Blog Thomas G. Jones, Ph.D.
5-8-08
It is 4 a.m. and I am having another episode of my love/hate relationship with sleep. For the past 40 years sleep has been an unreliable companion. As usual, I am in the middle of some creative project. This time it is bringing a book to conclusion. For the past six weeks I have been one new chapter and several chapter re-writes away from the manuscript conclusion. At 3:40 a.m. an idea rushed through my sleep and into the forefront of my consciousness. Get up, make coffee, get writing was the message that replaced the empty space called sleep. Great, except no ideas decided to join me at morning coffee.
Click! On goes the TV and soon I am listening to Scott “The Piano Guy” Houston on Washington Public Television. He is a masterful pianist and an effective teacher. To a room full of students he implores, “Life is too short to play dumb music.” What a great line and simple truth.
For small business owners the corollary is, “Life is too short to do dumb business.” Think about it. One of the basic lessons in my small business management program is to describe the ideal customer and the ideal business. As I review this work with the learners a few themes are always present: fun people; interesting and challenging work; and, attractive profits. Then I ask them to name how many such clients they have that fit the profile. Usually, the response is from one to a handful with many more customers or projects described as work taken to pay the rent. We all do this. Especially early on in our business venture. In fact, every business owner that I have worked with that created admirable success went through a process of firing early in customers, usually through pricing increases.
That process created capacity to find and acquire customers and projects that yielded more fun, more challenge, and more profits.
The thoughtful business owner creates an ideal client profile and measures each account against that profile at least annually. Then, the business owner calculates the gap between the account and the ideal and strategizes the steps to close the gap. This process permits the owner to mindfully grow the business. In some cases the gap is too great to close and the owner manages the account out of the business to create time and capacity for more satisfying work.
I suggest that this process be an ongoing leadership activity for every smaller venture. If you were riding down the road in your car and the station was playing the worst 100 songs ever recorded you would turn off the music, find another station, or sing to yourself. One of the joys of small business ownership is the “I get to” feeling each morning as you consider the day ahead. As Mr. Houston counseled, life is too short to play dumb music. Too, life is too short to work on dumb business.
Be Joyous! Let now be beautiful. Blessings, Thomas.
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