I was out taking the dog for her afternoon walk, and I bumped into the woman in the office next to ours.
"How's it going?"
"Not bad," she replied.
"Gearing up for another long weekend?" She often works longer weekend hours then we do and we are accountants; so that is saying something!
Nope, she responded. "My husband told me I was stressed out, I have not seen my kids in forever and I don't see my friends anymore, so I am cutting back. I started working for myself so I can have flexibility and I wasn't having any; so no more weekends."
I congratulated her on having the courage to stick to her convictions and continued walking the dog.
That got me thinking - she knows her WHY.
She started her business so she could have the flexibility to go to her kids' baseball games, school plays, field trips, bake sales, whatever adventure her two sons engage themselves in and want their mom's support. She knew her WHY.
When we start our own adventure into having a business, one of the first things we should do is get out two pieces of paper. On one piece of paper write down your WHY. On the second piece of paper write down your business PLAN. Once you are done with that - put the two side by side and see if they sync up. What do you see?
Does your WHY line up with your Business PLAN and does your Business PLAN support your WHY? If it does - voila; winner winner chicken dinner! If not, maybe you need to tweak the PLAN or (god forbid) maybe you need to re-examine your WHY.
Tip:
Do this exercise BEFORE you spend a dime on your business. Better to flush out your ideas on paper before you invest $100,000 and find out your WHY didn't line up with your PLAN or your PLAN did not support your WHY - cause that situation just leads to misery all the way around.