitude of one manager that is poisoning the group.

It might be too much work with little reward or appreciation.

It may be confusion and chaos because we don’t have policies and procedures and the employees always have to wait on you to do anything.

Disengaged employees are the warning sign, not the sickness!

4.  Minimal repeat business.

If we are growing because we are acquiring new business that is great.  It can also mask a quality problem in our products or services.  We need to also look at repeat business.  Are customers satisfied and coming back again?  Are they referring you to new business.

Many businesses track things like same store sales increases customer sales versus prior year.

Increasing sales are good!  Increased sales from current clients and repeat sales are a sign of business health.

5.  An unhealthy balance sheet.

Balance sheets are the ignored financial statement of most small business owners.  We are usually much more interested in the profit and loss statement.  However, many warning signs of our business health can be hidden on the balance sheet.

• Poor aging of accounts receivable.  We are selling stuff but not getting paid!
• Prepaid expense accounts not reconciled.  Expenses not showing up on the p & l statement mis-stating our actual expense structure.
• Accounts payable being significantly higher than cash accounts.

These are just a few indicators on our balance sheet that may be warning signs to poor financial health.

Learn about your balance sheet if you don’t have a good understanding of it.  It is important and can provide significant information to the true financial health of your business.

These are several areas that I evaluate when I am helping clients with their businesses.  How about you?  Are you aware of the warning signs?  This may be a nice check list to go back and evaluate a few key indicators of the health of your business!

Reading. Napping. Sitting in a sun-filled window curled up with my puppies. A little lunch.  The Amazon delivery arrives. Reading again. Oh, Scramble with Friends.

I write a blog post.  Cleaned a little.  Just a little.  A need for productivity.

A long walk with the puppies. Sitting on the sun-drenched porch with the puppies and the book.  The book of a fellow blogger that I don’t know well.  Getting to know her through her words.

My daughter comes in.  Nudges me with her words.  I don’t bite.  She leaves.

A negotiation.  My son takes my car.  First to the grocery – my part of the deal.   Yes, we now have the biggest bag of beef jerky known to man.

I don’t leave the house.

Restless.

“Is this okay Lord?”

“Do you need me to do anything today?”

A day of rest.

“It is okay” He says.

“Why do I feel I need to do?” I beseech.

“That is the world, not Me.”

The sun sets.

Sleep draws the book from my hands.

Peace settles in.

It was a good day.

I remembered this post from quite a while back about company culture and wanted to share it again.  It has been dusted off the closet shelf, edited a bit, and repurposed here.  I hope it kindles the fire of purpose God has given you for your business!

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Before I was a Christian I wanted to be eclectic, edgy and maybe even a little irreverent.  Of course in a very intelligent, highly responsible, cutting edge, get things done way.

Before I was a Christian, I didn’t own my own business, and I didn’t work for a business that wanted to be eclectic, edgy and/or irreverent.

Of course they did want the very intelligent, highly responsible, get things done part.  So I was able to create a culture that was half me.  In a way it was more like 80% me, because I am not particularly eclectic, edgy or irreverent.

I am more like a “wanna be”.

A closet eclectic.

The Closet Eclectic God Created Me To Be

But I know that it is really me in that closet, because since working for other people I have taken up painting.  I am a wanna be artist.

I have started writing a lot.  Still hiding in the closet my authentic style.

I love the stock market.  I can sit and watch streaming quotes for a really long time and actually have fun.

A wine aficionado except that I have found that I can’t breath when I drink wine and am on day 13 without drinking any. (I am really liking the breathing part.)

And I absolutely love crafts.  Can you make scrap booking edgy and irreverent?

Don’t think so.

And I still have a high need for achievement and getting things done efficiently and creatively.

This is at least an eclectic mix.  So maybe I am eclectic.

Your Business, Your Culture

And I now own my own business – which isn’t eclectic, or edgy, or irreverent.  However my business is blatantly focused on God and helping people.  Which is the very most important part of who I am!

And I worry that irreverent and God can’t go together.

So I have thrown out the eclectic and edgy part too.

Which doesn’t make sense because they are different.  And besides, I looked up the Webster dictionary definition of irreverent and it can mean “lacking in seriousness” which I think can be okay with God.

A God-vision Is The Perfect Vision

I can only imagine the vision if the mission of my business is to be God-centered and help people on a foundation of the type of person I really am (or in my case “wanna be”).

Imagine if I hired people that matched the culture that was important to me.  If all of the people who worked on or in my business with me were focused on God, embraced helping people, and were creative, cutting-edge, and/or eclectic in their own right.

I imagine….

….ideas that are out of the box.

….conversations full of passion.

….people that want to work together and help support our mission of being God-centered and people helping!

The energy would be tangible.

This would be building a culture.

Our Culture is the Foundation of Our Vision

Create a foundation for your business that is based on a mission and values and style that define your culture.  It is the core of your business.  It defines your brand and represents your business.

And God Gives Us Our Vision

But how do you rationalize that building a culture for your business that matches you isn’t a selfish, prideful, endeavor?

I figure that God created each of us with specific gifts and talents.  He formed our personalities and our values.  If we establish a culture that we don’t truly believe in and embrace, not only will we be unable to sustain leading this culture, we may not be honoring God’s plan.

It says in 1Corinthians 12:27-31

27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

God wants to use us.  He created us all differently so together we form the body of Christ.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.  1Corinthians 12:14 -20

Just As He Gives Us Our Gifts and Talents

Paul explains in these verses that we may not be like another person, but who we are is an important component of the body of Christ.  Therefore, it only makes sense that God made us the way we are for a reason and He would want us to be true to that character.

Does your business have an organizational or corporate culture?  Does it truly reflect your vision, values and character?  I believe that we need to fully become who we are in Christ.

I am going to try to “be”, instead of “wanna be”, a more eclectic, edgy, God-centered, people helping (and loving) highly responsible, cutting edge, get things done kind of business.  With a slight twist of irreverence on occasion.  How about you?  How would you describe your company’s culture?

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Sue Miley

As I grow my business, and work with many other small businesses, I believe more and more each day that the culture of our business defines us.  It is what makes us different in a sea of competition.  It is what makes our business, our business!

Everyone on Facebook is having their “best life yet”.  Why aren’t I?

There are no messed up people in church.  I don’t belong here.

That new business has the best sign, the perfect staff, a better location.  I might as well close down now.

It always looks shinier, newer, and better from the vantage point of our reality.

But is it real.

Long before I ever became a counselor I learned this lesson.

Looks are deceiving.

The reality of the world is temporary at best.

My First Encounter

The company I worked for tended to hire senior managers from outside of our organization.  My company was cool, but these guys coming from Procter and Gamble, Coca Cola, and Starbucks, were more cool.  They were once hired by big national companies.  I was still in the regional world.  They worked on amazing product campaigns, had budget’s with an additional 3 to 6 figures, and just walked differently.

A few months into their new role, they were coming to me for help.

Magnified by the Viral World

Fast forward to about 5 years ago.  I wanted to really jump into the world of coaching.  I studied and searched online.  I found my own coach.  I quickly realized their was this inside group of coaches.  You know the one’s that have each other at all of their virtual events, tweet back and forth, and basically make the rest of the coaching world believe they are making a killing with multiple streams of income, working two hours a day, and have client’s on waiting lists.

Until you go to one of their events and realize their virtual assistant isn’t reliable either.  They get nervous speaking to groups too.  You start to add it all up.  Is this event really profitable?

Just Like You and I

I am not knocking them.  Some try to sell their success as a sign of why we should use them.  But, many are just like you and I.  They are launching their business, starting their new job, and just trying to make things work.

Regardless, we still get psyched out.  We wonder if we spent enough on our business cards.

We think, “What if I take out a loan and spruced up my website?”

Maybe it’s our business model.

And many times we actually make a change.  Not because of someone else’s proven track record of success.

Beware Things Look Shinier in the Distance

No, many times it is just the false appearance of success.

The shiny new image.  The plastered on smile.  The copywriter’s spin.

The Eternal Business Plan

Remember your business started because of your vision.  You are doing this to follow God’s plan for your life.

The best marketing plan is serving the people God sends you.

The best operating plan is to do everything to your best ability in a way that glorifies God.

The best financial plan is to follow biblical principles of stewardship.

In the long-run, that new store front you coveted….  That star sales person the other guy had….  That slick website……

….all fade.

While a few,

….the few who stay focused on Him

….shine,

like a city on a hill that others want to follow.

Because a God vision is eternal.  It doesn’t fade over time.  It isn’t an outward appearance of success with an inner emptiness.

Not because of false appearances.

Not because of the world’s view of success

The city on a hill shines as a beacon.  A light to other small business that you can build your business on your faith and fulfill a vision that others don’t have to covet, don’t have to compete against, don’t have to fear.

On the contrary, they are drawn to it.

Not external success.

Or even internal….

…..but eternal.

Using the word focus and entrepreneur in the same sentence is somewhat of an oxymoron.  ADD and entrepreneur; yes! But, focus, not so much.

Even though staying focused is not in our natural temperament, it is necessary.  It doesn’t make sense to use who we are, our temperament, or personality as an excuse to why we don’t do the things that make us successful.

Entrepreneurs are smart.  We read about business.  The business books and posts tell us we need a vision and a mission.

We get straight to work on creating them.  We define our core values and our point of difference.  We have some talks with our team about what the main purpose of our business is and how we are going to have a killer year focusing on them.

The Next New Idea

Two weeks later a new idea pops into our head.  It’s a great idea!

Do we go back and evaluate it against our vision and mission?

Do we analyze the time and investment it will take and the impact to our core mission?

Are you kidding?

We are usually half way through execution before these questions even come to mind.

It is usually brought to our minds when we have conflicting resources; or something happens in the momentum of our core business that brings us back to reality.

And, it isn’t really a stretch that the distraction that stops us short of full execution of the new idea is that third idea that comes across our desk.

We may start on this idea too!

Wait, What About Our Mission?

When someone finally call us on it.

I thought our core business was…..

I thought we were going to stay focused and execute our plan…..

I thought ……

The Entrepreneur’s Capacity For Self Deception

Do we come to our senses and admit our momentary distraction and get back on track?  Or do we give the song and dance we have told ourselves when the cognitive dissonance reaches an all time high:

Yeah, but this is a growing segment of the industry….

Yeah, but if we don’t jump on this now, we may miss the window of opportunity….

Yeah, but this should be a money maker…..

And most of the time, we proceed to dilute our focus, diminish our execution, and continue to juggle the many ideas that come to us.

Why?

We can’t help it. It is in our DNA.  It’s what entrepreneur’s do.

Benefits of Fighting Our Natural DNA

It is what entrepreneurs do.  But it isn’t necessarily the effective part of entrepreneurship.

It is one of the reasons that 9 out of 10 small businesses fail in the first 5 years.  It is one of the reasons that entrepreneurs end up working 14 hour days.  It is how entrepreneurs lose team members who aren’t sure what they are supposed to be doing and get frustrated.  It is why many small businesses never build a brand, because their brand message is muddled.

Focus can help you manage resources more effectively.

Focus can help you gain traction and momentum and grow your business.

Focus can help your team to be unified towards a common goal.

Focus can help your business become known for something.

Focus can even move your business to a maintenance mode allowing you to then move on to excellently execute the next great idea!!

Listening to the sermon this morning was like taking a bath in a pool of conviction.  Can you imagine the passage.  I am sure we all have one that is our personal cleansing.  Mine happens to deal with the harmful words we say.

The words from James 3:1-5 echoed in my head:

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ² We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. ³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

This is just the beginning.  James continues through 3:12.

The Tongue Often Leads to Sin

Our pastors made several points that I noted:

• The tongue is the quickest vehicle for sin to escape.
• When our tongue is out of control it does not honor God.
• Where there are many words, sin is unavoidable.

Although the verse starts with teachers, I believe it is applicable to us all.  As Christian small business owners we are all teachers.  As parents, as counselors, as friends we all have opportunities to teach.  Therefore, these verses are for all of us.

Christian Business Owners Are Teachers

As a small business owner, our employees look to us for direction, for education, and always as an example.  Our customers see us in a fiduciary role as well.

Although the passages hit me in all areas of life, I know that as a counselor, coach, and business owner, I have a responsibility to my clients and my team.

Today the pastor said, “have you ever thought about something you have said and wished you could take back”.  I thought, yes, like twice this past week.

I even remember thinking during this past week, I really need to pray more about my thoughts and my tongue.  I am not saying the kind of things that are really in my heart.  It is like timing and stupidity aligned to bring words out of my mouth….yet, although God says I am not in control, I feel totally responsible.

Jesus Is Always The Way

The antidote to my words tumbling uncontrollably from my thoughts, out of my mouth, is Jesus himself.  We are to be dependent.  Without Him we aren’t capable.  If we were we would be in control of the rest of our life too, as it says in James 3:2.  Since I know that isn’t true, I know I need to turn to God.

We may not think much of what we say, but those we speak to are impacted in ways that can hurt them, damage our relationships, and bring us to sin.

As a Christian business owner, I know that I have an even higher responsibility that I will be held accountable to.  Our pastor made it clear I can’t fix this in my own strength.  So I will pray that the Holy Spirit will mercifully shut me up, and speak through me, so that I don’t hurt those I care about and so that His honor is not tarnished!

No one likes to be the underdog, behind the eight ball, or ending the year trailing the pack.  Although human nature would have us justify our position, I think it is a state of personal deception to think we WANT to be in the last quarter of the year and behind in all of our goals for our business.

You may be thinking, I don’t really set goals.  It doesn’t matter. We all have them.  Whether expressed or implied.  Whether we wrote them down or thought them.

For example, if you are a business owner, even without written goals, I bet at the beginning of any given year you are at a minimum hoping:

• to make a profit.
• to grow in sales.
• to do work that customers like and appreciate.
• to have employees that want to work and want to work for you.
• that things runs smoothly.

You see, you do have goals.

And if the year flies by, it’s October again, and you are unprofitable, shrinking, upsetting customers…..I think you get the point.

You won’t be happy or celebrating.

You may kick it into high gear and make some things happen in the 4Q.  You may come from behind and pull out a half way decent year.  It may even give you some credibility when you do try to persuade yourself and others that you like being the underdog who comes from behind.

I didn’t achieve my goals, but look how much I made happen in less than 3 months.

Remember cramming for that calculus test at the last minute in college….you got a C+ and didn’t even go to class.

Remember having your boss sit you down and explain that you aren’t going to sell anything if you don’t get in front of customers XX number of times per week.  Then you started doing it and making the sales!  You are all of the sudden the top salesperson this month, but not in time to change your bottom of the barrel ranking for the year.

It isn’t that I don’t believe that we should keep trying and make things happen even at the end of the game.

I do.  I believe we should.

Sometimes I am even rooting for the underdog.

However……..

It’s the beginning of the year.

We have 4 quarters to make it the best year ever.

We can actually quantify some of our goals so we will know how we are coming along during the year.

We can try really hard, put in the extra time and attention, get in front of those customers, study, plan, practice, review, analyze, adjust, re-position, gain momentum, celebrate, grow and achieve…..

……by starting right now

……at the beginning of the year

……fighting like we are behind the eight ball

……working with the humility of not being sure we will make it

……praying for God’s help

……persevering

……stepping out in faith

and overcoming!

Here is wishing you a blessed New Year and God’s will for your business and life!

Thanks for Visiting in 2011!

As 2011 ends many bloggers are sharing their top posts of the year.  Since I have enjoyed reading others, I thought I would add mine too.

The interesting thing is when a post from late in the year had enough traction to make the Top 11 for 2011 list:

Two from the last two weeks, which is pretty cool!

In order:

1. 11 Key Uses of iPad 2 for Your Small Business -  I wrote this because many business clients had iPads and didn’t know what to do with them.  As a dedicated  business coach, I used this as an excuse to buy one and figure out all of the amazing business applications.  This was the first post.  Another one from last week made the top list too!
2. What Does the Bible Say About Conflict Resolution?  – I like this one because it means that business people care about what the bible says!  I think I will do a series for 2012 on various topics beginning with “What the bible says about…”!
3. WARNING:  Burnout Ahead  -  This one is near and dear to my heart.  It was cathartic writing about this time in my life.  It turned into a 4 part series on burnout.  The last one that I posted a couple of weeks ago made the list too!
4. The Impact of Poor Leadership on Your Followers – As small business owners, we are all leaders.  It is a difficult role, but the most important one we have in our business.
5. Advice to Young Managers: 3 Quick Tips – another solid business topic.  As a young manager we make so many painful mistakes.  Hopefully, these tips will help a young manager skip some of the pain.
6. The Ultimate Christian CEO Priority – this still touches on our role as a leader and how important the people are that we lead.  Ultimately, it is where we will always spend a significant amount of our time.
7. iPad 2: Absolutely Best Business Apps – even though it was only posted a week ago, it is #7 for the year!  This is probably a result of many, many iPad 2 Christmas presents!
8. A Biblical Framework for Job Descriptions – as a small business owner we are all responsible at some point for people.  This helps us set our people up for success!
9. New Life: This Side of Burnout  – the last in the series on burnout ….Thank You God!  Thank you to High Calling Blogs for posting it and helping it make the Top 11 list even though it was only posted a couple of weeks ago!
10. Stress Solutions: 10 Ways To Connect (Pray) with God About Your Business-this was the second in a series called Stress Solutions.  After all it can be stressful owning your own business!
11. Employee Performance Reviews: Dare To Be Different  – a consistent theme, our employees and team are important!  Definitely a topic of interest.  More to come in 2012!

There are a few themes I see in the readers favorites….how to get the most from technology, the importance of leading our team well, the need to take care of our own mental and spiritual health, and most importantly, an interest in knowing what God has to say about business!

Thank you for visiting, reading, and interacting with me this year!  Are there other topics you would like to read about?  Please let me know!

Blessings for a fabulous and God graced 2012!

Ipad uses for business haven’t found quite the limelight as the IPad 2 itself!  I know this because every week the article I wrote 11 Key Uses for IPad 2 for your Small Business is still the most popular article from organic search than any other post on my site.  And my site isn’t a technology site!

It is, however, a small business site, so I want to help small business owners get the most from their technology.  So here are my top apps for the Ipad 2—for the most part focused on business:

1. Zite- (Free) this is a wonderful personal magazine.  I have written a more detailed Zite review here.  I use it for business.  I signed up for categories such as entrepreneurship, small business, social media, psychology, christianity, and health.  It also connects to your twitter and those you follow to gather some great blogs.  This gives me very relevant information and learning that I use myself, forward to clients as applicable, and provides a variety of sharing opportunities on my social media networks.
2. Notes Plus-  ($4.99) this is my note taking app.  I have tried 4 others (at least) and this is the one I like the best.  First you need a stylus.  I have tried several of these also and I like the boxwave the best!  Notes Plus lets you write big and shrinks it.  It records and is easy to email a page or a whole notebook.  It also has an automatic Drop Box sync.  I actually send all of my notes to Evernote to keep on file in the clouds.  This is the app that helped me go paperless!
3. Evernote – (Free) s my file cabinet in the sky.  I love Evernote because it is so easy to keep track of information and notes.  For someone who is organizationally challenged like me, this is saying a lot.  In addition to sending all of my Notes Plus notes to store on Evernote I also send all of my Zite articles I want to save.  And Evernote has an icon on the tool bar that you can click on when you are surfing the web to save your research and information finds.  Also, my kids saved all of their Christmas wishes to a shared Evernote file.  This was great because they had links to sites where I could see the exact product they wanted.
4. GoodReader – ($4.99) is a pdf reader and allows you to write on documents.  We signed 20 + pages of mortgage documents on the Ipad while we were traveling to keep the refinancing of our house going.  I also have clients sign intake forms or other documents and am able store directly to Evernote once they are done.  GoodReader is also an excellent storage of your .pdf files for easy retrieval and viewing.
5. Kindle – (Free) I now exclusively purchase all of my business books on the Kindle because I can read them from the Kindle app on my Ipad 2.  I used to only buy fiction for my Kindle because the actual Kindle is too difficult to use for reference books that you need to go back to specific information.  But the Ipad 2 is completely different.  You can see everything, search easier, have on-line access that is more reliable.  Plus if you have Amazon Prime, you can lend books.  Now when I want to share a book with a client, I can do it electronically and it automatically comes back in 2 weeks, unlike the real books I have lent out!
6. 37 signals suite – (App is Free, product isn’t) I talk about Basecamp, Backpackit, and Highrise all of the time.  They can easily be pulled up on your Ipad 2 and all of your projects, customer list, to do lists are all available and are easy to use on the Ipad 2.
7. FaceTime (Free) – this one is built-in to the Ipad 2, but if you haven’t tried it yet, it is simple and facilitates meeting with people when you can’t find time to physically get together.  I have found it has better connection and less lag time than Skype.
8. Square – (Free) with Square I am able to accept credit cards in my office without any other equipment than my Ipad2 and a small swipe connection that goes into the earphone plug.  Square only charges 2.75% regardless of the type of charge and their is no account or set-up fee.  It works!  And the client can sign the charge write on the Ipad 2 with a stylus or their finger.
9. IWork - ($19.99 each) Pages, KeyNote and Numbers work and look fabulous on Ipad 2.  I don’t create all that many documents on my Ipad, but I review many with clients.  Also, with a special adapter you can connect your Ipad to a large screen and give perfect Key Note presentations directly from the Ipad2.  All you have to do is swipe your finger to move to the next slide.  No clicking or need for remotes.
10. IThoughts HD – ($7.99) this is the best mind mapping tool I have found for Ipad 2.  It is easy to do right from the Ipad 2.  If you haven’t ever tried mind-mapping you may want to check out the book  Thinking for  a Change by Michael Gelb.  I use mind-maps for planning and solving problems in my business just about every day.
11. Art Studio – ($2.99) You may not need to draw or create art in your business, but many of us do need to sketch out ideas or express our creativity.  This app is like having unlimited canvases, the largest collection of brush types and sizes, and never having to worry about running out of paint or ink.  The tool is intricate enough to create real art!
12. AwesomeNotes  – ($3.99)I am a journaling fanatic.  I like to journal.  This app does more than just journal, but I like it for journaling and it has a lot of fun elements that too me help my creativity.  I know there is a wave of minimalist writing apps out there to keep us from being distracted.  But, I love to write and I don’t get distracted, so this is the antithesis of minimalist.  It has colors, and symbols, and the ability to add photos and reminders.  It is filled up with features to play with!

I think most of you are aware that you can get all of the social media apps for Ipad 2 (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Hootesuite, and so on) so I am not describing those here.  You can also get apps for most banks, brokerage firms, and money management tools like Mint.com.  Those would be personal to what institutions you use.

All of these apps together (without IWork) are about $25.00 and with IWork less than $100.00.  You can’t beat the value, especially as a business expense.

I hope these suggestions help you set-up your Ipad 2 to being a major information hub for your business in the coming New Year!

We would love to hear your recommendations for great business apps in the comment section!

Other posts on the Ipad 2:

11 Key Uses of iPad 2 for Your Small Business

iPad 2: Eliminate Paper and Filing

5 Steps to Finding Technology That Works for You

I just posted This Side of Burnout on my counseling site and wanted to share it here as the 4th post and end to a series on burnout. I don’t usually post the same content on both sites, but wanted to share it widely to give hope to others who may feel burned out or feel close to it.  Here it is:

___________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s been a long time.  Maybe 10 years.  I actually worked 9 hours yesterday and still met each person with enthusiasm, energy and anticipation of our time together. I realized after my nine clients hours that I still had energy to cook dinner and spend time lingering in conversation with my husband.

I have been feeling this sense of renewal for a bit now.

This morning I deemed this season in life “this side of burnout”.  The time where it fades into the horizon with the sunset.  Still the anticipation of it’s return with the new day hovered.  Instead, grace brought a beautiful sunrise sprinkled with energy and hope; hope that the lethargy and apathy of burnout are gone forever.

It isn’t black and white though.

Burnout isn’t something that just hits you.  It’s an invasive enemy.  It seduces and lures you in.  You’re devoted to your career, working hard and doing it all.  You feel accomplished and needed.  But, over time you wonder why you’re the only one still at the office.  You begin to realize that all the emergencies make their way to you.  The flattery falls flat as each compliment ends with the sting of a last minute assignment dropped in your lap.

But the American way tells you that you’re doing it all.  I was working hard, making money, achieving corporate objectives.  My family was in tact.  They didn’t need me much.

Until one day they did.

And then I could no longer juggle the 60+ hours a week, the 24/7 on call status, and take care of a health crisis in my family.  Add to that the fact I didn’t have faith nor take care of my health.

Next stop….full-fledged burnout.  It snuck up on me.  I didn’t realize I had depleted all of my emotional, spiritual and physical reserves.  I started craving a way out.  An escape.

My lifeline turned out to be finding Jesus.

But He didn’t absolve me of my burnout.  It was a consequence of my decisions, and besides, He knew I needed the rest and  priority change.  It took me a full decade of focus on Him.  It wasn’t something I could just check off a list.

• Found Jesus. Check.
• Profound Healing. Check.
• Back to work!  Check.

No…it doesn’t work like that.  I am a licensed therapist now, but this isn’t a clinical explanation of burnout.  It’s just a testimony.

Life doesn’t go on hold in recovery.  Much has happened in the last 10 years.  A check list couldn’t do it justice.  It wasn’t an action plan to heal.  It was a journey to grow.  It was finding God’s will for my life.  It was letting go of control and trusting that God is the one in control.

• I had to let go of my timelines.
• I began to see myself through a God lens.
• I focused on relationships instead of accomplishments.

And even recently,I continue to learn that life, eternal life, is not about a claim to Christianity…

….it isn’t about works,

….a church building,

….a marketing plan, or

….raising great kids.

It’s being on the path that God has for me, and doing my part for once, to keep my priorities on my health, my relationships, and sincerely trying to honor God.

Burnout was insidious in it’s pursuit to claim me.  Unraveling from it’s tentacles to continue on the new path that God paved is difficult.

But one day….

…. the sun set,

…. taking the wake of burnout with it,

…..and leaving it in yesterday.

A new day dawns….a new season begins….and soon we can embrace “this side of burnout”.

The end of the year is always a good time for reflection.  Hopefully, you have time for it along with enjoying the holidays.

I used to be in retail and food service and the holidays were an electric buzz of too little sleep, too much coffee, and endless hours on my feet.  The sheer abundance of stress during the season always had me looking forward to planning the new year.

Thoughts of …..

….this has to stop, I can’t do another year like this.

….it’s almost over, just a few more days.  I can do anything for a few days.

…..where did we get “peace and joy” as terms to associate with the holidays.

A New Plan

I needed a new plan, a fresh start, a clean slate.

Every year.

Then everything changed.  I finally made a plan with God.  I finally looked for His plan, not mine.  Mine was the one that wasn’t working every year.  Hard to give up huh?

The Eternal Plan 

The thing I find most interesting in this time of reflection is how I now approach the new year.  I don’t panic that I haven’t written down a bunch of goals or resolutions.

I am not worried that I don’t have a new plan, a clean slate.

The path is set.  The plan is working.

The road may be winding or bend a little.  I run into some obstacles and have stresses.

But the road is paved into eternity.  It’s God’s plan now.

Pushing Forward

I know next year is already planned.  (Don’t get me wrong; I have to do my part.  I have to keep setting goals and keep moving down the path.)

But I love knowing the direction is set.  Trusting the Holy Spirit to guide me.  Facing the new year with trust and hope in a God that is in control.

Again, I know I must do my part….my part in pushing forward into eternity.

Stewardship in bad times is important to survive. Making wise decisions can keep the doors open and payroll funded.

But what about in good times?

As we approach the end of another calendar year many small businesses have had stellar years. I understand not wanting to have your hard earned profits whittled away by taxes.

I know that feeling of relief when you have money in the bank and don’t have to check the balance everyday to make sure everything is covered.

But now is not the time to take a breather and get wasteful.  It is also not the time to pull all the money out and go on that personal spending spree.

Good stewardship is paramount in good times as much as any other time.  With many small businesses struggling to make it, those fortunate enough to have a good year have the opportunity to make a difference with these resources. Here are some ideas:

1. Sit down with your team and discuss what tools or resources will help them to continue this year’s performance next year.  Are there sales tools or marketing that could help?  Will a new tracking software make their jobs easier?  What can we invest in that will help us to continue our growth and performance?
2. Look at your organizational chart.  We  struggle to keep all of the plates spinning as an entrepreneur.  We all do several different jobs and work long hours.  Now is the time to think about what position would provide the most relief in the company and, again, position your business for future growth.  Building a strong team is a foundation for business success.  We don’t get many opportunities to actually plan in advance and add a needed resource comfortably.  This is a good use of extra funds if you have needed positions that will help you continue to grow.
3. Improving skills in your team is a two fold benefit.  Not only do you enhance your company’s skill set, but you provide a benefit to your employees by investing in their professional development.  Although they may not have time to attend training or coaching before the end of the year, many times you can sign-up and pay for the training now.  Or you may even be able to purchase training materials for your organization.
4. Marketing can be an excellent growth tool.  Unfortunately, many small business owners fall prey to persuasive marketing or advertising agencies and are sold on media that doesn’t match their needs.  This you have to be careful of, however, there are many marketing tools and resources that can help you grow.  When you talk to the marketing firm of your choice always ask how their proposal will grow your business in some measurable way.  Will that new website attract new customers and how?  Do I really need five years worth of business cards and brochures?  Isn’t it likely something will change before I use them all?  What can you provide that I can measure in increased customers or revenue growth?  Don’t let them bully you.  Make them justify how their solutions will help you grow.
5. Review future needs that were planned in the coming year.  If you were going to buy “it” anyway because “it” happens to be a real need, moving the cost into the current year to reduce your tax exposure is a wise decision.  You may be able to hold off until next year, but this has now become a financial decision.  How can you best use your funds to manage the overall success and cash flow of your business?

I am writing about this because it is what I have been thinking about as a small business owner.  I hired on a new employee a month ago. (She is great.  If you need anything her name is Kim!) Things are going well.  How can I sustain the work and provide the quality and consistency I am committed to?  The help has been amazing and I believe to be an excellent investment in the growth of our business.

I also began several marketing projects that will help position us for continued growth in the new year.  Just like most small businesses, I have done the roller coaster marketing strategy.  (If you can call it a strategy.)  It is more like waiting until I slow down to worry about marketing.  I tell client’s this will lead to a self-fulfilling prophesy.  You will definitely slow down if you do not invest in the resources to maintain and sustain higher business levels.

I also have invested in new and updated software tools to support my business.  We have upgraded to the new 2012 Quickbooks, added the full 37 signals productivity suite, and upgraded the Logos Bible Software.  All of these tools help improve productivity, decision-making, and quality of the work we do.

As we end 2011, what can you invest in for your company to continue the trend of strong performance  and to protect the health of your business?

I don’t believe in Karma per se.  It isn’t that random to me.  It definitely isn’t supernatural.  I don’t believe God plays games with us.

I think it is a worldly thing.  It’s relational.  It has direct correlation to our thoughts, emotions and actions.

You get what you give.

Our Relationships

In relationships if you are distant, forgetful, not present….you may not get the same actions and emotions back, but you get a response to your attitude and actions.

John was sort of like this.  He was working a ton and really absorbed by the stress of his job.  By the time he would get home, he was spent.  He barely greeted his family and immediately went to the TV to zone out.

At first his wife would try to make things really nice when he got home.  She felt for his stress and exhaustion.  But soon, she felt defeated.  The hot dinner on the table became leftovers in the fridge.  The energetic rundown of the families activities evaporated.

When John did have some time or energy his family wasn’t around.  They had moved on to life with people who would engage with them.

It wasn’t karma.  What goes around comes around.  It was a direct correlated response to what John was giving out to the people in his life.

You get what you give.

It isn’t just relationships.

Our Work

If you implement a new sales tracking system or time management system in you office the laws of reciprocation are still present.

You can spend $20 or $2,000 on a new tracking system.  The fully utilized $20 system is more valuable to you than a fancy $2,000.00 system that no one uses.

No system or tool is useful if you don’t use it consistently and optimally.  For example, I know someone who bought a suite of productivity tools.  It included project management, customer management, calendars, reminders, etc. They had been paying for it for over a year.

Productivity and communication at work was not changing.  They thought maybe they needed a new system.

When I went to evaluate how they were using the system I found that:

• the majority of the staff wasn’t using it at all.
• minimal data was input and it wasn’t input consistently.
• no training had occurred

Basically, they were getting, what they were giving…..not much in this case.

Our Health

We pay lip service to how important our health is to us.  Most people would put it on the list of what is most important to them.

Society as a whole wants to…….

……..lose weight.

……..look better.

……..feel better.

……..not be on a million prescriptions.

……..have energy……

and so on, and so forth.

Yet how many of us have eaten at a fast food restaurant in the last 24 hours.

How many of us have a piece of exercise equipment or a dumbbell or two laying around collecting dust?  Or worse yet, paid for a health club for months (I did for years) and never entered the building after the first week.

We don’t go to bed at a reasonable time….

We don’t eat right….

We drink too much….

But being healthy is a concern to all of us.

We get what we give.

Don’t Be Surprised

I don’t think this is an innovative concept.  I am not teaching anything new here.  I guess my reason for writing about it is because as a counselor I hear a lot of these stories.

And the surprise to me, is that people are surprised.

They are frustrated that after ten years of neglecting their relationships that can’t just go to the person and say “Okay you are right.  I  am sorry.   I will change.” and expect the person to ….

….believe them

….forgive and forget ten years in a day

….everything start back over with a clean slate

an instant “do over”.

They are surprised when they throw out the old system, that didn’t work because no one was using it, and buy a new shinier system….

….people still don’t use it

….productivity still doesn’t change

….and that they can’t just throw money at it.

And the most surprising, is the surprise I hear, from people that are tired of not feeling well.  They are tired of not having energy, having back pain, headaches or chest pains…..yet,

…..they don’t exercise

…..don’t go to sleep at a reasonable time

…..drink 10 diet cokes a day

…..eat fast food in their car in 6 minutes

and basically, don’t understand that…

we get what we give!

But just like everything else in life, the answers are in the bible.  Among many things the bible is an encyclopedia of how we should live.

God makes it clear….we are to love others as He loves us and we are to treat others how we want to be treated.

Our bodies are God’s temple.  This is where the Holy Spirit resides.

Everything we do should glorify God.

As a matter of fact, in God’s economy, most things are backwards.

Think about it….

We should give what we get….(from Him!)

When I worked for the big company, I admit I wanted attention. I wanted my boss and my peers to know what I was working on and to see what I accomplished.

I was a lot younger then, but I think it is just human nature. If we are doing work for someone we want to know that they care that the work gets done and that they notice if it is done well.

Before Social Media

Back when I was in corporate America, social media didn’t exist. We couldn’t go out to the masses for a little attention. Today, it is amazing how many people are seeking attention and connection during work time. I wrote about that here. I think part of the reason is because they aren’t getting face time with their bosses.

If they are engaged with their boss on the important work they are doing, I am sure the outside distractions wouldn’t suck them in.

Why Do Employees Want Your Attention?

Back in the old days we wanted and needed face time with our boss. There were several reasons face time was important to me:

1. I wanted to make sure I was working on the highest priority. Having my boss nod his head as I reviewed my priorities gave me a sense of purpose and direction.
2. I wanted to learn from my boss. He was the seasoned professional. I was the sponge. I wanted to bask in his words of wisdom. (If you think your boss is an idiot, I would remind you that he is still higher than you. He must know something you can learn.)
3. I wanted to bounce problems and solutions off of someone who had the same vested interest in the outcome that I did. Sorry your spouse doesn’t quite understand the impact of the project coming in on time and in budget.
4. I wanted someone to impress. Okay, maybe I had a pride problem. But studies show that appreciation is a higher motivator than even salary. We want our boss to know what we are working on and to acknowledge it. Really bosses, we do!
5. I wanted to connect. Usually the boss is the one who hires the employee. You are the one the employee connected with. You are the one they wanted to work with. Now they are on board and they never see or talk to you. I doubt you said in the interview, “Hey it is nice meeting you. Once you are on board you won’t interact with me ever again!”

Employees notice the boss. They look up when you enter the room. They listen when you talk. They want to be around you. They drop your name when they are with peers. They talk to their spouses about you when they get home. You are important to them.

They wonder….

They wonder if you notice them. They wonder if they are important to you.

Are they?

⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. John 15:4

Try taking this verse and the rest of John 15:1-17 literally.  You can do nothing outside of Jesus.  He wants us to bear fruit, but if we aren’t connected to Him it isn’t happening.

In Our Own Strength

We go to work each day.  We read trade magazines and business books.  We are doing everything we can to just do what we are doing.

Do we have the peace that Jesus promises?  Or are we worried how we will make payroll or how we will meet the customer’s timeline?

Are we bearing fruit consistently?  Is our business growing?  Is our team developing? Are we maintaining our health and our relationships?

If I Was Truly Dependent

I heard a sermon on these verses pretty recently and I couldn’t help but think that if I was truly dependent on Jesus things would be different.

Even in good times.

I wouldn’t fear the future.  I would have energy to approach problems as well as opportunities.  I would handle things with God’s grace and mercy.

If you go to church and read the bible regularly you know that it isn’t through works, but through faith that we are saved.  So, I read these verses and the first thing I think is what am I supposed to do?  If I do something isn’t that works?  If I am a Christian aren’t I already connected to the vine?

We Just Focus on Connecting to the Vine

The pastor must have been reading my mind because he said, “All we can do is connect to the vine!”  He agreed that it is pointless for us to try to bear fruit.  Fruit comes from remaining in the vine!

I want to challenge other Christians in business to do this with me.  Let’s focus on our connection to Jesus even in our business life.  Let’s try to:

1. Meditate on John15:1-17.
2. Ask Jesus for help and guidance each day before you start the day.
3. Focus on loving God and loving Others.
4. Review the day with God and give thanks.

I have a head start on you.  I started this a week ago when I heard this sermon.  By focusing on connecting to Jesus my world is changing.

It has changed before.  But to bear fruit I think a constant, healthy connection is necessary.

We Need Constant Connectivity

It is sort of like the plants in my office.  When I first got them I focused on keeping them healthy.  I watered them regularly, tried to make sure they received light, and even gave them some plant food.  They stayed strong and healthy.

Then I got busy and watered them when I remembered.  The only time I moved them was to turn the withering leaves to the back.  I haven’t given them any food in over a year.  Needless to say, they aren’t looking too good.  I feel like they are in a concentration camp.  I feel guilty when I look their way as I pass in the morning.

We are different than plants in that we have a loving, consistent, vine to connect to.  Yet just like the plants in my office, we need to be connected consistently in order to thrive, grow, and bear fruit.

I am praying for consistency for both me and you!  Will you join me?

Life is full of stuff we do.  We work and if you are reading this you probably have your own business.  Many of us are married with kids.  But, even if we aren’t, we all have relationships.  People we love.  As an adult, we have responsibility over our resources.  Some have more than others, but we all have some!

This means we all have the opportunity to do exceptional work.

We all have the potential for strong, deep, meaningful relationships.

And we have stewardship over some amount of resources.

So how are you doing in your work, relationships and stewardship responsibilities?

If you look at these three areas of life and had to rate your effort, what would you give yourself on a scale of 1-10?

Is Your Work Exceptional? 

At the end of each work day can you look back and give yourself a 10 for effort.  I mean did you get up that morning, give real thought as to how you could make the most of the day?  Did you decide on the attitude you needed, the strategies to employ, and the tasks that needed completing?  Throughout the day did you focus on what you had planned, remain flexible as needed, and end the day knowing you really tried to glorify God in all that you accomplished?

Do You Nurture Deep Meaningful Relationships?

Yet it isn’t over is it.  We all have relationships that we interact with throughout every day.  According to Jesus, relationships are pretty much why we are here.  We are here to reach others for Him.  One way we do that is through loving others as He loves us.  This one is always hard for me.  If I look back at the end of the day it is really difficult to compare my love, for the people I love, to how Jesus loves us.  So I always come back to, did I really try?  I guess I have to focus on an “A” for effort if not accomplishment.

Did you really try in your relationships today?  Did you try to be a loving husband, wife, parent, sister, brother or friend,?

I think it is important for us to really try.

Are You Taking Care of Your Stuff?

And then there is our “stuff”.  God gives us resources and with it we usually buy stuff.  This maybe should be a daily thing, but I know that at least once a week, I look at all of our finances and try to determine what we could have done better in managing them.  I also look at our house, cars and “stuff” and see if we are taking care of them.  Unfortunately, the God who created us didn’t give my family a lot of gifts and talents in the fixing things or cleaning things category.  This is an area we have a lower rating on.

But we keep trying.

The question that I keep coming up with for me, and maybe, it would be good for you:

Are you really trying?

I was sharing some of my story the other day at lunch.  I was trying to encourage this person who is starting a coaching/consulting business.

I basically said that if it is God’s plan it will unfold.  At least that is how it was for me.  I am going on an on about how God just laid out the red carpet for me to quit the business world, go back to school to become a Christian counselor, and then to open doors all the way to today’s coaching and counseling practice.

“It was easy,” I said.

Then I proceeded to describe all the problems I had, stupid things I did, and several stories that I can now re-tell with humor.  As I was laying out this “perfectly straight path” that God had provided, it didn’t sound all that straight.

As a matter of fact, if his expression was an indication, it seemed that some of the stories may have seemed a bit harrowing.

But the truth is, to me, the journey I began ten years ago has seemed like a complete God thing.  Like it has just worked.

Even when I did something stupid, God showed me a way out or a solution.

Even when I was disappointed in myself or others, when I leaned back into God the season changed.

Even when I was challenged with stuff I didn’t know how to do, and that wasn’t in my personality, He sent His Holy Spirit to lead the way and help me navigate whatever I was going through.

Even when my business was slow, He somehow gave me the impression that it was on purpose, so I would have time to develop this program or volunteer at church.

Many people may feel that starting your own business is the same as birthing a child.  They say moms forget the pain after a few months.  (I had twins so it took a few years!)  Maybe I am just forgetting the pain.

Or maybe what the bible says is true.

Jesus gives us a peace that only comes through HIm.  It doesn’t make sense in this world.  But if we trust in Him, even our struggles can be filled with joy and purpose.

And ultimately, if we are on His path for our life, He is there to walk through it with us right by our side.  Or better yet, His Spirit is leading the way.

It is in this peace, that you know it must be a God thing!

Gabe walked in to his office this morning.  He looked around at the piles on his desk and wanted to turn around and go back home and pull the covers over his head.  He sits down and wonders what he should start on.  ”Some leader I am” he thinks.

Soon the phone starts ringing.  His bookkeeper comes in and says one of the vendors is calling for the check they were due two weeks ago and, by the way, Chris, the head technician, won’t be in today.  He thought he may be catching something.

“Come on!  How can I run a business this way!” Gabe is screaming in his head.

By the end of the day, Gabe is still staring at stacks of problems on his desk and avoiding phone calls.  He knows he has to change things.  Change anything!

Finally Gabe picks up the phone and calls a business coach his buddy has been referring him too.  Face it, he tells himself, I need help.

It’s Okay To Get Help

On his first visit to the business coach he is nervous.

He is trying to plan in his head what he will say.

He sits down and is asked for some background on his business and how it got started.

It was a surreal experience.  Gabe felt like he was having an out of body experience watching himself from above respond to the business coach.

His hand was rubbing the stress from his forehead.  He is explaining, “I don’t know how we got here.  The employees don’t care.  I can’t get people to show up on time or at all.”

“Are we a service company?  Well yeah…but we also sell new air conditioning systems.  And we install them.  And since our trucks were already going out to businesses we thought we could leverage our system and we also sell coffee.”

“I know coffee doesn’t seem to fit, but really, we don’t have to do anything extra.  We are already there, so our service guy just asks them if they are interested.”

“Are we selling much coffee?  Not really.  The owner of the coffee company keeps calling me to see what we are doing.  Actually it is sort of a pain.”

“You see…..I told you I need help!”

3 Glaring Issues

This may seem far-fetched to those who are reading this, but it is actually quite realistic.  There are three glaring issues in this case study:

1. No Leadership – all energy and enthusiasm has been completely sucked out of the owner.  Yet, as the owner,  Gabe is the leader.  If he has no energy or enthusiasm for his business, what can you really expect from the employees.  If you as the owner don’t feel like being there, how can you expect anyone else to want to come to work?  Even in the face of persecution, the disciples spread the gospel with passion and hope!  Many small business owners are persecuting themselves, and by default, their team.
2. No Focus – Gabe is selling anything and everything he can to make a buck.  I know small businesses need sales.  It is tempting to say yes to anything.  But, you’ve read the books about a niche, focus, a point of difference.  None of this can happen if you are just dabbling in a little bit of everything.  Coffee and air conditioners is an obvious miss.  The problem with most business is the distraction begins more subtly.  We are professional copywriters.  But one of our guys can build websites.  I guess we can build you a simple website too.  The scope creep begins and soon your business is dabbling in everything and you aren’t great at anything.  Remember, Nehemiah from the old testament.  Many tried to distract him from building back the Jeruselem Wall.  He explained that he had very important work and couldn’t stop to come down off the mountain.  He stayed focused on his one mission….to rebuild the wall.
3. No Accountability – Gabe wasn’t holding himself or others accountable.  In the book of James we are called to “let our yes be yes and our no be no”.  Not paying our bills on time is not only an example of not meeting commitments, it is also not treating others as you would want to be treated.  On the other hand, when his key technician didn’t show up for work, Gabe just grumbled and felt sorry for himself.  He didn’t plan on how to fill the hole for the day or what to do to hold the technician accountable in the future.

All of this was glaring to the business coach.

Why?

Because it is a common path that small business owners travel down.  But working on everything at once would just send poor Gabe down 3 new paths simultaneously.

What should Gabe do?

Before anything else, Gabe has to take back the leadership of his company.  This can’t happen if he doesn’t first lead himself.  He needs to take a good look in the mirror.  Would he hire himself?  Does he want a tired, aggravated, and hopeless employee on his team?

Of course not.

His first step is to change his attitude and energy towards his business.  He can always call it quits, but each and every day he is in business he needs to be the most enthusiastic, the most energetic, and the most reliable employee.  [If he chooses to give up the management of the business to an outside hire, then it may be different, but while he is managing the company, this is imperative.]

I know it is hard when we as small business owners have so much responsibility and need to wear so many hats.  But, face it, if we can’t be an engaged, interested, and passionate leaders, how can we expect our team to have any of these qualities?

As a small business owner rank yourself as your own employee.  How engaged are you?  How much energy and enthusiasm do you exude?  Do you show up on time and ready?  Do you do what you say you are going to do?

If not, can you start now?

We give lip service to “customer service”.  Every mission statement says we have the highest quality service.  We see signs on salesman’s walls about the customer is always right.  But, how often do your receive service beyond your expectations…even the lowered expectations of today’s marketplace?

Our customers have issues.  They need us right?  How can we best help them?  How can we provide them with the service we claim we excel at?

Jesus Came And Walked In Our Shoes

God knows this one just like He knows everything else.  He saw how messed up His people made their lives.  He knew we couldn’t do it on our own.  He knew we wouldn’t find our own way back to Him.  So He sent Jesus.

He sent Jesus to walk along with us as a man.

Jesus came to walk in our shoes.

Why?  Because we are stubborn creatures.  Even though we have made a mess of things we still think we have it all figured out.  In our own human state, we need to maintain control and fix it!  How soon we forget that we are the ones who made the mess to begin with.

God knew that He had to show us someone, who put their pants on one leg at a time, doing it better than we do it.  Jesus came to walk among us to show us that you can live in this crazy Satan filled world and still follow God in all things.

Been There, Done That, Overcame It

Our customer’s need to know that we really understand them and their specific situation.  They need to know we have been there and succeeded through the problems and pain they face.

If I have a broken dishwasher, I want a person that has repaired lots of dishwashers with my same problem to come and fix it.  I don’t want to hire a washing machine repairman and assume it is close enough.

As a coach and consultant, I think it is very important for clients to know that I have faced their opportunities and threats before.  And even more, they want to make sure that I really get their issues.  How many times when you talk to a friend about business do they start a sentence with “You don’t understand how difficult……”?  It is in our human nature to believe that our problems are unique.

3 Tips on Better Understanding Our Customers

As a service provider here are some things I do to try to “walk in my client’s shoes”:

1. Stay within my area of expertise.  As small business owners it is difficult to refuse any kind of business.  However, the more we stay in our areas of expertise, the more likely it is that we will have experienced, exactly what our customers are experiencing, at some point in our lives.  We listen to Jesus and try to be more like Him in leading a sinless life.  Why?  Because we know He did it.  And He did it living in this world with Satan going after Him just like Satan comes after us.  Jesus is an expert at living the sinless life in the face of temptation.
2. Experience my client’s world.  More and more I find it important to meet with client’s employees, bankers, or other stakeholders in their business to really get a feel for their situation, environment, talent, obstacles, and opportunities.  By spending time with them in their business the perspective changes from one dimension to three-dimensional.  Once I have been with the client in their world, I can speak in their language.  Jesus told his disciples to take up their cross and follow Him.  He told them to leave their jobs, their family, everything.  But they also knew that He had done the same.  He left his family.  He left his carpentry work.  He went off to do God’s work.  Remember when someone interrupted Jesus and told Him his mother and brothers were there to see him.  He said that the people following God were his mother and brothers.
3. Care about your customer’s need like it was your own.  The bible is full of heart vs. head.  Jesus looks to our heart.  Our heart is where we spend our time and attention.  Your customers know if you care about them and their business, or not.  They know the difference between you caring about them as a paying customer versus caring about their success, their car being safe, their money having a fair return, or even how their hair looks when they leave your salon.  If you don’t care about them and their shoes, maybe you are in the wrong business!  With my clients I really try to think like their business is my business.  When I talk to them about their business I always speak like I am part of their team.  ”What we need to do is…”  I fully invest myself in my client’s world.

In today’s marketplace there are few businesses that live up to the mission plaque collecting dust on their walls.  Service, in general, is mediocre at best, and many times dismal.

Small business owners are always looking for a point of difference.  It doesn’t work well to just spout out the “we have the highest quality service in town” line that everyone else is lying about too.

Go ahead and walk in your customer’s shoes for a while.  Lean into their needs and focus on being a solution in their world.  It will make all of the difference.